Goodbye Nuffnang
If you have taken a glance at my sidebar, you would have noticed the all so familiar Nuffnang skyscraper ad unit has disappeared. It was on the 6th of August 2007 when I first decided to join the their advertising program. 8 months down the road, I am leaving despite having chalked up SGD $20.68 in my account from the 6 ad campaigns.
Obtrusive Distractions
I see the ad units as nothing more than obtrusive distractions in my site. In the previous ad campaign involving Durex, there was a buzzing sound being played in the background every few seconds and that really got on my nerves, I can imagine my readers felt the same way too. I am pretty certain that for many of them, muting their audio was the only way to read the posts on my blog without any distractions.
My readers are my blog’s most important asset, I would more than gladly trade extra monetary benefits in exchange for a better visitor experience.
Cash Out Contributions
To cash out, an administration fee of SGD $1 would be charged. I don’t see a need to gift a single cent to Nuffnang, after all they have gained a space in my blog for a period of 8 months, they have gotten their publicity and I in turn have gotten my share of ad campaigns. Call me stingy but I don’t see why we should place ourselves on the losing end of a business venture.
It takes an awfully long time for the cheques to arrive, it could be months before you could actually receive your money. There have been many examples of bloggers receiving their cheques 2 months or later since their cash out.
A Visible Requirement
Depending on the type of ad unit you are displaying (leaderboard, skyscraper and large rectangle), you are required to place the units in different positions on your site. In my case, I was using the skyscraper ad unit and it was mandatory for it to be placed as high up in the sidebar as possible, at least within the top half of the page without scrolling.
The first thing visitors would notice on my sidebar would be the ad unit. I do not want the focus of the sidebar to be on Nuffnang if there isn’t any ads running at that time. I want my visitors to be exposed to my content before anything else.
LimeTouch’s Survival Is Not At Risk
I do not need any fresh injection of funds to keep my hosting and domain up. I do have the means to pay my hosting fees. Just so you know, I recently renewed my hosting plan and domain. Limetouch.com is here to stay, at least till the 27th of May 2009.
Thank you Nuffnang for being my stepping stone into the blogosphere, Limetouch.com is not even a year old. I am well aware that quitting the advertising program before reaching the cash out limit would get me no benefits at all, but my blog has reached into a point of time where I need to care about my visitors more than anything else. And joining an advertising program with Nuffnang is just not the right direction my blog should be moving towards.
awww …. i didn’t know they made sounds … i hope nuffnang would look into this …
cheers
Well, I made the same decision a couple of months earlier. Figured one less code means a faster loading time for people who read my blog. Since there wasn’t much incentive in putting up the code, so I took it down too. Ah well, I contributed $8 to the NN fund.
I agree with the checks thingy. You got the “paid” status but you still don’t receive your check 1 week after. Very very sian.
Unless you’re part of their exclusive club, i believe you get less ads too (or it could just be me).
Anyway, i’ve removed NN as well, as with alot of other bloggers i suspect.
Guess i won’t be able to take out that $1x.xx dollars from my account after all.
May i ask what is your count of unique visitors like daily?
The Durex ad was extremely irritating, the sound of the vibrator in the background.
Ads takes up valuable screen space, especially when you have to put them way up on the page. Especially the banner ads, if you never designed your site layout to include them, they’ll just degrade the website’s design
You should try using adsense but anyway content is more important. Sometimes advertisements does make it look very clutter and drive readers away.
Aaron: I was part of their exlusive club Glitterati, but I didn’t noticed any difference in terms of the frequency of getting ads.
Hungzai: On a bad day, I get around 5x.
s.kiat: Totally agree, I think I make new visitors feel more welcome with the short message on the sidebar than a Durex ad with a buzzing vibrator sound
BloggindDotProfits: I do not want ads to be my blog’s mainstream attraction, my content should be of the first and foremost importance.
Note: Nuffnang have banned me from their aggregator; Innit. Talk about professionalism.
The feeling that nn is unprofessional has been talked about so often that it’s as good as a dead dog whipped to the point where nothing is left.
You are merely acting on what a lot of people has felt for a long time.
Well done. I approve.
I’m glad you are putting your content of the first and foremost importance.
It’s good to try out other advertising network like Nuffnang but then again, if it does not work out, then don’t waste your time, switch to other advertising network.
thanks… at least I know I am not the only one that got banned!