Thoughts on Ficlets Ads

Posted by Scalzi about 1 year ago | Permalink | Comments (7)

As Kevin noted yesterday, we here at Ficlets finally got around to turning on ads on certain parts of the site, including here at the blog. So when you read the blog, either off its front page or off the page of an individual entry, you’ll get served some ads on the side, that are more or less relevant to the blog entry (go to my post on fonts, for example, and you’ll see a bunch of font ads).

How do I feel about that ads? Well, I feel fine about them. It should come as no surprise that America Online will make an effort to monetize the sites it owns, and Ficlets is one of those sites. Also, you know, I like to get paid for my work here – you know, to help pay for that mortgage I’ve got going – and the ads will help with that. Kevin has noted that we’re doing what we can here at Ficlets to keep the ads both tasteful and appropriately placed, which is something I appreciate both as someone who works here in Ficlets-land, and as someone who enjoys reading the site for fun.

One thing I should note is that the ads that run with the entries are not selected by me (I imagine they are placed in some automatic fashion), so it could be that occasionally you’ll see an ad placement that is at odds with the content of the entry, or perhaps might be an ironic counterpoint to something I’ve written. My response to this is: Hey, it happens. Also, of course, do exercise due diligence when considering products and services on offer, as you would with any advertiser anywhere.

That said, if you find an interesting ad over there on the side, click on through and take a look at the folks who are commercially supporting Ficlets. I’ve clicked through to look at some of the font sites, myself. Because I do love a good font.

Comments

  1. khepa's Buddy Iconkhepa

    Posted about 1 year ago

    So far the ads are not that intrusive, I don’t mind. To be honest, I don’t like the idea of America Online behind it, but I am happy that Ficlets is using Creative Commons. If you can keep that spirit alive, I have no problems with the ads.

  2. TD Fiction's Buddy IconTD Fiction

    Posted about 1 year ago

    John – I only have problems with ads that are unrelated. What does “mortgage marketing” have to do with your post above or anything else on the page? Nothing. Zlich. Nadda.

    AOL should have the technology to serve contextual ads, if they don’t [cough, cough] Google can do that.

    Don’t cheapen the site by showing totally unrelated advertising.

  3. Scalzi's Buddy IconScalzi

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Well, in fact, one of the tags for the entry is “my mortgage,” so I imagine the ads are keying off of that. The thing to blame here is not the ad server but me, for putting “mortgage” in the article tags.

  4. TD Fiction's Buddy IconTD Fiction

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Ok, here’s more: Pay Per Click advertising, Direct Response Ratio … the ads on the right are terribly targeted to this post and the site. Those aren’t your tags, John. (ok, “ads” is in your tags). If one tag is throwing a wrench in the ad engine it isn’t you, it’s the ad server.

    Instead why aren’t they trying to sell us book-related stuff? Ads for e-magazines or books.

    We expected to see AOL add advertising but I’m suggesting it needs to be much, much better targeted, contextual advertising than what’s showing on this very page.

  5. Scalzi's Buddy IconScalzi

    Posted about 1 year ago

    Eh. I don’t doubt they’ll fine tune it over time.

  6. Kevin Lawver's Buddy IconKevin Lawver

    Posted about 1 year ago

    The ad system uses the tags on blog entries as “hints”, and since “mortgage” (which we keep adding to the page as we talk about it) is a very valuable term, it finds lots of ads for it. No ad system is perfect, and if you look carefully, we are using ads from the Almighty Google at the moment.

  7. Saint Chuck's Buddy IconSaint Chuck

    Posted about 1 year ago

    As long as this doesn’t become and enormous virtual billboard, I’m okay-ish with it. I don’t really enjoy the fact that companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars daily advertisting, when that money could be spent elsewhere…Like maybe creating writing scholarships for underpriveleged kids…