How to really piss off web surfers with ads, and how to avoid angering them

[mandy]

Article examines web users pet peeves when it comes to online advertising formats, and what you can do to avoid pissing them off while at the same time maximizing your ad revenues.

The fact that intrusive web ads abound does not mean that anyone particularly likes to see them. "We don't want to accept some of these ads," says an exasperated New York online publisher about a recent decision to run a full-screen takeover ad on the company home page. "But what do we say to $400,000?"

Good question. If you ask the web users in our recent usability lab test of ads, their advice would be: just say no.

In a study we conducted in May about user response to only ads, all users were unhesitating in expressing their negative feelings toward intrusive ad formats including:

    * Takeovers
    * Pop-overs
    * Pop-unders
    * Auto-launched audio/video
    * "Stalker" ads

full article: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10284.asp