Please note that text links also can be ugly.

As for PG, it has many many good points, but I don’t think design is one of the group’s strengths. Let’s hope PG shows restrain in use of the ads.

Thanks,
David

I truly hope that Google Ads will NOT be used. Okay, for high traffic sites we can’t deny they bring in the money, but the question I want to ask you is this; have you ever seen a site using Google ads that looks nice? I’ve only ever seen one, and that was more interesting than nice.

(I work as an Affiliate Manager, so I get to see a lot of affiliate sites.)

My advice to both TeleRead and PG is to use text links, forget banners, forget Google Ads. In context, unobtrusive text links will keep your sites looking pretty and your visitors happy.

It’s known within the affiliate business that text links work better so all you need to do is place an affiliate link on references to different products or sites; Sony Reader, ebooks.com, Amazon, etc. Your recent “Wide-screen monitors for e-books” article would be a perfect candidate.

I guess for PG it would not be as easy as here, TeleRead often mentions products/sites, but perhaps they could hand-code their own adverts. Adding personal recommendations will bring huge benefits over generic ads.

I can see a place for commercial ventures for PG, but not without full disclosure and input from people in the traditional group. Current volunteers shouldn’t be just cast aside.

By the way, I’ve already followed through with my promise to write Michael’s high-powered trademark lawyer. Lest this be perceived as an anti-PG plot, which it isn’t, I concluded my note:

“My own little cause is a well-stocked national digital library system with provisions for fair compensation of copyright holders. I see Project Gutenberg as a valuable way to complement TeleRead because of the ability of ordinary people to get books online via Gutenberg without corporate filters or the usual institutional ones.”

Thanks,
David