Monday
Apr012013
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Ads
Apr 1, 2013 As readers will note, I am now showing this site's first ad. This is something of an experiment both for me and for my advertiser. Thoughts from readers are welcome.
Apr 1, 2013
Reader Comments (63)
I'd like to see some ads from EVIL fossil fuel interests, frankly.
I think it's fine.... certainly appropriate content so far. I know some ppl are very anti-ad but so long as it's confined to a limited area and not overwhelming other parts of the user experience I think it's quite innocuous. If anyone complains ask them if they are volunteering to pay the costs of the site.
If you have some control over the content then I'm in favour. If you earn a little income then so much the better.
There doesn't appear to be a link though, and some of the titles look interesting, interesting enough to look into.
I see no problems with ads in principle. They are an essential means of communication. In practice, of course, their style and content need to be carefully monitored to ensure that they don't damage the host's own "brand".
I don't mind ads in principle, but the ad changes so often it's very distracting.
No problem as far as I'm concerned - I always ignore ads anyway.
I agree with Roger T that the constant movement is distracting - and I also find the top picture is rather large, could it be reduced a bit to the size of the pictures of the Bishop's books.
Beware. Who buys your ad-space owns your soul.
Ads are fine. Looks great on an iPhone at least.
Link works for me.
Rate of change OK for me.
Size no problem - makes "Recent Comments" easier to read.
The titles look interesting and I haven't read most of them. This could be expensive....
Good luck with it.
No such thing as a free lunch, so if ads pay to keep the blog going, that is as it sould be.
Go for it. Most everyone understands why and how they work, and will therefore react accordingly.
Absolutely fine by me. If it helps pay the way, great.
Cool with the ads ... well located in the side column.
Go for it, Andrew.
Your readers recognise that the revenue you generate helps subsidise your invaluable work. After all "Bishop Hill" isn't a registered charity.
Your only other choice for a source of income is to try to claim a grant from DECC, and I sense they may be reluctant to fund an exposer of their propaganda.
We're on rural internet. Usage is quite limited, so pictures are turned off. No ads!
Apr 1, 2013 at 9:19 AM | Otter
I'd recommend using something like Opera Turbo on a PC or as I'm using now opera mini on a mobile if you want to reduce bandwidth usage. Just make images low quality and they hardly use any bandwidth.
well at least the ads are not for red diesel. I had the temerity to look up the price of red diesel recently and every site I visit now tries to sell me red diesel. Targeted advertising can be tedious.
but in general if it helps keep your Grace's house in good nick it is fine by me.
Glad to see you're getting enough hits to interest an advertiser. The thought that ZDB and BB are actually helping to pay for this site warms the cockles of my heart. A blog cannot live on donations alone. I suggest you exploit the opportunity further.
Absolutely no objection. I can tune them out!
I trust that they will contribute to the longevity of the site whilst putting some money in your pocket.
When, inevitably, the incongruous or inappropriate ones roll round....I will chuckle if I notice them.
Good Luck to you! "Pecunia non olet!"
Seem fine to me. :)
Go for it Bish!
I would grab any advertising you can - don't be squeamish - every penny is going towards the most important political cause of our age.
Fags, booze, sex - even stoop to Greenpeace!
We don't have to buy the product.
Happy to see this especially if the advertising brings to my attention relatively low-sales-volume books unlikely to get much of an airing elsewhere.
@Grumpy Old Man
Perhaps they'll buy one of the books advertised, on the "know your enemy" principle; in the same way I visit the Real, sceptical and NLP sites from time to time. ;-)
If it makes even a modest contribution towards your costs you should go for it. Some of the adverts on WUWT are quite amusing.
Go for it. Essential to keep your site going.
I remain a regular reader. No problem with ads at all.
However I am in North Wales and my local Methodist minister claims that adverts are "instruments of Beelzebub" and incite people to "unseemly lubriciousness". Just a point of view, I suppose.
Be careful that if the ads are climate-related or political, new or casual visitors will assume that you endorse the viewpoints expressed in the adverts, so your blog may project a different image to what it has hitherto. WUWT's adverts tend to be unrelated to climate (at least the ones I usually see - currently "blast unwanted texts" and "get your smokey on") so it's more obvious they are just to earn pennies.
Also agree with Messenger, the ad is currently large compared to everything else on the page. Maybe something like WUWT's layout (top banner, and vertical banner top right) would be less distracting?
Go for it.
They advertise The Hockey Stick Illusion too, which can't be bad..
Peter Crawford: If only I knew what lubriciousness was, I'm sure a few adverts could incite me to be extremely lubriciousness - and in quite an unseemly manner too.
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I logged in as a registered user looked again for the advert and there it was - - Gone!
I logged out and it was there again. Logged back in and it was gone again.
I don't have any issues with most advertising. The only problem I have on your site is that the hidden links in the text are too well hidden. Is it possible to have a bit more contrast between the normal text and the links?
G Watkins Advertizing revenue essential to keep the Whole Net going.
Alarm bells for the alarmists
If Bishop Hill and WUWT are in a position to take advertizing ,So just how many hits are they getting every day and just how popular are the skeptic sites they will be asking.The comment sections are overflowing
Bishop have you got the popup yet for the readers survey.Bishop Hill User Consumer Profile Stats carry more weight with the Advertizing Execs
Male over forties middle class white center right wingish ,lots of pop ups for BUPA Medical Insurance and Mediterranean Cruises .
If you can get 20 / 30 something professionals then you're talking big advertizing money,Credit Cards, I Tunes ,Prestige Cars and Travel Unfortunately 20/ 30 somethings didn't grow up in the 70s and 80s .Doomsday threats of Nuclear War, Another Ice Age ,Y2K and that's our problem.
If it pays, though reluctantly, I'd say do it Andrew, end justifying the means an' all that.
Though, the Ad's may involve Michael E. Mann smiling, or a sweaty [congressional hearing] Jim Hansen and promoting solar panels and green hedge fund investments, or 'green' coal - who knows?
Grrrr.
Ads can be helpful for readers (as well as bringing revenue to the site). Non-static ads, though, are irritating for readers, and that is not good.
No problem with relevent ads. and as others have commented the titles look interesting!!!
Wot, no ads for solar panels?
As long as the Ads are like the present ones, I cannot see any objection. These days, Ads are like wallpaper. If it helps you to earn some extra income, I could not object to the Ads.
I disagree
I think the book ads just invites the watermelons claim of BIG OIL funding
Book ad > book sale > paper > energy used to produce paper > (since windmills don't work) energy source fossil fuel > fossil fuel = BIG OIL > ergo BH in pay of BIG OIL
plus
Book ad > book sale > tree felled > energy to transport felled tree > fossil fuel = BIG OIL > ergo BH in pay of BIG OIL
just saying ....
Hmm...
The impact of adverts may range from being of value to the recipients, all the way down to subtly controlling your own thought processes. There is no obvious point on that line where you can say that you have crossed over a clear boundary.
I run three technical web-sites covering hobbies of mine. For two of them I seem to be the de-facto world authority (Not due to any skill on my part, I hasten to add, but purely because everyone else in the world has better things to do than get involved in such obscure minutiae!). I have made a decision not to include adverts on any of my sites, because I am occasionally called upon to offer independent advice, and I want to ensure that it stays independent. This way, when I balls things up, everyone will know that it is because I am incompetent, not corrupt.
For some reason that is important to me. I think that the fact that it is not important to our current crop of politicians and scientists is one of the things that is wrong with the world.
Doesn't bother me. Just don't do the google words thing!
I have no problem at all with you endeavouring to get some small compensation for the many hours a day you devote to this excellent blog.
No issues with adverts. Nothing is free. It has to be paid for somehow. Adverts shows very transparently where the money is coming from. No hidden sponsors from big oil! ;-)
I have the whole side-bar turned off and the comments expanded to fill the page, so I don't see any ads. But then they are not aimed at me anyway...
Ads are fine by me - and I see the flickering has slowed to a reasonable pace.
By the way I have BitBucket turned off so that it doesn't irritate me.
"By the way I have BitBucket turned off so that it doesn't irritate me."
;~)
Spoilsport!
Go for the context sensitive ones - they will all be warmist propaganda because it's one of the things they spend lots of their copious funding on, and it's one way of channelling just a little of it to the skeptic side!
They're not too distracting in the place they are, and if it makes you a bob or two, all power to your elbow!
@Athelstan.
Another keyboard gone west.
Until some of that big money from big oil, or at least a retainer from the Koch brothers arrives, you should run ads. Keep up the good work.