Advertising Industry
There's apparently a HOT DEBATE about the fact that Mozilla allows software that blocks ads. Well, web advertisers, here's some advice.
1. Hire some graphic designers to design your ads. Don't just throw anything together and assume it's good enough. Simple stationary ads with eye-catching (But not BLINDING) colours are the best way to go.
2. Don't assume that because your animated gif ad rapidly blinks, it's more eye-catching. It's not. It's actually much more annoying, and is they key reason I use ABP. They're also a medical hazard for people prone to seizures.
3. For the love of GOD, stop using flash to create your ads. It slows down computers significantly, and makes page load times unbearable on older machines that can't handle the Flash software. Flash has a time and a place - and that time and place is 'Not-Shoved-Down-Peoples'-Throats.' Reason #2 for blocking ads.
4. The ads that you accidentally roll over and then they suddenly TAKE OVER THE WEB PAGE AAAAAH. Especially the ones without 'close' buttons, that you have to watch all the way through. Stop that.
5. Ads with sound. WTF.
6. You need to realise that seeing an ad on the web is not the same as watching an ad on TV. The flashier your ad is, the more likely I'm going to assume that clicking on it will give my computer a horrible virus. The less professional your ads are, the more I'm going to assume that you don't have the money to hire a graphic designer, and are going to steal my credit card information as soon as I click on your information-stealing waste of a website. It's NOT OKAY to take a small picture, make it larger, and then paste it on a lime green background. That looks AWFUL. Anyway, my point is, watching ads on TV isn't going to give my TV a virus. So take that into consideration.
7. Pop-up ads. Pop-up ads have become synonymous with 'virus.' They essentially hijack your browser and instruct it to open a new window. Uncool.
8. Try tailoring ads to peoples' websites. Make ads in several different colours, and allow people to pick a theme. Make them smaller, neat, and interesting. When I see an ad that doesn't annoy me, I click on it out of respect for whomever designed the ad. Your bid for customers doesn't have to take up an entire page in order to impress me. I'll see it if it interests me.
This goes back to the days of xoom.com. I don't know if anyone remembers the days of free web hosting with unlimited space, but my first website was hosted there. Because of that, I started dabbling in coding and learned how to shut off xoom's annoying frame ad that would not only take up a good 1/3 of the top of all my web pages, but would nest itself into other pages when links were clicked. People who were caught doing this were suspended. I was never caught. Unfortunately, xoom discontinued its services without warning.
Extra note to tursi: Artwork for CH is almost done. I need to colour the last panel.
1. Hire some graphic designers to design your ads. Don't just throw anything together and assume it's good enough. Simple stationary ads with eye-catching (But not BLINDING) colours are the best way to go.
2. Don't assume that because your animated gif ad rapidly blinks, it's more eye-catching. It's not. It's actually much more annoying, and is they key reason I use ABP. They're also a medical hazard for people prone to seizures.
3. For the love of GOD, stop using flash to create your ads. It slows down computers significantly, and makes page load times unbearable on older machines that can't handle the Flash software. Flash has a time and a place - and that time and place is 'Not-Shoved-Down-Peoples'-Throats.' Reason #2 for blocking ads.
4. The ads that you accidentally roll over and then they suddenly TAKE OVER THE WEB PAGE AAAAAH. Especially the ones without 'close' buttons, that you have to watch all the way through. Stop that.
5. Ads with sound. WTF.
6. You need to realise that seeing an ad on the web is not the same as watching an ad on TV. The flashier your ad is, the more likely I'm going to assume that clicking on it will give my computer a horrible virus. The less professional your ads are, the more I'm going to assume that you don't have the money to hire a graphic designer, and are going to steal my credit card information as soon as I click on your information-stealing waste of a website. It's NOT OKAY to take a small picture, make it larger, and then paste it on a lime green background. That looks AWFUL. Anyway, my point is, watching ads on TV isn't going to give my TV a virus. So take that into consideration.
7. Pop-up ads. Pop-up ads have become synonymous with 'virus.' They essentially hijack your browser and instruct it to open a new window. Uncool.
8. Try tailoring ads to peoples' websites. Make ads in several different colours, and allow people to pick a theme. Make them smaller, neat, and interesting. When I see an ad that doesn't annoy me, I click on it out of respect for whomever designed the ad. Your bid for customers doesn't have to take up an entire page in order to impress me. I'll see it if it interests me.
This goes back to the days of xoom.com. I don't know if anyone remembers the days of free web hosting with unlimited space, but my first website was hosted there. Because of that, I started dabbling in coding and learned how to shut off xoom's annoying frame ad that would not only take up a good 1/3 of the top of all my web pages, but would nest itself into other pages when links were clicked. People who were caught doing this were suspended. I was never caught. Unfortunately, xoom discontinued its services without warning.
Extra note to tursi: Artwork for CH is almost done. I need to colour the last panel.