Let me take a little time out for a rant.Yesterday, while reading another entertaining post by Daffodil Planter, I noticed she had a link to a gardening blogger in New Zealand. I clicked the link to find that, regretfully, that particular blog had not only a small bar of text ads descretely hidden somewhere on the page, but two large bars, horizontal and vertical, with FULL COLOR PICTURES urging me to OBEY THIS RULE.
Sort of like a blog with band aids.
As part of my comment to the (really very funny) post about the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, I went to Gardenrant to search for a chicken video Amy had posted a while ago.
And there it was again: I CURED MY WRINKLES.
Now, usually, I don't mind the Google ads I see on garden sites and garden blogs. After all, they are targeted ads, and most of the text ads are links to garden tools, places to buy plants, and the odd "Christian Mom makes 5K/M". But who decided that the readers of garden sites and blogs desparate to fight their wrinkles? Aren't we used to watch things blossom and deteriorate? Look at the Dowager Duchess, she seems quite happy to no longer be a spring chicken.So, please, whoever decides on target audiences over there at Google: Gardeners are interested in gardening. Please send us some before and after pictures of tomatoes. And I'm really not interested in OBEYING THIS RULE, whatever it is.
Comments
I posted about a mountain lion "getting his teeth into" a Blotanical discussion and was baffled when there was a huge photo ad about tooth whitening on my site! I quickly switched to text only ads.
Thanks for the link love TM, and I agree, hats (tiaras?) off to the Dowager Duchess.
I like the idea of before and after pictures of tomatoes.
I haven't done Google ads yet but am thinking about it for the new website I'm almost done developing (and will probably be seeing if the mice want to add any Cal natives content) so am paying more attention to how the ads wind up where they do. One thing I'm wondering about is political ads. In the week before the Prop 8 vote in California there was a barrage of vote yes ads on many sites, including garden blogs. It turned me off to the point of deciding to permanently reject those sites as this is one of the few political issues I feel strongly about. After I started seeing the ads everywhere, I concluded that the blog owners must not have okayed the ads.
Anyway, sorry for the long comment, but your post reminded me that I'm wondering how political ads work.
It's more a sign that us garden bloggers are naive when it comes to SEO and using good keywords than that our target markets are old.
If you don't know what SEO is and how to target keywords, a quick google search should enlighten. I just use text ads and ads from affiliate networks and products to be sure I am choosing ones that are helpful and related to my audience.
That's the point, right? Connecting people who care about gardening with people who serve our needs.
its almost as bad as the time i posted about our poppies and got a list of text ads about detox facilities. hah.
Using the Competitive Ad Filter will keep these ads from showing up again - with one big hang up - these are spammer's ads and they change URLs faster than you can filter them (Google does shut them down when reported - but as I said they keep flooding the AdWords program)
Right now it's almost a losing battle but I've managed pretty much to keep them off my site. If one does appear it's soon gone. ( from having only a couple ads filtered in a year - since November I've put nearly 200 in my filter and only have a couple spaces left before I hit the wall)
I personally have not had that much of a problem except on my Looney Tunes pages - not many ads for that subject. I have a large body of specific - focused content on my site and the Google AdBot has pretty much figured out what's relevant to my site / blog.
As Genevieve stated - use text only ads to help reduce the number of these junk ads since image ads are used most often by the spammers.
Not to say Google can't do better but some of the responsibility also lies with the blog owner. You need to Filter and Report bad ads. (see how often these ads show up with a "good, trusted URL' only to be taken to a spam/scam site.)
Sorry about the rambling - there's just too much to cover in a comment.
I see those faces every day and they irritate me.
Let's hope they realize this is evil, which is against the company motto.
I don't mind the ads on most blogs if they are discrete, and do not interfere with reading the blog. I actually click on one once in a while to help 'reward' the blogger for a post I really like, since the blogger makes a bit of money.
Last year, Google discontinued an ad type that allowed you to select the ads appearing on your site. Trouble was, a reader needed to order something from those sites in order for you to receive the commission.
I am seriously considering deleting my ads, since it will be another 10 years at this rate before I ever see a Google check for my ads, and since they annoy some readers. I refuse to make the ads a major feature on my blog layout.