Dooce vs. Advertising
filed in Blogging/Web, Design: Graphic Design on Nov.01, 2005
(…and Advertising is kicking the crap out of Dooce.)
I’ve been a big fan of the blog known as DOOCE since shortly after I began to blog in April 2004. Dooce is owned and authored by Heather B. Armstrong of Salt Lake City, Utah. She is the quintessential “mommy blogger” and has had minor fame in the blogosphere due to the fact she was fired from her job due to her blogging. Over the past year and half, I’ve almost felt a kindred spirit to her blog since she is/was(?) a graphic designer as well, a photography nut, and had her first child shortly before we had Erin. She has a fantastic sense of humor and wit, which she uses to blog about life in SLC, life after the Mormon church, her husband Jon, daughter Leta and fawn-like dog, Chuck. I loved seeing the masthead and color schemes of her blog change on her whims. Sometimes I liked her new designs, sometimes I didn’t, but the core design was always good enough to grow on me (and that says a lot). From almost the first day I discovered dooce, I have had her linked in my blogroll.
The last few months have brought some major changes to dooce-o-sphere. You see, her husband Jon quit his job and is now a stay-at-home dad (lucky). Their sole income is derived from the advertising spaces they sell on dooce.com. At first, it was only two or three ads at the bottom of the sidebar. It’s gotten worse. Much MUCH WORSE. A few days ago, Heather gave her blog a new layout that now includes flanking sidebars that have nothing but ads from top to bottom. Her actual blog content and navigation is getting crushed like Luke Skywalker in the Death Star’s garbage compactor. Her masthead is not the design of the talented artist I’ve witnessed her to be. Instead it seems as if she just discovered the SHAPE tool in Photoshop and went to town.
When the change first took place, I considered blogging about it but I decided to give it a few days. Hopefully, I mused, she would wake up the next morning and see what she had done and scream “OH MY GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE? NEVER AGAIN WILL I REDESIGN MY BLOG DRUNK AND HIGH!”
But that didn’t happen.
Instead, this evening Heather posted a personal reflection [Wherein a whole bunch of you just roll your eyes] on her blog in which she admits to the horrible advertising pox that has come upon her house, yet is more or less unapologetic to her faithful readers. I left with the impression that she was basically telling us, “sorry if you hate it. I have a feeling that you do. But the ads are staying ’cause it’s making us money and that’s more important than if you like how my site looks or not.” And I can totally dig that. I really can. I mean really, if my blog was my sole source of income for me, my wife and my baby I would totally be advertising… yet at the same time, I would hope that I would have the sense to use the design and organizational skills that I have naturally, and through training, to make my blog an aesthetically pleasing place to be – instead of a depot for loud, screaming ads. Ads that scream more than Heather does. Drug stores, North Country and Save the Dolphins – oh my…
So, I am now thinking of removing dooce from my blogroll. I will continue to visit and read (so long as her quality of writing doesn’t go the way of her design), but I don’t think I can, in good conscience, send my readers (neither of you) to a site that is in such a state of disrepair. It’s actually embarassing as a loyal reader to see her do this to her site. Maybe I’ll give it another day to see if she can breathe some life into her design/layout before removing dooce from the blogroll.
Are you a dooce fan? What do you think of her layout?
Oh, and Heather, if you technorati‘d yourself and wound up here, please leave a note and tell me what for!
November 2nd, 2005 on 7:10 am
Since I’m not too up to speed on the what is good or bad design in blogdem or anything else…I will humbly give my opinion. Nothing about her site is exciting…it’s full of adds, that’s it. If her writing is quality, perhaps I would visit, but otherwise, no.
Also…is she making a substantial amount posting adds? Enough to support her family?
November 2nd, 2005 on 7:23 am
She is charging the following for adspace:
$500/1 week
$900/2 weeks
$1600/1 month
$5000/3 months
So, if she consistently has 8 ads on her site (as she does now), she can be making anywhere between $160,000 – $192,000 annually (before taxes).
And yes, her writing is quality, that’s why it is such a shame.
November 2nd, 2005 on 7:37 am
Let’s get some ads on this baby!!
November 2nd, 2005 on 7:45 am
I have been trying to promote my writing and took out a text ad on Dooce for my blog. Seven days cost me $76. When the ad first ran, it was at the bottom of the sidebar. Then Armstrong redesigned her site and my ad moved to the top of the sidebar. My daily hits soared from 150 to 1000.
I spent the entire week putting out blog after blog, accessible funny stuff. Today (the last of my ad run on Dooce), I posted an excerpt from my novel. Sort of a self-promoting commercial, but I feel I’ve earned it. Plus the excerpt itself is entertaining and it stands nicely on its own. I’ll come out swinging first thing tomorrow, with more blog-o-rama.
So I’m one of the bad guys who advertised, but at least when you click on my link, you get something valuable that is free of charge. I’m banking that if I truly proove myself as a writer, I’ll eventually get to success, whether if that’s through my book, appearances or other gigs.
Armstrong said “no” to allowing my ad to recur. Maybe she was upping the price, but I like to think she was a tad intimidated by my blog (yeah, right). I couldn’t afford it anyway.
She allows three text ads, so that’s about $225 per week. The larger graphic ads go for $500 a week (less if you run longer) and when I checked, she had 7 going. I have no idea what percentage Armstrong nets off the total gross. Whatever it is, she’s turning a nice buck.
But face it, she is a self-published national columnist, and an enormously popular one at that.
I would love to swear that I’ll never allow an ad on my blog, but if I ever get that popular, a few hundred clams a week sure would be nice around here. If nothing else, it might help me achieve one of my lifetime goals: to purchase a cosmetic or toiletry from someplace other than Walmart.
I’m glad I stopped in and joined the dialogue. Dig my blog if you have a chance.
One last thought, whatever happens to me in this career, it’s all about the writing. It’s all about respecting the readers. It’s all about getting closer to the truth and the human condition.
November 2nd, 2005 on 8:03 am
Hey Erin, thanks for stopping by. I have a feeling I didn’t make myself very clear. I have absolutely nothing against ads on a blog. I have absolutely nothing against self-published authors advertising on blogs. I have absolutely nothing against earning money from your blog. My beef is solely with the design/layout of dooce’s blog. She is a gifted designer and I really expected more out of her than that mess. A graphic designer’s first responsiblity is to organize information. In my opinion, she has failed at that task.
Have all the ads you want! Just make it look nice is all I ask.
November 2nd, 2005 on 9:02 am
I’m a big fan of Dooce, and regardless of her layout, I will continue to visit her site because I go there for the writing and the humor. Yeah, her design was better before, but as a reader and a designer, the look was just a bonus. I also think that the design isn’t permanent. She’s an artist just like you and I. And as you know, we’re NEVER entirely happy unless we’re tweaking things constantly!
If you added links on your blogroll strictly on aesthetic alone, how many of the blogs would REALLY pass your design criteria?
November 2nd, 2005 on 9:08 am
I too will continue to read dooce. However, each of my blogroll links appear for a specific reason – not just aesthetics. Most of them, like yourself, are there because I know you personally – content/aesthetics aside – you’re on my blogroll because you’re my real life friend.
I don’t know Heather B. Armstrong. Dooce is on my blogroll for her content alone and I consider a blog’s “content” to be not just the writing but the whole package. Half her blog’s package just went AWOL. That’s a little bit disappointing to me. Not that she cares one lick what I think…. 🙂
November 2nd, 2005 on 9:28 am
Yo comprendo now. I was “introdooced” via your blogroll, and i’m glad I was. It’s the refreshing outlook on life and the humor that I enjoy. A new reader wouldn’t know the new dooce from the old, and would enjoy the writing just as much. The ads may seem ubiquitous now, but visually I think they will soon blend into the blogscape before you know it.
My vote is to KEEP her on the blogroll. And if you don’t my next comment will be ALL CAPS! SO WATCH IT, MISTER!
November 2nd, 2005 on 1:01 pm
Man, I WISH I could sell advertising space on my blog! Of course, because I can’t, I can just tell people I write for the joy and the practice, and not the financial remuneration.
And I’ll just say this: I’m glad all blogs aren’t judged by aesthetics!!!