UPDATE 10/17: We tried to revert the ad’s landing page to the original URL (our Facebook page) and got the same rejection notice.

Wow, a funny thing happened today. Facebook rejected this ad promoting Blogads.com’s Facebook page:

We’d already been running the ad on Facebook for over a year, and 694 people had clicked through. Facebook only rejected our ad when we tried to update the landing page URL. Nothing too crazy.

Here’s what Facebook told us about our ad on their site:

The content of your ad or Sponsored Story does not adequately reflect the product or service advertised.

Doesn’t it, Facebook? Here’s what some Facebook users think of the ad:

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Our proprietary Blogads unit has been helping people make money blogging since 2002, and it’s still the most popular unit we sell. But as online advertising has evolved, so have we. Today, we offer 10 different ad units to meet the needs of advertisers and bloggers alike.

In general, we recommend that you run as many of these different units on your blog as you can fit, so you can provide options to all sizes of advertisers. Also, don’t forget to put the ad code on every page. The more ad impressions you can offer, the more money you can ask for.

In this post, we’ll break these ad units into three categories, Blogads, banners and adverposts, and show you how to place and price each for maximum attractiveness to advertisers.

1. Blogads

Placement:

As we showed you in the guide to placing Blogads units, the topmost leftmost placement is the best place to attract advertisers. If you don’t have a left sidebar, then the top of the right sidebar would be the most effective placement for your blog. (more…)

Fit Bottomed Girls is a one-stop shop for getting healthy.  Bloggers Jenn Walters and Erin Whitehead cover topics including  motivation, nutrition, exercise, fitness equipment/accessories and even workout playlist recommendations! They’re the fun, friendly fit experts we’ve always wanted and now can have thanks to their site! In addition to their blog, keep up with their fitness news on Facebook and Twitter.

Fit Bottomed Girls Founders Jenn Walters and Erin Whitehead

Q: When and why did you start blogging?

A: Erin Whitehead and I created Fit Bottomed Girls almost three and a half years ago, when we set out to help women realize that working out could actually be fun — and make your life totally awesome. We love to blog about fitness, obviously, but also a lot about body image, nutrition and really anything that we think will improve our readers’ lives. From creating workout music playlists to reviewing workout DVDs and fitness products to sharing healthy recipes, we like to get readers motivated to be healthy in any way we can. A little more than a year ago, we launched www.FitBottomedMamas.com to bring that same message to motherhood.

Q: How do you think your blog stands out amongst other health blogs?

A: There are a lot of fabulous blogs out there. We think ours stands out at first because of its name (gotta love Queen references!), but then it hooks people in because it’s objective, honest, down-to-earth and real. We tell it like it is with any review we do, and we are quite public about our own struggles and triumphs with working out and eating healthy. With some humor, sass and a conversational tone, we’ve heard readers say that reading Fit Bottomed Girls is like talking to their funny best friend who knows a thing or two about fitness. Best compliment, ever. (more…)

This week, a couple of us at Blogads HQ noticed some new Places cropping up on our Google Maps. They looked just like the places we were looking for — but blue. When we clicked them we realized that they were the same Place advertised in the left column.

What’s the hope here? That we would accidentally navigate to the blue dot instead of the place we really want to go to? And if so, what would we do when we got there?

"This is so much better than dinner, honey." "Totes."

I tried to recreate the results above today, but instead of a blue “Place” in the middle of Austin, I found a brown custom Google map icon, which, I guess, is the symbol for affordable movers:

This one I kinda get. If you’re looking at a map of a city without searching for a specific place, you might be thinking of moving there. Plus, the icon doesn’t look like the little red marker of the place you’re looking for, so it’s not as potentially confusing.

Seamless integration into content is something every ad strives for, but sometimes the line between integration and interruption is blurry.

Have any sponsored Places shown up in your itinerary? What did they look like? How relevant were they to your search?

We have a SUXORZ in progress!

Dr. Pepper has just rolled out its newest Facbeook campaign, touting the Manliness of its new diet drink, Dr. Pepper 10.

One problem: It’s telling over half of its potential audience that the beverage isn’t for them. Former Dr. Pepper fans are posting their outrage to Dr. Pepper’s wall, and so far, the soda company is not responding. Meanwhile, those who have posted their complaints are being berated and belittled by Dr. Pepper enthusiasts. Can this be good for the brand?

UPDATE 10/13 9AM EST – More evidence of post deleting.
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Looks like Netflix has decided to drop its DVD-only service, Qwikster, before it even launched. The ill-named site has allowed anyone with a Twitter account to be very, very funny. In the exact same way.

At the time of post’s original publication at 11am, this pun had been made nearly 100 times. Here are the first 25 people to think of it. (more…)

This week we witnessed the true influence of the blogosphere when JCPenney pulled its bikini-clad Phoebe Cates commercial after a flood of complaints. Although the commercial was pretty sexist, men’s slacks and polos are far from the strangest thing to be sold with sexy advertising.

None of the ads in this list are NSFW, but some get pretty darn close! (more…)

Geek in Heels is a blog that highlights blogger Jenny Hwang’s interests ranging from gadgets to motherhood. The site reflects her diverse interests, which means she’s always posting new and interesting content. Make sure to also keep up with Hwang on Facebook and Twitter

Blogger Jenny Hwang of Geek in Heels

Some of us feel like music is innately social, and have welcomed the recent marriage of Spotify and Facebook. Others don’t give a flying flip about what our friends are listening to, and have no intention of ever signing up for Spotify and listening to the new Wilco album. Or whatever else our friends like these days.

For those of us in the latter category, there’s an easy way to hide Spotify updates from your ticker, as well as your news feed, so you can get back to seeing more of the likes and comments you’ve grown to love.

Here’s how to hide Spotify updates in 3 easy steps. (more…)

screengrab via iRewind user "Valley"

Did you catch the JCPenney commercial with the bikini-clad teenager? It had been blogged about here and there a few months ago, but Copyranter’s coverage seems to have open the gate to the recent flood of opinions. And boy did the opinions flow. So much so that JCPenney has apparently pulled the ad.

Behold, the power of the blogosphere! (more…)