There are a lot of problems with online advertising, and lots of fingers pointing in lots of directions, but I'll tell you this: the fault lies also with the very sites scrambling to make dollars...

Cookie cutter advertising DOES. NOT. WORK.

Many of my very own friends block ads in their browsers (despite my explanations to them that the very ads they block help to pay for the dinner parties I throw them). Most of the people I know who don't block ads suffer from at least some form of banner blindness - heck, I'm not immune, either. And sure, some of the fault for such a tough row to hoe in the online ad world lies with the consumer - the "expectation of free", etc.

But the reality is that the biggest cause of banner blindness, ad blocking and other bypassing-the-ads mentality is because, frankly, most online ads suck. And whose fault is that? Yes. Ours: Content owners. Ad salespeople. The very people most hurt by said banner blindness, ad blockage, etc.

Relevance, people, relevance. I'm not even talking about pseudo-creepy cookie tracking give-us-your-underwear kind of relevance. I'm talking about the responsibility of the content creator to ensure that the ads they're showing with their content will actually be of interest to the viewer.

That means:

1. Actually taking the time to vet ads rather than just slapping up any old ad network. Yes, ad networks are easier, but even topically-relevant networks are NEVER going to be as relevant as hand-selected advertisers and campaigns to match content.
2. Caring more about the long term viability of your ability to make money from advertising than the immediate bottom line. Ad salesmen are in such a tizzy these days that if you come up with the cash, they'll sell you an ad - and to heck with whether the campaign will work, whether the readers will find it a value-add or will see fit to ignore it.
3. Working with your advertisers to craft custom, relevant advertising content and imagery that will actually entice your own readership. Why does your editorial department craft its stories for your readership so carefully? Why isn't advertising for your site crafted, matched, and displayed with equal "editorial" care?

Thinking low-tech smart rather than high-tech smart will help; we don't need a better scripted widget. We don't need 3D advertising that will reach out and actually smack the person viewing the site. We don't need Smellivision. Most of what I'm suggesting here can be accomplished with more hands-on work with the advertisers.

What's more, I can tell you from my own corporate experience that IAB ad standards contribute to the suckage. And for two reasons:

1. If banner blindness is as rampant as we all believe it to be, why do you think that is? Because when we visually see an image that's a certain size, certain shape, certain placement, with very little relevance to what we're reading... our eye immediately identifies it as an ad, and passes over. (Some ad blockers work this way too.)

2. By creating the closest thing we can get online to the same established thinking about advertising that has always existed. The idea behind the standards is so that a company can create ONE set of banners and use them on a variety of web sites. (Just like they could in print. Ahem. Institutionalized thinking much?) But you know what? One company shouldn't be creating one set of ads to be used on a variety of web sites. It should be customized to the web site anyway - ideally, tied to content that is similar to what's being advertised - so what's the big deal about making new creative in a slightly different size?

(Switching away from IAB-sized content on my own web sites typically increases CTR by 25-50%. Not kidding.)

If you want your readers to stop using ad blockers, stop ignoring your ads and generally treating your advertisers better, you have to treat them better first. Make an investment in your advertising: help advertisers target the right content on your site. Seek out not the companies with the deepest pockets but the most relevant companies you can find for your content and convince them why this relevance will be so much more valuable than a front page ad on GenericSiteWithAMillionHitsADay.com.

Start courting your readers not just with your content, but with your advertising - because if you craft your advertising as carefully as your content, it becomes part of your service to them. People will want to see it, be more likely to look at it, be more likely to click on it. Advertisers will love you. People will want to know how you succeeded, and start copying you.

We could start a revolution. Think about it.

"Central responsibility for managing departmental and interpersonal relationships in order to identify and utilize resources"

What does that mean? Why do so many corporations and, by extension, their employees talk like this - to each other, and to customers? If there's one thing missing from my life since running my own company full time, it's been a dearth of corporate speak. I tend to be much more direct in my everyday dealings, and that's on purpose, folks - frankly, I think that business language is just as ripe for a good usability makeover as everything else businesses do.

I've been looking for new career directions lately, and this topic has hands down been one of my biggest concerns. After five years without adding -ize to the end of many words, I'm worried that I won't fit in - or won't sound as accomplished as I actually am, since I use rather simpler language.

Luckily, the folks at 37 Signals have something reassuring for me today: a oh-so-timely post about weaselwords and the absurdity of corporate speak.

They link to a lovely little site called Weasel Words which sums it up far better than I:

"Management-speak has triumphed. It has made much of our everyday language dull, dimwitted and meaningless. To sound professional, you must express everything in abstract nouns, and each noun in terms of another one; you must talk about synergy and strategy, uptake and outcomes and outputs and inputs, key performance indicators and drivers and customer experience - even if your 'customers' are in fact patients in a hospital."

Exactly.

You know, I had a system for this blog for, well, forever, and then I broke it with my chocolate and strawberry phase (all four of you who remember that and, for that matter, who still remember this wee blog at all, get brownie points with EXTRA chocolate).

The system was simple: the blog shall always have legs. (I went through roughly six redesigns in six years and every single design had legs in the design... somewhere.) Sure, I liked it for pure hotness factor but I also believe, since this poor thing's been languishing unloved for months, that the legs just kept things moving.

Two days and a lot of snarly code later, it finally looks better, doesn't it? Hence inspiring me to write. (I can't believe I just used hence in a sentence.)

For the blog geeks among us, yes, I'm still working with MT 3.33 which is, as of today, roughly a million years old. Sue me - I hate the new (4.x) templates. I like to come up with my own modularity rather than having it forced on me. I'm picky that way.

New coolness to share with you...

1. NEW RSS feed. Yes, if you're reading this in a reader (which is a phrase so ridiculous it makes my head want to explode) then you'll want to update to the newest feed, because the old ones will no longer be updated. New feed link: http://www.angiemckaig.com/rss/

2. The bunny is back. If you're an old-skool Angie McKaig reader, you know what that means. You're welcome.

3. The social explosion on the right sidebar. Yes, I'm fully social and have been for ages but hadn't updated this lovely site to really reflect my social-ness. How 6 years changes a gal.

3a. Note the Tumblr sidebar, far right. It's not fully functional yet - each post doesn't link to itself - but I wanted to point it out. I'll get the full linkiness working soon, but in the meantime you can click the tumblr link at the top (or, since that's really mean of me, simply click here) and see the entire tumblr blog in all its loveliness. FIXED! Mostly, I use it for visual inspiration, so if you're a visual sort, I suggest checking it out.

4. Integrated links (fmly Assorted Sweets) and posts again. Because separating them out was an experiment that just didn't work. That goes for the RSS feed (see point #1) - it's all together now, baby.

5. Commenting now available on link posts! :) Because I post so many of them with a little snark or comment - and from time to time even in the current desert of my postings I'll get a response from a reader via email, and that's just so 1997.

6. Pagination. (You're welcome.) Because archive pages are also so 1997.

7. My ode to Mark Morford. A million years ago he used to publish The Daily Fix which was the best email newsletter ever, IMO, and near the bottom of every post he had a paragraph chock full of fantastic personal quotes he'd written himself - words to live by - and I've crafted a few of my own (and stolen one from Stanley Kubrick) at the bottom of every page on the site, to amuse and make happy those of you who, like me, enjoy the details.

More posts soon? You bet. Stick around.