One of the issues I’ve wrestled with recently is what constitutes acceptable levels of advertising, the relative returns and how much is, well, too much.
With the introduction of the new design, a few things have changed - firstly, Google Adsense is gone. The returns are truly minuscule unless one is receiving hits in the tens of thousands a day, are difficult to incorporate in a design and are frequently rendered pointless by modern web browser ad-blocking software or extensions.
At one point I had Adsense in multiple locations, including in the banner and it made exactly zero difference - add to that text-link-ads and the whole design suffers as a consequence. Don’t get me wrong - money is good. Lots of it is even better, but one really has to weigh the advantages versus the impact.
There is indeed nothing truly worse than viewing a website with half a dozen different advertising companies, all of whom are competing for browser real-estate.. hands up if you’ve recently browsed a website that appears more like newspaper classified section than a website? Found it impedes the layout and makes navigation a complex task? Same here.
That kind of swiss-army-knife approach to advertising seldom reaps positive returns - advertisers like to believe they have the undivided attention of a prospective client. Dilute that and as a counter-point it dilutes the returns.
The approach I’ve taken, which has really been a tough choice to make, is to pick just one advertising company that provides good returns and promote that as a focal point in the design. The sponsor links insert present on the home page is one example, with the links again listed at the bottom of every post or page is another - it does not impact navigation or mar the design and allows me the freedom to focus on the content and layout, without having to constantly question if the advertising is actually working.
This is also a massive bonus for advertisers - they can now feel the reassurance that their advertising dollar is being well spent and is generating revenue as a result. Advertising, is in many ways a fact of life - however it does not need to be an unpleasant exercise.. By focusing on content and delivery it will maximise returns for the advertiser and ultimately, leave me free to push the boundaries of what I can achieve.
≡ This is a journal entry relating to the topics of advertising, google.
Brendan Borlase is a Systems and Network Administrator living in Adelaide, Australia, having lived, worked and breathed Information Technology for over 12 years. Learn more.
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