This one is going to be quick - your blog ads piss me off. I know we all read feeds every day, but every once in a while (like everyone on Techmeme, I’ll assume), we end up reading blogs in our browsers (you know, like in the old days) - and you know when that happens, because your head explodes. Why does it explode, I hear you ask? Because you are spoon-fed ads all the time. Let’s look at a couple of examples of what I call “blog as chrismas tree” (I’m so ticked by this, I’m actually coining terms).

Engadget: In green, white space or elements that although can’t be necessarily called content, are okay (or useful) to have. In orange, pieces of layout that are mildly distracting. In red, elements that are just there to cause retinal pain or to make the user go away and never come back. Engadget, above, isn’t so bad - it actually comes out with about 50% content over the fold. Let’s look at someone else:

Born Rich: Don’t be fooled by the green, ladies and gents, you’re looking at 9% content, 91% advertising or white space. I don’t know if these people were actually “born rich” as the blog name implies, but they’re sure trying with all those ads. Seriously, if 10% of useful screen real estate above the fold is all I’m going to get, I’m getting the hell out.

The blog as christmas tree plague

Monetize, monetize, monetize. We all want it, we all need it. But people, we’re getting ridiculous here. We’re shoving ads in front of our users, when all they care about is the stuff we actually write about. If you really want to get people to visit your site, do think about how much of your page is useful.

Eh, I’m just having a bad monday here. Don’t mind the grumpiness.. And I usually don’t do this, but I’d appreciate the eyeballs on this matter, so if you’re keen, digg this.