more content in German | mehr Inhalt auf deutschA local computer and telecommunications service company must have been a little confused to have flyers distributed this morning or last night advertising “Offer of the Month October 2007” and “Our highlights in October 2007″…
Quote of the Day (6)
Read on “Cruelty’s Blog” (German) which I found via Yigg.de:
“Layer-Ads is […] just a simple layer that moves into view with a little animation.
Thus, the user is not irritated and quickly finds the Close button, if he doesn’t wish the ad.”
(Emphasis and translation mine. And dear Cruelty, I don’t want to attack you personally, I just want to tell my opinion on such ads.)
Hmm… does anyone know anyone who doesn’t mind an ad thingy of about 750×500 pixels covering the page content? (Except those making money from it, of course…) Even if it disappears after viewing and closing once for all future (what I doubt; at least, it seems to work that way temporarily), that could alienate one visitor or another – and if even the Yigg screenshot consists almost completely of an 1&1 ad, one could think: ‘Oh, that blog with that ads, no, don’t need to go there.’
By the way, Layer-Ads.de says (my translation):
“Even visitors with pop-up blockers will see a layer.
The webmaster won’t lose a single compensated visitor.”
My Firefox–Proxomitron combination worked anyway, I had to dig up the unfiltered IE to get an impression of these ads. 
Make your Q key blue!
Quelle, one of the big German mail-order companies, included in their latest ad letter two stickers for the Q key – in nice metallic blue, with a little violet touch depending on the light source (and not easy to photograph correctly):
(Translation: “Free stickers for your world of advantages.”)
With the background that if you press the Q key on quelle.de, you get a special offer page (if you’re logged in) – currently a Halloween special, a travel raffle and a few highlighted, partly reduced classes of goods.
Nice idea, but would anyone really put them on her/his keyboard? I doubt that…
(Should I ask Quelle if they have stickers for the other 104 keys? 
At least then it would have a consistent look…)
Several folks can not resist
…being “bribed” with 24 cans of an energy drink to place an ad banner on their blog. (In the German blogosphere.) Basically, a nice idea – since I don’t like such drinks that much myself, though, I’ll pass. (A lewd pun I wrote in German doesn’t work here.)
A question, by the way: Do you have to pay taxes for these advertising incomes? How would that work – take a few cans to your local tax officer (or your minister of finance)? 
