I’ve been a ClickZ reader for years, while most of their articles are marketing and advertising related they also have valuable content in the web usability and information architecture areas.
But I think I’m about done with them. Their interstitial ads aren’t that bad (ads I get when I click a link to one of their stories, that either goes away in 9 seconds or has a link to skip).
The actual article pages, however, are starting to suffer from the “more, bigger, animated ads is better” approach to advertising. This one is a case in point. The ad from the Washington Post covers half of the screen, is bright red, and is animated. It’s literally impossible to read the article, and I have a well-developed case of “banner blindness”.
I notice the ads are randomized on that page, so here’s a screen grab of the offensive ad, minus the completely irritating animation:
I understand the need for a business to generate income - but by making their articles completely impossible to read, ClickZ is taking the risk of losing anyone to sell to.
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