Well I opened my website this evening and said to myself, egh as I cringed at all of the gif offer images popping up along the right side. Is this what I’ve come to? There were a few online services I personally use from which I had set up affiliate accounts. I enjoyed these services and the idea of making a few extra bucks here and there but to be honest, the sidebar was getting to be just a little too much. So on that token I decided to take everything off except a single adsense bar along the sidebar. I may even take that one down a notch from a large vertical adsense to a smaller block.
After making the changes I now feel a little more comfortable about the over all presence of this page and am looking forward to writing more articles about marketing, seo and online business. The overall design is also a bit out-dated (maybe an understatement).
At some point I will probably hold a template design contest for some type cash gift. If this is something you would be interested please leave a comment about your interest and what the prize should be. If I get enough people interested, I’ll definitely set the contest up.
Halfway through the week!
I think the colors of the ads and not necessarily the ads themselves are to blame for distracting a reader from the post/article. I didn’t see your ads, but I run several online magazines (TheBoxingMagazine.com, FlavorsAndMore.com – to name two) and I have the right side set up to have 4 small ads and then one big one (the size of 4 smaller ones put together) over them. I actually sell the space, so it’s necessary with my business model to have the ads there. It seems to work on some sites and not on others. I think it’s the overall look that either cause the ads to compliment the page or clash with it.
The competition and sheer volume of ads online can be overwhelming at times. As an advertiser/marketer and a consumer, I see both sides. If I enjoy going to the sites, eventually I “see” the ads. If I’m just surfing, I’m blind to just about everything other than the information I’m looking for.
Sorry to ramble on!
Hi Jim, I appreciate your comment. It’s very true. The overall look of a site will cause the ads to either compliment or clash with the page. By the way, both of your websites do have nice templates and work well with both your content as well as the ads.