The Review That Never Happened

It’s funny, I just read a press release for a new Web site that is trying to compete with CitySearch and other destination-review stops. But I’ve decided against it. Why? Because after visiting the site, I was bombarded with ads.

You deserve better, dear reader.

So the site is not getting mentioned on Rotorblog, but allow this post to serve as a reminder to all social networking and Web 2.0 site owners: content is king and too many ads makes the king look like a court jester.

Many of today’s sites are created to fill a void and make the owner money, though not necessarily in that order. In the case of the site I won’t review, they are relatively new on the seen with minimal traffic. Then why on God’s green earth would they litter the place with PPC ads? They’ve shot themselves in the foot before they have left the gate!

The balance of content and ads is a juggling act. Much of it will be dictated by design and placement, but if you had to assign a ratio to it, what do you think is a fair proportion of content to ads? 80/20, 70/30, 60/40?

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.