Various thoughts

Posted Sep 4, 2007 9:26 UTC (Tue) by yodermk (subscriber, #3803)
Parent article: LWN advertising update

I'd agree with most that in-text ads make LWN look "cheaper". Plus, despite trying, they are almost always irrelevant. For example, the "developers" link in the kernel documentation story goes to Solaris ... what the?

If you have to keep them, could they go away *immediately* upon mousing out of the word, instead of about 3 seconds later?

What about a Classifieds section? My initial thoughts on how it could work:
* Make it monthly, like a magazine. All ads would display for a month.
* Divide it into categories, each of which is a page of ads.
* Some kind of auction system for top placement in the category?
I usually read classifieds sections of magazines, they can be interesting. I bet it could pull in several hundred dollars a month.

Also, what exactly is wrong with large static image ads? No one objects to full page magazine ads. I could live with maybe one large image per article, perhaps between the article and comments. If they were from Linux-related companies, I would be interested in seeing them.

Various thoughts

Posted Sep 4, 2007 19:25 UTC (Tue) by riel (subscriber, #3142) [Link]

I think Google text ads between the article and the comments would be quite acceptable, as well as effective.

If somebody wants to read the comments, chances are they simply want to read more about the same subject. Google ads (and/or link units) can help the reader get that content, plus there should be some separation between the article and the comments anyway.

A simple text ad box with two (or three?) text ads side by side, causing no more than 5-6 lines of separation between the article and the comments.

To other LWN readers: if this kind of ad placement annoys you, please speak up now. If you like the idea, please speak up too - LWN could probably use the money generated by people looking for related content once they reach the end of the article :)