Gene Lu

Inspiring Sites Lack Ads
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
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Park Bench
  

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Frodo
After well over a year of designing with IAB ad sizes in mind, I noticed that all the web design materials I own / seen at the bookstore / seen on the web don't feature sites that have ads designed into them. Sure the ads may tamper with the look and feel, but honestly, how else do these sites make money?! Ok, yes, not all sites are as fortunate as threadless.com where they make enough money to not have to ads, but please, don't forget about the 'little' people!

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Godzilla!
There are times where I find myself looking for ideas and inspiration from site designs, but after thumbing through books like the Web Design Index (Pepin Press) and sites like Smashing Magazine, I realize that there are no best practices (in regards to ad placement) being shared. It's either a portfolio site, someone's blog or a site selling a product or service.

Resources showcasing sites with ads designed into them need to be made more accessible so that perhaps we can quickly evolve and further streamline such designs. Personally, I'm VERY interested in seeing how designers handle a leaderboard (728x90) or maybe a skyscraper (300x600) ad in their work. Ads might be restrictive and cramp your style, but there's room for you to get creative with them.

If you have any web / print resources that showcase such sites, feel free to share. :)

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.
 
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