Productivity Portfolio

This is an area that’s bugged me for a long time. How do you monetize a site in a way that works for the reader and publisher? I’ve tried a number of systems and I just don’t like the trade-offs. Here are some issues you’ve probably witnessed:

• Poor response time as the pages need to wait for third party systems
• Ad sizes that are too big or too small for the page
• Ads that have grainy pictures
• Ads that have nothing to do with this site’s content
• Ads that are obsolete (Why would you buy a 2005 calendar in 2007?)
• Ads that distract the reader

I have a whole other list of annoyances that I see as a publisher. I won’t bore you.

What it boils down to is I don’t have enough control or time to get these systems to match the site or audience to the degree I think we need. Yes, I’ve tried tweaks and templates. This doesn’t mean I’m against advertising, far from it. It’s just most of these systems aren’t adding value for you. They’re noise.

Many of my webmaster friends think I’m crazy to do this. Some suggest I add more ads. They say users don’t care about aesthetics and response time if the content is good. Maybe their readers don’t or maybe they don’t, but I do.

I want a simpler solution. One solution would be to secure sponsorship, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. For starters, it would take a chunk of my time that is better spent researching and writing. Of course, there’s the other issue that I dislike selling. I suppose I could get someone to do this on commission. I could go back to the subscription model and have a free version of the site and a paid version with restricted content. The problem there is many people disliked having to log in to get the additional content.

I think a better solution is to have you, the reader, participate in this experiment. I’ve started removing ad code from the site. This is easier said than done, as I need to touch several hundred pages. I’ve also put up an optional $ 2 contribute button.

If you think I’m taking the right direction AND you value the content, please consider clicking this button. It will help defray the cost of this site. I’m not going to use one of those generic donate buttons where people worry about the amount. I want something simple and affordable.

You’re also welcome to send me email with your opinion. Just use the Contact Us link at the top. If you use this form, please check the box to email yourself a copy. Unfortunately, I had a half dozen email answers bounce back last week either because people used a wrong email or their email boxes were full.

Update Feb 3, 2007: OK, the consensus was you prefer the ads on the side rather than embedded in the story. I think I've pulled all the code out but if you see some stragglers, let me know. One of the things I realized from this exercise was embedding the code into each story created its own problems. Instead of removing it on an article by article basis, I exported the mySQL table structure and data to a file and then removed the necessary strings using a text editor. I then dropped the original table and imported the new one into the database. My guess is this wasn't the cleanest way to do this task, but I'm not a database administrator.