Some of you may have noticed that a certain feature is now missing from Beyond the Rhetoric. I implemented the MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad back in January in an effort to increase the number of RSS subscribers. Because it is capable of carrying a rotation of different links, I tried using the stripe ad to highlight popular posts, draw attention to advertising on BTR, and to promote affiliate deals too.
The thinking was that the stripe ad could provide an extra venue where I could highlight some links without having to take up any pre-existing real estate on this blog. Unfortunately, it seems that the WordPress plug-in hasn’t been quite as effective as I had hoped.
As far as I can tell, the subscriber count on Beyond the Rhetoric did not increase as a result of link at the top and was much better served by the recent video game contest. I didn’t see any additional affiliate income nor was there any major change in page views for the post I highlighted in the Stripe Ad: How to Write a Killer Review. All in all, it’s pretty much been a flop.
Do I regret implementing the MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad? No, not particularly. I decided from the beginning that it was going to be experiment and there was really nothing invested in this case study. Without experimentation and trying new things, we can never learn.
Now, I shouldn’t say that this particular plug-in is of no use, because it seems to be doing just fine on John Chow dot Com and a variation is still being used on Joystiq, Autoblog, and other popular sites. For this reason, I think that it may be best implemented on blogs with much higher levels of traffic.
Do you use the MaxBlogPress Stripe Ad WordPress plug-in? What do you use it for? Has it been effective for you?
I always ignore that yellow bar at the top. Content is always below the header. So, if it’s not an obvious part of the navigation for a site, I just totally ignore it. It’s not even a conscious effort on my part. When I land on a page, I just immediately begin to look or scroll down to the text area.
Maybe it works on John Chow’s site because he has a higher volume of readers, or new online users that haven’t yet become “blind” to those sorts of things?
I use it for promoting my feed and contests. But I am considering removing it, as well as “cleaning” my site.
I was tempted to try it out when I first noticed the yellow bar popping up in many blogs but didn’t install the plugin as it actually caused irritation to my blog reading experience, especially when scrolling down the page.
It looked like a pop up blocker. Something most people want to ignore but try their best to. I would guess h real trick is to find a way to show ads that show them as something people do not want to ignore.
And the most important reason for removing it, it was coded badly. 😛
Thanks for providing your feedback on how it worked – or didn’t work – and why you chose to remove it. It was something I always ignored and there were times it bordered on annoying, so I think the success will also be influenced by your audience.
Like what you have said, try and experiment, if it aint working for you, remove it and try another. This is how you should be working towards a better passive income.
Not a huge fan of that plugin.
Was it only available in that pale yellow?
I’ve never seen any colour other than that but can’t understand why anyone would want to keep it like that (beyond the popup blocker copying bit).
You can tweak the colour in the paid version.
Ahh!
I personally don’t like those top bars, they throw me off a bit.
Too many ads clutter your blog and might displease others.