Max's enBlog: Bum

Net ad? Or not to ad?

Websites which long for finding sustainable business models usually opt for Ads, an easy out because they function like old media. Therefore, we see all kinds of pop-up and banners when surfing. But are they really helpful to advertisers, and more importantly for content providers, a long-term tool to generate money?

Many researches are needed in this case. What I want to bring up here is strategies of presenting ads, an art essential for the success of sites. The most important thing can be knowing what your sites are about. Though as generally uncreative as they are, banners are still the most common forms of net ads. They are usually sold by sizes, so it is temping to oversell them to the point that sites look messy. Good designers sometimes can help you out of this but are often overruled by commercial interests. “Hey, the advertisers want to put this in the middle! Better not mess with who pays you!”

This could be proved to be unsustainable in the long-run. Except when viewing mainly e-commerce sites, net surfers usually look for contents, and they don’t want to be distracted. Craiglist may get by with 640x480 banners, but it would be a mistake for a serious news website to do the same thing. Normal users don’t want a shining Coke can aside when reading Iraq reports.

Using sponsor links (Google) or cooperating with related business, like films pages along with timetables of cinemas, are other ways out. But credibility and integrity – providing balance and fair information – are important, no matter contents are news, consumer information or user-generated. They are the main capital and what consistently attract viewers. Besides, bad reviews spread rapidly on the net – worldwide. Busted cases, like corporate bloggers hiding their identities to promote their own product, are usually PR disasters.

Labels: "ad" "net ad"

posted by Max.L @ 2:02 AM