In-text ads suck!
Aug. 7th, 2007 by ShaunPersonally I don’t like in-text advertising or any form of it. I am somewhat turned off by any sites that use this service. Before we go any further lets make sure everyone knows what in-text advertising is. Companies like Kontera and Vibrant Mediaoffer blogs and other websites the chance to embed advertisements within the actual content of their site. The links are placed inside your text and come with a double underline to separate them from your normal links. If the reader or user moves the mouse over the link an advertisement will pop up, (yes very annoying). Should the reader click on the advertisement the person running the site will make some extra coin.
This is the most unprofessional form of advertising out there. Your readers have no real control over it and sometimes when I am reading an article I can have those stupid ads pop up in my face unexpectedly over 3 times! Simply put this is the most intrusive form of advertising and to me is no different than having pop-ups on your site.
Don’t get me wrong some of the biggest bloggers out there use this advertisement method *caugh* John Chow, and yes he makes a fortune from it but I still strongly disagree with this. Running a successful blog is all about the user experience and to be honest I don’t think any users actually like having this advertisement on their favorite site. No mainstream website uses this advertising approach, but is this really a big surprise? I know for a fact small time bloggers like me and even John Chow can earn a few extra bucks from this but is it worth it go give your readers a bad user experience? What does this say about your credibility? Your loyal readers might start to question your motives as a blogger and it’s just not worth it.
I have nothing against any other forms of advertising like Google Adsense or Text-link-ads, these types of advertisements don’t have a real impact on your readers, and your readers will have the choice to interact or not with these ads unlike the in-text advertisements. Although you should keep in mind you have to find a balance with the number of ads on your site so your site is still user friendly.
What do you guys think? Do you like reading sites that are crammed with in-text advertising? Maybe other people don’t mind it and I’m the only person against it. Let me know what you think!
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August 7th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I totally agree Shaun! In-text ads do suck and turn me off everytime I see double-underlined words in a blog entry. People who use these are ruining the quality of their blog for merely a few bucks.
August 7th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I had them for one month and they annoyed me so badly, they were gone. I gave it a month at least. If they annoyed me, I can only imagine what my visitors thought of them.
August 7th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Couldnt agree more, I think blogs / sites that use it are just spammy and only in it for the money
Never used it, never will
August 7th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I think it detracts from the reading experience and unless you are a decent sized blog won’t make enough to warrant using it anyways.
August 7th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
It is losing visitors for new blogs nothing more. Only BIG blogs can afford to use this kind of ads.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Only certain parts of my blog have Kontera. And I agree– those bother me. But I understand how some people desperately need some coin or for some other reason.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I agree to a degree. It depends on how many times the link shows up that I’m bothered by the Kontera pop-ups. If it shows in limited amounts (maybe 1-2 links per 3 postings), I’m not too bothered with it.
I’ve seen on some sites where Kontera links show up 3-4 times within 1 blog posting…that’s overkill for me. I most likely won’t click on the pop-up window. It’ll probably be one additional type of advertising that we will learn to filter out.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
I don’t find them to be very intrusive at all. On the contrary, it seems like a wise conservation of ad realestate. I certainly don’t find them as annoying as a big block of AdSense ads in the middle of a post. Just like any other ad program it can be rediculously overdone but if kept at a tame level I think in text ads make sense. Sorry to disagree
August 7th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
thats fine! I know lots of people don’t mind them at all. i just find that when i read other blogs it seems that these ads are always poping up.
August 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Shaun, I am with you 100%.
It’s just a user experience thing. They’re pretty harmless actually, but I am uncomfortable with them .
I think the main reason is that the ads are often highly irrelevant to the keyword or the context of the paragraph.
Alex Choo
August 7th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
It really doesn’t bother me. With enough booze, everything looks great!
August 8th, 2007 at 12:45 am
nice stuff!! i love your blog! great stuff!
August 8th, 2007 at 11:21 am
thanks for the kind words. you have a great blog yourself!!
August 9th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
In-text-ads never really bothered me, at least not kontera, you do get some that are very big and ugly, but I don’t mind kontera. But I’m realizing that a lot of bloggers don’t like them, so I might consider taking them off my blog.
Simon
September 7th, 2007 at 8:33 am
[...] I already wrote an entire article on why in-text advertising should be avoided, you can read that here for more [...]
September 7th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
I use Kontera myself, but I never though of it like this…
Oh man now I am thinking of removing it reading through the comments!
Thanks for this post, never though of this before!
Your blog is definitely worth bookmarking!
August 27th, 2008 at 12:35 am
不锈钢板
December 24th, 2009 at 12:55 am
goodl
December 24th, 2009 at 12:56 am
shanghai si very good.