Loathing for In-text Amazon Ads

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   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   I keep wanting to update pages that happen to have Amazon ads but find it very hard work.
   
   As soon as I see a page where editors have added intext links, my heart sinks. Pages with these kinds of links can only ever be seen as infomercials. I avoid them when I am browsing, clicking away immediately.
   
   The Amazon capsules have disadvantages (most notably they bring unwanted, keyword heavy, duplicate content onto the page) but at least they provide a clear separation between the text and the ads.
   
   You can write an honest, information-rich page and then provide useful ads.
   
   Anyway, that is my gripe for the day -- profound loathing of intext ads.

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      viryaboposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Funny thing in my case.
      I never make Amazon sales with the capsules, okay, maybe about half a dozen a year. However, after updating my hubs and replacing capsules with Amazon in-text links, I've started to make sales - roughly 5 a week!
      Touch wood.

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, I'm not a big fan of in-text ads. In fact, Adsense has a rule that ads cannot look like they are part of content.

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         The team has stated that their research shows that in text Adsense ads do well.  I generally use a combination of the two if I want to place several ads on a hub so the article doesn't look so spammy.  Sales are brisk!

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            NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Well, if it works I'm all for it.

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   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   I haven't seen any reference to data suggesting that in-text ads do well, but I will take your word for it. I do see poorer read times on pages that carry them. I suspect in-text ads are alienating at least part of the population (though there is not enough data to reach a serious conclusion).
   
   I suppose for me there are two, more or less, separate issues:
   
   I really do try to write articles that serve the reader. Maybe I'm deluding myself since any page of of mine that contains Amazon ads was built to be monetized by Amazon ads. But I am certainly not setting out to sell somebody something. I am trying to provide info for people interested in buying stuff. I don't want the page to look and feel like an infomercial.
   
   I would never choose to use in-text ads. So every single one is an alien intrusion on my page. And we are warned that changing Amazon ads can lead to unpublishing. So those aliens are dangerous.
   
   Bottom line: I want to feel OK about working on a page.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I totally agree.  I'm not fond of them, either, but can only go with what I've been told.  I'm certainly no expert when it comes to ads.
      
      Only a few of my posts even carry ads, but the ones that do bring in a fair amount of money most months.  I never write to sell, but when things do sell, the extra income is very nice to have...especially now since I've switched to the Adsense model!

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