Just How Irritating Are Sidebar Ads?
A practical question today, rather than a hypothetical one: how bothered are readers by advertisements these days?
MA101 has always been something of a glorified writing sample — a thing that’s out there when people Google my name. Having decent (well, substantial, anyway) content and regular updates has always been more important than trying to wring advertising dollars out of it.
That said, traffic has been going steadily up for a long while. I can’t imagine why, but it has. (Oddly enough, it really spiked the day I mentioned my breakup, suggesting that people are either Googling “breakup etiquette” more than I expected or are fucking emotional vultures.)
I could make a few bucks off of that if I wanted to. WordPress (wisely to my mind) limits its advertising options pretty severely, so the only ads I could insert would be a horizontal bar and potentially a centered video window beneath posts. Here’s the example from their WordAds FAQ:
Mine will not, of course, be in…whatever language that is. I’m stumped. Thai or something, maybe.
Anyway, you can see what the ads would look like. I’m not thrilled by the idea, but I’m obviously something of a minimalist in terms of appearance. I don’t know that other people would be bothered.
So how obnoxious are ads like that, as long as the site owner isn’t also begging you to click on them? (I know that’s obnoxious. Don’t worry. I have my pride, and their rates are based more on views and how long users stay on the site than on clicks anyway.)
I’ll probably kick the possibility of advertising on MA101 for a while yet, but any feedback is always appreciated. A little beer money never hurt, and it would mean I could write off all MA101-related expenses (coffee, lube, fuzzy ponies, etc.) as expenses come tax time. But I wouldn’t want to clutter the site up and look like one of those shitty, begging-for-money blogs.
So tell me what you think! I’ll take it under consideration this weekend when I’m off petting fuzzy ponies thinking hard about my future and finances.
I got approved for Wordads but my ads only show up on single post pages. There is none on the home page header or sidebar. I don’t mind it. I think I lucked out because whatever wordads look they give you you’re stuck with
Good to know, thank you. It’d mean upgrading the site (not that it’s a major expense, and hey, tax deductible), and I’m lazy, so we’ll see, but it’s starting to look more and more like it’d be worth the hassle if the finished look won’t be too awful.
Hearing from folks that have installed it already is a big help. Appreciate it.