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Ads on a blog??!?!?!?!?

Posted by Cody Heitschmidt --Went Live: Monday, May 05, 2008
Ok I had a burning question that I was gonna address and it got bumped til tomorrow.

Because...


Kate Olson has a blog here, I really like it, it's not cutting edge, it's focused towards educators which doesn't apply to me, hell I just realized I am not completely sure why I like it, Just go there check it out, tell Kate Cody said Hi.

Enough background on Kate.

Today she twittered the question "ads on blogs - yay or nay?" (ok if you don't know what twitter is and you want to know go here and start playing, you will figure it out, for a while you will think it is a worthless waste of time and then boom you can't stop!) OK so Kate twittered "ads on blogs - yay or nay?"

I sent back a humorous response cause Kate listens and sends back entertaining responses and then I started reading all the other responses she got and realized SOME folks are passionate about this and maybe I should address it.

www.codytalks.com has ads on it if you look at the top of the right sidebar you will see an ad for something from Amazon.com. Those are my recommendations, I really like that type of ad cause it is another way for me to spread my thoughts. It's not too intrusive, but those are actually things I physically chose to recommend to you as my readers. Also about midway down the right sidebar you will see a ad from Google. These are really in a test mode and I am just trying them out. They feed (kinda) off the content of the page you are on and give you the option to click and go to something that may or may not be related to the content you were reading on codytalks. You will find a lot of ads for Cody Wyoming tourism because of the name of the blog. This system is obviously not perfect, I need to get the Cody, Wy tourism board to cut me checks, huh??

OK, do I hope to make money off codytalk?, Yes it would be wonderful if it produced a little revenue. If you don't like that click here, there is other stuff to read over there.

The important question in my mind is this... (It was addressed in Kate twitter discussion) Does the advertising take away from the blog or do I ever write with the intention of pushing you to the advertising. In my opinion the answer to both is no!! Really this is a deal where only my opinion matters. Don't look at them if you don't want and sure as heck don't click on them if you don't want. Just look at them as option for things you can click on if you want to.

Whole thing kinda got me riled up, probably shouldn't have, to see people so fanatically opposed to someone trying to generate revenue from something that they spend a decent amount of time doing, puzzles me, why let that bother you so much??

Thoughts???
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9 comments to read/post yours:

  1. Well, since you and I were writing our posts at the exact same time (you were faster, though) and we completely agree, I'll just say ditto :-) Thanks for the discussion and for the nice words......and I may have to check out Cody, WY now that you've got it stuck in my head.....ads DO brainwash, you know!
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  2. Lorna CostantiniMay 5, 2008 01:45 PM
    Well I couldn't help following your comment on Kate's blog. Cocommenting and all. It is really intriguing isn't it. The syndicated newspapers are full of ads. No one seems to give them any grief. At some point what we say will be considered news. Once the TV and radio moves online, our content will drive the economy.
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  3. Amen, Lorna

    I kinda made fun of your comment on Kate's blog and now I feel like crap since you came here and commented so nice, hopefully you know I was kidding, of course you can't know I was kidding because we are strangers...

    But, I was kidding.
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  4. Advertising is "the lubricant for the free-enterprise system."

    - Leo-Arthur Kelmenson
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  5. Mr. Underhill strikes with a quote out of the quote challenge. Nice touch.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Lorna CostantiniMay 5, 2008 02:18 PM
    No problem Cody. I have been told from time to time that my comments can a little obscure.
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  7. How I wish I was better prepared to have this conversation.

    In the example of Cody's blog, I find the ads a little interesting in that they provide a little more insight to Cody's personality, likes, dislikes, etc. I assume personally knowing the author of a blog is somewhat rare - in that case the ads are less likely to be of interest.

    I also think there is a design element to be considered in the introduction of the ads to the blog site. I will reach a point with a blog such as Cody's where I will cease to read it if the clutter from the ads becomes annoying. (I'm not at that point yet.)
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  8. My concern for ads on blogs relates more to the concepts of media literacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_literacy

    I am not comfortable just taking someone's "word" that they are not a staff person of a company peddling a product or a political policy. There are not clear pathways to know whether one is reading opinion or propoganda.

    Media literacy can be difficult enough to "practice" with media created by large and long standing institutions; I don't even know how to begin with blogs.
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  9. Kate,

    I went to the Wikipedia page you posted and immediately x ed out of the page, it intimidated me.

    I don't even really know what media literacy is and as I right now I am not willing to take the time to learn.

    I think every individual publisher of any content has a decision to make. And then they have to live with it. If the content isn't good enough to keep a few guests coming despite the ads, change something or live with it, that's my philosophy.
    ReplyDelete

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