If you have taken a glance at my sidebar, you would have noticed the all so familiar Nuffnang skyscraper ad unit has disappeared. It was on the 6th of August 2007 when I first decided to join the their advertising program. 8 months down the road, I am leaving despite having chalked up SGD $20.68 in my account from the 6 ad campaigns.

I see the ad units as nothing more than obtrusive distractions in my site. In the previous ad campaign involving Durex, there was a buzzing sound being played in the background every few seconds and that really got on my nerves, I can imagine my readers felt the same way too. I am pretty certain that for many of them, muting their audio was the only way to read the posts on my blog without any distractions.

My readers are my blog's most important asset, I would more than gladly trade extra monetary benefits in exchange for a better visitor experience.

To cash out, an administration fee of SGD $1 would be charged. I don't see a need to gift a single cent to Nuffnang, after all they have gained a space in my blog for a period of 8 months, they have gotten their publicity and I in turn have gotten my share of ad campaigns. Call me stingy but I don't see why we should place ourselves on the losing end of a business venture.

It takes an awfully long time for the cheques to arrive, it could be months before you could actually receive your money. There have been many examples of bloggers receiving their cheques 2 months or later since their cash out.

Depending on the type of ad unit you are displaying (leaderboard, skyscraper and large rectangle), you are required to place the units in different positions on your site. In my case, I was using the skyscraper ad unit and it was mandatory for it to be placed as high up in the sidebar as possible, at least within the top half of the page without scrolling.

The first thing visitors would notice on my sidebar would be the ad unit. I do not want the focus of the sidebar to be on Nuffnang if there isn't any ads running at that time. I want my visitors to be exposed to my content before anything else.

I do not need any fresh injection of funds to keep my hosting and domain up. I do have the means to pay my hosting fees. Just so you know, I recently renewed my hosting plan and domain. Limetouch.com is here to stay, at least till the 27th of May 2009.

Of course, who doesn't want to get any monetary returns for the investment made in their blogs? I am not entirely eradicating advertising on my blog, I am still open to offers. However I already have an alternative which doesn't intrude into a visitor's viewing experience; Text Link Ads as well as an offer coming from an alternative source. Earning extra greens from advertisements which distracts visitors away from the real content is something I could well afford to do away with.

Nonetheless, thank you Nuffnang for being my stepping stone into the blogosphere, Limetouch.com is not even a year old. I am well aware that quitting the advertising program before reaching the cash out limit would get me no benefits at all, but my blog has reached into a point of time where I need to care about my visitors more than anything else. And joining an advertising program with Nuffnang is just not the right direction my blog should be moving towards.