Back with a new site, that needs review.

I'm almost done with this site, thought I'd seek out some constructive criticism on my ad blending and placement. I still have some links and videos to put up, but the general layout of the page will remain the same. Also the "Aerobats" button is pointing to the home page b/c the page isn't done yet, it's on the list of things to do as well.

http://keithluneau.phpnet.us

Thanks!

 

I think your blending is ok but don't attractive to visitors to click

- At the top ads, you should place image with border rounded above them (to prevent against Google tos)
- Ads under your own image don't attractive for visitors to click D No, not because of your image, you're smart man) because you have "e-mail me" button placed above and that made your ad blindness. Your ads size is not match with your image size too.

wait for the next comment.

 

not too shabby keith, i know someone who was into rc planes and helicoptors back in high school. everybody used to clown on him for it. nowadays he is an editor for a well respected rc magazine in Los Angeles, and he makes quite a comfortable living doing what he loves. so stick with it if it's your passion, you never know what'll happen next.

 

The ad placements look good. Don't listen to Sxperm, who seems to want you to do what he does and try to trick your visitors into clicking. Your site is a hobby site and will want visitor loyalty, so you don't want to be getting involved in all that duplicitous stuff. But you should put some ads on your image pages. Put a leaderboard Adlinks unit above your navigational links and a leaderboard banner underneath the picture. You've tagged your pics with alt text and caption, so you should get relevant ads.

 

You know, I didn't know that would help target the ads. I'll have to add those now. Thinking about it, it would give another "exit point" if the user has seen enough pictures and is ready to move on. lol

Thanks for the tips everyone!

 

Honestly, the ads looks quite good. Inspite of what you may want, you do not want your visitors feel that all you want is a 'click'. On your site, the ads are enhancing your webpage. Good job. May be you can experiment with the colors but I think the trick now for greater income would be to get more traffic.

 

I think this blending is awesome, I also have to say I love the layout of the site the way the left sidebar fades and how the color in the main section ties in with that is awesome. I myself like the placement because it reminds me of a menu bar at the top.

The one problem I had (I dunno if anyone else had this) was where it says

Keith Luneau's Model Aviation Log
the Aviation Log is too far down and blocking the ads.

like so:


text highlighted

 

What browser and resolution was that, hishigness? I can't seem to replicate the problem, the page remains the same size and I must scroll at anything less than 1024x768, in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

I agree, I'm going to need some traffic before I can get some good income off of this one. I guess I need to get off my *ss and finish adding content, then promote it a little.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas so far!
Keith

 

His browser's font must be BIG.

 

Crap I'm sorry man. Duh? Yeah that might be pertinent info. (Don't mind me)

I run @ 1280 x 1024 And the Browser was IE (I use it for viewing ads cuz I got Adblocker on FF)

 

Ok, I made a small change that I think helps blend the ads a little better. Not that now the text starts out with a short little description in bold underlined letters just like the ads. My thinking is that it'll help put the user in the frame of mind that when they see the ads, they are alredy used to seeing that as part of the page content, and not immediately put off by it being and ad. lol

I also added the first video, and it's also formatted to resemble the ads. Its on the Aerial Photography page. One thing I was thinking, was to maybe use a smaller banner at the top and put a random thumbnail next to it like the video link is. I would of course have to keep it seperated not to violate toe TOS, but it may help draw the visitors eyes to the ads.

The key thing I'm trying to stick to is the make the ads less annoying and not "in your face", but not invisible either. I like to let the user know they are there, then let them decide to click them if they feel the need to, not force them or trick them into it. I've found that works best on my other site so far.

 

Not sure why, but I'm having trouble accessing the site on that server. I've mirrored it to this server as well:

http://kluneau.rchomepage.com

The only differance is the link back to RCGroups, not a bad deal for free hosting is it? lol

 

Simplicity is a good thing.

How is that niche paying out for you?

 

So far this site hasn't made a penny. Keep in mind thought that it's been sitting on the first host that's not very reliable, and had never been advertised or promoted in any way until a few days ago. I've had a similar site on the second host I linked to for a couple of years, but never ran ads or anything, it was just a personal picture archive. Hopefully moving to this server and updating the site eill help it to take off. Theres already a few links out there pointing to it, which helps.