Comment by RobbieStats | Hacker News Reader

Comment by RobbieStats | Hacker News Reader

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> Let's agree to disagree instead :) I do, lots of people do. > They wouldn't click if they didn't find them useful. If > they don't click, you're doing it wrong.

You are saying people like seeing ads?? They click on them because they are in front them, not because they necessarily like seeing them. Fundamentally, I believe ads hurt the overall user experience. You are saying it helps? Or keeps it on par with a non-ad experience? Guess we would have to disagree with that.

> This is also not a "truth". It completely depends on > your sector/niche, and how you arrange the ads. I run a > freestuff/competition site that made 4 figures a month > from advertising and doesn't even register on > alexa/quantcast/compete. It's traffic is tiny - but it's > the monetizable type of traffic.

You actually just agreed with my point, but I think we differ on scale. I'm looking for more than 4 figures / month and not willing to put ads all over the site to get "just" that.

Yes, I like seeing relevant useful information, which ads are when presented correctly.

>> "They click on them because they are in front them, not because they necessarily like seeing them."

You really credit your users with that much intelligence eh? That given a link, they'll click it?

This is not the formula:

* Create something * slap on adsense * profit!

It's about seeing where advertising may be useful for the user. For example, say you had a 'betting odds' page showing some stats on what odds are available, it'd make obvious sense to have some sponsored links to betting sites if the user wants to place a bet. That is a net win for the user, you, and the betting site - look at expedia etc. Advertising done right is useful for all parties. Done wrong, it's useless for all parties.

4 figures a month from negligible traffic was my point. Larger sites are obviously making a lot more. Scaling with advertising is easy enough if you can grow the traffic.

I'm not arguing with your reasons, I'm just saying to others, don't believe every startups experience of advertising is the same.

Fair enough. I should talk to you whenever I think about putting ads back on StatSheet :-)

Offtopic, But I would like to know your views about monetizing a site oriented towards tech crowd. Many such sites find monetizing difficult because apparently the more tech savy you are the less you click on ads.

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