What do you think?

cj · 01-14-2004

Carrie, that's the point i was trying to think of - skinning doesn't make normal banners any less effective because they have sucked ass so badly for so long that it couldn't make it worse.

yes the overlay ads are annoying but they are still so new that i find myself getting excited and calling everyone in the office over when i see a new one. but that's just me ;-)))

this is nothing to do with webmasters but i'm going to go on a tangent ... sorry ;-)

we've done a lot of testing of different types of ads on sites & consoles, mostly with mainstream or adult cross over traffic. we've been working on a new version of Red Hot Greetings for ages - the site is purely for emails & advertising campaigns & site content, so it wasn't really designed to get a lot of traffic ...

BUT ... end of November we put up a really basic overlay ad (http://www.redhotgreetings.com) to advertise the launch of the beta version - it only stays there for a few seconds so you don't get long to click on it ... in less than 2 months there's 100 registered users for the new section, on a site that gets less than 1000 uniques per day to the front page.

another ad we did which had amazing results (on our women's traffic) was for todd's naughty glass site ... the click through rate was something like 20-25% on this console, but conversions to sales were practically nothing because the ad looks way prettier & makes the toys look more valuable than the site - the sale is lost because of this imho.

http://exit.purve.com/naughtyglass.html

webmasters are not much different to surfers - we are all people, its just the subject that changes and we are slightly more technically capable (and i say SLIGHTLY with all seriousness!) ...

this banner ad for purve sites has a consistent 15% click thru rate ...

on this page with 2 other similar banners http://exit.purve.com/3featured.html

i like that webmaster advertising is finally getting more clever and skinning is just 1 step towards dynamic advertising overall ... it can only be good in the long run!

01-14-2004	#18
cj Members Want to see your own Advertising Here! Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Down Under Posts: 5,202	Carrie, that's the point i was trying to think of - skinning doesn't make normal banners any less effective because they have sucked ass so badly for so long that it couldn't make it worse. yes the overlay ads are annoying but they are still so new that i find myself getting excited and calling everyone in the office over when i see a new one. but that's just me ;-))) this is nothing to do with webmasters but i'm going to go on a tangent ... sorry ;-) we've done a lot of testing of different types of ads on sites & consoles, mostly with mainstream or adult cross over traffic. we've been working on a new version of Red Hot Greetings for ages - the site is purely for emails & advertising campaigns & site content, so it wasn't really designed to get a lot of traffic ... BUT ... end of November we put up a really basic overlay ad (http://www.redhotgreetings.com) to advertise the launch of the beta version - it only stays there for a few seconds so you don't get long to click on it ... in less than 2 months there's 100 registered users for the new section, on a site that gets less than 1000 uniques per day to the front page. another ad we did which had amazing results (on our women's traffic) was for todd's naughty glass site ... the click through rate was something like 20-25% on this console, but conversions to sales were practically nothing because the ad looks way prettier & makes the toys look more valuable than the site - the sale is lost because of this imho. http://exit.purve.com/naughtyglass.html webmasters are not much different to surfers - we are all people, its just the subject that changes and we are slightly more technically capable (and i say SLIGHTLY with all seriousness!) ... this banner ad for purve sites has a consistent 15% click thru rate ... on this page with 2 other similar banners http://exit.purve.com/3featured.html i like that webmaster advertising is finally getting more clever and skinning is just 1 step towards dynamic advertising overall ... it can only be good in the long run!