
Big Websites Start Running Bigger Display Ads. Big Mistake. - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/01/big-websites-start-running-bigger-display-ads-big-mistake/
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pmichaud
We don't know if it's a big mistake or not. Of course I'd prefer smaller,
zero, or at least very well targeted ads, but whether the new ads are a big
mistake or not depends entirely on the data: when the sites roll the ads out
and do the analysis, they'll discover how the bottom line is affected.

In business, mistakes aren't generally a matter of opinion.

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access_denied
I'd rather be Apple than Microsoft, even if Microsoft makes so much more cash.
But that's my opinion.

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pmichaud
That's probably why you're not wealthy, which is fine, but it's something to
bear in mind.

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access_denied
What I meant is the following: Contrary to what you wrote, there is opinion in
business. There are strategic decisions to be made, which are affected by
political and cultural goals. And these are off course opinions. As an example
I wanted to have cited Apple against Microsoft. A culture that values making
money with the right product over making money with as much products as
possible.

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mattmaroon
Once again, the tech blog assumes everyone outside its own industry is stupid.
My guess is every one of those sites a/b tested those ads to see if they lead
to significant drops in user retention, and found that the extra eCPM grossly
outweighed that.

Of course, I'm assuming they're not stupid and know about basic split testing.
But the people running New York Times are probably not as smart as Robin
Wauters, who is making $10 an hour blogging in his underwear.

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holaberlin
_Robin Wauters, who is making $10 an hour blogging in his underwear_

I'm not sure what kind of point you're trying to make with a bitchy statement
like that. Are you saying he makes a lot of money for a blogger or more than
he should for someone who writes in his briefs? Also, has he in fact admitted
to working in his underwear or are you just trying to smear him? Perhaps it's
just a popular sport around here to make ad hominem attacks on Techcrunch
writers behind their backs.

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jrockway
Yeah, make ads more annoying so that even Joe Average installs Adblock. Great
plan.

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seldo
Six months from now, TechCrunch will quietly start running XXL boxes instead
of the dual-skyscrapers it's running now, and we can all move on.

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ojbyrne
It's kind of ironic that in the overlaid page, there's two skyscraper ads side
by side right above the "fixed panel" and they take up the same space as it
does.

I've seen the "pushdown" and find it's a great cue for taking a break from the
computer.

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jonknee
Humorously TechCrunch has a 300px wide ad sidebar on its pages.

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qeorge
I've been seeing more large, interstitial display ads on Forbes.com et all
recently, and I think they are more promising than these formats.

I don't mind ads, but I don't like it when they're injected into the content
so awkwardly that they detract from the experience. For example, I don't mind
Hulu's full-screen ads, but YouTube's smaller overlays drive me crazy.

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v2interactive
And they neglect the fact that not everybody has wide display or high
resolutions. From my google analytics, i still see people using 800x600. Wow.

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tialys
Anecdotally, the place I work has people with wide screen, 19inch monitors
that insist on using them at 800x600. It looks awful, but they're used to it
being huge, and they refuse to change.

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tpyo
I've seen a few people like that before myself. I think that at least some of
them know they can increase the resolution, and they try it, but they switch
back before their eyes can adjust.

