Widget Ads
This morning, I'm experimenting with a few new ad servers that, according to the companies, are meant to render as widgets on your company/personal website. So far, I'm not impressed.
You'll notice (way at the bottom on the right-hand side) something that basically looks less like a widget and more like an interactive advertisement. Right now, I have it set up to display ads for mp3 players and digital cameras, and the vendors are Amazon and Target. I'm not a huge fan of the way it looks, especially on this site -- the banner looks a bit out of place. I'm using Tumri to create and serve the widget.
On the other hand, I wonder what your reaction might be... We're all very aware that using a simple banner ad is no longer the best way to monetize digital content, especially if a site has less than stellar traffic. The ad-in-widget concept offers interactivity for the user and it offers more content within a single space.
Widgets and toolbars are my current obsession, and I'm currently working on a project to deliver content without a specific platform already designated...
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