Robert_Charlton - 6:31 pm on May 25, 2010 (gmt 0)

I'm all for Brett's making some money from the site. The question is how to do it without messing up the site as we know it, while not restricting advertising so much that it's ineffective.

One aspect of the site that some of us would like to preserve is its neutral look and clean layout [webmasterworld.com]. To the degree that advertising becomes intrusive, we do risk messing up that layout and making the site harder to use.

I'm generally in agreement with pageoneresults about where small banners should be... and where all kinds of advertising shouldn't be. Nothing between posts, no animation, etc... with banners unobtrusive and small.

Re additional ad spots...

I keep coming around to the thought of relevant AdWords style links... essentially monochromatic, in the right column, screened to be of interest and value to WebmasterWorld members. Pretty much along the lines of that steve40 has already suggested.

We'd look at them to the degree that they're useful and don't waste our time and attention... and not because they're fighting for our visual attention and are a distraction from the central purpose of the forums.