Internet Advertising
We here at the California Golden Blogs started this blog because we are all obsessed with Cal sports, particularly Cal Football, and we needed an outlet for our obsession. We’re big-time fans, nothing more. We have no pretensions about being professional writers or journalists, and we certainly have no intention of trying to make a career out of blogging about Cal sports. We all have completely unrelated jobs, and this blog is something we do for fun because, well, we’re obsessed.
Thus, it came as rather a surprise to us when several companies, unsolicited, contacted us regarding advertising on our site. Apparently, we generate enough traffic that companies (mostly selling tickets to sporting events) would pay us to put ads on our site. Our first reaction was flattery; of course, we love having our egos stroked. Our second reaction, however, was a mild ‘no’; while getting money for doing this blogging schtick would be nice, we do rather value the clean look of the site, and after all, this site was never about making money. Besides, when split 4 ways, the money from the ads would hardly amount to buying us lunch once a week.
Then, we hit upon an idea that made ads a little more attractive: what if we took all the ad revenue and donated it to the Cal Athletic Department? After all, if we could blog about Cal Sports AND help out the stadium fund, we could kill two obsessions with one stone. Still, it would mean sacrificing the clean look of the site, ending up looking like any other ad-driven commercial sports website out there. Anyway, we thought we’d take a survey of our readers, see what you guys think, which is what this week’s poll (on the right sidebar) is about. Feel free to leave comments too. Does donating the proceeds make putting up with ads more acceptable? Do you even notice them at all? Have you ever actually bought anything after clicking on an internet advertisement? We’d like to know.
Oh, and thanks for reading and sharing our Cal sports obsessions. Only 47 days to go!!!!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=I0e6LUTjzX0
nuff said
Comment by bowlbasaur — July 16, 2007 @ 3:50 pm
edit: i mean “do it”
Comment by bowlbasaur — July 16, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
I’m not surprised you guys have been approached about ads. You do an excellent job and I visit your blog almost everyday. In addition, I commend you for considering advertisements as a fund raiser for the athletics department. Your fine work deserves a little ego stroking. With that said, I really enjoy the clean look of the website and can’t ignore the previous comment about “selling out.”
Here’s an idea: Try out the ads for a couple weeks to see how you and the readers like it. Maybe you could add a “Total Revenue Donated” counter to promote the non-profit nature of this project and encourage visitors to click on ads, assuming there’s no legal issues. If everybody hates it, remove it.
Thanks for reading my two cents. I look forward to seeing your decision.
Comment by Scott M — July 16, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
It is a great idea. To turn the vicious ad companies against themselves, if i knew where the ad money was going I would only try to buy tickets, apparel, or merchandise from your site. That’s the cool new part about the web 2.0, now the consumer has some measure of power over the big bad company, because you create the content. Besides, you could have your own luxury box in the new Memorial Stadium, if you donate enough! Great work on the blog, just no pop-ups!
Comment by H — July 17, 2007 @ 9:40 am
Ads are your friend. They might seem nasty at first, but you’ll get used to them. If you get enough fans, you might even make some decent bucks with it!
Comment by Avinash — July 18, 2007 @ 1:57 am