A question for my readers.

Posted on | June 15, 2009 | 7 Comments

I’d like to ask all of you out there for some quick feedback on this site. I added the ads to this site some time ago, but I always wanted to avoid being overly intrusive with them. There are a number of people online who make a reasonable amount of money blogging. Honestly, given the subject matter, this blog is not going to attract the kind of readership that leads to that. The big traffic is and always has been in telling people what they want to hear. I’m not going to start posting magical formulas to “get the body you’ve always” wanted anytime soon.

The primary goal of my writing was always to get my opinion out, connect with like minded people and generally have fun. There do seem to be enough people out there who get it that I have formed a pretty steady readership – just nothing that makes my hosting provided call and yell at me or anything.

With that in mind, are the ads on this site irritating? Are they inoffensive but ineffective, i.e. something you just tune out? Do you feel they impact the blogs credibility? I see a fairly even split online between blogs that place some ads and those that don’t. Personally I don’t think much of it, except when I encounter one that is so overwhelmed with ads that it makes finding the content difficult. In these cases I’m likely to just close the browser window and never return.

I’ve formed my own answers to these questions, but I’d like to hear everyone’s feelings on this as well. Feel free to leave any other comments on design issues or thoughts on the site as well.

Thanks in advance.

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Category: Critiques and Rants, Uncategorized

Comments

7 Responses to “A question for my readers.”

Space
June 15th, 2009 @ 10:57 am

I like your approach n your site globally.
You should just DELETE the moving image of “featured articles” : it just is annoying as any moving or flashing element on the web.
Keep up the good work
Yash
June 15th, 2009 @ 1:30 pm

Pretty legitimate concerns, and no, the ads aren’t intrusive, since most of the internet population has been desensitized to them by now. Since I regularly visit other sites that advertise heavily, the relatively low amount on your site don’t seem to lower credibility.

Interesting post, since I’m in the works of getting my own blog up and running, and I considered the whole issue of credibility with ads as well. I certainly don’t plan on implementing them right off the bat, but later along the line if they can help over costs it would be nice, but not at the expense of looking like I’m just trying to sell people stuff. Your page is pretty reassuring in demonstrating you can accomplish the former without the latter.
cher
June 16th, 2009 @ 7:00 am

for me, as long as a blog is streamlined and there are no distractions while reading it, it’s great! ads are no big deal, unless they are animated and large enough to distract me.
Jessica
June 16th, 2009 @ 2:50 pm

I didn’t notice you had ads!
cmason
June 16th, 2009 @ 3:26 pm

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Space – I’m still considering what to do with the “featured articles” slideshow.

Yash – Thanks for the compliments. I’m glad I’m apparently hitting the mark in helping defer the hosting costs without seeming like a spam site.

Cher – no worries obnoxious ads. I tend to write off any site that uses popups or even worse, gifs with sound.

Jessica – if you didn’t notice them I suppose it’s a mixed blessing. That puts them solidly in the “unobtrusive but ineffective” category”.
gcb
June 17th, 2009 @ 6:57 am

Just a thought – if you want to keep the “featured articles” in some form, maybe convert it to a scrolling banner/marquee rather than the animated image?
Kelly Turner
June 18th, 2009 @ 10:22 am

I didnt even notice the ads- what the google ones? Psh- i think ads add more credibility to a site because it means its popular enough that companies want thier stuff on here (even though anyone can use google ads.)

anyhoo- write what you want about. If i get one more question like “Im 5′4″, 135 pounds and workout 3 times a week, how can I lose weight?” Im going to scream.