This is going to be a polemic topic given the wide spread in the usage of such advertising networks. In-Text advertising refers to networks like Vibrant Media or Kontera that place advertising links on your content. The links are placed inside your text (hence the name), and they come with a double underline to differentiate them from normal links. Once the user rolls the mouse over the link the advertising will pop. Should the user click on it the site owner will make some money.
At a first sight this advertising method represents a good way for online publishers to generate some money from their websites. Why should you stay away from it then? Simple, because it is one of the most intrusive forms of advertising and it also goes against the principles of web usability.
The hyperlink navigation structure is one of the most basic and most important features of the Internet. You should think twice before messing up with it. Check out the words of Jacob Nielsen, a web usability guru:
One of misery design’s most insidious recent examples is the idea of embedding links to advertising on the actual words of an article using a service like IntelliTxt. By sullying the very concept of navigation, such ads not only damage the user experience on the host site, they poison the well for all websites. Such links make users even less likely to navigate sites, and more likely to turn to trusted search engines to guide them to the next page.
It is not a surprise, therefore, the fact that virtually no mainstream website is using this advertising approach. Sure if you are a small blogger it could generate some extra money at the end of the month, but are you willing to put your credibility at the stake for it?
I think the intext ads will be very annoying to the reader when trying to navigate the website
It is better to have banner ads after every 2nd post
i had to block all ads because of in-text ads. i mouse over everything i read and intext ands are so frustrating. to the point of nearly screaming or leaving the site. there needs to be an ad block just for pop over ads.
Anyone try any in text advertising A/B Testing? I’ve heard that Info Links is the best, but the only text advertising that works for me is TextLinkAds.
With google adsense paying pennies, websites are looking for all the pennies they can muster.
Remember we put hours and hours into our sites and even have writers we need to pay.
A few text ads isn’t too much to ask – especially when you are viewing our sites for FREE.
🙂
Vibrant requires you to have 500,000 pageviews for the domain you wish to place the intext ads on. They know that if you don’t have a lot of good content – that neither of you are going to make money. Anyone with 500,000 page views hopefully has a credible site and wouldn’t want to tarnish their reputation with a bunch of “fake” links in their articles. This in text ad linking is for the junk sites that happen to have a lot of content. IMHO.
ive tried kontera and its terrible. i never want to put readers through that on my site ever again! Ads i believe are just ads and should be as unintrusive as possible . If they offer something users want ..they will click . no need for all this placing ads in the middle of content nonsense
I hate it when websites use this advertising technique. I click on links expecting relevant information and end up in an unknown website.
I have to agree after doing some testing over the last 2 months.
After playing around with Adsense, Chitika and other ad programs it just doesn’t do anything for the end user – the reader.
The main problem is that most of the text-link ads are completely irrelevant, it would be better if you could target words as part of an ad group but what often happens is they are attached to completely random words for totally unrelated products.
I blog about DJing and I would get text link ads for insurance, really?
I don’t think it really gives my readers any sort of benefit either. I work hard to write quality posts and then I send them away for a few pennies? Not on my blog, not anymore.
I do keep a small google ads on the very bottom of the post which generally does give me relevant ads but they’re not there to disrupt the flow of the article.
There is something about the double line that seems to disturb design continuity. I think internet users are aware of it and mouse over when they want and skip when they don’t. The design element looks bad, in my opinion.
And I don’t think the return is encouraging either..
I’m about to try intext advertising on my site, honestly I don’t find intext advertising annoying (maybe a bit, when I accidentally mouse over a link).
@David I think the user would “waist” too much time while searching for the answer with the web search ? The point is advertising with google’s I’m feeling lucky function, but then again where will the revenue come from ?