Choose your own Ad-venture (Saturated Market)

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Choose your own Ad-venture

Strategy When I did seminars on planning websites for entrepreneurs, one of the most common questions I would get was whether there were less expensive or free options for web hosting. My answer would be that there is no shortage of free hosting out there, but that it comes with limitations, and that it does have to be paid for by something: advertising. When you use a free website host, they will pay for their service by putting ads on your site that they have selected. This is less of a problem for personal sites, which are more often the clients of these companies. However, there remain drawbacks, chief amongst them is the lack of control.

I have no problem with advertising. As a marketing professional, that goes without saying. But as a consumer, I don't mind having my products and services subsidized. Sometimes the commercial is even clever (the first few times). Though I'm still not signing on with the over-use of them, a guilty pleasure of sports; I don't want to sit through a commercial break, come back for a play then return to commercials (especially the same commercials I just saw).

But when you use ads yourself to pay for something, it's so important to be in control of what shows up. Rather, you need a veto. I've used many services that required me to put up with ads for things I don't care about. My old webcomic was paid for by ads, often for other comics or the service that hosted me. That was cool. My facebook is paid for by ads that insist I'll know who has a crush on me if I click and sign up for their subscription service (I wasn't aware those were still around). That was cool, if only because I got good at ignoring them. And my free, less entertaining personal blog used ads to buy me more services from the site.

But then you start running into problems with content, and this is something I see with using Google ads. Now, as I said, my personal blog used ads to increase the services open to me. That didn't bother me, because I didn't pay much attention to them. While they were usually something random, they also gave me ads relating to interests of mine that I specifically stated when I signed up. And since it was powered by Google ads, there were also many cases where it would look at the content I was putting up, and deliver things based on keywords.

This is alright (albeit creepy) when they hit the mark. Ads about Bruce Springsteen after I write about an album or show? Great! Ads about tv shows I watch? That's fine too! This is advertising I can live with.

However, it then picked up on some remarks I'd made regarding a controversial political issue, and decided to put up an ad. For the other side. And I'd like to point out that this is an issue where the other side (for both sides, that is) isn't just an opposing viewpoint, but is HIGHLY offensive. I find those who don't agree with that to be offensive, and they think the same of me. So needless to say, I was more than a little upset.

Where am I going with this? There were consequences, minor though they may have been. I lowered my account back to free, but without ads. And spread some of the hate to some like-minded associates. On the whole, was that a big dent for the hosting company? Probably not. But that doesn't mean the same can't happen to others.

If you're going to use ad revenue to power your site, you have be careful. You've worked hard to understand your market or your readers; you should have a decent idea of what they want to see. So turning things over to someone who might make a massive error in judgement is a good way to lose customers/subscribers.

Take control. It's your site, so take care of it.

Until next time,