Qumana Release Ad Program Upgrade

According to Blog Herald Qumana Software has released an upgrade to it's program, which combines Qumana’s blog publishing tool with a keyword advertising program enabling "publishers to choose which keywords best represent the editorial message."

New Panasonic Blog

Having discussed Fuji Film adopting the narrative, story telling approach in our previous post it was interesting to note in contrast, the release of a more conventional corporate based blog from Panasonic. It's purpose is to act as a straight forward product update and discussion platform about the imminent release of the AG-HVX200 HD/SD DVCPRO P2 camcorder and other tech related subjects.

It will no doubt prove to be a useful conduit of information for Panasonic customers, but to be honest I found it less than inspiring, particularly as the regularity of posting seems to be pretty woeful.

(Via Blog Herald)

Fuji Film Tests Out Blimp Blog

Ever seen the Fuji Film blimp (airship) crossing the sky? Well, the people that fly it are now writing a blog about their experiences. It's an interesting move for Fuji Film who have gone for a narrative approach rather than a product and promotional approach.

It should be a shrewd choice of blog strategy. However, I do have reservations over whether this partiuclar topic will hold the interest of a readership. My gut reaction is that it won't, but I look forward to being proved wrong in the months ahead.

(Via Micropersuasion)

Budget Blog Hits The Jackpot

Update on Budget's treasure hunt campaign. Apparently some lucky chap has been following the clues on the Up Your Budget blog and won himself $10,000. Sounds like this innovative idea is capturing quite a bit of attention. (via Adrants)

Glimpse of a VlogAd Future

According to Blog Herald VideoEgg (a video publishing technology) & Six Apart have joined to deliver video blogging free of charge to all registered Typepad users.

It struck me reading this that this link up could be the start of a simplification in video blogging. Certainly the process of encoding, uploading and sharing on line will no doubt be made easier and more widely available. This could be a really exciting development in opening up the possibilities of people media.

Could it be that as well as - ads on blogs, rss ads and podcast ads we will see vlog ads take their place proper, within the armoury of the marketer? I love this idea, particularly in the context of promoting film trailers, dvd's or even just slipping a subtle 4 second ad placement at the beginning of a personal vlog. The possibilities are massive or intrusive I haven't quite decided.

If I was going to pick a product to test run the potential of vlog ad's it would be this one - The Book Of Cool. Some of the stuff on the trailer is quite amazing.

Technorati tags: vlogads , video blogging

Latest Development In "Battle of The Splogs"

Interesting thing happened today. Accessed my blogspot account and continued as usual in drafting some intelligent analysis on the topics of the day. Ok some of you might be thinking intelligent is the wrong adjective! Anyway, I go to publish my post and was met with a word verification code.

It seems amid a deluge of bad press from A-List Bloggers about spam blogs and no doubt some high level head scratching at Google headquarters they have implemented this feature in the latest skirmish of "Battle of The Splogs" (Is it just me or would that make a great movie title.)

Here is Blogger's official line in the help directory:

"Word verification on the posting form is meant to be a spam reduction mechanism for BlogSpot in general, and is applied to certain potential spam blogs by an automated system. Because this is automated there will necessarily be some false positives, though we are continually working on improving our algorithms to avoid these. If your blog is one of the false positives, we apologize. Having the word verification on your posting form does not prevent you from publishing and does not mean that your blog will be deleted or otherwise punished if it is not actually in violation of our policies."

Needless to say that Ads On Blogs is a "false positive". Umm I think you need to fine tune those algorithms guys! This is a necessary evil and will no doubt improve the spam issue. However, if this becomes a permanent feature (a cumbersome feature at that) on many "false positive" blogs then Google will see a flight of some genuine users.

As Ads On Blogs will be shortly transferring elsewhere to a souped-up, turbo charged site this will not be a problem for us much longer! More on our transfer and announcements on some exciting developments next week.

As a footnote to this, it will be interesting to see if Adsense revenues are hit by this spam offensive?

Technorati tags: spam blogs

TiVo Joins The Blog Bandwagon

TiVo have entered the world of blogging with the release of TiVo Blog written by one of TiVo's hardcore fans who will continue her quest "of spreading my love for the TiVo® service far and wide by gently coercing (sometimes, flat out forcing) my friends and family to experience the fabulousness that is TiVo" - that opening gambit was a little bit too sickly sweet for my tastes, but it's a nicely designed blog which will no doubt provide a useful sounding board for TiVo.

(Via Micropersuasion)

Technorati tags: corporate blogs, TiVo Blog

The Crystallization of Commercial Blogging

A broadcast on Marketplace Radio follows on from yesterday's English Cut interview on Blogspotting. I think in this 3 minute piece there is a real crystallization of what blogs are all about in a commercial context. From this I extrapolated my own interpretation as follows:

1. Low cost dissemination of information.

2. Not the hard sell.

3. An osmosis of interesting information between publisher and reader. Bland bleating about a product or service will be met with cries of derision.

4. A conversation or interactivity in which both parties can be enlightened. Big corporates have historically preached about what the consumer wants, blogs now enable a fluid transfer of ideas back and forth between both parties.

5. Most importantly empowerment of the consumer.

How does this fit with the incongruity of costly, conventional PR and advertising methodology?

(Via Micropersuasion)

Technorati tags: blog advertising, English Cut, blog marketing,

Blogspotting Hit The Spot With English Cut

If your new to blogging and need to get your finger on the pulse, check out Stephen Baker and Heather Green at Blogspotting. I have long been a fan of their objective reporting style, but was particularly impressed with Stephen's recent podcast interview with Thomas Mahon of English Cut. Really fascinating insight into how some clever PR and a blog strategy can take a niche business truly global.

Explosive Growth Predicted In UK Online Ad Spend

Emarketer quote a World Advertising Research Center study that indicates that the UK's traditional ad spend is projected to grow a measily 2.3% in contrast to a 39.6% increase in online ad spend . (via Marketing Vox)

Online Ad's Will Be Everywhere!

Remember rumours of advertising in Google Talk (Google's version of Instant Messenger with talk capability). According to Chris Thilik of Adjab the rumours were right but wrong company. Instead of Google it's Microsoft who have introduced ads to Instant Messenger. As Adjab allude to, the interesting bit could be that ads are contextual with your conversation!

With the impending decline of TV and newspaper adspend, it seems that web innovations such as this are readily taking up the slack.

Where's The Surprise In Geo - Targeted RSS Ads?

According to ClickZ there were yelps of surprise when agencies and advertisers learnt that Adsense were running geo-targeted contextual ads. I'm surprised they were surprised to be honest! Surely there was an inevitability that contextual advertising would head this way.

Shuman Ghosemajumder business product manager at Google, told ClickZ News. "AdSense for feeds is part of the Google content network, so if an advertiser's campaign is opted into the content network, their ads are eligible to show in feeds," He further noted that the geo-targeting has been part of the AdSense for feeds distribution since its launch.

For those in the dark on Google's chronology in this field it goes something like this:

• 2003 - Geo-targeting option for ads run on Google's content network with the inroduction of regional targeting .
• April 2004 city-level and customized targeting.
• May 2005 AdSense for feeds, incorporates ads in site feeds together with sites in the content network.

Some facts about RSS ads

1. Advertisers are unable to solely target RSS ads locally. However, regionally targeted ads might appear in feeds and sites at some point.

2. Location of content and user of the feed partially determine where the ads appear although content more often than not takes precedence.

3. CTR is generally low with RSS Ads. (Jensense)

Click Fraud and Spam Blogs

Great post from JoelOnSoftware (via Threadwatch) on Adsense Click Fraud.

This passage was particularly illuminating in explaining the recent growth in spam blogs:

"When you connect the dots, what seems to be happening is that scammers are doing four things. First, they create a lot of fake blogs. There are slimy companies that make easy to use software to do this for you. They scrape bits and pieces of legitimate blogs and repost them, as if they were just another link blog. It is very hard to tell the difference between a fake blog and a real blog until you read it for a while and realize there's no human brain behind it, like one of those Jack Format radio stations that fired all their DJs, or maybe FEMA. Then, they sign up for AdSense. Then you buy or rent a network of zombie PCs (that is, home computers that are attached to the Internet permanently which have been infected by a virus allowing them to be controlled remotely). Finally, use those zombie PCs to simulate clicks on the links on your blog. Because the zombie PCs are all over the Internet, they appear to be legit links coming from all over the Internet."

"Use Your Multiple Ad Units" Says Adsense

Inside Adsense have issued some routine advice on utlising multiple ad units. Essentially they suggest more ads increase your chances of relevancy to the reader. No surprises there really!

If you already have code for multiple ads but are seeing fewer units than you thought; Inside Adsense explain "this is because our multiple ad unit system works best for pages with highly targeted ads and therefore may only display the first few units (See how a first ad unit is defined)"

Yahoo Drops It's Minimum Ad Spend

According Adjab - OnlineYahoo! has dropped it's $20/month minimum spending requirement to a $10 minimum . It is hoped this will encourage smaller/local businesses to try paid search.

Integrated Blog, RSS And Podcast Ads

According to Clickz - Pheedo the blog ad network, has begun testing a program that will create "integrated, multi-channel campaigns across blogs, Web feeds and podcasts."

Essentially the idea is to make sure all your ad campaign bases are covered. Apparently Pheedo has been trialling integrated campaigns for some advertisers since June. However, the new program being developed should make that process easier with a release date targeted for the end of the year. Ad purchasing will be structured as a package deal, "with guaranteed impression counts for the RSS and blog inventory. The podcast portion is measured by the number of average downloads from previous shows." Bill Flitter, Pheedo's founder and CMO says "Our goal is to make it as easy as possible on the advertiser side to run campaigns across different formats,"

Blog Advertising Goes On a Treasure Hunt

Blog advertising and promotion seems to be scaling new heights of creativity with the recently reported release of Budget's blog based - Sixteen City Treasure Hunt. Budget for the uninitiated is a car rental company who are offering $160,000 in prizes for a treasure hunt gimmick named Up Your Budget . Those taking part in the treasure hunt must find stickers positioned in a public location within each of 16 cities and provide a photograph as proof of their find. Clues for each stickers location are released daily on the Up Your Budget Blog. Those taking part can submit hints and tips on the Treasure Hunter's blog. In addition, word of this promotion will be spread solely through blog based media such as Boing Boing, Buzzmachine and the BlogAds network amongst others. It will be interesting to see how this innovative campaign pans out.

(Via Adrants)

Need Some Help Designing Your Blogads?

If you need some assisitance in producing an eye catching online ad, Blogad's recommend that you check out designers Jay Ballenger and Charles Fincher's cartoons.

Adsense Images Could Mean Higher Revenues

I noticed this letter (republished below) on Inside Adsense from Recipezaar publisher Gay Gilmore. Whilst I am sometimes a little sceptical of these types of posts, it did resonate with some research we are currently compiling:

"What a surprise today!I would have loved to comment on what great results we have seen since we implemented image ads, but you guys don't allow comments -- I understand why ;-) -- so I thought I'd pop an email.We've seen a 34% increase in AdSense revenues by allowing image ads in our ad codes and implementing section targeting on key pages. These technologies by their nature mean that impressions may initially drop, however, we have still seen increased revenues because our eCPM has doubled. Making more money from fewer impressions is a GREAT thing.Of course Google doesn't give us all the stats yet on image v. text v. site-targeted ads, so we can't be sure exactly what the cause is ;-). AdSense now offers us a more competitive eCPM than other ad publishing networks (without the annoying banners or attention-grabbing layer ads), so we are sending more and more traffic to Google. Our users are happier too. Because our AdSense ads are super-targeted, our customers tend to view them as "additional content" rather than diversionary advertising."

Ads On Blogs have been experimenting with various Adsense placements, colours etc and whilst I can't go into details, it was interesting to note that others have also enjoyed greater revenue success with a mixture of image and text ads.

Interestingly our analysis of the Ads On Blogs 500 appears to show comparatively few sites operating this strategy with Adsense. This can probably be linked to the number of sites - (18%) already running image ads from the likes of Blogads. I guess it's a question of too many images and you end up with a cluttered page. If you're only running textual Adsense or other text based programs it might just be worth experimenting with the image coded Adsense.

Adsense Finding It Harder Going

According to Search Engine Watch Google Site Revenues have risen by 20% from the second quarter to $885 million. Further revenue growth also came from Google Network Revenues generated by partner sites using Adsense. Figures for this are at $675 million, a 7% increase over the second quarter. Interestingly Google's site revenues are growing at a faster rate than those of the Adsense program which is facing increasing competition from many online advertising alternatives. According to Search Engine Watch Google AdSense revenue Over the last three quarters has increased 19%, 8% and 7%, while Google site revenues have increased 24%, 12% and 20%.

Blog Ad Slogan Generator

Advertising Slogan Generator is a little bit of fun for those struggling with their creative juices. I have listed a few samples of the slogans it came up with for Ads On Blogs:

• How Many Licks Does it Take to Get to the Center of an Ads On Blogs?
• The Ads On Blogs With The Hole.
• Big Chocolate Ads On Blogs.

Umm not sure their going to win any awards!

(Via Google Blog News Channel)

Rocketing Online Ad Sales For Yahoo

USA Today has reported that the online advertising market helped Yahoo "boost its quarterly revenue 47% over last year." Yahoo CEO Terry Semel is quoted as saying "The results highlight the power of our brand," Reported earnings are $253.8 million, or 17 cents a share, on revenue of $1.3 billion.

How will Yahoo fair in the face of increasingly stiff competition from Google's Adsense and the experimental MSN Adcenter, plus a raft of other new ad programs. See our recent post Blog Advertising Alternatives.

(Via Adpulp)

Venture Capitalists Waking Up To Blog Boom

Red Herring published an interesting article indicating that there maybe significant moves afoot to further harness the revenue opportunities of consumer created content such as blogs. Venture Capitalists and Internet Executives at the Think Equity technology and investor conference in California apparently took particular note of recent blog web traffic data showing a 31% increase for the first 7 months of 2005 according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

MSN Adcenter Goes Live In The US

According to Jensense the long awaited US release of MSN Adcenter has kicked off in beta. Applications are still being accepted for willing testers here.

When Blog Advertising Goes Wrong

Ever heard of Cillit Bang? It's a cleaning product. Their agency tried to create some buzz and ended up getting themsleves in a mess.

BBC Weblog Watch give you the whole run down on the story and it's worth exploring some of the links buried in the article to get a full picture of what went on. It's a salutary lesson of how blog promotion can go wrong.

(Via Nicks Sanctuary)

A Simple Description of What Your Blog Is About

Following on from my previous post and my little rant about blog descriptions which I have republished below for reference - I was pleasantly surprised to find this great example of how it should be done. Blogging Help have succeeded in providing a simple and succinct synopsis that tells you everything you need to know about the site immediately. Perfect for a first time visitor like myself.

Here's my rant again in case you missed it!

"It sounds ridiculous but I can assure you that I was astounded at how many top 500 blogs had no description of their principal themes. I can hear shouts of "it's in the title stupid". Well, just trust me, quite often it isn't. Alright, a life blog is likely to be eclectic but why not say so or at least give some hints as to what your majoring on. It makes it so much easier for someone dropping on your page for the first time."

Blogging Mistakes

Jakob Nielsen via Problogger pipped me to the post in writing something about blog design and content. I'm not going to preach about this subject because we are in the process of redesigning our own problematic site from it's humble beginnings, plus this is a little off topic for us. However, having studied almost a 1000 blogs over the last 4 weeks I feel reasonably well placed to share some of my views on this matter. Jakob's main points are listed below in italics with my comments in bold:

1. No Author Biographies - I’m amazed that so many blogs don’t have any information about who is behind them. Not essential information but common sense in my books to be transparent enough to tell people who you are. This is a good point. It's important to give some authority and background to the topic you are discussing.

2. No Author Photo - for me this is not a must - but it does add something personal to a blog. Not essential but it can add some gravitas.

3. Nondescript Posting Titles - regular readers will know about my passion for post titles - enough said. Couldn't agree more on this point. We have been doing some quantitive analysis on our own posts recently and noted that a really punchy, descriptive title can make all the difference.

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go - I agree - it also helps with SEO to use make links more descriptive. This is a good point but I'm not convinced of the necessity to describe in pinpoint detail where every link on your page ends up. Although on some of the blogs we reviewed it was often a case of clicking blind so to speak. Not ideal.

5. Classic Hits are Buried - So true - highlight your best posts or they’ll go unseen after dropping from the front page6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation - has anyone ever used a calendar to navigate a blog or is it just me who avoids them? Vital to highlight key posts. In my opinion calendars are a waste of time - in fact only a very small proportion of the top 500 blogs use them.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency - again something I’ve written quite a bit about. It’s not about high or low posting frequency - but regular posting. Find your rhythm and stick to it. Probably most blogs we looked at posted on average 1 to 3 times a day. This amount largely depended on whether a blog was predominantly a link dump or providing original content. There are obvious time and effort issues as to why this is the case.

8. Mixing Topics - Stick to your niche. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss - so true. Once you hit publish you loose control over who will ever see what you write. Be careful. This is true to an extent but I also believe you can put yourself into a straightjacket by sticking rigidly to your niche. There is of course a balance, too far off topic and your blog loses it's meaning, too rigid and you're in danger of becoming stale both as a writer and to your audience. It was apparent from many of the top 500 blogs that they often strayed far too often and you'd end up wondering "what the hell is this blog about."

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service - the quote of this article is ‘Letting somebody else own your name means that they own your destiny on the Internet.’ So true. Interesting observation and one I hadn't really thought about until I read this.

11. Darren at Problogger quite rightly suggested no contact details as a common mistake. If you're serious about your blog I think it's important to have the abillity to converse off site so to speak. Comments aren't always an ideal place to strike up dialogue!

Here are some of my additions to this list.

12. A simple description of what the blog is about. It sounds ridiculous but I can assure you that I was astounded at how many top 500 blogs had no description of their principal themes. I can hear shouts of "it's in the title stupid". Well, just trust me, quite often it isn't. Alright, a life blog is likely to be eclectic but why not say so or at least give some hints as to what your majoring on. It makes it so much easier for someone dropping on your page for the first time.

Having spoken to many recent newcomers to blogs I was interested to hear a plethora of similar complaints. Quite frankly who has the time to read back months and months to find out what the author is driving at. A couple of simple sentences of description posted in a prominent place on your page can be tremendously helpful. Ideally not in some crypic, hidden meaning type way either.

This is a criticism that is symptomatic of the insular nature of the blogging community. We all assume too easily that everybody understands blogging terminology or understands immediately that your blog is about knitting or whatever. If mainstream blogging is going to open itself up to a wider audience we all need to make it more accessible to newcomers.

13. Cluttered pages. Quite frankly it is testing enough on the eyes reading from a screen so why make matters worse by filling it with every coloured button and graphic going. Less is more. If you look at the likes of Weblogs, Gawker et al, their pages are relatively simple and uncluttered.

14. Keep posts short and sweet. This is something I can be guilty of and am doing it in this very post!! However, I can honestly say that an interesting post can be spoilt by going on for too long. It is no exaggeration to say that in our research we actually came across blog posts or should I say diatribes that were almost 4000 words long! Zzzzzz. Keep it short and sweet.

So how does this all relate to blog advertising. Well, in a nutshell, if you can get most of the above right, then you're in a pretty good position to retain readers and increase Ad Revenues.

16% of A-list Blogs Are Life Blogs

As part of our ongoing analysis of the Ads On Blogs 500 we have compiled a list of the most popular topics.

I wonder whether this list will look the same in say 2 years? I doubt it. It's my belief that the Weblogs AOL deal may have signalled the start of a seismic shift towards commercially driven blog networks and a decline in A-list life blogs.

Does this mean the beginning of the of the end for A-list life blogs? Not at all. But it might be the end of the beginning.

Hollywood Eyes Up Blogs

Ads On Blogs pointed out in a previous post that Hollywood studios could start to shift increasing amounts of advertising inventory to blogs. Whilst this will no doubt be a gradual osmosis, there are already early signs of Hollywood's flirtation with blog advertising. Enter Mr Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine. According to Webpronews Mr Jarvis was recently approached by Warner Brothers about a big movie ad.

Could this be the beginning of further Hollywood investment in blog advertising? I think so, although I'm not convinced Buzzmachine is the best place to start, great blog that it is.

Blog Advertising Alternatives

There seems to be new blog advertising alternatives appearing on the scene every week. We've listed here all of those that we are aware of. Do you know of any others? Also please let us know your views on which ones you think work the best.

Adbrite - AdBrite allow you to set your own ad rates, and approve or reject every ad that's purchased for your site. It also enables you to instantly sell ads to your visitors via a "Your Ad Here" link, in addition to selling through AdBrite's marketplace and sales team. Revenue split is 75/25 in your favor.

AdGenta - Service recently released by Quamana. In words of Quamana"AdGenta gives you the freedom and power to make money on your own terms. You can put high paying, relevant ads on your blog easily. We let you easily choose what your ads will be, when and where to put them, and what they look like each and every time, and offer you more money for each click."

AVN ads - AVN sell sponsored links on your behalf. They allow you to set your own ad rates, and approve or reject every ad that's purchased for your site. Revenue split is 75/25 in your favor.

BlogAds - Blogads is a network of bloggers who accept advertising. Restricted to selected publishers generating certain levels of traffic.

BlogSnob - A free advertising service for members of the blogging community.

Chitika - Quite a nifty entry into the market place offering an interesting ad interface. In their words:

"Chitika's flagship service, eMiniMalls, is the industry's first impulse product merchandising service. Based on a proprietary patent pending product merchandising platform, the eMiniMalls service brings a robust comparative shopping engine to web publishers - all packaged in a slick interactive user interface."

Crispads - Here are the reasons Crispads give for choosing their service: 1. Attract advertisers through your readership and through CrispAds web site. 2. You name your monthly price on graphical ads. 3. Earn $0.20 per click-thru on text ads. 3. Choose your own text ads by keyword. 5. Auto-switch-over to graphical ads when your get a graphical sponsor.

Google AdSense - Ubiquitious and effective contextual ad program.

Intelli Txt - This is an interesting ad product from Vibrant media. Ads are revealed only when a user passes their mouse pointer over highlighted keywords embedded in textual content.

Industry Brains - According to Industry Brains they offer "A site specific contextual targeting program that provides an opportunity for publishers to generate incremental revenue while maintaining the editorial integrity of their site."

Kanoodle - Text based, cost per click sponsored links. Kanoodle's products include ContextTarget for content targeted sponsored links, LocalTarget for locally targeted sponsored links, BehaviorTarget for behavioral targeted sponsored links.

LinkAdage Auctions - A link exchange.

MSN Adcenter - Only just released as a beta pilot in the US. Will be another contextual ad platofrm.

OneMonkey - Targeted text advertising. 80/25 split in your favour.

Pheedo - Flexible ad and link sponsorship specialist. 65/35 revenue split in your favour.

TextAds Biz - Textads.biz provide unobtrusive textads on your site.

TextBox Traffic - Text links have been combined with the best features of a banner exchange to attract free traffic to your site.

Text-Link -Ads - Static html links on Web sites.

TxtSwaps - A text link exchange network. It allows you to show links for your own site on other websites in return for showing links to other websites on your own site.

Yahoo Publisher Network - Still in beta - only open to select publishers. Provides contextual ads related to the content of your site.

Weblogs Inc Adsense Secrets

Useful case study from Inside Adsense looking at Weblogs Inc. I guess everybody has their different success or disaster stories about using Adsense but this one might be worth studying a bit closer.

(via Problogger)

80% of A-list Blogs Originate from the US

As part of our Ads On Blogs 500 analysis of the Feedster 500 we looked at the international composition of blogs. As with other parts of our research the observation analysis was difficult and in this instance we were only able to substantiate the ownership of 329 blogs out of the 500. Our percentages are therefore based off only the identifiable 329 and not the entire 500. Nonetheless, this should give a useful indication of international composition even if it is limited by those sites operating in English.

35% of A-list Blogs Have Multiple Income Streams

From our previous revenue analysis post it was apparent that there are an array of income raising measures that can be used to monetize your blog. The bulk of A-list blogs which operate commercially, tend to plum for the ubiquitous Adsense, but how many use a combination of revenue tools? Based on our observation analysis of the Ads On Blogs 500 we were able to extrapolate the following figures:

It's interesting to note that 30% of A-list blogs err on the side of caution by utlising only one revenue tool. I think it's a case of "less is more", as there can be a real danger of content being clogged up by a plethora of ads and affiliate schemes. It was also apparent from our observations that many of the more successful blogs are quite skilled at blending various revenue tools into their pages.

Those A-list blogs that do opt for a strategy of multiple revenue tools seem to rarely venture beyond using a tandem combination, the most popular of which are listed below:

Health Warning - For those looking into operating multiple ad programs - be vigilant of your TOS!

Technorati tags: advertising blog advertising blog revenue

Which is The Most Popular Blog About Blogging?

It's a tricky one to analyse because so many sites are eclectic in their content. So with some subjectivity we selected those sites which had blogs as their principal topic of interest. We then analysed those blogs in terms of their position on the Ads On Blogs 500 and voila!!

1 Creative Commons Blog - rss

2 Everything TypePad

3 Naked Conversations

4 b2evolution News

5 Ensight - A Business & Tech Blog by Jeremy Wright

6 The Blog Herald: more blog news more often

7 Blog Tips - ProBlogger

8 Blogebrity: The Blog

9 Weblog Tools Collection

10 Sifry's Alerts

11 Micro Persuasion

12 Weblogg-ed News

13 Mathemagenic

14 Roland Tanglao's Weblog

All these sites provide their own valuable insights into the world of blogging and I recommend you visit all of them if you haven't already. My particular favourites are the likes of Ensight and Naked Converstions for a blog commerce perspective. Problogger is a very handy read for blog tips and hints. For a PR viewpoint there's the ubiquitous Micro Persuasion or alternatively for a bit of blog gossip there's Blogebrity.

I wonder how many more blogs about blogs will spring up in the coming months?

Technorati tags: blogging blogs

30% of A-list Bloggers Use Adsense

As part of our AdsOnBlogs 500 analysis, we looked at types of income stream. It wasn't an easy task pinning down every type of ad program or donation button from observation alone, but we believe that the figures below are a pretty accurate reflection of what's going on within the top 500 blogs.

I guess the big surprise from these figures was that 35% of blogs appeared to have no revenue capability at all. Whilst no quantitive anlaysis was done on this, it was apparent that the blogs within this category could be divided between those which are simply labours of love and those utilised as PR tools.

The dominance of Adsense is to be expected, but will that remain so with the advent of competing formats from MSN and Yahoo? Adsense seem so far ahead in the contextual field it's difficult to see them being surpassed anytime soon, but who knows.

AdsOnBlogs - BLOG SEARCH 500

As part of a wider blog advertising analysis, Ads On Blogs previously produced the top 100 searched blogs on the Feedster 500. Taking this a step further, we have now analysed aggregrated September search data from Wordtracker and   Overture/Yahoo for the entire Feedster 500. We believe that this gives an interesting insight into current, blog popularity trends.

The top 500 sites are listed below, with the Ads On Blogs ranking to the left and the Feedster ranking to the right.


1The Drudge Report 21

2 Bootleg fark.com rss feed 100

3 deviantART.com 2

4 Albino Blacksheep 4

5Daily Kos 5

6Fleshbot 7

7Ain't It Cool News 130

8Gorillamask.net LinkDump 65

9The Huffington Post 12

10Dumpalink.com 442

11Michelle Malkin9

12Phone Scoop - Latest News 387

13LiquidGeneration: The Suck My Blog 40

14Common Dreams 11

15WhatReallyHappened.com 260

16Gawker 18

17Democracy Now! 64

18AntiWar.com 88

19Something Awful32

20Instapundit.com 15

21Rebelscum.com 458

22Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator 370

23PostSecret 10

24Hugh Hewitt 91

25Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com) 54

26Defamer43

27New England Journal of Medicine -- Recent Issues 449

28Eagle Scout 286

29MegaTokyo 129

30Hit and Run 45

31RealClearPolitics.com 174

32Media Matters for America 14

33GOP.com Blog 179

34 Riehl World View 390

35Wonkette 59

36Engadget 1

37Freakonomics.com Front Page Updates 283

38Crooks and Liars 53

39Go Fug Yourself 176

40Counterpunch 94

41MilkandCookies.com: Latest Links 47

42Little Green Footballs 39

43Dooce 143

44Gizmodo 8

45IMAO 235

46Michael Yon : Online Magazine 369

47Nausicaa.net 336

48A Socialite's Life 488

49Questionable Content 84

50mediabistro.com: Media News 51

51http://www.indymedia.org353

52The Smoking Gun 30

53DoubleViking 222

54 Boing Boing 3

55 Power Line 20

56 Drawn! The Illustration Blog 314

57 Jihad Watch 236

58 AMERICAblog 29

59 towleroad 363

60 RedState.org 127

61 whitehouse.org 426

62 Eschaton 34

63 ZUG: The World's Only Comedy Site 214

64 Daily Dish 77

65 Something Positive 115

66 PoliPundit.com 183

67 Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger 74

68 McSweeney's 50

69 Taegan Goddard's Political Wire 177

70 INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE 82

71 WHEDONesque 359

72 ipodder News 146

73 Hullabaloo 158

74 xiaxue.blogspot.com 231

75 Political Animal 31

76 Democracy for America 416

77 News Hounds 217

78 knittyBlog 44

79 Baseball Prospectus 244

80 The Tom Peters Weblog 341

81 IRAQ THE MODEL 398

82 Vgasm 418

83 Daring Fireball 113

84 TAPPED 83

85 James Wolcott 388

86 This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow

87 Autoblog 33

88 PodcastAlley.com 62

89 Rocketboom 275

90 Talking Points Memo 37

91 Greg Palast's Columns 392

92 Toothpaste for Dinner 76

93 Joystiq 19

94 CTRL+ALT+DEL 80

95 GrokLaw 200

96 BBC Backstage :: Backstage.bbc.co.uk: Ideas 315

97 Informed Comment 87

98 We're not Afraid! 163

99 Overheard in New York 120

100 Warrenellis.com 175

101Creative Commons Blog - rss 13

102LSR 351

103The Anchoress 310

104mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore: Comments 240

105Seth's Blog 70

106The Political Teen 401

107stereogum 192

108Robin Good's Latest News 167

109Wizbang 46

110Diesel Sweeties by R Stevens 255

111Adbusters : Blogs 247

112ScrappleFace 274

113Feld Thoughts 350

114AppleInsider 135

115Everything TypePad 119

116Curbed71

117ongoing92

118The BRAD BLOG 386

119iLounge Formerly known as iPodlounge145

120Mudville Gazette 178

121Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal 263

122Brad DeLong's Website 302

123Stuff On My Cat 320

124Bookslut 212

125Kotaku 109

126Captain's Quarters 27

127The Left Coaster 340

128Expatica.com 295

129Kung Fu Monkey 406

130Mobile Burn 411

131Jalopnik 73

132Naked Conversations 305

133In These Times 311

134Gothamist 102

135Jesus' General 234

136F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog 410

137Major Nelson.com 451

138Angry Bear 405

139Paul Graham 69

140Transbuddha.com 226

141Achewood Weblogs 331

142Murky.org 188

143alexking.org: Blog 104

144Harry's Place 430

145Coalition of the Darkside 342

146WC Events 205

147The Jawa Report152

148Ourmedia - 90

149OotS Latest Updates 258

150Leiter Reports 420

151Adam Curry's Weblog 208

152Google Sightseeing Comments 187

153Yahoo! Search blog 197

154ze's blog 224

155Cox & Forkum 365

156 onegoodmove 447

157Cockeyed.com 480

158Chris Pirillo 202

159Treehugger 131

160Chrenkoff 140

161meyerweb.com: Excuse of the Day 207

162ecto blog 142

163skippy the bush kangaroo 425

164Waxy.org Links 60

165Balloon Juice 210

166Washington Outlook 264

167The Carpetbagger Report413

168PhotographyBLOG354

169WebmasterWorld 164

170Blogcritics 107

171Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley 133

172TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime 81

173Althouse 209

174Defense Tech 239

175Joel on Software 57

176The Long Tail 147

177La Shawn Barber's Corner 121

178Dean's World 362

179NewsTarget.com 134

180portland indymedia - newswire399

181Museum of Hoaxes 419

182MacHall 190

183Universe Today 211

184Swing State Project 241

185For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report 245

186BuzzMachine 58

187Stay Free! Daily 481

188TPMCafe - Politics 137

189Sepia Mutiny 308

190ruk.ca from peter rukavina 193

191Ace of Spades HQ 230

192RAMMSTEIN News 271

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194Blog Maverick 160

195Joi Ito's Web - JP 108

196Cool Hunting 66

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198AVUI 290

199Marginal Revolution 141

200Spamusement 159

201Things That ... Make You Go Hmm435

202Blogging Baby 93

203Adrants254

204Bink.nu379

205Dappled Things366

206Reality TV Magazine 322

207VodkaPundit 424

208Screenshots... 389

209Pharyngula 118

210Mike Davidson 309

211Shiny Shiny 257

212Main Page - Wikinews 79

213Lost Remote 471

214Alas, a blog 382

215DCist 396

216kennysia.com 397

217LP Blog 450

218Lessig Blog 101

219Outside The Beltway 125

220Democratic National Committee: Blog l114

221Pocket PC Thoughts 105

222The Washington Note 267

223Jeremy Zawodny's blog 103

224Coalition Casualty Count News 243

225FlickrBlog 122

226kuro5hin.org 78

227The News Blog 248

228Think Secret 300

229Samizdata.net 457

230JetBrains News 393

231Roger L. Simon 242

232Tomorrow 376

233codshit.com 72

234brooklynvegan 225

235Thudfactor 184

236The News is NowPublic.com - developing - recent stories 6

237Sentencing Law and Policy 168

238The J-Walk Blog 171

239MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Comments 372

240The Smirking Chimp 454

241Secunia - Latest Secunia Security Advisories 198

242The Hype Machine - Blog Music 23

243Gear Live 391

244Workbench 99

245SF Bay Area Indymedia 48

246Crooked Timber Comments165

247One Hand Clapping 483

248TheServerSide.NET: Weekly Blogs Update 427

249Nothing Nice To Say - RSS Feed 361

250Orcinus 464

251Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women 423

252Lifehacker 22

253cwinters.com 292

254Seven Percent 403

255Bitch. Ph.D. 269

256A softer world 355

257growabrain 232

258Sam Ruby's Comments 161

259Online Marketing Blog 182

260Schneier on Security 49

261Ensight - A Business & Tech Blog by Jeremy Wright 348

262The Agitator 448

263JustOneMinute 325

264Lost TV Show Fansite Lost-Media.com 326

265MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors 402

266Google GlobeTrotting 17

267Dan Gillmor's blog 169

268Particles 180

269small dead animals 467

270defective yeti 473

271tonypierce.com + busblog 324

272Single Serve Coffee.com357

273John Battelle's Searchblog 139

274A Daily Briefing on Iran 67

275TomDispatch 360

276Screenhead 284

277MacMinute 431

278Patterico's Pontifications Comments 261

279 Adland 282

280Vimeo / newest clips 155

281Om Malik's Broadband Blog 52

282Blogathon 2005185

283gapingvoid 106

284slacktivist 494

285PvP 126

286Winds of Change.NET 112

287plasticbag.org 156

288Pepys' Diary (brief) 35

289ranchero.com 116

290Qwantz.com : Dinosaur Comics 110

291SCOTUSblog 132

292Green Car Congress 246

293Gridskipper 86

294Daniel W. Drezner 460

295The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)24

296InsideGoogle Comments 436

297Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report 304

298The Big Picture 321

299this WEEK in TECH - Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech 446

300[daily dose of imagery] 466

301The China Stock Blog 313

302Affiliate Program Tip Blog 312

303Digital Media Jobs Blog 63

304Music thing 223

305Jakob Neilson's Useit.com 237

306Matthew Yglesias 281

307The Indepundit 407

308AFA Action Alerts 438

309Maud Newton 409

310Shiny Things 456

311Smart Mobs 85

312Doc Searls Weblog 117

313Trey Jackson 330

314Fafblog 422

315The Blog Herald: more blog news more often 157

316Gadgetopia Comments 265

317GM FastLane Blog 444

318UK Indymedia Newswire 166

319Majikthise 277

320MAKE: Blog 28

321Photo Matt 148

322News from Adaptive Path 111

323The Sneeze 307

324Signal vs. Noise 68

325Channel 9 36

326msmobiles.com 394

327ProLifeBlogs 440

328Obsidian Wings414

329Anne’s Weblog about Markup & Style 415

330Overcompensating: Actual Things That Happen to Jeffrey Rowland 487

331Blog Tips - ProBlogger 203

332Ezra Klein 317

333the evangelical outpost 434

334TheTrenchcoat Chronicles 319

335Blogebrity: The Blog 465

336FactCheck.org253

337YACCS Comments for The Shifted Librarian 266

338Acton Institute PowerBlog 400

339Johnnie Moore's Weblog 251

340IT Conversations 26

341Download Squad 95

342I4U News 154

343Cool Tools 329

344Wonderland 384

345Burningbird 327

346Luxist 38

347Sirotablog 285

348Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life 301

349Search Engine Roundtable 500

350Weblog Tools Collection385

351ETF Investor 433

352AdJab 149

353normblog 233

354Don't Back Down - In Our World 144

355The Supreme Court Nomination Blog 256

356Mini Ture_MacJournal 374

357Michael Geist Law RSS Feed 469

358Sifry's Alerts 136

359what's in rebecca's pocket? 373

360Craphound.com: The Literary Works of Cory Doctorow 151

361Gateway Pundit 287

362Yahoo! Web Services blog 288

363A VC 150

364Challies Dot Com 490

365Scripting News 75

366Google Blogoscoped Forum 138

367PVR Wire 338

368http://www.vincentcheung.com/461

369Publius Pundit 249

370ProfessorBainbridge.com276

371Casey West 364

372Evil Genius Chronicles 368

373phil ringnalda dot com 429

374Microsoft Monitor 162

375MobileRead Networks 172

376NevOn Experimental 221

377Sports Podcast Network 173

378macosxhints 189

379Blogging.LA 252

380Digital Web Magazine - Latest Articles 259

381Catallarchy 477

382Anil Dash 380

383CJR Daily 428

384MocoNews.net486

385Micro Persuasion 56

386ThePodcastNetwork :: The TPN Blog 123

387Big Brass Blog 395

388superchefblog 89

389John P. Hoke's Asylum 186

390Nick Bradbury 262

391dapreview.net 345

392The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Weblog 334

393a shel of my former self 452

394PVRblog 478

395Neil Gaiman's Journal 98

396The Counterterrorism Blog 306

397Simon World 408

398BBHub195

399Google Blog 213

400Around The Horn 278

401The Gadgets Weblog 377

402WorldChanging: Another World Is Here 41

403Ross Mayfield's Weblog 344

404TV Squad 25

405SiliconBeat 220

406uefa.com - News 343

407MarketingVOX - The Voice of Online Marketing 347

408The Poor Man Cafe 445

409Communications From Elsewhere Comments273

410videos.antville.org 358

411Ask Dave Taylor! 459

412The Internet Stock Blog484

413Simple Thoughts97

414Say Anything 194

415stillhq.com 201

416BlogsforTerri206

417The Chris Pirillo Show 227

418Wealth Bondage 378

419Phil Windley's Technometria 498

420textually.org 170

421ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman's Weblog 228

422Weblogg-ed News 294

423Berkun blog 463

424drunkenhero.com 42

425hack a day 96

426the jackol's den 196

427Cinema Minima: Personal Digital Cinema. News service for movie makers 289

428WILLisms.com 16

429Besting Adwords55

430Ticketsea.com 61

431Michael Moore - This Just In 124

432Ree's geekblog 128

433HispanicTips 153

434Lonewacko 181

435Lawyer Search 191

436Shakespeare's Sister 199

437B2Blog204

438Read/Write Web 215

439The Mountain Bike Investor - Trying to Make Mad Money with Jim Cramer 216

440Binary Bonsai 218

441The Regular - Hourly politics and news 219

442SiliconValleyWatcher.com 229

443Marc's Voice 250

444A Whole Lotta Nothing 268

445Feministe 270

446Pete's Linklog 272

447K. Todd Storch 279

448Kitchen Contraptions.com 280

449TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home Comments 291

450CC Mixter (remix) 293

451Neopoleon.com 296

452SQLJunkies Blogs 297

453flagrantdisregard 298

454Consumerism Commentary299

455basil's blog 303

456The Cassandra Page 316

457ContractsProf Blog 318

458PlasticThinking: Moe's Blog. 323

459Mathemagenic 328

460TechPodCasts.com Network 332

461Cat and Girl 333

462Cincom Smalltalk Blogs 335

463line of site 337

464have you ever checked the flinstone's vitamins box to find out what flavors they come in? 339

465Pam's House Blend 346

466Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends 349

467Parenting Advice and Information 352

468Wangjianshuo's blog 356

469QandO 367

470DVD Talk Radio 371

471The Cap'n's Log 375

472TallSkinnyKiwi 381

473TJ's Weblog 383

474rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog 404

475Blogging Roller412

476tdaxp 417

477Niall Kennedy's Weblog 421

478To-Done432

479Darkfaery Subculture Magazine 437

480Fourmilog: None Dare Call It Reason 439

481HD Beat441

482The Stypod 443

483 A Logical Voice 453

484 Tony Bondello 455

485 Ugly Chart 468

486 Interesting Thing of the Day 470

487 ILoveJackDaniels.com 472

488 Roland Tanglao's Weblog 474

489 Freedom to Tinker 475

490 Games Digest 476

491 Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching 479

492 gabeanderson.com: life 482

493 cubicgarden.com... 485

494 culturekitchen 489

495 Spam Huntress Comments 491

496 Simon Willison's Weblog 492

497 TV Snob.com 495

498 microformats 496

499 Unto the Breach 497

500 The Sheila Variations 499


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