Why would you do THIS to your readers? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

Right now I'm editing the latest edition of the Carnival of Money Stories (due to go live tomorrow). I can't get over how many bloggers – including, it must be said, many Yakezie bloggers – have a big ol' ugly block of AdSense ads directly below the title and above the content of every. single. post.

Since there are Yakezie blogs with this setup I expect that some of you out there would disagree with my conclusions, but… I understand why these ads are where they are – $$$ – yet they make the blogs
look so crude and naff, and create such a horrible reader
experience!

Is this setup really worth the trade-off?

Honestly, I can't say I've ever gotten a complaint from a reader about the placement but I have gotten many clicks.  If SE visitors waited 'til the end of the article to click I'd gladly put the block at the end.

What works best for you Heather?  I'm all for changing if it works overall.  I guess I could look into my Who Sees Ads setting to see about not showing for return readers.  But I also think in this day and age, ad placements are almost not even seen by many; we've become blind to them (which can be good and bad).

 

And I agree the pop-up boxes can be annoying but I've heard they really help conversions too.

justheather said:

Have you tried using the WWSGD plugin to include the adcode only for new readers? I don't know if that would work or not, but it allows you to setup something different for new & returning users.

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I had the same issues with caching. The problem is that plugins won't work with the "fully on" mode of caching plugins which never load PHP in the first place, unless the plugin works around that by using client-side javascript to display the ad instead.

 

I personally have my ad block code setup so that it shows a large ad only if the post is older than 15 days. My regular readers won't have to encounter that large block.

Good point, BFS. In addition to only showing the big ad on posts > 15 days, I only show them on single posts. You won't see them inside the posts if you go to my homepage. You'll still see the sidebar but so what. ;)

MissThrifty said:

I'm Team Heather here. I appreciate that several of us here depend on our blogs for our crusts, but as a blog reader that specific positioning of an AdSense block really puts me off. It struck home yesterday when I was compiling the Carnival of Money Stories, and blog after blog featured this setup. I would be interested to see how it affects bounce rates.

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I think it's common enough that the effect on bounce rates is minimal, but there is no way to know for sure without actually split testing it.  

For what it's worth I don't really see any complaints in forums or social media sites regarding those ad placements.  Kontera-style ads on the other hand really turn a lot of people off.  

When designing your site it's important to remember not to place too much emphasis on your own personal preferences.  For example, you may love resource-hogging flash intros that show off your graphic skills but they'll do nothing for your SEO and they'll likely send your bounce rates through the ceiling.

My stats show that particular ad placement to be very profitable and other bloggers I've spoken to support that, so for the time being I'm sticking with it.

Invest It Wisely said:

Good point, BFS. In addition to only showing the big ad on posts > 15 days, I only show them on single posts. You won't see them inside the posts if you go to my homepage. You'll still see the sidebar but so what. ;)

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Ivest It Wisely, I think you had a good point in only showing them on posts after so many days.  Right now, my blog is young enough that I rather not do that yet (my older posts aren't my money-makers), but as I build some major content, that is my plan as well.  Thanks for the idea!

Oh, and yes, everyone will always be subjected to the huge banner ad on the left, but I really would hope that all of my readers are smart enough to overlook that unless they are interested in whatever is being advertised that moment – like Groupon or donuts or whatever…

Here's my view on blog advertising – yes, it looks tacky most of the time.  But, I doubt I'd be able to read so much content from awesome bloggers if no one was making any money.  Monetization leads to motivation and more posts for me to read, lol.  I'll gladly overlook ads if it means that my favorite blogs keep the content coming (yes, sorry, I do not click on many ads…I suck.  But I do always buy through other blogger's Amazon links, lol).

Crystal@BFS

Post edited 11:22 am – September 27, 2010 by Paul Williams – Provident Planning

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I use this setup, though I combine it with Who Sees Ads.  I use a cache plugin as well (W3Cache), but I'm not sure there's been a problem with it.  It seems to work correctly for me.  This is how I have it set up:

 

I always display a tall skyscraper on the left side.  Everyone sees this unless they have AdBlock going.

 

The big ugly block under the title only displays if:

1.  You come from a search engine (regardless of whether you're a regular reader, which means you've read 10 pages over the past 30 days).  (***EDIT:  That's how it used to be…I think I'm going to change it.  Doesn't make sense to hide it for regular readers only on old posts and not when they come from a search engine.)

2.  Or on pages older than 14 days, unless you're a regular reader.

 

So, visitors from carnivals (or other referral sites, including feed readers) won't see this block on my recent posts.  This setup works well for me and I've never had a complaint.

 

I agree it's not pretty but it's the best earning strategy I have so far.  I should note that ugly block gets twice as many clicks as the tall skyscraper (as a % of impressions) AND I get higher CPCs from it as well.

 

Affiliate marketing hasn't done extremely well for me, but maybe that's because I'm picky about which products I recommend.  I also don't have high traffic yet, which helps with affiliate & direct ads I think (correct me if I'm wrong).  Of course, high traffic helps with all monetization strategies…  :)

 

If there's a better way, I'm all for it.  I didn't use the ugly block strategy until January of this year because I don't like it either.  But I've become ad-blind so it doesn't bother me on other people's sites.  I also use AdBlocker+ in Firefox so I don't see ads much either.  (I do turn it off for sites I'd want to support though).

 

BTW, I absolutely agree on the pop-ups asking you to subscribe.  I hate them!  But I do realize they can vastly increase subscription rates based on what I've heard from people.  But you'd never get me to subscribe that way.  I also don't like them when I'm already subscribed in my feed reader.  I don't think I'll ever use those pop-ups, but I'm not going to refuse to go to someone's site because of them.

That make sense, but most of my articles include affiliate marketing links so it would be an awful lot of extra work, in that case.