Ads

I am happy to announce that the candler blog is now a part of the InfluAds advertising network. You may have gotten the impression that I hate ads when I took Hulu to task recently, but that’s not the case. I hate crappy content, and ads are undeniably content.

When I started the candler blog back in 2009, I signed up for Google Adsense. I had zero control over what which ad appeared on my site and limited options to determine what it looked like. For most of the time I had a Google Adsense ad on my site, it actually didn’t fit in my sidebar, but I left there because, hey, I needed the money.

Only I never got a check from Google. The rates Google pays make it difficult for a small site to reach the minimum for them to cut a check. You can game the system by covering your site in ads but that’s not why I started doing this. Fed up, I killed the ad.

InfluAds is different. They call themselves “The Quality-Only Advertising Network” and, so far, I think that’s a pretty apt description. It’s simple: one good-looking ad per page. No obtrusive banners, no whack-a-mole animation, no “stay at home mom discovers weight loss secret” bullshit. They even give me some design control over the ad. Everything but the graphic itself can be modified with CSS, so I can make the ad look the way I want it to. It is my site, after all.

And that’s it. Editorially, nothing is changing around here. The only thing the advertisers want me to do is to make the best site I can. As I’ve said before, I hope I’m up to it.