adsense on a site for people

effective format of adsense in a real blog, not on "site for adsense"

[flamey]

I just started a blog, and want to add some adsense blocks to it. but its going to be a real blog, not a site for ads, so i don't want them everywhere and i don't want my visitors to think i want them to trick into clicking ads.

right now i just have one, in the sidebar. and its obvious its the advertisement. my question is, on the site "for readers" not for random visitors, is it more effective to show your ads as ads, or its still better to blend them into the design in hopes reader will "miss" and click the ad?

tia!

[edited by: encyclo at 1:46 am (utc) on Dec. 29, 2006]
[edit reason] no URLs please, see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[europeforvisitors]

or its still better to blend them into the design in hopes reader will "miss" and click the ad?

I think I hear another "Smart pricing has killed my EPC!" thread coming. :-)

[FourDegreez]

I don't think blending is just about tricking people. It's about circumventing people's tendency toward ad blindness. You'll never get a click on an ad that people have been trained to avert their eyes from. I believe in responsible blending. That means the ads aren't blended so well that people are fooled into clicking them, but are blended enough that people will look at them, perhaps not knowing for that first split second that it's an ad.

On my site I follow the heat map and blend the colors, but use design elements (subtle borders or lines, "sponsored links" labels) to clue in visitors that they are ads.

[mzanzig]

I don't think blending is just about tricking people. It's about circumventing people's tendency toward ad blindness. (...) I believe in responsible blending.

I could not disagree more with your post. There is no such thing "responsible blending". I think it's binary - either it's blending (and then you are trying to trick people into reading/clicking the ad) or it's NOT blending, and then you make a clear statement towards your visitors that you are responsibly publishing ads. When you try to circumvent ad blindness, then you are using your design elements on the ads, and that's blending. People usually do not like it.

You'll never get a click on an ad that people have been trained to avert their eyes from

Never say never... :-) It's true that unblended sites get less clicks, but their EPC typically rocks. Why? No SmartPricing. Why? People do click, but only when they are really interested in the ad copy and when in buying/researching mood. That makes your conversion rate hot, and you will be loved by Google (well, sort of).

[jomaxx]

FourDegreez is completely correct. It's a good idea to have a page without visual cues blaring "unrelated ad: ignore me". That way people at least have to deal with the ads, look at them, make a conscious decision whether to click or not.

It's not the only way to go of course, but ad blindness is a major reason why banner ads almost completely died out and were replaced by text ads.

Of course you can take this too far, and that's when it becomes deceptive. Disguising ads as part of the navigation for the site, or using images to confuse surfers into clicking when they're clearly looking for something else.

[MThiessen]

It's a good idea to have a page without visual cues blaring "unrelated ad: ignore me". That way people at least have to deal with the ads, look at them, make a conscious decision whether to click or not.

I think fourdegrees is right too. Ad Blindness is a very real thing. Blended google ads are really not tricks anymore, most people have gotton quite used to seeing them, they are EVERYWHERE. The thing is, since they "are" blended its almost impossible to develop ad blindness to them, especially when they are well targeted.

Blending is not a bad thing. Sticking the ads on the extreme right, hugging the scroll bar in the hopes someone trying to use the scroll bar accidentally clicks, now THATS a dirty trick!