dougbelshaw.com/blog » adverts http://dougbelshaw.com/blog Education. Technology. Productivity. Wed, 23 May 2012 08:57:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Uncopyrighted http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2009/12/09/beyond-creative-commons-uncopyright/ dajbelshaw@gmail.com (Doug Belshaw) dajbelshaw@gmail.com (Doug Belshaw) 1440 http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/doug_south_park_144px.png dougbelshaw.com/blog http://dougbelshaw.com/blog 144 144 Education. Technology. Productivity. Education. Technology. Productivity. education technology productivity elearning Doug Belshaw Doug Belshaw dajbelshaw@gmail.com no no I’ll tell you this for free… http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2008/09/16/ill-tell-you-this-for-free/ http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2008/09/16/ill-tell-you-this-for-free/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:52:03 +0000 Doug Belshaw http://www.dougbelshaw.com/?p=1246

…put yer money away!*

This post was prompted, in part, by a wonderful recent presentation by Merlin Mann’s entitled How To Blog and its horror-inducing first few slides.

I’ve been contacted in the past week by two separate individuals who wanted to place paid advertisements on my sites. The first offered $150 for 6 text-link ads at the end of blog posts on the now-defunct teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk. I presume this is because these appear near the top of Google search rankings for certain keywords. The second was simply exploring the possibility of paid adverts on this blog.

I said no to both on principle. You may find that strange, as I’ve had Google and iTunes ads on my sites before.** Well, yes, but I’ve realised the error of my ways! As has been pointed out to me by several people, adverts on a personal blog make people question your impartiality and just don’t look very professional. I’ve taken these points on board. The only advertising on my sites now can be found at historyshareforum.com to help cover hosting and bandwidth costs. :-p

So you can be sure that when I recommend certain products and services, I’m not being paid the individuals or companies behind them. Transparency is key.

The only thing I’m now struggling with now is revealing which school I work at. In the past I’ve made sure I don’t say where I work to keep the professional and personal completely separate. In a connected online world, however, this is becoming increasingly difficult. Take elearnr, for example. This is a blog I’ve set up to share links, resources and guides I create in my new role as E-Learning Staff Tutor. Whilst I mention names of members of staff on there, I haven’t – as yet – said which school I’m talking about. I’m torn between what it will mean for this blog, and being completely transparent with the other.

I’d appreciate your thoughts and comments. :-)

*Watch this YouTube video clip of Peter Kay if you don’t get what I’m talking about…

** I apologise you can see an iTunes ad in the sidebar, I’ve tried several times to get rid of it using K2′s sidebar manager, but it just won’t budge! :-(

(image by Joseph Robertson @ Flickr)

]]> http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2008/09/16/ill-tell-you-this-for-free/feed/ 12 Page Peel Script http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2008/01/26/page-peel-script/ http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2008/01/26/page-peel-script/#comments Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:22:58 +0000 Doug Belshaw http://www.dougbelshaw.com/2008/01/26/page-peel-script/ Peel

Please note that this script is NOT my own work! As I have stated below, I am simply making it available here in case it is taken down elsewhere. I have no idea on how to modify it. Sorry.

If you’re reading this on the blog rather than via the RSS feed, you’ll probably have already noticed the new addition in the top right-hand corner. The way in which the page ‘peels back’ to reveal a link to my educational consultancy business was inspired by a number of sites I’ve seen recently who use it for advertising. It’s remarkably easy to accomplish. Here’s how… :D

After a few initial searches I thought I was going to have to stump up $8 for the script. Not so. I came across this post which offered the script for free download. I’m providing it in the more compatible ZIP format below in case it becomes unavailable elsewhere.

Zip Peel.zip

The README file explains all, but it’s a very simple process:

  1. Extract the ZIP file.
  2. Edit the small.jpg file to your liking.
  3. Edit the large.jpg file to your liking.
  4. Open peel.js in a text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit.
  5. Search for, and replace http://www.dougbelshaw.com with the name of the site to which you want the advert to point.
  6. Upload the peel folder to the root directory of your website.
  7. Add the following between the <head> and </head> just after the <body> tag in the HTML of your homepage:
<script src="peel/peel.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

You should then see something similar to what I’ve got on this site. Let me know if and when you do something similar! :)

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