F1 Linksheaven has a post at the moment complaining at the number of F1 blogs that contain advertising, particularly the dancing, flashing variety. While I agree that the proliferation of advertising on the net becomes intrusive and distracting, it seems to me that blogs are not the worst culprits. Most of those that I visit confine the advertising to a few Google Adsense ads - perhaps it's all about your chosen neighborhood.
The real offenders are the F1 sites, those worthy extensions of the magazines that make a few bucks on the side with their ads. Just take a look at Autosport if you want to see the most intrusive advert ever created. This baby sends youthful merry makers and boxes prancing down the page, obscuring the text and cluttering your vision; you have to wait for them to be sucked back into their alloted space before you can continue reading. Oh, they give you a little "Close" button but it doesn't work.
That advert has singlehandedly managed to make me consider dropping Autosport from my daily reads, as happened to F1-Live. With that one, the ads were not the main problem - it was the multi-layered approach to web design, leaving the reader with page after page to click through before reaching the news. And each page has its quota of animations and fancy graphics to slow everything down.
On the net, only two things matter: content and speed. The vast majority of readers are there for information and they want it quickly. It helps if the site is easy on the eye but if it's done at the cost of speed in loading, it doesn't matter how pretty your site is, it won't get read. And it doesn't help the advertisers if readers are turned away from the site - all their flashy, prancing animations are just garbage if no-one ever clicks on the stupid things.
The news blog that I run, Formula1Sport, does have a few ads of the fancy, mobile variety. A sale of the site is presently being negotiated and this has meant that improvements have not been made in the meantime, but the intention is that this type of advertising will be banished as soon as I can get to it. The majority of the income from the site comes via Adsense anyway, the flashy ads contributing a tiny amount only.
It just shows how long it is taking traditional industries to adapt to the new medium of the net. All-singing, all-dancing ads might go down very well on television but on the net they are a complete waste of time and money. Google, as a company rooted and dependent on the net, have shown the way with Adsense, but this is merely a first primitive thought on the matter. In time the cleverest advertisers will come up with new ways to sell things through the net - they just haven't managed it yet.
With a little thought and ingenuity, F1 blogs and sites could demonstrate that they are the cutting edge of technology in this field. They have a large and knowledgeable market and plenty of advertisers willing to take advantage of it. The trick will be in coming up with a form of advertising that is relevant to the tastes of the readers, is restrained but noticeable (I think most net users don't even see Adsense anymore), and does not irritate the reader beyond endurance.
It's a tricky one but someone will do it, sooner or later. And then, hopefully, we can say goodbye to adverts that take over our computers and thrust themselves in our faces.