When I go to most (ok all..) web sites the ads are blocked because they are just a waste of space, bandwidth, and sometimes audio. Loading your page in IE to actually view the ads I see something for MarketWatch, NEC Business Advantage, some Microsoft ERP system, and then that lovely box of ‘sponsored links’ let’s check out those gems: Online Radio Advertising, Advertising that Works, SEO by Lars, and then Mineral Foundation Makeup, yes just what I needed! Here at “All Things Digital” I can magically get a lazy stock portfolio, a business credit card, some ERP system that will do something, great sources of how to advertise, this Lars guy sounds like a pro, and some foundation make up for my skin tone. Well beyond 3 strikes and exactly why I choose to browse with these blocked. And yet its amazing that loading that in IE they paid for those completely irrelavent placements.

Who does get my clicks? Content related, mostly review sites. If I go to a digital camera site, a laptop site, a gadget site, or just a site that reviews another site, here I may very well end up on clicking a link that generates revenue for someone. This happens because it is relevant, I’m interested in it. This FLipAd or whatever company is not putting in ads for Online Radio Advertising or ERP software, it is catering to the content, catering to what people want to know about who come to a fashion site, namely fashion. My wife loves fashion, she likes to know who did what dress what neckless or blah blah. This lets he click on the dress the necklace the shoes etc.

This company gets it. Maybe I’ll see ads again someday when I dont even realize they are ads. Until then, sorry Online Radio Advertising sponsored link, you are blocked!

Problem with a lot of this stuff isn’t JUST that it isn’t interesting, but that it doesn’t work.

When people used to call me and say their PC has suddenly gotten slow, unresponsive and there is a flurry of pop-up windows they are having to close, I used to tell them they shouldn’t be visiting all those shady sites that host malware. Now I advise them to try changing the websites they use for their daily news.

Newspapers and magazines attempt to get our attention either between articles, or right in the middle of them. TV does the same. But we can easily flip past a magazine or Newspaper ad, and TV viewers have long ago learned how to time their bathroom visits.

Web ads are by contrast often unwelcome, and unavoidable.

Ads in a print publication are a PART of the publication, right there on the same paper in the same format (except for those annoying postcards that fall out of magazines). TV ads are either “broadcast” along with the program content either by the local station, Cable company, or network.

If TV ads were done like web ads it would go like this: You’re watching some old episode of “Friends”, the network breaks for ads from a razor blade company. Your screen goes black while the network hardware tries to contact the ad provider, who has just suffered a power outage. Waiting for the signal that the ad is complete, the network stays off the air for the rest of the night. People at home have long since changed the channel.

The Internet has indeed given publishers and advertisers the opportunity to do so much more, but in misusing the technology they have in fact produced so much less.