I’ve done a bit of tweaking with the ads on the site and I’m wondering if it’s too much. A banner ad now greets you at the top of the screen on the homepage and there’s also a square ad in between the blog content and comments on each of the post pages. After getting a check from Google a few weeks back (which effectively dropped our monthly hosting costs to 86¢/month), I’ve been pretty enthused about putting them back on the site. But, I don’t want to go too far. 
What do you think? Too much? Too little (!)? Just right?
Although I love the Kottke model, it’s probably (;)) not feasible for you, yet. If ads can generate you a few extra bucks, so that you can have more to give away, fine. And they don’t look too bad; you have a good eye for asthetic simplisity. But my question is: does anyone ever click on one of those adds? (I’d never dream of clicking on, “Free iPod Nano”!) Or do you get paid simply for displaying them?
Hey “Scott”:http://kennsarah.net/2005/10/19/what-do-you-think-of-the-ads/#comment-1189, yeah, maybe I’ll look to making blogging a full-time career after retirement.
Glad to hear you don’t find them to intrusive, too.
Google pays per click: an advertiser has money deducted, and a website owner has money added, everytime someone clicks on a link. People do actually click on them (though not a lot: I only got 1 click out of 44 page impressions so far today for a 2.3% conversion–which is actually pretty good). The point, ultimately, is to drive traffic. If people don’t click through, you don’t get anything.
Still, it’s not a bad way to take the hosting expense out of the family budget. Now if only I could get paid for my *time*, too.
Hi Ken, I found you!
It’s an intriguing concept. In my only recently post-college existence (like, since May), where I’m still adjusting to having money put in my account automatically every two weeks, anything that draws in extra cash seems worth it.
And, to be honest, I didn’t even notice them until I read the post. Though I think that might backfire in the world of click-throughs.
So here’s a question: I am thinking of migrating to WP because MT is becoming a bit unbearable. Did you start from scratch in WP or convert from MT at some point in the last three years? I’m trying to find conversion software. I don’t want to lose all my entries and their comments . . .
Hey “Alissa”:http://kennsarah.net/2005/10/19/what-do-you-think-of-the-ads/#comment-1191.
Yeah, getting paid twice a month rocks. We love corporate America (er, sometimes).
Glad to hear that the ads weren’t too intrusive, too. Yeah, the clickthrough ratio isn’t great: about 1.1%, and that’s probably friends of mine just clicking on the ads to put some money in the account.
As to the WordPress migration, it was surprisingly easy to move the data. All of MovableType’s comments, entries, etc. are transferred during a migration process, which is “supported by WordPress”:http://wordpress.org/docs/tutorials/import-mt/, though you would probably want to do a backup of your database. The theme is a bit harder to migrate (our blog still sports the default theme that comes with WP). The MT and WP template approaches are a bit different–but the Village Church was decidedly easy to move over once I’d poked around enough with this site.
When I finally flipped the switch, we actually had the two running in tandem: both MT and WP were running on the server until I was sure the WP install was stable (I actually _still_ have to remove all those old MT pages). Let me know if you need a hand!
I did it. I’m absolutely bowled over by how easy it as. I’m trying to modify one of the themes now . . .
Since you asked what I think of the ads, I’ll be blunt.
I hate them.
Not just yours though. All of them. I hate the idea of my visual environment being polluted by people trying to make me want something I don’t need. I hate the little popup that happens whenever sun’s java vm loads telling me that its “Sun Java™” thats loading, and wont dismiss until i click the little x. I hate having the tension of a show ruined by glaring music and loud voiceovers telling me about orange juice. I hate driving along and seeing a stunning mountainscape w/ a billboard blocking half of it. I hate playing super monkey ball and seeing that all the little banannas you collect have the Dole logo on them. (in fact, i wont buy the game because of it… why should i pay for advertising?). I hate going to the movies and having to watch the ads before it (now I bring an ipod and close my eyes).
The world is full of corporations trying to herd us into the mold of what we’re supposed to be, wanting what we are supposed to want, and giving them all our time; half our time to earn our money, and the other half to give it back to them.
I’ve had a lot of websites, and I’ve fought ads every step of the way. I’ve slipped before, and had them. And the money was nice. But it wasn’t worth it.
Advertising, by design, is intended to take attention and deliver a message. It piggy backs on other things because it’s a message no one wants. By having ads at the top of your page, I don’t read your latest thoughts. I read a google ad.
Hell, your latest posts have been ABOUT the ads. So the content that I’m reading (surrounded by ads) is about ads. Whats the point?
So no. I don’t like the ads. I don’t think they are worth the cost.