A quick bite before I get to sleep here.
I got this email early today from Project Wonderful, an ad service that’s been running for more than a decade, detailing that they are preparing to shut down.
In the past, when I was heavier into blogging and really trying to maintain an online presence, I fell in love with their service. The way bidding on ad slots worked was a beautiful thing. It had a delicate balance allowing for smaller folks like myself to have a number of places to advertise, while allowing the bigger fish who had more disposable income to bid on some of the high end traffic.
I could run a small ad campaign one week to get a few new readers, and it would cost me little to nothing. In exchange, I also offered an ad space, to let folks have that same opportunity to get the word out about perhaps their small webcomic, or a book they’re writing, or a tiny, handcrafted items shop that sells on eBay needed a chance to get in front of more eyes — all were welcome in the eyes of Project Wonderful’s ad boxes.
I’m rather saddened, even though I no longer run an ad box on any of my domains, but I can certainly understand why. In the age of advertisement filtration systems, it is hard for folks to get those eye minutes. Some folk don’t even know how to configure exceptions, so Project Wonderful, who already had the smaller viewership, was likely seeing further dwindling of that. Add on sites with mobile themes that may not show the ads, and the increase of using cellphones and tablets for day to day tasks, and it just takes away potential revenue sources, along with new viewers to random edges and corners of the internet.
I know that whenever I installed an ad blocker, I would go check the rules to make sure that Project Wonderful was not being filtered out, because the ads didn’t make me want to beat someone with their arms — heck, I’ve discovered a few new things with their ads. I’m actually kind of certain that I discovered Buy Me a Coffee through a PW ad, now that I’m thinking about it… 🙂
Anyhow, I’ve taken the time to toss up one or two last ad campaigns on Project Wonderful before they fully shut down the ad servers in July; a bit of a last hurrah of sorts. If you’re here because an ad told you it’s high time to Lick the Blue Things, welcome along. 🙂