ad placement advice

I like pie · 05-22-2007, 08:31 PM

I'm designing a site from scratch to hold the archive of an online comic strip I did awhile back. I'm pretty pleased with the overall look of things so far, but I'm stuck with how to go about placing my ads.

http://dev.snatcomic.com/archive.php

Yes, it's "plain", but I've loved plain designs for years. The thing I need help with isn't with the actual design, but rather how not to break the general feel I have there while incorporating ads.

The little foohon pie banner up top is VERY neatly replaced by a 468x60 ad banner. Problem is, that foohon pie banner is meant to represent the site. It will eventually be replaced by a banner with some of my comic characters. As nice of a spot that makes for a banner ad, i don't want "ads by google" to be the first thing on my page; it makes me look like i sold my ass to adsense.

My next thought was to put it at the very bottom, but it seems like it would be too visually jarring/awkward down there.

Both of my columns are far too thin to hold your average vertical banner, and I can't widen them without forcing horizontal scroll because my comic images are too wide.

What I CAN do however, is add the links on the right side to the column on the left, and change the right column to work with ads. That seems like the best option, but honestly I really like the sense of symmetry the current design has.

I'm not wanting to admit it to myself, but I'm starting to think that my best option might be to just go without ads. Not a terrible thing, but I KNOW based off past experience with this material that I'd get quite a bit people exploring the site across alot of pageviews. Especially considering the new comic/character browsing stuff I've implemented.

So what would you do in my situation? Is adsense even worth it?

nks · 05-22-2007, 08:41 PM

Every little bit helps. Even if you are not doing full-time as a webmaster, AdSense simply add a little bit more income to your revenue. Take it as a form of incentive to yourself and encouragement to further improve your writings.

I like pie · 05-25-2007, 01:12 AM

well, i decided that a smaller banner at the very bottom left doesn't look so bad after all. i was gonna go huge leaderboard at first, but it squashed my copyright text and threw off the symmetry.

i think it actually doesn't look too bad this way. maybe even better than without an ad, the page is "sandwiched" horizontally and veritcally now:

http://www.snatcomic.com/friends.php

Brian M · 05-27-2007, 11:23 AM

Hi. Its real hard to make ads look good. But I wanted to let you know when you mouse over the Nervillsage under the Mia tab your whole right nav bar dissapears. I checked the rest and they work fine.

I like pie · 05-30-2007, 10:55 AM

eep, that's no good. thanks for the heads up.

what browser/resolution are you on?

Brian M · 05-30-2007, 01:48 PM

I am using ie 6.0, my screen resolution is 1024 X 768. I don't think its a browser issue, tho, I think its a coding problem. Hope this helps. Some of your cartoons are funny.