Hello! Does anyone here know anything about advertising? Because I've added adverts to my site (below) but apparently they take ages to load so people aren't seeing them, and I'm basically getting no money at all from them. I was kind of expecting to earn a lot more, because I think I'm pretty well known now. I've visited AdSense forums and have contacted Wix, but they say there's nothing I can really do. I will be happy to return the favour somehow, if you can help me. I'll give my thoughts on your books, videos, or whatever...

http://wiedemanncomedy.com

Hi there, I've had a look and the content is funny and Iike the humour but what stood out more than anything are the ads because it pops up right at the top middle of the page which is ruins the homepage. It also looks like ads that have been placed there by the webhost which can appear unprofessional because that generally means the hosting is free but they place ads. The URLs for the ads are also very long which can be a turn off. I'm not sure if they are the ads you're referring to and you might be an affiliate so get paid a proportion for a sale but remember very few people click on ads and a small percentage of those will buy something especially if the product is not related to the content of the website because it's not targeted marketing. Is that the ad you mean and what did Wix say? If you're not paying them anything they probably arn't going to be too helpful so find a web host that offers a basic package which is only a few £ a month and is ad free. You can then set up your own sales links which remain on your website so it will makes visitors more trusting.

From what little I know about online advertising, don't you need to be getting tens of thousands of clicks to even start earning a small amount of money? How many hits are you getting to your site per day?

Thanks a lot for your time. The reason I placed ads right at the top of the page, is because I have to be careful about the positioning, otherwise they might get taken down. The top is nice and safe, though I can make the adverts smaller. However, I think bigger ones get more hits. I'm not sure what you mean by the URLs for the ads.

The company I use to place adverts, AdSense, do use targeted marketing based on cookies and I was referring to all of adverts in my question. I do pay Wix a small amount per month for my website, but again, AdSense are the ones who are in charge of the adverts. The latter (free) company is a lot less helpful! However, the AdSense forum is pretty good. I think I'm going to email some other advertisers and say I think something weird is going on with my apparent lack of hits and see if they can help me. Thanks again.

To Ben: Apparently I'm just getting around 50 hits a day, which is why I'm so surprised. Literally almost everywhere I go, all around London or Guildford, or whatever I seem to get recognised and every day, too. People smile and look at me as if to say, 'hey, I know you!' I don't think I'm imagining it....

The website will be turning people away because no website should have a large advert right at the top centre of the homepage. The golden rule is that the homepage where visitors first land is critical in getting their attention and it has two folds. The top part and if the page is long enough to need scrolling down the bottom part. The part of the homepage you land on is known in online advertising as the first fold and it's where you should only have important images and text in this area because people will only spend a few precious seconds scanning this area. Stuff that is relevant to the theme of the website and helps the visitor understand where they are and how to navigate is the only content that should be there. Visitors will be seeing the first fold of the homepage a lot so having a giant ad wrecks it and if you're only getting 50 hits a day you're never going to get a sale. I tried it and unless you're getting a high visitor count you're never going to turn a lead in to a sale. It's also encouraging people who click on your website to immediately click away to somewhere else before absorbing the content and that should be avoided. The URL is the web address so when you hover over a link and see it appear in the bottom left of your browser that's the URL and if it's very long it puts people off and even more so if it takes the visitor to another website. Never pay companies who promise to send traffic to your site because that is not a guarantee to making sales and it's hard to evaluate the service they provide compared to what they promise. I think you should stop using adsense so there are no adverts on your website and just concentrate on keeping the content going. Use a youtube channel for a revenue stream which can be lucrative if you get enough hits.

It makes your webpage look tacky.

Quote: Simon The Mighty @ 27th June 2018, 6:18 PM

my site

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Improve the spacing between the cursive font words because many of them seem to join together.

Fewer commas. Not "less commas".

The descriptions/explanations of the Comments need to be much shorter.

Read a book on punctuation. Learn when to use a semicolon or colon, and where to put 'etc'.

Your Cookies Policy should be a recipe for cookies or some dietary guidelines limiting cookie consumption.

White text on pale blue is a pain in the arse to read.

I can't see your ads because Ad-Block Plus renders them as empty white boxes. Which do detract somewhat.

Good number of jokes. With a good editor, you could probably write a joke book for kids.

Your main problem, in terms of adverts, is your lack of hits. No matter how perfect your content and positioning of your adverts, 50 hits per day will never earn you anything.

I'd recommend building your profile online. Even then, though, getting enough hits per day is tough. You would need to be creating, at least, several unique articles every day and getting shares/retweets by people with huge audiences themselves.

I get the impression that you're using the website as a showcase for your comedy skills rather than an entertainment website. However, the problem is that mass numbers of people don't go online to search for sketch/sitcom scripts. And the people who have clout and read such scripts don't go online to search for random writers.

I think you need to take a long hard look at the content of your site and evaluate who's going to look at it and why. That's the hardest part. I've been doing a blog for five years now and I only get five to seven hundred hits a day. I got 8,000 one day as a couple of major sites picked up on an article, but that was a one off. For me, it's a hobby, so I'm not too bothered, but I get the feeling you're trying to carve out a career. And, at the moment, your site isn't helping you.

Thanks everyone. Seeing as I haven't been losing any visitors to my website, I think I'll keep my adverts.

To Kenneth: I tried increasing the space between words, but that looked weird. I could write 'fewer commas', but I'm not sure that would fit the tone of my site as much as what I wrote.

About my lack of hits, as I said earlier I'm fairly certain I'm getting recognised pretty much everywhere. However, no one has yet been able to explain my lack of traffic, so I have no idea what's going on... I think maybe for now I'll stop trying to make it on my own, and try and find someone who wants me to write for them. Does anyone know a website that is looking for bloggers, maybe? Thanks again. I guess I'll have to return the favour by reviewing some sketches on this site!

When you say you're getting recognised pretty much everywhere, what are you going on about? Where do people know you from?

I think people just know me from my blog and picture... Here I am... https://www.facebook.com/simon.wiedemann.140?ref=bookmarks You don't know me??

Right, that's me out of this thread.

lol.

It's one of the most severe cases of Cotter Syndrome that I've ever encountered.

A career in politics should beckon. Nothing is your fault.

I don't know what Cotter Syndrome is, I've put the phrase into google and I still don't. I think you've made it up. I really think I should be getting more hits, honestly!