Blending when does it become deception

Sorry about the title, I was in fact trying to find a thread I was reading the other day. It was giving examples of how some sites blended their ads.

There are certainly some very talented people around here.

Went back and looked at my own site and thought can I do it better. Always been of the view that I want the ads to blend, but that it is an advertisement.

Changed the setup a bit to blend one ad more into the site, but looking at it today I feel I am trying to deceive people, trying to trick them into clicking this ad.

Is it right? Just wondering what other think.

Here is the page Stepfamily Zone The website is for a not for profit community organisation that I run

Newbie

John

 

looks great, very sneaky!

 

I know, but is it honest?

Have done something similar on our old forums.

Does it affect the reputation of a site when you do such things and how does Google view such things?

John

 

i don't think there's anything dishonest about it at all. Google lists good places. Blending combats people aversion to abetting someone else's financial gain through advertising. If they're interested in the link then they're interested in the link however. Nothing sketch here at all.

edit: just noticed the half banner disguised as a forum post. That is kind of sketchy I'd say, but still legal and clearly an ad if you read it. It just fits in nicely.

 

The single ad at the top of the initial forum page might be a bit dodgy. I emailed google about the same thing - putting a picture near the ad - and they told me I needed a border around the ad.

Maybe you should do the same

 

Okay I will have a look at that tomorrow.

Thanks

John

 

the ad on the forum, maybe it works well but what is a pity is that you be earning more for that click, because at the moment it is in third position in html source, so i believe low paying ads display on this spot, the highest being the one in the top left vertical banner. If you can find a way to make this ad the first in the html source (via CSS positioning) then you could earn more for your organisation.