I got an email back in December asking me to join the Forbes.com Business and Financial Network and add 2 banners (like the one above) to the right sidebar and bottom footer image. I got an email from my contact form saying:

> Hello Hank! I’m assisting [secret lady’s name] at Forbes.com with an exciting new
> initiative she’s working on, a blog network comprised of
> best-of-breed financial and business blogs. Among the many
> advantages to joining are the targeted financial/business ads that
> Forbes.com will be serving across the network. The goal of the
> network is to provide Forbes.com users with unique content, which at
> the same time will help drive traffic to your blog and help you
> further monetize it.
>
> We think your blog would be a great fit for our network, and we’d
> love to hear from you if you are interested in learning more about
> it. If so, please reply to me with a convenient time for you to
> talk with [secret ladys name], along with all of your contact information, and
> I’ll make arrangements for her to contact you. If you would rather
> contact her directly, her e-mail address is [secret ladys name]@forbes.net and
> her phone numbers are: T: 212.xxx.8997 or C: 917-xxx-9093.

I’ve shot back 2 or 3 emails basically stating that I don’t want to sell out to “the man” and I don’t want to have huge banners on my page that don’t drive traffic. Specifically I said back:

Hey [secret lady’s name]- I added the 2 toolbars, but I’ve got to be honest, and
nothing against you folks, but the ads are really big. Many bloggers balk
at blogs with such large ads, especially 2 of them. I’m all for building
a business relationship, as clearly I’m in it to turn a few bucks, but I
don’t want to lose my loyal reader base in doing so; is the point of
these ads more to drive traffic to Forbes or to get a loyal base of
financial bloggers on board for something else?

A few other options possibly:
Maybe it’d be beneficial to “sponsor” blogs? Give them $X to put a
smaller banner at the top of the blog (no ads, just something that says
“Forbes Blogger” or something with a link to Forbes somewhere. There are
a handful of sponsored financial blogs out there.

The positioning of the banners is another one; ideally I’m sure you guys
want to have the ads at the top of each blog, but again, the size is a big
thing in the blog world; we’re trying to appease our readers by keeping it
clutter/ad free, but need to pay the bills ourselves for doing such;
again, a smaller text only bannner at the top of the pages might do you
better than a gigantic one at the bottom or sidebar as far as getting
folks to recognize it.

How about posting your ad IN the actual article? Section off a part of
the main_index and insert something small in the post. I think you’d have
a much better reception there…

Again, just a few of my opinions. I like what you guys are doing, but I
like thinking of better ways to make things work; and I’d be willing to
bet you’re not going to drive the point home if most people put your
banners at the bottom and right side bars; positioning seems to be the
king in the finance blog realm…

I’m going to keep your ads on at the site; we’ll see what kind of traffic
comes from it, but just thought I’d help with my 2 cents though – hope you
have a good new year!

To no response so far. I’m considering just dumping the whole deal and gaining back some space on my page for the redesign in the works. Has anyone else dealt with this yet? Pros? Cons? Impressions? Ideas? Wanna start a revolt?