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Much Ado About Ads
November 9th, 2009Reader Jennette wrote in last week about the weight loss ads that run on our site and RSS feed from time to time. She felt that they were ugly and offensive and I agree with her one hundred percent.
A little background about advertising on T&T, with the exception of sponsorships all ads are run through Google AdSense. It’s not the greatest, but it’s the only ad network we’ve been able to get into and it pays for the hosting. AdSense is supposed to deliver relevant ads based on the content of your site but as you can see we don’t post about weight loss or back surgery yet we get ads for them. You can block sites you don’t want to advertise, but honestly between a full time job, Twig & Thistle, Etsy orders, the hubby and Tula, micromanaging AdSense has been pretty low on my list of priorities.
But the last thing I want when someone visits Twig & Thistle is to be confronted with ads preying on ones insecurities. I had my hubby look into it and as of last week we’re trying to filter out all the weight loss / get rich / diet suplement ads from our site and we’re going to start manually approving targeted ads before they go up on the site.
I spend a lot of time on Twig & Thistle and I strive to make it a place I’m proud of and one people can enjoy. I always appreciate it when someone takes the time to tell me how I can make their experience better. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve T&T? Are there features you’d like to see or kinds of posts you want more of? Just leave you suggestions in the comments or drop us a line through the contact page!
November 9th, 2009 at 5:19 am
I think it’s great that you put so much time and effort into making T&T a nice site to visit. The fact that you’re willing to do these things to create the best possible atmosphere for your readers is really admirable. Good on you.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am
i think your site is just lovely. i have never noticed (nor been offended by) such ads. but i have quite a filter for such things. if i’m watching the tv i press the mute button during commercials, haha! i love the projects you post. for instance your sparklers from your wedding was one of my favorite ideas ever. i’m always looking for simple projects to do and be inspired by. and you’re always so generous with the freebies! like the brownie bag and apple pie box design downloads and the mother’s day card. i am so excited whenever you post such things… they are such a treat! you seem like such a wonderful person to share such things with all of us and i’m always looking forward to more :O)
November 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
why ads at all? do you even make money off of them to make them worth it?
November 10th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Good on you for your honesty, efforts and willingness to listen.. but realistically those ads are EVERYWHERE… facebook is FULL of them.. as are most blog. If you have ads.. you have ads. If that pays for it.. and makes it worthwhile for you i would be happy to see whatever it is …. as long as i can see the posts. I dont care for the ads and pretty sure i just block them out. They MUST work or the companies would run alternatives.. but they are so DONE.
Keep up your creativity and passion. I appreciate your hard work!