Ads: Fooling or attracting users?

From as far back as I can remember, ads have played an essential part in surfing the web. Because, without ads, communication between websites and their promotion decreases significantly. The vast majority of ads, I must admit, is composed of annoying, blinking, colorful adverts that are meant to catch your eye or trick you into clicking. But are those so profitable that everyone seems to take them into consideration?

Everybody has seen the “You have just won” ads, the shiny blinking ones, or the “Your computer may be at risk” ones, that practically invite you to click them. Advanced users don’t fall for them, but what about newer ones, that don’t know much about computers? These ads don’t do anything but confuse them even more. Personally, these ads manage to get to my nerves, and most of the times I simply close the window, without reading it any further, simply because they’re acting as a distraction, making it almost impossible to concentrate. There’s also a new category of ads which act this way. They look very much as a YouTube clip, with the play button and all. I’m sure it catches lots of less careful people.

The other type of ads is the AdSense-ish ones, that change depending on the content of a website, and which may contain valuable information related to what the reader is interested in (presuming that he’s interested in what is on that particular website). Not once have I discovered something through the help of these kind of ads.

But what is the best tactics when trying to attract a visitor? The “in your face” type, where you’re practically forced to enter a website that may or may not be useless, or the smarter method, where you attract a visitor, potentially making him look not just through one of your articles, but through your whole website, and even return? I, for one, am for the second type, because you may fool somebody once and have them never return again, but it’s better to gain their trust and their respect.

Below are some of the ads that belong to both categories.

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Posted in Other by Andrei Maguleanu