Okay, so the baseball website needs to make money and I know that I am not the only one that has experienced this. It appears that over 50 potential advertisers have expressed interest in the all Arizona baseball site, AZ Hardball. Awesome! I am flattered but, I know that the visitors love the content. Although this poses an excellent opportunity to make some additional cash, I have some agreements locked in. I know… bad move. Adapt and adjust.

What my thought is that there is a fine line between proper ad placement and too many ads. If ads are not placed properly, they can take away from the experience. Several thousands of hours go into site usability studies that show that the same number of ads, if not placed properly can seem to be too many.

In conclusion, I am fine with the current layout and the length of visits to the site show that the users are too. That been said, I may have an upcoming action item to create a banner management system but, in the meantime, enjoy the site for what it is. There will be no additional ad real estate forthcoming, perhaps only the ability for us to rotate ads more frequently, not to take away from the user experience.

Marketing and ads are what I do, so this is kind of difficult for me to write about. Even more difficult will be the post on the decision for me leaving my prior place of employment (probably will come in another year). If you have any feedback, let me know. I would love to hear you take on my stance.