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Ask HN: Do site ads affect perception of content quality?

8 points by rkalla ↗ HN
Exasperated question time.

I have the unfortunately ability to choose poor names for my web properties, so my current site sounds like some sort of SEO/garbage site (it is a tech site). I also have a standard layout of adsense leaderboard/sidebar ad on my WordPress site to monetize it a bit and help pay for hosting.

Total traffic is 920k pageviews a month (cool) but I notice I can never get traction, no matter how serious the story, on social news sites of any kind. I <i>think</i> this is either due to the name or the ad layout making the site look "spammy" so the 2-second gut reaction from a reader when they click over is "shenanigans!" and then they leave.

NOTE: I'm not using any hyper-aggressive techniques that make you want to kill the admin; like text-linking or the 300px story header ads that push the actual content down beyond the fold.

What I'm curious about is if YOU guys are effected by this, or if you are blind to ads and just read the content. (I am fairly biased when I visit a site that looks like it's shoving ads in my face, regardless of content - but I am too close to this to know if it's the issue).

This was all spurred by me clicking on a story that was submitted here to HN, going over to the site and immediately thinking "bullshit" when I saw leader/sidebar and banner ads all over... I didn't even read the content, I just got annoyed and closed it.

And it dawned on me that I might be doing this to my readers so I thought I would ask.

10 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 38.2 ms ] thread
kongqiu
Definitely makes a difference for me...

John Gruber has made the point over and over that "Ads are content" (link: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/05/17/ads-mule)

rkalla
Great link. I only recently started using the "filter" option in Adsense to get rid of the more annoying ads... frustratingly enough I am not suppose to click my own ads (Adsense - only done it once though), but how else am I going to figure out what domains to block.
Loginid
I am largely ad blind. I only notice them when they are annoying, and when I do notice annoying ads I generally leave the site.

It is hard to comment on your situation without a link to evaluate. I would suggest that if you are thinking this way, you probably already know what the answer is.

Perhaps some A/B testing is in order to tailor your site to your audience.

rkalla
That is true, I have wondered for a while what the reason was.

I'll look into see if there is some easy WP plugin I can get for A/B testing two different layouts. That is a good suggestion.

Jsarokin
It could be the placement or it could be the ad type.

If you're looking for a more user friendly type ad, shoot me a message, I have something you would be interested in.

worldtize
I'm currently working on launching 2 huge networks that profit mainly from advertising. The more interaction and innovative service offered to the user in return for them being subjected to the ad all depends on the grand scheme of the situation. If your site if providing content to read and your ads are not floating over the words or constantly popping up during the scroll, but they designated to a specific area and actually stay there, the user must understand those ads allow the content to be available.

Personally I'm blind to the ads, that's why my networks are designed to make sure you see and appreciate the ad being there because of how amazing the networks are, especially being free to the user.

The future of online advertisers lies in knowing specific interests of each internet user, creating an approval process to only allow the most creative and entertaining displays, and concentrating these ads into portals created for them to shine properly, not wasted at the top of a page that will be scrolled down almost immediately upon arrival.

The internet is to big and has to many offering to really cash in on this concept, that why the richest man in the World has yet to surface. A controlled network being used while consumers are in motion of spending money holds key to the biggest fortune man has ever seen.....coming soon, to town near you - GTV

jmount
I would say 920,000 page views a month is a huge number, in fact more traffic than you would get from a few big hits on social networking sites. The traffic must be coming from somewhere- so you must be doing something right.
rkalla
jmount, a good majority of it is from one-off posts that I find entertaining and socialize well on FB and SU, but aren't really representative of what I want the site to be about.

For the stories that I do spend a good amount of time on that are serious, they seem to die... like I'm screaming into an empty room and waiting for feedback.

And yes, I'm absolutely in denial that I might just not be interesting to read :)