As my regular readers know, I’ve been trying to find ways to monetize the blog to help pay off our debt. It has been effective in as much as I haven’t INCURRED any debt since starting to monetize the blog – I paid cash this Christmas season and also paid cash for the kids to go to gymnastics. I took down the widget I had in my sidebar because someone complained about the site hanging up because of that widget. I didn’t mind taking it down – it had only made 35 cents since I activated it in November. No big loss.
But now there is a group that is doing audio ads for websites. They call themselves NetAudioAdsâ„¢ and the “commercials” are little 5-second audio clips that play when a user clicks into your page. And when that clip plays, you get paid.
Read that again: When a clip plays, you get paid. So if you get a lot of visitors to your website, you could really generate a lot of revenue. The Net Audio Ads websites says that it is built on a model similar to Google AdWords but with one critical difference…website owners will earn revenue on 100% of their traffic with no clicks necessary!
I listened to a sample ad at the website – it was for Taco Bell and it was very short. And since it only plays once, it’s not at all intrusive. Apparently NetAudioAdsâ„¢ has been around for over 2 years, but this is the first I’ve heard of them until today.
It’s intriguing, and I’ll continue to look through their website to see just what the deal entails, but I’d be curious to know your thoughts – if these two were your only choices would you rather have blinky ads in the sidebars, or a short five-second audio clip that plays when you first visit this website?
An audio ad would be very annoying ~ my two cents.
I prefer blinkies. Audio that shows up on a blog right away really bothers me, and I’m not sure why. Even though I do want you to get paid every time someone visits. So, ultimately up to you. 🙂
I choose death. Seriously.
If you put either kind of ad on your blog, I will never click over to read your blog. I’m not kidding.
I’m with Jen. I blacklist every site I get to with uncommanded audio. Just say no.
I’m not saying I’m going to do it – I’m just asking about druthers.
Let’s put it another way – 75% of my traffic every day comes from people who do specific searches and end up on secondary pages. So theoretically, IF I were to do that kind of ad, it would only play on individual post pages – NOT the home page. Users have the ability to put the code ANYwhere on their site – so if I were to have the code ONLY on individual posts, a user would only hear it if they click into that page directly.
For instance, my pregnancy diary is VERY popular, as is my Fake Boyfriend list. So I could put the sound code on those two pages, and regular readers who rarely – if ever- click into those pages would never hear the ad. What about THAT idea?
Ok by me – I turn my sound off when I’m reading my blogs – it’s mainly because of MySpace, though. Not because it’s annoying, but because I startle easily! : )
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Okay by me, I leave my audio turned off until I need it. Wouldn’t bother me at all.
I still say no.
Thanks for turning off the side bar thing, it was causing my laptop to hang up. I’d prefer to not have an audio ad, and would probably opt off the site.
Jaynee is very widget happy. Sometimes she doesn’t look at the big picture and the greater good and puts everything on this site. If it makes money, if it shows a pretty picture, slap it on Cootiehog. LOL
I have my sound turned off at work and at home, so it wouldn’t bother me any.
Denis – not quite true. The minute I heard complaints about WidgetBucks hanging up people on the site, I took it down. I’ve also removed all Google AdSense ads from this site since I found those annoying myself.
Yes Net Audio Ads are the real deal. They are set to launch on the first of February.