Comments on: Doing an Ad Test

By: urbzen

urbzen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:16:19 +0000

Here’s the thing: Jingles are a valid, and often extremely effective, method of advertising. But they only work for top-of-mind sort of products and if the jingle actually gets you to remember some kind of relevant information. SBZ has clearly failed here, but don’t forget the many others that have succeeded: http://urbzen.com/2008/11/20/five-dollar-footlong-vs-saved-by-zero/

By: Jon Williams

Jon Williams — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:51:21 +0000

I like the artwork! At least its not not bright yellow and red, lol.

By: --E

--E — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:57:24 +0000

I noticed the ad, but didn’t mind it at all. Three reasons:

1. It didn’t flash. I hate flashing ads, and will never, ever, ever buy anything that is advertised that way, even if it guarantees I will look like Cindy Crawford and have a billion dollars magically show up in my bank account.

2. It is site-appropriate. This is a blog that (mostly) talks about writing and the state of the publishing industry, with specific focus on SF. The ad is for a new book by a contemporary SF writer. Other commonalities (your age and EBear’s, your relative prominence and paths of success) make it that much more appropriate. People who read Scalzi may very well enjoy reading EBear.

3. It is low-key. It doesn’t tout the book so much as simply remind the blog-reader that the book is out. That is the proper role of advertising: to remind the consumer that something they may want to know about is available. The hard sell doesn’t work in print advertising; it puts consumers off. This sort of low-key ad is a win/win: people who are interested in EBear’s stuff get a useful reminder, and people who aren’t yet interested get a ping that her books exist.

By: Jake Freivald

Jake Freivald — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:21:38 +0000

I think too many people have commented on the fact that they like it because it’s unobtrusive. It shows that they won’t notice your ads enough to make the kind of revenue that you could. Ads obtrude. (Is that a word?) They don’t have to be flashy and distracting — I hate those as much as anyone else does — but if your ads don’t get noticed, then they don’t get clicked, and one of your key metrics is going to be cost per click.

I’m not saying that you should change the placement, just that if your goal is revenue generation then you’ve probably chosen a non-optimal placement.

By: Rick York

Rick York — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:13:28 +0000

As the Nikes say: Just do it. Whatever it takes to keep this going (pun intended).

By: Bill Toscano

Bill Toscano — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:45:11 +0000

John, I just didn’t see it.

That is my bad eye, but I think I am just used to seeing ads on the right rail, and my brain didn’t engage with it.

I would have no issue with any ads here.

That book? Gonna read it anyway. ;)

By: heinleinfan

heinleinfan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:24:42 +0000

I’m just chiming in to say “Oh, there’s an ad? What? Where? Does it mention bacon?”

Didn’t even notice it until you pointed it out, as others have mentioned, I think my brain just completely blanks out unobtrusive ads.

Which is good in the sense of “unobtrusive ads on Whatever would not bother me” and bad in the sense of “I would probably not ever be influenced by one” which kind of defeats the purpose of an advertisement.

Heh.

By: Melissa Siah

Melissa Siah — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:38:37 +0000

Hey! There’s an ad. Never noticed it. If you start doing anything that moves or flashes, I will probably start having to read your site in text-only version. It’s a hassle to switch back and forth, so I probably wouldn’t visit as often if that was the case.

By: Thena

Thena — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:17:53 +0000

Sidebar ads look fine – I skim them and occasionally click through if they look interesting.

But please for the love of bacon and other holy things, please don’t use animated / flash / javascript / etc advertising that jumps out over the articles, makes noise, or causes obsolete browsers like mine to crash. I already had to stop reading my local newspaper online because they’ve got some advertiser running the latest, greatest version of something on their front page that gives my old G4 some terrible indigestion.

By: Arachne Jericho

Arachne Jericho — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:15:58 +0000

I like the size and the placement. For fun, I added some more styling at the bottom of this otherwise not very useful post. Obviously the image could use work, but I was thinking more about what went around it.