Ads

[filkertom]

Big, big important question, one I've avoided for a number of years now: How would you guys feel if I ran ads on tomsmithonline.com, and possibly some of my other sites, from Google AdSense or Project Wonderful? Offended? Put off? Rolling your eyes that I finally got with the 21st century? Can you suggest alternatives?

ETA: Okay, Project Wonderful is definitely getting the green light. Not immediately; soon. And I'll likely advertise on a few sites already using it. Google AdSense seems to be, if not the devil, at least his gameskeeper or somethin'.

ETA2: Also, possibly defeating my own purpose, I remind everyone that the Firefox plugins NoScript and AdBlock Plus kick ass and take names. Between those two, I only see ads on the sites I want to see ads on, so I literally don't know about some of the ones you guys reference in comments. Sounds as if that's a good thing.

Comments

[mihai-lado.livejournal.com]

I'll speak highly of Project Wonderful. You have good control of who puts ads on your site, and I hear it pays better than AdSense.

[sdelmonte]

Ads equal revenue. Revenue equals "paying the bills." I like that myself.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[metafrantic.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's your site, and you need cash just like everyone. I'd say Project Wonderful's your best bet to get ads that your visitors will actually be interested in.

[alicebentley]

Another vote in support of Project Wonderful - not only do they make sure the majority of the revenue flows through to the artist/writer/content provider but the nature of the pairing between site and ad means I've found things I'm actually interested in through their ads.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

As long as you don't have the ad with the jiggly belly (or even the non-jiggly belly), then it's fine with me.

[newjerseybadger.livejournal.com]

Second that. That damn ad has been on every site I visited for the past freakin' MONTH, I swear. It's more pervasive than the refi ads with the dancing people, alligators, and whatevers.

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

Go for it. It's the 21st century -- we see ads on people's bodies!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I would certainly recommend that you go with whatever service allows you the most control over which ads you get on your site. Some of the blogs I read are plagued with what could almost be taken for AI irony if we had functional AI -- ads for vanity-published books coming up on an entry denouncing vanity publishing, etc.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Google AdSense is a HUGE spammer, both via email and in newsgroups. I would avoid them at all costs. A lot of places now block them by default. They are one of the first sites I add to the permanently untrusted in FireFox NoScript on any PC that has NoScript. I have not heard anything bad about Project Wonderful though.

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

OK- I popped over to Project Wonderful, and it gets my vote. Any site that kills 'click fraud' dead and pays its members quickly and fairly is right in my eyes.

Go for it.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I see no problem with ads per se. As you've certainly noticed elsewhere, however, Google AdSense ads have an annoying tendency to reflect the literal contents of a page, so if you have an ad on a page with scathing political parodies, you might well wind up with an ad for a book by Ann Coulter or The Doughy Pantload. Assuming you monitored for that sort of thing, go for it!

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

How would you guys feel if I ran ads on tomsmithonline.com, and possibly some of my other sites, from Google AdSense or Project Wonderful?

Betrayed, violated, and strangely aroused ashamed. But I'd somehow come to terms with it. ;-)

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I've never met anybody who liked AdSense, even those who were getting a good return on it. Although it is humorous sometimes, like with one blog review of Spore the author wrote "Open the barn doors, grandma, the mutant cows are a-comin' home!" and the sidebar was filled with ads for elderly care homes and farm equipment ;-)

On the other hand, I haven't heard anything bad about Project Wonderful. And anything that would help you live without a full-time job so you can write more music is something I enthusiastically endorse.

I also want to see what kind of ads would pop up with some of your songs.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Man, we've gotta get you better fanfic.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Nah, go for it. Make a little more scratch.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

Just don't become like that Razzie site you sent me to. Egad! ads with countdown clocks to get to the page your wanted that itself is still filled with ads.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

No frickin' chance. For exactly the same reason that I haven't filled my MySpace page with all their Flash gradoo. Annoying, ugly, waste of time and bandwidth.

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

If I saw your ad on either site, at least I know I'd find great stuff at the other end of the link. Methinks the "sellout" concerns of every indie artist -- while I get where they're coming from -- are, in any practical sense, obsolete artifacts left over from the '60s, maaan. Different world. Different tech. Way different marketing strategies. Monolithic media with an exclusive lock on the means of music production, lo, they be dead. Long live the Web. Long live Tom. Do what works.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Works for me. Many hugs to you and Sally -- hope she's doing better!

It's your call obviously but I vote...

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

No on AdSense but yes on Project Wonderful.

AdSense seems to constantly produce an incredible amount of truly relevant irony.

Project Wonderful seems like the have a good set of policies and in general sound like they have a good bead on things.

As for ads in general? I have _zero_ problem with them as long as they aren't intrusive pop-up/under/over/inmyfaceauughkillitwithfire!

*ahem* ;-)

Re: It's your call obviously but I vote...

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

I'm not bothered by any ads that don't pop up, pop under, or involve a substantial amount of Flash or any sound at all. (If I hear that "omigawd! no wai!" ad much more, I'll destroy the world with my mind alone, I swear..)

Re: It's your call obviously but I vote...

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Yeah the sound issue is more than a little annoying.

My two _least_ favorite ads include one where someone taps on the screen and goes "Helloooo?" and the other one is one I get when I buy things on E-Bay a lot which has a very loud "CONGRATULATIONS!". I really hate that one.

I've long been quoting a line I heard many years ago "If I wanted your website to make noise I'd lick my finger and drag it across the screen!". B-(

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

Go for it. I don't see advertisements on most web sites thanks to Adblock Plus, but I make a point of using the "disable on this site" option for people I know and/or want to support.

[ebenbrooks.livejournal.com]

I personally think that if it's unobtrusive, one or two ads wouldn't be a problem at all.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

I've generally liked Project Wonderful, and even clicked through on some of their ads. Adsense I'm less fond of, and I don't think I've ever used one of their ads. I hate animated ads or, generally, any advertising that's more attention-getting than the content I'm there for.

[bosswriter.livejournal.com]

I would have no problem with ads on your site. Internet advertising is a fact of life. I mean we have all these websites out there that we use everyday and to expect them to not have a business model for an income to keep them up is naive.

Ads cost me, as a visitor to a site, virtually nothing. Yes it may take a few extra seconds to load a page if I am on a slow connection but on the other hand I would rather do that than not have access to the site because of economic reasons.

John Scalzi asked a similar question on his Whatever blog and I believe the response was pretty overwhelming that advertising would not keep people from using the site.

Just please, no dancing babies!

[vik_thor]

As with pretty much everyone else here, see no problem with ads, per se. Also tend to favor the Project Wonderful over the Google ones. I don't do a lot of clicking on ads, but have a few times.

The noisy ads are the worst, I use Morning Coffee (on Firefox) to read my daily comics and other sites, and for about a week, one of them was having a LOUD "Congratulations! You've won a Nintendo Wii!!!" or Apple Air Notebook!!
Popunders are annoying also.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Tom, I know you do this as your primary livelihood, and I want you to be successful at it. (Not entirely altruistically; a safe, housed and fed Tom means more cool music for us.) Beyond that, I know you well enough that I trust you to pick the way of monetizing your audience (as they say nowadays) that will be the least intrusive on the user experience and most respectful of your users. (Unlike a lot of people in the Internet biz charged with making such decisions, you actually Have A Clue.) I wish I could advise you on which service to go with, but what I know about either wouldn't fill a Dixie cup halfway. You go, bro, and do what you have to.

[madrona.livejournal.com]

Jumping on the bandwagon, apparently:

Project Wonderful has never, ever annoyed me. Google AdSense likes to put formula ads on breastfeeding advocacy sites. I won't shun your site either way.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

After implementing web advertising blocks at the page code level, URL level, domain level and web firewall level, all I have to say is -

"There's advertising on the internet?"

Also fun - browsing with images turned off. Much faster, and works for pretty much everything except art upload sites and webcomic browsing.

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

Another nod for Project Wonderful.

[naomi-de-plume.livejournal.com]

Here's a comment that may be only slightly related: If you had one of those shop from Amazon or Borders and this website makes #% links, I'd be happy to use it. It's a painless way for me to support someone I like as I already do business with Amazon and Borders far too regularly.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I do have one of those Associate Accounts, and I almost never use it. Maybe it's time to change that.