Comments

I find myself judging a website by the quality of it's ads. For example, if I'm shopping online and trying to decide if I should purchase something from a site I'm not familiar with, if the pop-ups and other ads, scroll, make noise, sell sex or try to entice me with $10,000 if I enter the code, and my name and phone number; I know not to buy from them. However, I find that sites like the New York Times and others, run ads that tell me about new products I don't know about. In fact, I got a chuckle out of an ad on NYTimes site for job recruitment at the CIA. I clicked on it to see if it was for real and it was. There is a Shakespeare site a frequent that had an ad for Dead Poet finger puppets. I bought a set. they turned out to be a big hit last Christmas. At the same site that sold the puppets they offer any Shakespeare quote you want put on a T-shirt and done a tasteful (or not) design. I ordered four. I would never have known about this small company if it had not been for the ad the Shakespeare site. This is a great example of ad content enhancing (adding to) the site. I'm on Mac and use mostly Safari which I don't think has a pop-up blocker. I've never turned it on if it does and don't find my self bombarded by pop-ups. May it's the websites you visit? I feel like google ads are like a plague of locus infecting the internet since everybody and his brother can add them to their site (I refuse) and do so with out a lot of thought to the people visiting their site. Isn't it worth it to put an ad on your site because it goes with (adds to) your site and not because it will bring in $3 per click. This is a real problem. I used to work for a social networking company that as standard policy had its employees create content around keywords that would trigger the high dollar per click google adds (insurance, debt reduction, cars) to appear more often. Google does tell you how to do this, but I don't think it was their intent it be used the way it is being used. I usually don't return sites that do this I NEVER click on the ads. Not even when they are strategically placed close to other buttons on the site so as to pick up accidental clicks. (I could write a lot more about Google Adsense abuses.) I go to another site not set-up to trick me. I also don't like drug company ads in Magazine ads like National Geographic. This gives what they are selling a little more credibility then maybe they should receive. Are there really that many people out there not sleeping that well? If so, is medication the only answer? But, if that's what allows Steve Winter ot go out and shot photos of snow leopards, then heck, put in a few more! Oh, and it costs more then a few cents per CD to produce quality musical content. That may be the material cost, but look at the cost of studio time. Technicians are not cheap. Just my two cents. Great article.