Ad Blindness On Hub Pages?

1. 72

   jacharlessposted 12 years ago

   Maybe it is just myself, but noticing a lot of ads on Hubs.
   Just today alone, I counted FOUR ads on the TOP of the page, then three more, at the bottom.
   Seems a bit like Ad Blindness, yes/no? I feel the MAX volume of ads should be no more than three, maybe four total. Coupled with Amazon/eBay capsules pushes the advert elements to between eight & ten, respectively.
   
   James
   
   

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2. 78

   Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

   The main ad block I notice is the one in the body text. It's probably very effective.
   
   I didn't really like that one when I started on Hubpages.
   
   Unfortunately, ads are a fact of life on the post-1995 web. On the one hand, they're annoying; on the other hand, they are a way for writers to get paid for their work. You will see more ads on (semi) reputable news sites like CNN as well, often disguising them as links to more news stories. And magazines have more ads than they did when we were younger.
   
   So you have to strike the balance you can stomach. It's a matter of personal taste vs. the unseemly reality of wanting to make money.
   
   My own blogs have a banner and one block in the sidebar at most, and they barely earn me any income at all. Hubpages has  more ads, and earns more. Squidoo has more ad blocks than Hubpages, and members there often use many more affiliate links, yet Google does not and has not penalized them, so they earn more still.
   
   Also, here's a good article from Danny Sullivan discussing how much advertising one can put on a page before Google starts marking a page down for excessive ads:
   http://searchengineland.com/too-many-ad … lgo-108613
   
   Interestingly, in the comments to that article, one person reported receiving a warning email from Google saying that their page needed to have a minimum of 30% of the page containing unique actual content as opposed to sidebar navigation and ads. That's not very much content!

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3. 72

   jacharlessposted 12 years ago

   Precisely,
   An average article/hub containing 800 words should set the advert ration to no more than four {1 ad per 200 words}, else blindness takes over. In this instance, the Title was distracted by the surrounding ad blocks at the beginning of the read. My eyes went crossed. lol.
   James.

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4. 78

   Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

   James, it looks like you were psychic! Google just rolled out another algorithm update, its Page Layout algorithm which attempts to filter out sites and pages with too much ad clutter at the top of the page.
   
   It unrolled today, so any traffic drops we've already seen are from other updates, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
   
   Since I publish on Squidoo, whose bright colors and aggressive ads are one of the reasons I publish on Hubpages (sooooooo much easier on the eyes!) I wonder if I'll take a traffic hit over there. Stay tuned!
   
   I hear where you're coming from, since I actually hate advertising blocks. But I can't get rid of them, because I'm trying to make a living solely through online income. My brain hurts!
   
   I guess that's the dilemma Hubpages is facing on a large scale. Especially when they get Google traffic drops, they need all that advertising to turn a profit and pay people's salaries.

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5. 72

   jacharlessposted 12 years ago

   lol. I dunno about psychic, maybe just tuned in to the SEO system a bit too much.
   Right, I had news BigG planned to alter their Page Layout crawl -which effects adverts, SERP, Previews, etc when they began pushing PageMap Schema over the older XML model. I suspect it is strongly motivated by iPad, Tablet and other Mobile elements. Oh the joy to be a programmer...
   
   I believe, but cannot confirm, HP's recent changes to their layout {profiles and hubs} was designed to foreshadow this or at least brace for it. Here's hoping.
   
   Rest Your Brain -or you might end up looking like me...
   James

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6. 50

   Ericdierkerposted 12 years ago

   Wow what a great discussion. I think I have been around this so long that I have tunnel vision and do not see ads.Or is that being narrow minded?? When I started around the internet the placement and creativity was key. I guess volume is the new old. Soon there will be sights with no commercials like pay per view TV.

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