I had to spend some time cleaning up my email subscriptions today. All those Yahoo groups can take their toll on an inbox and, despite their usefulness, something had to done before my morning email routine became much more time consuming than it should be.

So, one by one I went through my groups to either unsubscribe completely or change my email preferences to stem the torrent.

And then, after the first dozen or so groups, I noticed that my browser had slowed down. The culprit was an over enthusiastic banner ad at the top of the page. You know the sort of thing, punch the boxer, swat the fly, shoot the duck, kick the ad designer in the backside, etc. etc. A quick cmd-w and the browser tab was closed.

The amazing thing was not the presence of the overactive banner, it was that the preceding dozen groups had failed to get me to even notice their advertising. Until the browser slowed down I had absolutely no idea that there was an ugly advert at the top of the page. I had instinctively and subconsciously scrolled down a few hundred pixels to bypass the banners.

Banner blindness is real. People don’t like banners. As a result they become invisible. The more standard the banner size the more invisible they become.

Take a look at your blog. Does it carry banner ads that could be causing involuntary scrolling? If so do yourself and your readers a favor and remove them. Replace them with more discrete advertising. Your bank account will thank you.