After These Messages

I tried out a new ad program out yesterday.  It didn't work very well.  First, it took hours upon hours to activate, so that for most of the day there was this thick, blank, blue strip taking up half of my sidebar.  Then, I checked on it last night just before leaving for work and it was ready.  I turned it on and there was this ad for dog biscuits with the picture of a bulldog.  As I scrolled down, I discovered that, much like any dog, this ad was following me.  It must have thought I had food.  This quickly got on my nerves, so I deleted it.  I'm sure it's available for adoption at the ad company if any of you other bloggers are interested.  I already have my hands full with my real dog.  

This ad business is a touchy subject with some people.  Obviously, I don't really have a problem with it.  This blogging can be fun, but it can also be a lot of work, and if someone wants a few bucks for their trouble, more power to them.  However, there's a fine line between making your ads visible, and shoving them in your visitors' faces.  I've seen some blogs that are an absolute mess.  Banner ads that overlap the text, making it unreadable.  Cartoon bunnies holding flowers and wandering all over the place.  I think I even saw a wizard selling car insurance, but I may have been hallucinating just as I was about to pass out from sensory overload as I was mumbling weakly, "Where's the stuff I'm supposed to read?"  If I were presumptuous enough to start doling out advice after a mere two months of blogging, my first tip would be: If people can't can't even find the post, then you have a serious design problem.

Me, I like to think I run a pretty clean ship around here, sometimes obsessively so.  One day, I spent nearly three hours working on the header for my other blog, cropping and resizing the background photo so that it would fit, and playing around with the contrast and the focus so that it was faded enough that it wouldn't intrude on the title but still visible enough to just barely make out what it is.  It's sad, I know, but we'll have to leave the diagnosis of my obsessive compulsive disorder for another day.  For the moment, my point is that although I haven't made two nickles to rub together from Google's Ad Sense program, at least the ad is relatively neat and unobtrusive and it doesn't chase me around the page.  I kind of like that little box off to the side.  Even though you'd need a master's degree in accounting to figure out Google's payment algorithm, I think I'll keep it.  I even see some interesting stuff on there sometimes. 

The Amazon "favorites" boxes along the sidebar haven't really done much either, but I think I'll keep those too.  They look nice, and I like the fact that I got to handpick all of the products myself.  I see that people often list their favorite books and whatnot along their sidebar or they fill out those tedious "about me" forms with the boxes for their interests and hobbies.  I just figured that this Amazon widget was a means of basically doing the same thing AND displaying a few ads at the same time.  Honestly, I think it's the neatest advertising idea I've seen so far, and I'm surprised that I don't see it more often on other blogs.  I can't recommend it for its earning potential at this point, but I do really like the idea.

Now, please, don't take this post as a desperate attempt to drum up business or something.  I just wanted to mention my advertising misadventure from yesterday and talk about ads in general.  It's probably bad taste to even discuss your ads, and it might even be considered rude, and I suppose it might make some people uncomfortable.  I guess there's no easy way around that.  It's like sitting down next to someone who's eating in a restaurant and mentioning that you're hungry.  No matter how much you protest that you're just making conversation, someone will always suspect you of ulterior motives.  Besides, I'm sure there's nothing that makes people feel less inclined to click on an ad than being fed some sob story begging them to do so.  It's part of our common rebellious streak and our natural aversion to all things pathetic.  And hey, I get it.  If you come here at all, it's not to look at ads, or click on ads, or...well, read posts about clicking on ads.  I'm just glad you're here, and I really appreciate all the comments and feedback I've gotten so far.  That's all that really matters.  Thank you.