I hate video ads, and while the youtube skip after 5 seconds feature is nice, I hate wasting my time sitting through product placement before watching a video. I am fine with ads accenting a page and the content therein, but I am not fine with gating content behind ads.
It may not work for everyone, but I pay more attention to those side-ads too. Not flash ones, just still images or text, because my eyes sometimes wander. If I have an ad stuck in my face, I have a hostile reaction that makes me actively negative towards whatever the product is. When it accompanies content, I am more willing to meander towards it.
Reddit does a really good job with it. The side bar ads they have are not intrusive and don't block content, but I always end up seeing them when scrolling, and since they are non-intrusive they are about the only ads I do click.
It may not work for everyone, but I pay more attention to those side-ads too. Not flash ones, just still images or text, because my eyes sometimes wander. If I have an ad stuck in my face, I have a hostile reaction that makes me actively negative towards whatever the product is. When it accompanies content, I am more willing to meander towards it.
Reddit does a really good job with it. The side bar ads they have are not intrusive and don't block content, but I always end up seeing them when scrolling, and since they are non-intrusive they are about the only ads I do click.