Blend them into my site and and my income drops from an already small base.

Why is my experience the opposite to everybody else?

Blend the adds for higher income? Every time I follow that advice my income and click throughs drop.

As I say numerous times in the post, I understand the fine line that PBS has to walk and don’t really expect them to put the ads in the middle of content – all I was saying is that IF they did (or any other publishers did) they’d experience a better return as a general principle.

In terms of it being the default color scheme – I can understand how it’s happened but to be honest am still a bit surprised that they decided to go with the default as a launch. I know most AdSense users experiment so I’d expect them to change but I’ve never seen a large publisher like this start off with the default ads. It’s not an attack – just ‘different’.

In terms of my assumption that its one person or a team overseeing the whole PBS site – to be honest I don’t know where you get that assumption having re-read my post. I remember thinking as I wrote it that I suspected that it was multiple people or teams doing it because the different sections of PBS’s website are quite distinct from each other and it is such a large site.

You said – ‘Maximizing returns and whatnot sounds good, but in direct practice, it generally means, “Interrupt the flow of reading and force readers to see the ad.”’

That’s an interesting statement and one people have debated for a long time. I actually agree with you to some degree. Ads are useless unless people see them and my theory is that unless you’re willing to put them in a spot that people’s eyes travel it’s hardly worth putting them on a page.

Of course there are different degrees of this and as I say in the post PBS currently has the ads placed in a spot that is about middle of the road – better than some positions and worse than others. I don’t make judgements about PBS’s charter – if they are comfortable with them where they are then so am I – ultimately it’s not my business and I don’t really care. All I was doing is using the page as a case study to illustrate how it could be done if maximum income was the only goal (which it clearly is not).

On the other hand it’s also possible to interrupt the flow of a site with ads that are not in content but that have contrasting and non matching ads.

I do appreciate you stopping by to add what you know – it’d be fascinating to hear the discussions behind the decisions to ad adds. I’m sure it’s not something they’ve done with unanimous support from all PBS lovers or workers – but it will be fascinating to watch how it progresses in the weeks and months ahead.

There are assumptions here. Darren almost certainly doesn’t know what PBS’ requirements(not just desires) are for placing these ads, and that it’s not likely to be a consistent decision. It’s irrelevant whether that’s a good or bad thing; it’s just a necessary fact of this post being made at all. I’m offering a bit more information for consideration as someone who’s completed two projects for them, under two different teams, with one of those projects soon to get the advertising, in whose placement I have no say, I should add.

Keep in mind that maximizing is a relative concept. It is entirely possible that given the constraints those teams(I’m fairly sure the Teachersource area is headed by different people from Life & Culture) are operating under, those placements are optimal, because they just can’t go anyplace else. (This is purely theoretical; but so’s the entire post in the first place.)

As for the ads being ugly/sticking out, I’ve already covered that. On the project I’ve worked, there was absolutely no resistance to matching them to the site that I’m aware of, though they’ve yet to be implemented, so we shall see.

Su, I don’t think Darren is making any assumptions about what PBS hopes to accomplish with their ads… he seems to be simply sticking to the topic here at ProBlogger, which is how to maximize money from a web site.

I think he makes it fairly clear that he’s not suggesting that they NEED to make these changes, only that they COULD make these changes, and hence make more money…something most ProBlogger readers are very interested in :)

Also since they’re a “respected” source, ads that are clearly marked as such will maybe make the user have more trust in the advertised website, which means more conversions, which means no decrease in earnings because of smart pricing.

Maybe they’re better like that – maybe not…

And regarding the specialized ad layouts, that’s a feature offered to some publishers – both premium and non-premium – for specific websites. But that’s all top-secret and I’m not allowed to tell about it…

Erm…you specifically point out later that this is the default look.
I’d venture someone hasn’t bothered to or cared about customizing.
(Disclosure: I’ve recently done some work for PBS, and while it isn’t using the ads just yet, they will be color-matched.)

I think you might ultimately be making the mistaken assumption that some single person or team is overseeing every section of PBS. This is incorrect.

Also, not everybody running ads necessarily wants to maximize(read: interrupt content with) them. This sounds like a bit of a sideline experiment, and seems it’s being treated as such.

This clear delineation between sponsors and content explains why they’ve chosen not to optimize the ads they’re showing, and I think it does make perfect sense for them. Yes, they are definitely working with Google on this one, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that they’re only showing site-targeted ads, for example, and perhaps get to filter or approve the ads in ways that us normal publishers can’t.