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Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
101–110 of 215 posts
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, you're converting the nebulous "value of the site to a user" into cold, hard cash. The game isn't zero-sum, it's closer to an IPO (or some other stock-issuing event) in that sense: theoretical value becomes real value, but now you don't have "control" of everything anymore.
The site gets cash, but the user loses value and doesn't get anything in return.
If you're a teacher, and you're at a site looking for how to teach a lesson on subtraction, and I tell you bingo cards do that, and you pay me money for bingo cards, you're saying in the most explicit way that people know how that bingo cards were exactly what you were looking for.
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#103[deleted]
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#104No wrong done here in my opinion.
The content of your post has brought up a topic I have been thinking about recently, which is intensely devoted sponsorship advertising. For example, if you (Patrick) want to write this piece about your positive experience with BuySellAds, then you could write the entire blog post with heavy mention of the product that YOU TRULY LIKE AND PROMOTE.
The trust factor will go a long way in helping you. I have watched "This Week In Startups" on Youtube and noticed they use a similar approach. They stop the broadcast so that Mark Suster could talk about how X product has helped him.
Most of that is off-topic, but your blog post got me thinking...which it is supposed to do, right? :)
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#105I don't understand who still sees ads. It's apparently a huge majority of Internet users, but I don't understand where they come from. I often set up computers for family and friends and installing AdBlock is one of the first things I do. Who is computer-savvy enough to buy and install their own computer, and yet not computer-savvy enough to get AdBlock? Or do (most) people actually like ads?
It's not so much that people like ads, as that they are so inured to them that they don't even see them enough to get annoyed by their presence. Sometimes I set up a new computer and forget to install AdBlock for a long period, simply because I can't tell the difference between a clean page, and a page filled with ads I just don't mentally register.
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#106Another trick that works: break your website. When I ran a somewhat large music site(100K uniques/day), we'd make significantly more money from adsense when our streaming server went down. Why? Because when hitting the play button on the player didn't work, people start clicking on the ads.
That is terrible and hilarious at the same time.
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It says "sponsored placement", which is true because the website put the ad right in the middle of the organic results.
It doesn't matter what it says, it matters what users perceive it to be. It's obviously meant to deceive the users while providing the author (not very) plausible deniability of the deception.
How do you think this compares to google's ads at the top of search requests? That is the comparison this article is making.
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#108I don't understand who still sees ads. It's apparently a huge majority of Internet users, but I don't understand where they come from. I often set up computers for family and friends and installing AdBlock is one of the first things I do. Who is computer-savvy enough to buy and install their own computer, and yet not computer-savvy enough to get AdBlock? Or do (most) people actually like ads?
I don't understand who still sees ads. It's apparently a huge majority of Internet users, but I don't understand where they come from. This is like that quote for "How could X have won the election? I don't know anybody who voted for him." If you learn one thing from me, learn that male twenty-something techies are not the golden normative standard for all forms of behavior . Some people actually do like ads, a lot.…
> males, twenty-something, techies, etc.
My parents are 80 years old. That includes my mother, who is not male (or else I was lied to about EVERYTHING!) They are not techies by a very long shot.
I installed Adblock for them on Firefox and Chrome.
Sometimes they use IE by accident; inevitably they complain to me that the blocking of ads is broken or inconsistent because they just saw ads all over the place.
You're right to say that I'm basing my observation on people I know, but you're wrong to assume they're all male, young and tech-oriented, or that I lend them my own preferences.
For example, I'm not on Facebook and will hopefully never be (if that's possible, which is not certain); but everyone I know is on Facebook and they even kind of like it.
But the opposite is true for ads.
It would be interesting to look at statistics for Adblock. I really don't see why it should be a "male" thing...?
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Edit: I'm actually a little more annoyed by your answer than I should, because it tries to make me look stupid, without actually saying "I think you're stupid". I was raised by Jesuits and know one when I see one.
There are hundreds of situations where you don't personally know people who are of one opinion, but where you're aware they exist because they make themselves heard. I don't think I've ever met a vegetarian but I'm very much aware of their existence.
But ads? Who ever speaks publicly in favor of ads (who isn't, like yourself, an advertiser)???
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does Patrick's advertising technique --- really, think about this --- exactly what does it have to do with Google SERP pollution?
Nothing, in and of it self. My rant was more at this whole group of grey/black hat SEO, a group he most defiantly IS in.
If you think Patrick is a black hat SEO, you don't really know what a black hat SEO is.
Re: Image Ad Blending Works Really, Really Well
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, people like HIM are PAYING for the Internet. Personally, I think it's people who like to tell other people how much they're RUINING the INTERNET that are RUINING the INTERNET, but I spend a lot of my Internet time on message boards, so I'm probably biased. It's probably bad recipe sites that are RUINING the INTERNET.
Here's why I say ruin. Remember when you could do a search for product reviews, and actually get product reviews , instead of a million template link bait sites?
This is like pining for the old days when all the world's microcomputer hackers fit into the same room at Stanford and you could ask Steve Wozniak to teach you how to solder.
Sure, when Google was new and had relatively low traffic and relatively few people were trying to game it and the web was orders of magnitude smaller than it is today (largely because Google itself was a force that made the web much larger) the SERPs were different. Arguably better. But we can't go back there. Time marches on.
If it were easy to go back there Google would have more effective competitors.
You can try to simulate the old days by creating a smaller network of trusted friends or sources and only following links from them. This is a hot strategy now; we call it "social networking". But I wouldn't assume that social networks, even those limited to your immediate family, are immune to commercial "SEO". Experience suggests otherwise. Just wait until a family member starts shilling for Amway or Cutco, or (less annoyingly) your teenaged nephew comes to your house selling band candy or magazines.