Visiting Umeå
(note: There are lots of links to Swedish blogs here, so don't get mad if you find them hard to read!)
We (I, Johanna, the dogs and my friend Micke) have left Jokkmokk for a while. Yesterday we drove down to Umeå, and we will stay here for the rest of the week to hang around with Petter (that is "DJ Isecore" to some of you) and Ann-Sofie. I am right now writing from the guest room in their apartment in Ersboda, our home for this week…
The trip has been planned for months, and I have looked forward to it for even longer since I haven't had a chance to visit Umeå since 2003. We are planning for a number of things while we are here. Having a pizza at Queens, visiting Nydalasjön, having a party to bring old memories back to life and going to the national dog show in Vännä are some of those things. I've brought my laptop in order to get some work finished, but I will probably not be very much online until monday next week. I will make sure to post a few photos during our visit here, but I will not be able to spend my regular 3-4 hours per day on answering e-mails for the next couple of days…
More on sponsorships
However, two things I would want to do this week is to get the first template sponsoring slots filled, and to find advertisers for the "Sponsored links" in the sidebar of all pages except the frontpage. The sidebar links will look exactly the same as the Text-Link-Ads.com links you see on my frontpage, but they will be cheaper and signed for periods of 6 months rather than 30 days. Let me know if you are interested in it, but hurry up since the number of link slots are limited! I expect to have them all filled before the weekend, so don't wait if you are interested in it.
Regarding the template sponsorships I'm starting with andreas00, 01, 02, 03 and 1024px for now. Template sponsorship means that the advertiser gets a text link on the templates page and a graphic banner (or another text link if preferred) on the subpage for the sponsored template. As I have described before, each template will get its own subpage under the templates section, and each and every template will have a lifetime sponsoring slot. When someone decides to sponsor a template, that template is taken and the sponsorship lasts for as long as the template is available on this site. Probably for years ahead. I have no fixed price yet, so I welcome offers and suggestions. Feel free to e-mail me about your opinions, it would be a great help!
I prefer to not add sponsored links inside the template itself as I think it reduces the quality of my work, so the sponsored links will only be placed on the template pages of this site. Sponsored links in templates are very common and generally accepted today, and I have had it myself in my templates and themes before. By adding this sponsorship option, I'm hoping to keep the sponsored links outside the templates - but still keep the possibility to work as a professional template designer even though my work is free for everyone to download.
And as I have also explained earlier: There will never be any sponsored links in my WordPress themes either. But may possibly add the same kind of sponsorship option for the upcoming theme pages, if there is enough interest for it. If you would want to sponsor a WordPress theme page on this site, please let me know.
Vacation?
Yes, hopefully! And if not, then atleast it will be a great week away from home, with good friends and hopefully lots of sunshine. That is a really good start!
Comments can be only posted for 14 days after the post date. If you have comments about an older post such as this one, feel free to send me an e-mail!
Comment from Robbie
Time: June 13, 2007, 20:45
Fingers crossed for having sunshine, and glad you finally had that trip you waited for so long :) .
Comment from Design
Time: June 13, 2007, 22:58
Andreas I recommend you to go in this summer on the sea. To lie down on a beach, and it is simply good to have a rest.
Comment from gry
Time: June 15, 2007, 16:05
Thanks for very interesting article. btw. really nice songs, Greetings.
Comment from Tomek
Time: June 15, 2007, 17:34
I also waiting for the photos from Vacations (I think You will use it on new templates), sometimes it's good idea to spend some time without the PC :)
Comment from Richie
Time: June 15, 2007, 18:30
Andreas, I feel that you are giving too much away for free. If I were you I would let visitors download only one or two free, sample templates (HTML/CSS and WordPress) and then charge for all the others. I know that you put a lot of effort into the templates and I think that you should get a reasonable return for this work. I was quite happy to make a small donation when I used your andreas02 template as the basis for my company's website as it saved me a good bit of time. Anyway, thanks for all your work and I hope that you have a good break in Umea. Kind regards, Richie.
Comment from Libri e film
Time: June 15, 2007, 19:10
I think Richie is right.
Recent moves by google seem to be against links selling, with strong penalizations for sites selling or buying links. A few days ago each Google Sitemaps account has a new feature which allows webmaster to report sold/bought links. So this practice is becoming pretty dangerous for webmasters.
I guess you could monetize your great work in some other ways.
Comment from Andreas
Time: June 15, 2007, 20:37
In some ways, I am happy that Google forces people to build sites that work like they want to. In other ways, it is a shame. It is especially sad if Google (who sells advertising themselves) penalizes other forms of on-site advertisements. But that is a much larger topic than I would want to pick up, so i won't.
Yes, I could make the templates into commercial products. But I honestly don't want to since it would help a lot less people than today. The templates are not created for me to make money. They are created to help and inspire other people. The advertisements are added to make it possible for me to help people every day by working as a professional template designer (and general resource person). It would be a shame to not do that when I know how many people that appreciate it…
But once again, I'll save the big topics for later. I'm on a small vacation right now, and all I am doing is selling advertisement space on my website. If that is a crime or error that has to be penalized, then I'll have to live with it…
I'll post a few photos soon!
Comment from Respiro Media
Time: June 16, 2007, 14:57
Andreas, I see that you talk about link selling without any problem, these days, when Google started a never seen campaign against these practices. What is your opinion about this whole issue?
Thank you,
Zoltan Sebestyen
RespiroMedia.com
Comment from Andreas
Time: June 16, 2007, 15:58
I am talking about advertising space on my very own website. Sold in the same way that Text-Link-Ads.com are selling its advertisements. Like many others, I placed sponsored links in my themes before. But once I understood that it was a bad idea, I decided to only have advertisements on my site. I made that choice to make sure that everyone would be happy.
Advertisements have always been about selling links, either based on text, images or flash banners. Google are obviously selling links themselves, since they are an advertising company as well. I have no problem with writing about advertisements, since I can't see why Google (or anyone else) wouldn't allow me to manage my on-site advertisements myself. Or it Text-Link-Ads.com illegal? Is it illegal to do what Text-Link-Ads.com do if I handle it myself for my own site? Are Google penalizing people who choose other advertisement forms than their ones? Will AdSense be the only advertising form that does not result in penalties?
I can't see why on-site advertising would be wrong, I have never before heard anyone claim that Google would penalize site owners if they put text ads on their own sites. But if you can provide information that shows that it is indeed not allowed to do, then I will of course find some other solution.
Other than that, I refer to what I wrote before: This is a very big topic, and I'm away from home for a few days so I won't pick up any big topics. I'll save that for next week when I'm back home.
Comment from damo
Time: June 16, 2007, 16:40
ah. you were very close to my small village. in fact on the way home you probably drive straight through or maybe round it as we are 70km north
umea is a lot of fun!
Comment from Dave Butler
Time: June 17, 2007, 5:49
Andreas, I think you should refer to your sales effort has advertising space. That would help solve any concerns people would have. I myself would be interested in one of these spots so please forward me the details. I have another site that deals in webhosting reviews and your ad spots are a great match. Thanks.
Comment from John
Time: June 18, 2007, 12:53
yes google says they will fight links selling.But from saying it to doing it is a long way.
I am still waiting the results of the Google's MFA cruciade. My website is still full of 0.01 USD clicks MFA ads.
Comment from Mats
Time: June 18, 2007, 19:15
I don't think Google will penalize you for having paid links on your site. They will however penalize those who buy text links to artificially boost PageRank as that violates their quality guidelines.
This is what they say on their "Report paid links" page:
" Help us maintain the quality of Google search results.
We work hard to return the most relevant results for every search we conduct. To that end, we encourage site managers to make their content straightforward and easily understood by users and search engines alike. Unfortunately, not all websites have users' best interests at heart. Some site owners attempt to "buy PageRankâ„¢" in the form of paid links to their sites. Buying links to improve PageRank violates our quality guidelines.
Google uses a number of methods to detect paid links, including algorithmic techniques. We also welcome information from our users. If you know of a site that buys or sells links, please tell us by filling out the fields below. We'll investigate your submissions, and we'll use your data to improve our algorithmic detection of paid links. "
Comment from Kioly
Time: June 18, 2007, 20:16
Andreas I think references to sell it is necessary. Sale of references will give you additional money, and the site should bring money. Certainly it will be not so beautiful, but I know that you will beautifully put them on a site, therefore I support you Text-Link-Ads.com
Comment from MB Web Design
Time: June 19, 2007, 15:10
Google's "don't be evil" motto is steadily and increasingly being ignored if you ask me. A few years and they'll have completely monopolised the online ad market.
Comment from cazare
Time: June 19, 2007, 15:15
Yes, I support you when choosing to sell links on your site. Is your work and you clearly deserve it. And after all is YOUR site and you are the king of the castle.
Comment from Andreas
Time: June 19, 2007, 17:49
I'm writing a long post about the sponsored links right now. It will be posted as soon as it is finished, and it will explain in detail how the advertisements will be handled, which kind of sites I will accept advertisements from, what qualities I require from advertisers and what I would never accept as advertisements or place links to. And much more…
It will show that I do my best to provide really good ads, and that they are only placed on my own website. Nowhere else. And it will show that the advertisements will always be useful and relevant to visitors of this site - and of course keeping a high overall quality. Like the template site in the site sponsor slot in the header, which I know many of you like a lot.
If my solution would prove to be wrong, then I'll find some other way to handle advertisements. But I am sure that everyone (advertising companies and search engines included) will call it perfectly acceptable once I have explained the details. More soon.
Comment from Libri e film
Time: June 21, 2007, 16:45
Andreas,
here's the official Google paper about paid links: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66736&topic=8524
Comment from Andreas
Time: June 21, 2007, 17:17
Excellent! I'm happy to see this: "Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results." as it sums up everything I want to do. I have no interest in manipulating anything, I just want to do something good that can be useful to other people. Thanks for helping me make that possible, I truly appreciate it!
Comment from Ekkehard
Time: June 22, 2007, 16:28
Next time you really should make a nice summer holiday. Spending time at the beach and checking out some chicks sound like a wonderful plan;)
Comment from Franko
Time: June 22, 2007, 18:29
What about the photos from the vacation? Will they fit also the header of your new templates?
Comment from ShopMania
Time: June 13, 2007, 11:22
I am waiting the photos! Enjoy your vacantion, less work as possible, relax, have fun and post some news for us when u have time :)