I Tested And Removed Kontera In-Text Ads

I signed up with Kontera back in July but held off testing it until this week. In the short few days that I had it installed, it generated pennies in revenue despite being there on some of my highest traffic days. I removed if for that and other reasons.

When I installed the code, and even after I changed the link colors from orange to green, I still thought the links were ugly and obtrusive.
The "ContentLink™" that pops up is just plain annoying.
There were more of their ad links than the actual hyperlinks I added to the content, up to 5 at a time.
They responded to my email questions with "canned" responses and didn't even answer the first question.

Unless you're getting more than 1,000 unique visitors per day, I don't see Kontera as a viable alternative to anything else. I'd rather put Google AdSense back on my blog before wasting my time with this.

December 6th, 2007 By RT Cunningham | Categories: Advertising | Tags: AdSense, Google, Kontera |

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Maurice (TheCaymanHost) on December 6th, 2007 at 10:04 am (Reply)

I have to agree that Kontera is not so great for blogs as it seems to really hack readers off.

I conducted a small poll a while back and the majority preferred to wave goodbye to the pop up ads.

I removed it from my blogs, but it's still working on some other sites I have lying around where it intrudes less. Makes a few dollars here and there but nothing major.
hari on December 6th, 2007 at 10:49 am (Reply)

I agree that nobody is ever likely to click on those ads, especially since their context sensitivity is pathetic even as compared to AdSense.

Kontera just takes the keyword's meaning without taking in the context in which it was used, leading to ridiculous advertisements.

hari's last blog post..PapaRank? - ranking for human beings
MrCorey on December 6th, 2007 at 10:56 am (Reply)

If you had kept those ugly things, I would have still visited, but I might have been forced to use a text browser, like Lynx
Matt on December 6th, 2007 at 11:31 am (Reply)

They definitely place too many on a page. A very low limit would be much better (like 1 or 2). You can add a var to only have single line links rather than the double links, which make them a little less ugly, except when they get mouse'd over.
Stephen Cronin on December 6th, 2007 at 4:32 pm (Reply)

As a reader I find Kontera ads very annoying. Not annoying enough to leave the page if I'm interested in it, but annoying all the same. I less annoyed by Adsense because it's separated from the content a little more (even when it's in the middle of the content, it's still separated a little).

Stephen Cronin's last blog post..FeedEntryHeader In Action (On A Splog)
RT Cunningham on December 6th, 2007 at 4:54 pm (Reply)

Lynx, that would do the trick all right.

Yep, Kontera is out. I was approved for the Miva network, which looks a lot like AdSense. I plan to use it, but not until after I get a plugin setup called "Who sees ads".
2. MrCorey on December 7th, 2007 at 11:54 am (Reply)
  
  That's a good plugin. If I had ads, I'd use it.
  
  MrCorey's last blog post..Sometimes a good percentage might be bad
goldcoaster on December 6th, 2007 at 7:03 pm (Reply)

I am glad you removed them, good move.

I understand people want to earn a little money from their blogs but these ads are like a modern form of pop-ups, just scolling down a page has these little buggers popping up all over.

goldcoaster's last blog post..Foola the best iTunes replacement - updated
Chris on December 7th, 2007 at 5:07 am (Reply)

I agree with the general consensus that they're pretty annoying. We all would like to make a few bucks off our blogs, but those links kind of steer me away from a blog unless it's a freakin' awesome blog.

Chris's last blog post..Migrating Classic Blogger To Wordpress (Video)
Chris Lodge on December 7th, 2007 at 5:41 am (Reply)

I toyed with the idea of these for so long…. I was actually mailed on a daily basis by a Kontera rep hassling me to install them, which is hysterical when you consider how low my traffic is.

Glad I didn't install them now.

Chris Lodge's last blog post..Use Blogger And Miss 3/4 Of The Internet
2. RT Cunningham on December 7th, 2007 at 4:31 pm (Reply)
  
  The Kontera rep left me alone after I said I had JavaScript problems.