As you might have noticed, we removed just about all advertising from our site. Last summer, we signed on board with an ad network that specializes in indie content. We had high hopes that an additional source of revenue would enable us to kick more ass and potentially quit our day-jobs. So, what happened?

Holiday Matinee in November 2010

As it turned out, the traditional advertising model of CPC just wasn’t a good match for us. To make any significant income, you’d need crazy amount of traffic and the reality is, that model just doesn’t work well in today’s online landscape unless you’re the NY Times or CNN. We had enough of subjecting your eyeballs to crappy American Apparel or ITT Tech ads. It wasn’t worth it. We’re a niche site and it’s okay that we’re not for everyone.

But delivering great content is what’s important. Writing to help, inspire or make you guys laugh means the world to us and gives us a purpose. We should not have let bold advertising interfere with that, but the experiment is over. Moving forward, we’re keeping our day jobs while maintaining an open discussion on how to bring in additional revenue sources so we can keep spreading awesome. One company that we’ve got our eyes on is The Deck. Rather than pay a cost per click, they sell ads on a monthly basis to brands that fit your content and they seem to truly value engagement of your readers rather than the number of site visits. That’s definitely more our speed and hopefully, we’ll make some magic together.

What are your thoughts on blogs with ad models? Do you find yourself relating to a lot of the content thrown in your face? What are your favorite sites that have a good balance between advertising and content? Let us know!

Dear Dave,

My name is Sarah from Article Writing Services. We have a client who would like to pay you for the opportunity to post some of their content on your website. All of the content is professionally produced and you can select from pieces relevant to your audience. The result is you get some free, interesting content for your readers while getting paid.

In return our client is asking for one link that they specify at the bottom of the content (no porn or gambling). Feel free to contact me with any concerns or clarifications you may have. If you would like to see some examples of our content, please email me so we can begin.

Sincerely,
Sarah Miller
Outreach Manager – Article Writing Services

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Hi Sarah,
Thanks for being in touch but we don’t accept payment for content. That’s illegal, morally wrong and downright disgusting to ever think of doing to our readers.

Have a wonderful day,
Dave

This is why I love Tumblr.

My friend Niamh is right, good humor should be implemented in marketing initiatives more often. It’s a great tool for allowing us to relate to brands and reevaluate our purchasing decisions in a comfortable manner. Too often, brands assume consumers to be stupid, yet, it’s the ones who are crafty, creative and full of wit that succeed.

You’d think the GAP logo disaster would have taught brands a thing or two about logo design. Apparently, the Washington Nationals brand managers were out to lunch (perhaps at Walgreens?) when coming up with their team’s new logo. [via BKS]

I’m loving the creative concept behind Temujin Doran‘s commercial for Lego. The video takes those traditional childhood toys and places them in real-world settings. Fun fact: the pieces used in the advertisement were actually from the stash that Doran used to play with as a child.

I’d love to see Don Draper try to sell Facebook, YouTube, or Skype to the masses in 1964. Lucky for me, this is exactly the look that Brazilian advertising agency Moma was going for when they created a series of posters featuring social networking technologies. The “Everything Ages Fast” campaign features the very best combination of contemporary and vintage. (via Laughing Squid)