Oh No, say it isn’t so…Pop Ups are back!!!
More and more bloggers are using in-text advertising services such as Kontera to earn extra revenue on their blog. It’s something that is frustrating me more and more.
Daniel from DailyBlogTips posted today that bloggers should Stay Away from In-Text Advertising. Leroy from Green Lama then posted about it and said that In-Text Advertising is Not Evil. I’m not sure where you all stand on this one but i for one agree with daniel 100% on this. I really do despise these ads and iits putting me off reading a few blogs i subscribe too because i was getting so annoyed with them.
Leroy suggested that these ads may be less intrusive than adsense but i disagree. Adsense are very non intrusive in my opinion. These kontera type ads are nothing more than fancy pop ups. There’s a reason why every major browser has a pop up blocker and there’s a reason why none of the major internet websites on the web are using this type of advertising.
Most bloggers acknowledge that the ads are intrusive but are still using them because they are converting well. Sometimes that extra bit of cash just isn’t worth it. Is it worth losing readers due to intrusive ads?
I’d like to hear visitors views on these ads. Would you be willing to lose a few readers if your monthly income increased? Do these ads bother you at all?
kevin
Chris Stark | May 2nd, 2007 at 12:18 pm #
The funny thing is, Kontera actually has a really high expectation for new sites. I think you have to have 500,000+ pageviews a month to even get considered.
The reason you are sort of seeing them more then you probably should is that John Chow offered up an ability for smaller sites to sign up under his account.
I personally signed up, tried it out for one day and found that I didn’t even like reading my own site because mousing over those ads and seeing the popups was annoying as hell.
I removed it the same day! It definitely wasn’t worth it for the maybe 20 bucks it would have earned me in a month anyway…
Brian Heys | May 2nd, 2007 at 4:27 pm #
I totally agree. These ads are intrusive, irritating, and I have never clicked on one yet.
Leroy Brown | May 2nd, 2007 at 9:48 pm #
I’d bet ( though there’s no way to know for sure ) that most people who truly hate Kontera ads are the “techy” type people, or advanced internet users. Most of those folks likely read their favorite blogs through RSS, and thus never see the Kontera ads.
The average user isn’t likely to be bothered as much by the ads, I would think.
Kevin | May 2nd, 2007 at 10:19 pm #
leroy - i dont know how can you assume that its only ‘techy’ people who are annoyed with these advertisements. Was it only techy people who get annoyed with pop ups and pop unders? You need to give more credit to the average internet user anyways - theres a generation of people growing up knowing the internet from childhood. I personally didnt know anything about the internet until my first of university in 1996.
have your readers not said anything about the ads yet?
chris - yeah i know. i think you did the right thing removing the ads
Armen : : iffect.net | May 2nd, 2007 at 10:48 pm #
I actually posted about this a couple of days ago (you get ignored when your blog is about 50 hours old) lol
Having tried Kontera, I find them obtrusive.
Leroy Brown | May 3rd, 2007 at 6:42 am #
I’ve spent a lot of time observing average / regular internet users. A lot. It’s something I think we should all do, so we can get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t.
Based on my observations, I’d say that very little *really* annoys the average user. Old school popups, when they come in bunches, do the trick. So does a slow-loading site. But in text ads, I haven’t personally seen that to be a big annoyance to the average joe.
Stuart | May 3rd, 2007 at 11:29 pm #
Most regular readers will read the blog from their feed reader I would assume which is ad free
Kevin | May 3rd, 2007 at 11:34 pm #
hey stuart
thanks for dropping by.
i started subscribing to your blog the other day however whenever i check new posts etc i usually just open the link up on a new page instead of using the feedreader. force of habit i guess
StockTube | May 4th, 2007 at 1:16 pm #
i agreed kontera is pissing me off but surprisingly the requirement to be part of kontera family is very high … just wondering if the money made by publishers who deploy them is justifiable … are they paying very well?
Kevin | May 4th, 2007 at 1:19 pm #
some bloggers are seeing good returns - its something i dont contest. As you say though - is it justifiable?
Leroy Brown | May 4th, 2007 at 5:48 pm #
I know the month is only 3 days old, but I’m seeing absolutely ridiculous Kontera stats so far this month. Over Double the daily average from last month, with only slightly more traffic.
So in my case, I’d say yes, it’s definitely justifiable.
Fazza | March 25th, 2008 at 5:06 pm #
Hi Kevin! Been reading your blog for a few weeks now & find it extremely valuable! So - before I weigh in w/my two cents, just wanted to say “hello” and “thank you!”
I’m a no on pop ups. I’m techie, and generally read blogs through RSS . . . however I also have a habit of opening selected posts into multiple tabs (so I can “mark all as read” and get to the ones I want to spend more time reading as the day goes on). I generally tend to fall outside the norm
, so I’m not sure that tells you anything!
That said, I don’t know if it’s just your regular readers that are the best to answer this. As *new* reader to any blog, I’m going to go to the actual page - so the first impression is not based on an RSS feed.
If a website even had cutsie help text or decoration on every one of their links, it would bug me - so those pops ups just feel spammy to me. I’m not sure if it would turn me off of a site per se, but there is a initial gut reaction/first impression that the writer chose monetization over form/style/aesthetics/readability.
Then again, I tend to gravitate to more of the design blogs, so I guess it would stand out more in those cases (i.e., not practicing what they preach!)