If I'm going to advertise, it should be relevant

Ross McKillop of Simplehelp was offered paid advertising on his blog by "James" and decided to decline after some consideration: When not to accept advertising

I was recently approached by someone who wanted to buy $550 worth of advertising on Simplehelp, and ended out turning them down. After seeking the advice of a number of other bloggers, here’s why I said no.

I received a similarly-structured offer at the beginning of September. The idea was to insert some text into my website (on specific pages) in return for a payment. The offer included reference to other websites who are already doing this. When I checked the example advertising, it became clear that it was NOT context-sensitive and would not add value to my website visitors. So, I declined. I know other bloggers have received a similar offer. Interesting.

As website visitors know, I am currently using Google's AdSense to display context-sensitive ads on my blog. Anytime I happen to notice the ads, they are usually something to do with knowledge management, or other topics on which I write.

[Written at 30,000 feet, along with the previous entry.]