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A veterinary blog for pet lovers, vet voyeurs and the medically curious...
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With a deep bow to PetConnection, whose blog posts I was catching up on this morning, I feel compelled to address this timely issue: Why there are no Google ads on Dolittler.
Though I’m grateful to Google for all the traffic it sends Dolittler’s way, I will never use their AdSense service to populate this site with revenue generating advertising—not unless there’s a way for me to weed out the nasty bits…and there’s lots of unsavory material lurking in the Googly world of advetising—yuck!
Puppy peddlers, fly-by-night pet vitamin shops, online pet outlets of dubious designation, etcetera.
It’s my opinion that sites like PetPlace.com, whose medical content can be soooo good, disgrace themselves by offering their white space up to the highest bidder, regardless of its provenance.
Not only are the ads graphically unsightly, chopping up the meat of a site with the dexterity of a five year-old wielding a blunt cleaver, I think they insult my readers’ intelligence by pandering to the lowest common denominator pet person.
How can I write a post about how pet medicine is increasingly populated by cheap products and dangerous ingredients while turning a buck off the backs of my readers’ occasional forays into the world of Internet filth?
OK, so not all Google ads are bad. But there’s no easy way to control what winds up on your site. And I’m not playing that game.
Here’s what I wrote in my comment to Gina’s post explaining why Google ads don't appear on PetConnection:
This is a subject near and dear to my heart. My developers are always trying to get me to use interstitial (halfway down the page) Google ads. I keep explaining that I will not fence for scumbags. They can’t completely wrap their heads around why I’m willing to forego *free* money. As you’ve explained nicely with your examples, “free” money often comes at a hefty price—to my reputation, my readers’ having to look at the dregs the Internet has to offer, the animals being peddled…need I go on?
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Got a sick pet? Visit our Virtual Vet Hospital and admit your own pets as patients in Dolittler's unique pet healthcare forum.
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"The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
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- Mohandas Gandhi
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http://adsense.blogspot.com/2007/12/introducing-ad...
It still doesn't deal with the aesthetics of the ads, and I suspect pre-screened ads would generate even less money than normal adsense ads. You could try image or video ads - might be less brazen and a good tradeoff between aesthetics, pre-screening, and revenue generation.
Google's pre-screen engine is pretty new, so hard to say how well it will work. One could imagine a scenario that after you pre-screen ads and block 'bad' advertisers for a while that the ads get so relevant / good they become really useful to your readers.
If you can generate acceptable revenue with your site sponsors that is probably the best way to go to control content and minimize time investment.
NOT WORTH IT.
Sell it elsewhere, puppy-mill scum.
I haven't visited Petconnection often enough, with a beautiful site and layout, mainly because I am "unconnected" with the RSS feed concept. I wish it had an optional email system, such as employed by Itchmo.
Although, I guess I should just visit every day, as I do on Doolittler!!