Peel-Away Ads the Next Big Thing in Banner Advertising?
If you’ve been surfing the Internet for any time at all I’m sure you’re getting pretty tired of the annoying blinking banners, popups, and ads that fly onto the page trying to get your attention. If you’re like me, you’re probably using popup blockers and have become so jaded to the average horizontal banner that they don’t even register in your field of vision anymore. Hence, much online advertising is no longer effective and advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to get you to notice their ads.
Enter peel-away advertisements. You may have seen them on a few sites already, but if you haven’t, you only need to look in the upper right corner of this page. They are not obnoxious, but the little waving graphic in the corner does get your attention and if you mouse over it, you’ll see how they work, by rolling down the page to reveal what’s underneath, which in most cases will be some kind of advertisement.
The ads work in both Internet Explorer and Firefox and since they use Flash technology, will work on just about anyone’s computer. I can also see this being used for non-advertising purposes, like showing a pic-of-the-day.
For any of you that are interested in using this on your own sites, you can either build your own if you’re proficient in Flash, or you can purchase and download the script, like I did, for a very reasonable amount. A nice script called Peel Away Ads, available for $27, allows you to rotate several ads at once. There is another site selling a very similar script, called Page Peel Ads, for only $8. Click here if you’d like to buy the one I’m using. Installation only takes a couple of minutes.
I would like to caution any of you that are interested in using this form of advertising on your websites against a company I’ve seen offering the same exact thing, but expecting you to pay a monthly fee or hoping you’ll use their free version so they can insert their ads in the rotation. Just buy the damn thing. It’s only a one-time cost of $27 and you really don’t want to be advertising something you don’t get paid for.
Posted: July 20th, 2007 under Cool Stuff.
Comments: 17
Comments
Comment from Owned
Time: July 21, 2007, 3:49 pm
NoScript addon for Firefox. OWNED!
Comment from Hammer
Time: July 21, 2007, 4:05 pm
No Internet advertising option is perfect. Frankly, the surfers that go to the extent to use scripts to remove all advertising are doing a disservice to the owners of the sites they visit.
Comment from Trik
Time: July 22, 2007, 12:16 am
I think the chunks in my mouth are the result of a partial throw up. Dear godperson, don’t let this be the next big thing in online advertising. And is offing myself still a sin? No offense Hammer, but the concept is offensive.
Comment from Hammer
Time: July 22, 2007, 8:28 am
Trik - What is it you find offensive? It’s very unobtrusive and you only have to look at the ad if you mouse over that corner. Once you’ve seen one and decided you no longer wish to see those advertisements on other sites, you simply avoiding mousing over them any longer. Compared to animated banners and the kind that slide in and have to be closed so you can read the page you’re looking at, I think it’s quite subtle.
I’m not sure if you mean you find the idea offensive or if my particular use of the ad is what bothers you.
Comment from Owned
Time: July 22, 2007, 10:11 am
People can and will use ways to trick you into opening them.
Comment from Owned
Time: July 22, 2007, 10:13 am
I think Trik is saying: “Just what the Internet needs. More ad garbage.”
Just like in all media, people are sick of this crap.
Comment from Hammer
Time: July 22, 2007, 10:52 am
Well, Owned, you might want to consider moving to a communist country then because the rest of the free world works on a capitalism. Do you have any idea what a newspaper would cost if they didn’t have advertising? Or network television? We pay for cable you know. You can listen to any radio station you want for free, but if they didn’t have advertising, you’d have to pay for it like you do with Sirius.
The only reason sites like mine are free is because we make money from advertising. If enough people had the same attitude as you, the Internet as we know it would die or turn into one big MySpace, full of shit.
Seriously, do you think Yahoo or Google would exist without advertising? Or would you prefer to pay $10 a month to use them, or any other site you use for free now?
Do you have any websites of your own? If so, then you know that it costs money to operate one and if it gets enough traffic, bandwidth costs can get quite high.
Comment from Owned
Time: July 22, 2007, 1:38 pm
You talk as though there aren’t other ways to make money to pay for a website.
Maybe you’ve heard of this guy?
maddox.xmission.com
A good eight years without a single ad on his site. He gets major traffic as well. How does he pay for it? He has a job!
As for paying for cable, we still have to watch their bullshit commercials.
Also, what if you want to write about something but you don’t because it’ll piss off your advertisers? It’s a form of censorship.
Comment from Hammer
Time: July 22, 2007, 4:39 pm
LOL. OK, so everyone that runs a website should pay for it out of their pocket because they have a job?
Can we know the URL of some of your blogs or websites? If you don’t have any, then I don’t really think you have any credentials to argue the point with me, other than the fact that you think you shouldn’t have to pay to support the websites you use and they shouldn’t be allowed to use advertising.
I’m a businessman and run many websites and businesses that use websites for marketing purposes. I have no intentions of doing anything for free just because some people might disapprove.
I’m not going to try to convince you of anything. If you don’t like looking at the ads, don’t visit those websites. wink wink, nudge nuge.
Comment from Owned
Time: July 23, 2007, 7:10 am
“If you don’t like looking at the ads, don’t visit those websites. wink wink, nudge nuge.”
Want to drive me away? Add full page ads. I do not visit those sites (nor does anyone else). I adblock/scriptblock everything else.
If Maddox can pay for his own site, anyone can. Compare his traffic to yours. I’m sure it is a massive difference. I’m sure you can manage without the ads, and if not maybe your host is ripping you off.
Face it, society is getting sick off all the bullshit ads all over the world. Thats why these browser addons exist. At least one can browse the Internet without being exposed to this crap.
I’m done trying to convince you as well.
Comment from Hammer
Time: July 23, 2007, 8:45 am
If you could come up with a good argument I’d be happy to consider it, but the site you’re using as your example is some guy that updates once every couple of months, he doesn’t post 4 or 5 times a week like I do.
Some people run blogs and websites for fun, others do it for profit, I do it for both, but I certainly don’t have time to do it only for fun.
I don’t use advertising to pay my hosting fee, I use it to make money so that I feel compensated for my time.
I have no intentions of using FPAs and frankly, I think the advertising on my site is very easy to ignore.
Like I said before, if enough people had your attitude and advertising became completely ineffective, most of the quality content on the Internet would disappear. I know mine would.
Comment from Hammer
Time: July 23, 2007, 10:37 am
Maddox does advertise, btw, he just doesn’t used banners. Look at the bottom of this page. http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=comic_release where he has a link to his store http://store.theworstpageintheuniverse.com/ where you can buy this comic as well as t-shirts and other things.
He is using his site to generate traffic and then making money from that traffic, just like the rest of us.
Comment from Owned
Time: July 23, 2007, 12:37 pm
He doesn’t advertise his store anywhere but on his own site and his site isn’t advertised (at least not by his request) on any other site. That is the difference. His traffic comes from word of mouth, not advertising. He doesn’t demand that anyone link to his site. And he didn’t always have a store.
He used to update once every few days or once a week until he got a book deal, then his updates became less frequent.
Yes, your ads are easy to ignore, I’ll give you that. But other sites will abuse this new peel-away ad thing, and position it so it is hard not to click it or make it cover most of the page and have obnoxious colors flashing behind it. That kind of crap is one of the things that makes the Internet suck. Its what makes people install ad blockers.
As for quality content disappearing, there are many sites out there that the Internet could just as well do without.
Comment from mojotek
Time: July 23, 2007, 1:16 pm
Owned: I don’t think you realize what Hammer is saying. Your point that other sites will “abuse this new peel-away ad thing” is spot on. But sites that do will suffer greatly for trying to. They will alienate their visitors and therefore generate less traffic, which will in turn generate less revenue.
I’m not sure why you are up in arms about someone trying to make a buck off of their website. Your argument: “A good eight years without a single ad on his site. He gets major traffic as well. How does he pay for it? He has a job!” is actually quite absurd. Everyone wants do something they enjoy doing, but if they are providing someone else a value you for it, it’s only fair that they’re compensated.
Take a blog that generates a lot of traffic because the content it has is very interesting and well though out. The reason it generates a lot of traffic is because of ‘word-of-mouth’. That means there is a ‘demand’ for that content. If the owner of said blog then wished to capitalize on that demand so that he or she can be compensated for their time and effort, then so be it. If the owner decides to ignore his or her readers and plaster ads all over their blog, then they will suffer due to decreased readership.
The only way to effectively b*tch about abuse of online advertisements is to quit visiting sites that abuse them. Trying to convince someone that they should keep offering up free content because readers are sick and tried of advertisements is absolutely ridiculous.
Comment from Viking
Time: July 26, 2007, 2:35 am
“His traffic comes from word of mouth, not advertising.”
You are not very bright, are you? Have you even bothered looking at his stats, to find out where his traffic is coming from? Most traffic is coming from sites he trades traffic with, which means he both skims traffic on his links and also advertises his own site in a wide range online. He also advertises on several “digg sites” and has feeder blogs he uses to direct traffic to the site.
In a nutshell, you are totally wrong “owned” and have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. Go back to your ad-free surfer sites and bark up another tree!
Comment from Mish
Time: July 26, 2007, 10:15 am
Owned: Do you have a job? Do you work for a living? How did you find that job? What about a place to stay? Do you own/rent? How did you find that? What about food…. clothes… and everything else that you need to exist… what about your Internet provider? Wireless provider? Did you find all of that on maddox.xmission.com?
Because if not, I’ve got news for you kid - you’ve been victimized by advertising… or do you honestly think you figured out your brand of toothpaste all on your own?
It might be time to retreat back to Marketing & Advertising 101, because it’s obvious you’ve got much to learn.
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[…] If youve been surfing the Internet for any time at all Im sure youre getting pretty tired of the annoying blinking banners, popups, and ads that fly onto the page trying to get your attention. If youre like me, youre probably using popup blockers and have become… source: Peel Away Ads the Next Big Thing in Banner…, Hammer Uncut - A humorous look at the world around us […]
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