Week 2 Contest Winner

There were only two entries via comment this week. A total of five entries if you count the interviewees that were automatically given 3 points per entry.

After much ado. ( Ok, a hastily written list of the entries) I created a list with the entries in it, went on over to Random.org and created a nice random number. And the number? 5. Which corresponded with the number of Caroline Middlebrook’s first entry. So, WTG Caroline. I’ve sent an email.

UPDATE: Caroline said she doesn’t need the spot, so I redrew and Jim from the Net Fool won.  I’ve sent an email to him and we’ll see if we can’t get the spot filled.

Stay tuned for this weeks contest.

March Madness Week 1 Contest Winner and Week 2 Contest

The Week 1 contest is officially over.  In the end, I didn’t have to work real hard at selecting a winner as there was only one entry.  That winner is Liz from blog-fix.com.  I’ve sent you an email Liz.

On to the Week 2 contest.  We’ll add a few extra dimensions to it this time.  You still get one point for a comment and two for being a subscriber (make sure you say if you are or not in your comment) but we’ll add a few extra ways to enter.  You can get 5 points for writing about the contest and providing a link back to this post.  (Please come and leave a comment with the link so I can be sure I count it.)  It doesn’t have to be anything special.  Just something along the lines of “Thatedeguy is running a contest this week where you can win a 125×125 ad spot for a month on his site thatedeguy.com.  Read the details and enter on the contest page” (I’ll let you pick where to put the link in those sentences)

That’s a total of 8 points you can receive.  If there was only one entry last week, your odds are pretty good that you will win this week.

Also, this weeks theme is on the lines of blogger interviews.  I’ve got two so far with a couple more out that might sneak in.  I’m very thankful to the bloggers that have responded.  As such, I’m giving each of them 3 entries into the contest.

This weeks contest will end at 11:59:59 pm on Friday March 14th.

TLA Dropped, TNX too

With the rollout of the new design, I’ve dropped the use of Text-Link-Ads on this site.  I struggled to find a place for them in the new design and between the dropping income that they’ve been bringing in and a little pressure from the great oogelly moogelly I decided to just remove them altogether.

While I was at it, I removed TNX.net links from the site as well.  Both services have a place and a use, but neither was fitting where I wanted this site to go and I really didn’t want to fill up the front page with more ad stuff.   I’m still considering whether I will put scratchback back in the design or not.  I’ve got room for it on the single pages, but it might stay off of the front page.  Again, the design is such that adding it would really mush stuff together and give more of an appearance of being over ad laden.

So, with that said, there are plenty of open ad spots at the moment.  I’ve changed the advertise page to reflect the new spots and the new prices.  If you are interested in advertising on Thatedeguy, please drop me an email.   I’m thinking of celebrating the new theme with a contest and possibly a discount on the ad spots.  What do you think?

How Do You Price Your Ads?

Banner Ads for SaleI’ve been working on a new design for Thatedeguy.  The current one isn’t doing some of the things that I want it to and I’ve been wanting a more Magazine-y design for a while.  I’ve got it mostly finished and am about |   | this close to being ready to roll it out to production and begin tests here on the live side.

Part of the changes will involve some changes in how advertisements are done here.  I’ll be using some 125X125 banners and possibly a 468X60 banner on the index and other pages and an 160X600 banner in the prime left banner spot on all sub pages.  I may reserve the skyscraper for some affiliate banners, but I’d like to open up the others for purchase.  I’m going to attempt to use the open source ad server, OpenAds to manage those.  Another addition will be the universal use of the rel=nofollow tag on all banners to keep the Google gods happy.  I’ll continue “follow”ing most links in the content and the comments after 3 comments by the author.

My question then, is how do you price those spots?  I’m curious to see if there are any other methods besides the “by the month” method that I plan on using.  Anyone have any luck with CPM or impression ads?

Me next question is how much would you pay for any of those spots on this site?

You can leave your thoughts in the comments.  Feel free to say anything, and you can post anonymously if you fear offending me.  (I’m not easily offended though)   Also, if you’re interested in one of these spots, drop me an email at admin@domain and I’ll drop you a line when I get some more concrete prices and a better idea of a rollout on the new design.