I decided to start running Blogads on cvillenews.com over two years ago, and classified it as an “experiment.” That’s still how I think of it, but it’s probably time to revisit the decision so I can decide if they’re worthwhile or not. From my perspective, they’re useful. I turn down all of the ads that advertise things that I don’t think would be of interest to some cvillenews.com readers, which is 20-30% of those ads that are submitted. The prices are about as cheap as they can be made on Blogads, and all of the money that I make off of ’em go to local charities. (Legal Aid got the last payout.)
What do you think? Are they a useless distraction? Or are they relevant enough to you that they’re worth keeping?
If they benefit a chartiy, they don’t bother me at all.
I hardly notice them anymore, and I’m glad to hear that the money is going to charities. And every now and then I briefly consider playing kickball…
I use adblock so I don’t see them.
I don’t even support some of the politicans who advertise here and the ads are fine by me.
It’s your site and you should make some coin for it.
Just don’t let X-lounge buy/steal your email list!
They don’t bug me. I wouldn’t even care if you were keeping the money for yourself, but I’m glad to hear it’s going to charities.
Um.. my preference is probably already known. :)
OK by me, especially if the proceeds go to charity.
You are a good man Waldo! I do wish with all the work you do you could manage to keep a little for yourself.
I love the Petfinder ads and don’t really notice the others much, can’t say participating in sports is a reasonable possibility for me, but I like the idea of it :). Seriously, it’s not google ads which I can’t stand and it’s your site, you should do what you want. Even keep the money for yourself with all the work you do.
Participating in sports isn’t reasonable for about 75% of the people who play in the league — it’s an excuse to meet people, try to kick a red rubber ball, and have a few drinks afterwards.
In general, kickballers are some of the least athletic people you’ll meet. :) Witness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLGKZeFurSg
Enough evangelism from me. I wouldn’t mind seeing a shift off the blogads platform since I know they take such a huge cut from the blogs, but I can understand staying with it just for the ease of use.
I say keep them. As someone who runs another website in town, the handful of dollars I get from it are poured right back into the site, either through paying for the server space, new equipment, whatever.
Of course, our stalled redesign kind of took away my ability to actually put them anywhere.
Yes, but do those 75% have nephrologists who will kill them if they damage their dialysis access? :). (I love my nephrologist and I’m sure he’s never actually killed a patient, but if looks could kill the time I forgot and let them take my blood pressure on my access arm, well I don’t want to see the look if I injure my access playing sports :) )
Point taken. Injuries certainly do happen when you play sports, regardless of how recreational it is.
Given that a few people mentioned this, I think it’s worth responding to. Personally, I think it’s totally great that it’s possible to make some money off of selling ads on a blog. I don’t begrudge for a moment anybody making money doing that. For a time, I really appreciated the extra income from ads here.
Honestly, I just don’t need the income, at least not as much as some local charities need it. For years I was only able to give time to good causes. Now I’ve got this dedicated little fund to give money, and I’m really happy about it.
It’s worth mentioning that I actually do show Google ads, just not to y’all. Anybody who finds cvillenews.com via a major search engine is shown Google ads. I instituted that a few years ago, after I noticed how much traffic was coming from people far from Charlottesville searching for totally unrelated things. For a while I just blocked them (it’s a waste of bandwidth), but eventually I decided to just show them ads, instead.
Those are actually totally unrelated to the Blogads. It’s a bit of code that Petfinder provides for anybody who wants to show on their website the available critters at the local shelter. I’m a big fan of the CASPCA, especially now that they’re (virtually) no-kill, so this just seems like a reasonable thing to put up in the sidebar. Plus, y’know, I like the pictures of kittens and puppies. :)
Doesn’t the following statement answer your own question: “For years I was only able to give time to good causes. Now I’ve got this dedicated little fund to give money, and I’m really happy about it.”?
Well, if I were happy about it but everybody else totally despised the ads, then I’d get rid of them. But given that nobody has yet said deep six the ads, that’s probably not an issue. :)
They’re unobtrusive. I know your advertisers don’t want to hear this, but I rarely notice ads on websites unless they’re mandatory clickthroughs or seizure-inducing blinkies. I don’t bother with adblock because my brain works pretty well at blocking them.
I’m glad that the proceeds go to charity. That’s cool.
The ads add some color to the pages and Sydney is adorable.
They don’t bother me at all. PLEASE don’t do like the Progress is doing on their site. Go there right now and then about after two seconds the UVA Football ad jumps out and blocks the screen so you have to search and find the “close” button to get rid of it. Really annoying.
I like em. They do add color and convey a sort of professionalism. Since it does local charities some good: Bonus! It’s generous of you to share, Waldo.
They are not obtrusive, they help local charities and sometimes they can readers find out about new things. Sounds like a win, win, win to me. keep them.
I’m surprised, and I guess a little impressed, that not one person said “dump ’em.” I guess I’ll keep ’em. Thanks, everybody.
Late comment – especially that you have made a decision. :) Not only should you keep them, you should consider adding more if possible. You are providing a service and one of the only ways to be truly compensated is via blog ads.
You are awesome Waldo!!