About advertising on MacDailyNews (request for feedback)

We are trying out some new forms of advertising, as you may have noticed. The latest is “IntelliTXT” which we started testing yesterday evening. A user must mouse-over an IntelliTXT word (green, double underlined) to view an advertisement, which makes IntelliTXT is a 100% user-driven form of advertising. We like ads that the user can control. IntelliTXT works in real-time and is the last piece to load on page. IntelliTXT comes into play long after the article has been written and posted to the website.

Our interstitial test went well, but based upon reader feedback, we decided not to utilize that form of advertising. We are looking for a form of advertising that can offset the revenue from other forms of current advertising that we wish to discontinue.

Thank you for your patience while we test out these ads and thank you for patronizing our sponsors without whom we would not be here today.

Please let us know what you think of the IntelliTXT ads below.

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117 Comments

  1. MDN – For what it’s worth, I personally do not mind the IntelliTXT ads. However, if most people find them annoying, then you are doing the right thing in trying to find other ways of advertising to support your (and our ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />) site.

    My biggest annoyance are pop-ups, pop-unders, whatever they are called. Unfortunately not all of us work for enlightened employeers.

    Thank you for listening to what your readers have to say. You guys / gals are doing a great job!!!

    Thanks again.

    Peace.

  2. For the record:

    Most annoying ads:
    Pop-up/pop-under ads
    Blinking ads/ads with lots of annoying animation
    Ads that pull you to a field in the ad to fill something in (had a few last week)
    Ads for Lamisil (didn’t see them, but “ewww” is right)

    Best kind of ads:
    IntelliTXT ads
    Sidebar ads that don’t get in the way
    Ads with sexy women

  3. Much prefer these to the pop-unders – some of which can’t even be closed from the taskbar (Have to use a PC at work).

    In that situation, I have to force-quit the app to get rid of the ad without clicking on it.

  4. Intellitext ads don’t bother me at all. I think that they are a welcomed alternative to the screen clutter and visual distraction that other publicity schemes entail.

    I’ve seen lots of complaints about them from people who can’t seem to read without pointing at the words (a process which they might not realize is slowing down their reading speed and making the text’s meaning harder to grasp because of that slow down).

    Depending on how the publicity is paid for (based on clicks or based on valid leads), this ad scheme could be defeating itself or it could work quite well. If valid leads are sought, then the scheme works well for the above average reader who will make a voluntary jump to the proposed ad but the average readers will be the more likely to click on these links and, unless the ad is aimed at naive buyers, all these clicks are just gonna be useless noise to the merchant. (but that may also be acceptable if the avalanche of clicks also includes the valid leads).
    If, on the other hand, the objective is simply to generate as many “clicks” as possible, then the intellitext approach will work very well. Discriminating people (who will also be the ones who know how to read) will not be bothered and the grade 3 readers will be drawned to (and perhaps annoyed by) the intellitext links.
    Being in the former category, and not caring much for the “annoyed”, I definitely approve of intellitext ads especially if they are used “instead” of the other forms of publicity.

  5. I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “interstitial” ads. Whatever they are, they are fine by me. By that, I was OK with the site as it existed before the IntelliTXT ads.

    I DO NOT like the IntelliTXT ads at all! They are just too “in your face”. They dedtract from reading the article. They pop up if you accidently mouse over them. And what’s with the Dell popup ads? Like anyone here gives a rats ass for Dell?

    The PayPal link is OK.

    MDN, lose the InelliTXT ads. What you had before was good! Keep the PayPal link.

    Just my 2¢.

  6. I love MDN. It makes my day at work go by quicker.

    As far as the advertising goes, I dont mind the regular old fashion banner ads. If you have to have the intelli ads, just make it only one underline not two.

    Please als leave you donat button somewhere on the site that I can easily find..

  7. Just the fact that MDN cares enough to ask for our feedback earns brownie points in my book.

    The most annoying advertisements are pop ups and click throughs. Anything else is fair game.

    IntelliTXT ads are fine.

  8. A few underlined words don’t hurt me and you don’t place ads in the middle of the text as others do and I havn’t got any pop ups or unders lately, either. I got the pop up blocker on but there was an annoying pop under i remember. Glad you got rid of it.

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