A Change in the Ad Scroller Space

That's what great about blogging—it's interactive. A reader told me the Amazon Scroller Widget we were using loaded slowly. I noticed that myself, and as soon as someone said something, I was more than willing to make a change.

No longer a scroll, but still a scroll.


It's no longer a scroller in the same sense as it was before. Books are not going to move across the screen. A different ad will be displayed with each page view.

"But that isn't a scroller," you may be saying.

True, but it is still a scroll (hence why the name will not change). According to the 3rd definition at Dictionary.com, a scroll is "a list, roll, roster, or schedule."

Dollar Roster


If I were to change the name, I would call it a dollar roster. No longer will you buy this space for just one month, having to share it with only nine others. No, you will share it with many others, but it will only cost a dollar. And it will last longer than a month. Once you pay in, your ad is not taken off the roster, the scroll.

A random book from the roster will be displayed with each page view. According to the law of large numbers, everyone in the roster should come up roughly the same number of times over a long period of time across many, many page views.

As more and more people advertise, each ad will be displayed less and less, sharing the space with countless others. However, hopefully our traffic will increase over time as well, which means your dollar donation will still have value, not to mention that your dollar ad will still be seen by some readers six months or a year from now. Plus, you may put in as many different ads as you would like.

Here's a couple scenarios: donate $25 and you'll get $30 worth of services. That's 30 scroller ads. You could put them in all at once, which would probably make you the main advertiser for a while. As others begin to join the roster, you may decide to donate again. Or, put in a few ads per month to maintain your percentage of on-screen time.

Either way, it's a cheap way to advertise with us over a long period of time.