Ancient Standard

www.ancientstandard.com is the URL of a new blog I just launched the other week.

That basic premise behind the blog is to provide users with an interesting post about ancient history every single day. I hope you like it!

We just had the new design finished and added to the site (it's using wordpress). I would appreciate if you guys could take a look and critique the design, ad placement and what you think of the actual content.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

Nice design... layout is easy to navigate and easy to use!

Few too many google ads for my liking... but overall it's great!

Hi Chad,
Thanks for the comments...

What do you feel would be an appropriate number of adsense blocks? 2 or 1?

One or two tops ... one would be my preference since I'm not a big fan of them at all... but I understand why you have them. But one between each article is a turnoff IN MY OPINION...

I was so confused about the Google ads comment, then I turned my ad blocker off. Lol.

Linda's right, that is way too much. Check out Google's terms of use, because I think you're using the ads inappropriately. If you are, you won't see a dime!

Awesome design and unlike everyone else, I dont mind the ads. You got to do what you got to do.

Try putting them in the sidebar or at the top just before the content starts. But you need to make it obvious that they are ads and not part of the actual content. Like Ryan said, google will do absolutely anything to get out of paying you.

Nice design otherwise though. One tip: make links behave like links. Give them a hover property and identify them in some way. It doesn't have to be an underline but a different colour or a dotted border would be good. You wouldn't know that the 'home', 'about, and article title links were actually links if you didn't click on them.

Pete.

No necessarily. Putting the ads in the content gives a better CTR and therefore a greater payout. I don't see how he would be misleading people with the ads so feel they are fine. Although you do have images next to them in some cases. It probably best give them an email to see if the position is okay but I reckon it should be.

I don't! Google might be ok with it but that's not how you run an information site.

The point of a site is not to trick people into accidentally clicking them nor should you force ads on people. They should be clearly marked and unobtrusive. The content is what is important not the revenue you get from it (which will be negligible in most cases anyway).

Pete.

L.O.V.E. I.T!!!

Agree about the ads overwhelming the content tho

Completely depends on your goals from your site. You may set up a site purely for revenue in which case ad blending and CTR and extremely important and the revenue is you main thing. By the fact there is the maximum 3 ad blocks I assume this is the case for this site. You may notice on this site ads blended into the forum contents. This is purely to make more money through higher CTR.

Bute the ads on this site are easy to spot, and the forum takes precedence not the ads. And the fact that that the on ancient standard site he says he wants to educate people makes me think that the content is more important. And webforumz doesn't cover it's costs through use of ads as far as I'm aware. I'm much more in favour of image type ads anyway, they are easier to recognise that way.

Pete.

I agree with, Karinne. Althought I love the sight, I was distracted by the ads right in the middle of what I was reading. Since there are several artilcles, why not ads between them rather than in the middle of them. (my opinion and just a thought.

Maybe be best to float your ads so the content goes through it. Probably get better CTR that way but may dominate the content even more.

Hi Guys,

thanks for the feedback. Just to address issues...first of all, I appreciate everyones input. Regardless if I agree with it or not. So before I say anything else, thanks very much for taking the time to view it.

This blog is meant to educate people about ancient history, but at the same time it is a for profit blog. The new post placed on the site every day is written by a professional hired writer.

Are commercials on tv annoying? Yes, but without them, you wouldn't have a great show to watch. The same thing rings true with my blog. The gamble I am making is that hopefully users will find the content engaging enough to not flip the channel (surf off the site) when it's time for a commercial break.

Adsense on the side is just not feasible. I have a fairly large Adsense account and I know that that type of advertisement just does not convert.

Thanks again for your comments!

Hm, I guess I watch TV like I surf the internet. I download TV shows on the internet so I don't get commercials. And I use an ad blocker! Regardless, the site won't make any serious money unless it's getting hundreds of thousands of visitors a week.

You'll make more moeney by building a user base and then selling advertisment slots to specific companies rather than using adsense. Or by building up the site and then selling it on. But this could take a long time. You won't really make much money using adsense, you'll barely cover your costs unless it's extremely popular.

Pete.

If everyone was like you Ryan, we would have no TV. I'm not trying to be condescending, because I can't honestly say I've never downloaded any TV, so I'm at least a little bit guilty too...but just making the observation.

My Adsense account (from other websites I own) earns in the $xxxx range every month. I have the ability to drive traffic to my site.

DaveRH, sounds like you know what you are doing! I think we probably learned something from you in how to effectively place ads! Good luck!

I was merely being amiable. Good luck with the $xxxx a month, but I highly doubt it you're making even $100 a year. You've got a Google PR of zero, no indexed pages, no Google links, and you're not listed in Dmoz. Where is that traffic coming from?