Ads On Blogs

The Commercialization of Blogging

2005-11-30T11:31:00.000Z

Fascinating post on New York Times which adds further credence to the slow march of blogs into the periphery of mainstream media.

Here are some of the key points:

Bloggers who started out for fun are now finding that they have full blown businesses on their hands.
More and more companies are considering post product placement on blogs.
It's important to be honest about advertising on your blog.
However, in the words of Anita Campbell quoted on NYT "I also don't apologize for accepting advertising, and I make it clear that just like everyone else I have to earn a living and pay the expenses of keeping the site going." couldn't agree more with this sentiment.
It's becoming apparent that more businesses are noticing the influence of blogs and have spent an estimated $50 million to $100 million this year on blog advertising and marketing according to Forrester Research
Interestingly US Web an online marketing firm has paid people $5 to mention a company or link to it's site. Examples include Lussori.com and Terra Entertainment who offered MySpaces users a mention on film credits if they included a trailer in their personal profile pages.
A Forrester Research survey found in February that 64 percent of US national marketers are interested in advertising on blogs.

Will Chitika Strike Gold With Google?

2005-11-30T10:38:00.000Z

I recently wrote on Performancing about giving some consideration to your blog business exit strategy. My post was spawned from an excellent piece of journalism on Business Week titled Googling For Gold which basically looks at the phenomenon of starting niche tech businesses with the intention of selling out to Google 12 months later. It was while reading this post that I spotted a particularly intriguing paragraph:

"Google is creating a whole new ecosystem for entrepreneurs, says Baris Karadogan of U.S. Venture Partners, a high-tech VC firm in Silicon Valley. Karadogan says he's closely watching a group of entrepreneurs who are designing a highly specialized online advertising tool, hoping to sell it to Google for $50 million. "Before," he laments, "you needed a VC. Now you can build a Linux-based data system for $100,000 and survive long enough to sell without ever raising a venture round."

Umm, which company is running a beta version of a "highly specialized online advertising tool" at the moment? Is it just me, or am I seeing a Google future for Chitika!

Blog Advertising Totters Forward

2005-11-29T10:16:00.000Z

Blog advertising seems to be taking some more tottering steps towards hitting the main stream with this positive write up in the New York Times about the Up Your Budget treasure hunt campaign. The throng of advertisers now willing to chance their arm within the world of blogs seems to be growing and for interesting reasons. As Scott Deaver executive vice president of Budget (a car hire company) says "I've got to be smart and make my brand feel smart to the consumer. I can't just out spend Hertz," Mr. Deaver added, "but I can outsmart them."

For me this speaks volumes for how innovation is often born out of adversity, and that may well be the driving force behind the growing flirtation with blog advertising.

Also something that was of great interest in the New York Times article was how certain blogs were selected for advertising the Up Your Budget campaign. Jay Arnold, president and chief executive at the Impax Marketing Group in Philadelphia who coordinated the Budget marketing strategy outlined the process:

"With the help of a consultant, B. L. Ochman, using criteria like how frequently a blog is updated and how interesting they are to the so-called technorati. In fact, Mr. Arnold said, the tracking service technorati.com was used to help pick the blogs."

Whilst I think Technorati is an excellent tool on a number of fronts, it is a little hard for me to accept that it will continue to be a benchmark for selecting blogs in future ad campaigns. What is really needed is a comprehensive database of blog traffic statistics. I suspect that this need will become more acute as every week passes.

(Via Adpulp)

Yahoo Publisher Going Direct Deposit

2005-11-24T22:35:00.000Z

Looks like Yahoo Publisher is following the lead of Google AdSense by adding a direct deposit feature. More on Jensense.

Booming Internet Ad Revenues

2005-11-24T22:34:00.000Z

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau internet advertising revenues for publishers have risen to new dizzy heights exceeding $3 billion for the third quarter. Full story at ClickZ Total annual revenues for 2005 could beat $12 billion compared to last years figure of $9.6 billion.

UpYour Budget Delivers Value For Money

2005-11-24T11:00:00.000Z

When Budget the car rental company began their Up Your Budget campaign there must have been a sense of trepidation. But the whole venture which centred around a "Charlie and the Choclate Factory" style treasure hunt has turned out to be an unqualified success. Most of the promotion was done through the BlogAds Network and according to Media Post - Scott Deaver, Budget's chief marketing officer, said "the entire contest and promotion including the $160,000 in prize money cost less than a single 30-second spot on a highly rated TV show."

Here are BlogAds metrics:

19.9 million impressions on 125 blogs
56,446 clicks at cost of 25 cents per click

In terms of exposure this is a phenomenal return on investment.

A Click To Call Future For Ads

2005-11-23T14:20:00.000Z

Ads On Blogs discussed Pay Per Call Advertising some months ago, which was a technology being developed by America Online along with other partners including Ingenio and backed by eBay and Microsoft - to transform ad clicks into a direct telephone call.

It now seems Google has taken the bull by the horns and done a limited release to some parts of the USA of a very similar technology. Who said Google was innovative? Google explain how it works:

"Here’s how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click ‘Connect For Free,’ Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing on the other end as Google connects you to the other party. Then, chat away on our dime." (For full details)

Expect to see this appearing on blogs sometime soon!

(Via Problogger)

Could Ads On Blogs Be Growing Up?

2005-11-22T15:49:00.000Z

Steve Rubel theorises on the rise of blog advertising in his post "As Portal Inventory Dwindles, Will Ads on Blogs Rise" . He makes a good point - with portal inventory booked for months ahead surely it's time for some big bucks ad dollars to find their way into the cream of the blogosphere. Certainly, Steve points to some tantalising evidence on TechWeb that "Advertising executives see blogs, podcasts and web-enabled cellular phones as newcomers in the market that are worth watching, but have yet to prove they're worth as major investments, a survey released Tuesday showed."

My heart tells me that blog advertising maybe approaching an important cross roads, going from an unruly teenager if you like, to a fully paid up adult of media society. But my head tells me that the cross roads is being called too early, as is alluded to in the "worth watching, but yet to prove worth" bit of the above statement. Almost in paralell to some of my statements about where "blogging in general currently sits" in my post The Wider Implications of Business Blog Survey my belief is that blog advertising proper has some growing up to do on a number of fronts.

I'm not being a stick in the mud for saying this - it's what I think is an objective assessment, based on recent experiences in the advertising agency environment. However, what I ultimately believe this boils down to is a question of time and acceptance into the mainstream. How long will that take is an interesting question? I think we have already seen tentative toes dipped into the water and that will probably be the form for another six months to year. In terms of when we might see consistent multi million dollar ad inventory commitments I think we're potentially looking at 18 months - 2 years. But who really knows!

The Curiosity of Chitika

2005-11-22T10:57:00.000Z

Again there is more news on Chitika's development of the eMiniMalls program. On the Chitika Blog they released the following statement outlining their intentions to remove product links:

"To help minimize so-called “curiosity clicks” that typically do not lead to conversions on the merchants’ side, we updated the eMiniMalls units to drive qualified clicks. Hence, eMiniMalls users will notice a dip in the overall click through rate (and hence the overall revenue). "

In a rather shrewd move Chitika will be "providing a 10% bonus through November as a compensatory measure."

I must admit that when I heard this, it immediately struck a chord. Why? Well, the first thing I did when I saw eMiniMalls on other sites was investigate, - probably on several occasions. I suspect many others did the same.

So now the Chitika buzz maybe dying down, what lays ahead for eMiniMalls? Personally I still like them, they are original and offer some nice functionality that other Ad Programs don't. However, I think there is a reality setting in - eMiniMalls in their current form work at their best on product related blogs. This is likely to become more apparent as the curiosity factor wears off.

The Wider Implications of Business Blog Survey

2005-11-22T10:34:00.000Z

Interesting piece of research (via iMediaConnection) from Dallas Chapter of the International of Business Communications (IABC) which found "that blogging is a well known communications tool but is not yet mainstream." According to the research - 34 percent of respondents said "blogging is something they or their company do as part of their communications efforts."

Personally I see this as a barometer of wider blog acceptance and the inherent implications for blog advertising. For all the prevarications of exponential blog growth, I think we all need to pour a dose of cold water over ourselves and put some perspective on where blogging actually sits at the moment. Some interesting figures on ClickZ indicate that there may be only about 10,000 regular bloggers (by regular I mean posting daily) out there. A tiny number really, even if you use ClickZ's comparison of up to 40,000 full time journalists in the US - which is a little like comparing apples with oranges in my view. Various projections say this will hit 75,000 -100,000 within the next couple of years. Various surveys (See our previous post - Blog Boom or Bust) have also indicated that the average person on the street really hasn't a clue what a blog is let alone something like a podcast. So is it all doom and gloom?

Far from it in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, you won't find a bigger blog protagonist than me. It's just that I think we need to put in perspective how fast blogging is infiltrating the consciousness of the mainstream, and that afterall should be the benchmark of it's success. Yes there is continued rapid growth in blogging ahead. Yes blog advertising will continue to play an important part in monetizing. Yes there is a similar buzz and excitement surrounding blogging and other Web 2.0 social media(Web 2.0 definiton) that existed in the early days of the internet boom of the late nineties. There is even venture capital beginning to flow. But if we have learnt any lessons from the first incarnation of web technology, it was that there is always a people lag. i.e a time lapse between tech enthusiasts, venture capital funding and adoption by the wider population. How quickly will the time lag be with blogging and other web 2.0 Media? Personally, I think it could be anything upwards of two years and that may be optimistic.

I'd be interested in hearing what you think on this topic?

12% Of A-List Blogs Advertise In Their Feeds

2005-11-17T11:33:00.000Z

I am a little ambivalent as to the potential of feed advertising. Part of me says it's a great idea and that your monetizing bits of you're content which may have previously been off limits. On the other hand I am finding increasing irritation at finding ads in my feeds and can't really pinpoint why. I guess it's because when you're scanning a gazillion feeds, things that get in the way can act like small, but irritating parasites that you just want to swat out of the way. Certainly some of the reports coming back from many bloggers are less than exciting about it's revenue potential.

However, like most things I guess it's a numbers game. 200,000 subscriptions to your feed and it's not going to be a waste of time incorporating them, particularly as some RSS Ad Programs will be CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions). The irritant factor probably becomes less significant if the quality of a subscriptions content is worth it. A more marginal feed and it probably makes me a little trigger happy on the delete button, when I undertake my monthly cull. This is a quandary that bloggers all over the world will be weighing up and experimenting with. Particularly in light of the recent release of Feedster with full automation of their RSS ads program, and also Feedburner announcing that they will launch their own RSS ad network.

Anyway in light of the above Ads On Blogs have analysed the number of A-list blogs currently utilising RSS advertising and can confirm that only 12.2% are participating. By A-list I am referring to the Ads On Blogs 500 analysis of the Feedster 500.

As this is a developing strand in contextual advertising this figure may not be terribly significant, plus you've also got to allow for the fact that Google and Yahoo's offerings are still in beta. However, I can't help feeling that RSS advertising should have taken greater strides forward by now.

Tags: rss, advertising, blogs, feeds, Syndication,

AdSense Pricing For The Smart

2005-11-17T09:40:00.000Z

I was looking for some elaboration on Googles smart pricing system for AdSense and found this great post on Jensense where else!

For those of you who don't know about smart pricing here is her summarised explanation:

"Google's smart pricing feature automatically adjusts the cost of a keyword-targeted content click. So if our data shows that a click from a content page is less likely to turn into actionable business results - such as online sales, registrations, phone calls, or newsletter signups - we reduce the price you pay for that click.

And this often used example explains how this works more precisely.

As an example of smart pricing, consider two websites, each related to digital photography. The first page features digital camera reviews, while the second offers photography tips. Clicks from the page of photography tips might be charged less, because they are expected to convert into sales less frequently, resulting in lower value for advertisers. Google data determines that clicks from the digital camera reviews convert better, so clicks from this page are not discounted."

Rumours abound regarding the functionality of smart pricing. Jensense gives some credence to the following:

1. Smart pricing can affect an entire account not just individual pages.

2. One poorly converting site can affect others even if they are unrelated.

3. Smart pricing is evaluated weekly so removing ads from a site that's not converting could result in an evaluation of your smart pricing to a higher level within a week.

4. AdSense track with a 30 day cookie so a higher proportion of converted clicks can see you rewarded 29 days later.

5. Smart pricing can also affect image ads.

How To Make Podcasts Pay

2005-11-16T13:30:00.001Z

I read a few months ago that Jason Calacanis was looking closely at making the Podcast business model work, so it was quite interesting to learn via Problogger that he has been captured on a video clip recorded by JD Lasica from Engadget talking about six different podcasting models. It contains some fascinating insights.

Podcast Growth Going Exponential

2005-11-16T13:30:00.000Z

An interesting study by Bridge Ratings indicates that the number of people who downloaded a podcast has risen from 820,000 in 2004 to 4.8 million people in 2005. Projections of audience growth by 2010 is expected to reach 45 million users. More optimistic estimates approach the 70 million mark.

In my opinion the viability of podcast business models is still a few years away from being sustainable based on figures like this. I look forward to being proved wrong!

Site Traffic Vs Links

2005-11-15T13:10:00.000Z

Will site traffic metrics become more important than links in blog advertising? That's what Heather Green partially examines at Blogspotting and I would most definitely say yes. Links do show some sense of a blogs popularity but they are pretty far from providing the kind of eyeball accuracy that is needed by advertisers nowadays.

The key here is one of those awful advertising acronyms - ROI or Return On Investment. Advertisers like to predict with as much accuracy as possible, how their ad spend will be converted into extra revenue and quite frankly the best way to do that is by looking at site traffic. Hence the moves by Calacanis of Weblogs AOL (not sure what their calling themselves these days) to corner the market in site traffic data. Of course he claims that collecting and managing this data is for the wider good. Yeah right. It's a great business opportunity and and a great idea to monopolise and control the data from the cream of the blogsophere. Mr Calacanis is a great business man but I wish he would be a little more forthright about this opportunity rather than shroud it in a blanket of public service duty, particularly when you look at the charges he is proposing for collecting and presenting that data to advertisers.

Another RSS Analysis Tool

2005-11-15T11:59:00.000Z

ClickZ reports today that Pheedo are expected to release a RSS analytics tool which will assist publishers to monitor user behaviours.

The tool is expected to resemble (in fact I can't see any difference based on this info) the one provided by Feeburner offering:

· Observations of user interactions with ads and content.

· Measure clicks on content and feed subscriptions.

· Measure impressions and clicks.

· Advanced analysis of behaviours by time, day and other unspecified factors.

Pheedo CMO Bill Flitter is quoted on ClickZ as saying “the product will help publishers consolidate reporting for campaigns with both RSS and site-based placements.”

AdCenter Will Provide Platform to Personalization

2005-11-14T13:58:00.000Z

Interesting post on Marketing Vox which supposes that "Microsoft's grand plans to provide free software and services over the internet are predicated on generating ad revenue via adCenter (still in beta) to catch up with Google and Yahoo by offering what they don't - ads targeted by gender, age, ZIP code, time of ad delivery and so on - writes CNET."

Interesting angle to Microsoft's recent moves into contextaul advertising. One almost feels that they are trying to leap frog their competitors rather than merely ape them, if these reported ambitions are true.

It's certainly a mouthwatering prospect to make personalization a reality - based on demographic details of whose searching. Although I think it would be naive to think Microsoft are the only ones with an eye to this personalized future.

Audible To Improve Podcast Measureability

2005-11-14T13:27:00.000Z

Looking for a tool to help measure how many people listen to podcasts? Well, Audible may have an answer according to Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which could make podcasts more attractive to advertisers by resolving some of the accountability issues.

WSJ:- "By providing a way to track not just how many times the show is downloaded, but whether it is played back and for how long, Audible hopes to give podcasters detailed audience information."

Audible intend to use that data and sell it as a measuring service in the Spring, which maybe music to the ears of Matt Finberg Senior Vice President for radio at Publicis Groupe SA's ZenithOptimedia who says "currently there is no measureability in podcasting"

CEO's Aren't Blogging

2005-11-14T13:12:00.000Z

Some interesting research on emarketer indicates that whilst CEO's can see the benefits in blogging, few of them actually operate a personal blog. I don't think we can be surprised by this research. Blogging can be a labour intensive business and as a prominent CEO with 10,000 employees what are you going to do:- go to long business lunches or spend a couple of hours blogging each day!

The Viability of Podcast Ads

2005-11-14T12:47:00.000Z

Interesting post on Micropersuasion about another attempt to make podcasting financially viable through advertising. Check out RadioTail here.

Apparently "RadioTail enables advertisers to reach just the precise demographics they want. They allow podcast producers to focus on content while generating income from their efforts thanks to special technology auto inserts rotating ad spots and campaign tracking."

Sounds great, but my fear is that the currently low levels of podcast distribution will make this angle hard to sustain revenue wise. Another, couple of years down the road and it could be a very different situation.

Urchin Web Statistics Freed Up

2005-11-14T10:03:00.000Z

I tend not to discuss web statistics on this blog but it is nonetheless an important part of monetizing if that is your intention. So I was quite intrigued to hear about Googles decision to make urchin (a web statistics program) a free service where once it was an expensive luxury. According to Inside Google Urchin now rebranded Google Analytics, will be free to those with less than five million monthly page views - so I guess that includes most of the blogsophere and is also free to AdWords advertisers. As inside Google say if you "go over 5 million then it's time to add the worlds smallest AdWords campaign."

Having used urchin for some time now I have found it's functionality pretty damn good, if a little complicated. Impact on competitors? Well it could knock out a few businesses but as Inside Google say "it won't rule the market."

How To Get Your Blog Up In Lights

2005-11-10T12:10:00.000Z

Following on from my previous post about the latest AdSense case study - Askbuilder.com, I thought it would be helpful to elaborate on one piece of advice that is often over looked when trying to elevate a blog's status and exposure. I like to refer to it as "getting your blog up in bright lights".

To make my point check out Tim Carter's (chief contributer to Askbuilder) other exploits outside blogging:

1. Nationally syndicated newspaper columnist.

2. Fronts his own radio show.

3. Makes frequent television appearances.

See what I'm driving at here. Most, but not all, really successful bloggers either have existing, firm roots in conventional media avenues or have worked their way into conventional media avenues via blogging. It's not a prerequisite but it's a definite advantage - examples Mark Cuban with Weblogs Inc, Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine, Jeremy Wright of Ensight ..... the list is long and illustrious.

This is a topic that is often neglected when talking about blog promotion but I think you underestimate it's importance at your peril. So here are some low cost ideas for getting you and your blog in lights:

A well placed press release through a respected PR company. Example - the kid at million dollar homepage invested his first $1000 of revenue on a press release (an exceptionally clever move - his dad must be in PR! ), interest went off the richter scale from there. Obviously you have to have something news worthy but a good PR man will be able to guide you on that.

Write to TV companies and program makers floating your expertise in a particlar niche. You'll have to knock on a lot of doors but keep at it and you'll find that it eventually pays off.

Offer to write a small piece in a local or national newspaper. You'll be amazed how eager some editors are for newsworthy information. Whilst the blogosphere is keen to point out the imminent demise of newspapars, they still wield a lot of power and influential eyeballs and will continue to do so for some time yet.

Produce some original research analysis in your field. Again many newspaper and magazine editors will be only too happy to publish your work if you can give them something original that fits with a story their compiling. For Ads On Blogs it was Red Herring magazine that published some of our data analysis - more on that later this this week.

Contact radio shows. Ads On Blogs recently offered some advice on blogging for LBC Radio 97.3 - Londons biggest talk radio station with approximately a million listeners and were given a free plug in return. That kind of exposure normally costs you thousands of pounds and returned a traffic spike like you wouldn't believe.

I'm scratching the surface, but I think you get the gist of what I'm driving at here: - Yes online viral marketing is great, but don't disregard the offline stuff too.

Tags: PR, MARKETING, BLOG, RADIO, tv, NEWSPAPERS

Experiment With Your AdSense!

2005-11-10T10:59:00.000Z

Another week another case study from Inside AdSense. These really are a must read for budding professional bloggers - however and it's a big however - look, learn, extrapolate and experiment is my advice. Don't work on the basis that copying these case studies will lead you to the promised land.

This weeks offering looks at a great little site called AsktheBuilder.com written by Tim Carter which basically provides advice and tips on building matters - surprise surprise!

So here are some key things to note for those of you looking to replicate Tim Carter's success:

1. Tim Carter is a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, has his own radio show and makes frequent television appearances. Having a foot in conventional media helps and don't let anybody tell you any different!

2. Tim says that he "spends a tremendous amount of time writing articles, answering people’s emails, and creating quality content for my site." Quality content is an obvious must. The key bit for me is answering people's emails and I would extend that to responding to comments. Building a rapport with your readership is what makes blogs so enchanting and demarcates them from the aloof nature of newspapers.

3. Tim says "readers get advice from his content and from his AdSense ads." The key here is to try and make your ads appear as similar ( while keeping within the TOS) and as close to content as possible. Interestingly Tim goes on"I want to solve their problems, and that’s what AdSense does. AdSense provides instantaneous solutions to problems that my visitors have." I think you can apply this principle to every blog. People arrive at content and typically want information or answers fast, if you can give them that through content and AdSense you're on to a winning formula.

4. "Carter quickly began tests using AdSense channels, trying different ad formats, colors, and placement to gauge relative effectiveness" Experiment, experiment and experiment some more.

Channels are an essential tool for experimentation and enable you to track the effectiveness of your ad placement, colour and format. See my post at performancing about Chitika's recent inclusion of channels.

5. One of the things that you'll see many pundits advise, is matching ads to your site format - Tim's experiences indicate he is no exception to this.

6. Tim also reports success with link units. For the uninitiated, link units are the various underlined categories running along the top of this page.

7. Another relatively common tip proposed by Tim "AdSense units perform well when they are within the body of his articles" Check out this great article from Blog Herald telling you how to place ads in your text.

8. Another interesting point raised by Tim was his testing of ad placement. He says "I now put ad units above the fold and to the left before I place them anywhere else."

Tim is apparently clearing $1400 a day in AdSense revenue and growing which is neither here nor there. What is important is that you look at some of his methodology summarised above and draw your own conclusions as to what might work for you.

Tags: adsense

Ads On Blogs To Take Over The World!

2005-11-09T09:15:00.000Z

This is a heads up that Ads On Blogs will be moving fairly shortly to a new site with some advanced features and plenty more focused content. It's also time to announce the start of some other very exciting ventures.

Firstly, today marks the inception of the Orbital Media Blog Network. Yes another one!. Can't say too much on that one yet but there are some big plans afoot. However, I can say that we're not about to make the mistake of releasing a gazillion blogs all at once with garbage content! This will be a strictly quality over quantity affair.

Secondly, I will be contributing some content from time to time over on a new blog called performancing. The esteemed company I will be keeping includes the likes of Nick Wilson, Chris Garrett, Andy Hagans, Patrick Gavin and a peppering of Darren Rowse.

Here's the strap line on what will be a must read for aspiring professional bloggers:

‘Performancing covers all kinds of stuff, but it’s all very tightly focused on making money from blogging. We’re talking about ad programs, design, testing, promoting and the business of blogging for $$$’s.’

So all in all a pretty exciting day!

Crucial That Google Feels The Heat of Competition

2005-11-08T17:27:00.000Z

Heather Green on blogspotting poses an interesting question of whether Google is that innovative or is it simply being reactive to competitors and goes on to mention Tristan Louis' provocative analysis, which indicates that a Google podcasting service maybe it's next reactive innovation.

In his analysis he claims:

"Google does innovate in some spaces but has largely innovated in order to gain entry in markets that already existed. As a rule of thumb, they've been very smart at breathing new innovations in those markets. However, their competitors are generally quick to notice and are catching up."

This is something I have felt strongly about for a very long time and my views are largely rooted in my knowledge of free market economics, which is simply that competition is a major driving force of innovation. In most instances it also squeezes the best deal possible for customers or in the case of AdSense users the best revenue return possible. So for the benefit of us all, we need to nurture and encourage the competitive forces that be.

Clarification On Adsense Referral

2005-11-08T15:40:00.000Z

Inside Adsense have provided some clarification on the Adsense referral system which is summarised as follows:

1. Currently, Firefox plus Google Toolbar referrals are only available for U.S. publishers. However, we're continuing to improve the referrals feature and hope to make Firefox referrals available to international publishers soon.

2. Using language that endorses Adsense, Firefox or Google Toolbar is fine. However, as with AdSense for content, publishers should not use language encouraging clicks on your referral buttons (e.g., "Click here", "Visit these links", etc). The AdSense program policies is the best place to find more specific information about referral policies."

3. If a user clicks on the Firefox referral button but already has Firefox then the user will be redirected to the Google Toolbar for Firefox page. Because we only count referrals for Windows users who have not previously downloaded Firefox, this will not appear as a Firefox conversion in your reports.

Podcast Ads May Be Growing Up

2005-11-07T12:17:00.000Z

The growing pains of making Podcasting pay are well documented, but here is an interesting start up who want to help explore the possibilities for Podcast Ads. They operate under the name of Fruitcast. In their words:

"Fruitcast automates the process of inserting ads into podcasts. We download a podcast's MP3 audio files, add the advertisements on the fly, and then send them to the podcast's subscribers. Each time a podcast episode is downloaded, the advertiser is charged a certain amount, and a significant portion of that amount is credited to the podcaster. Before Fruitcast, advertising on podcasts was a labor-intensive process that involved contacting each podcaster individually, working out a deal to advertise on their podcast, finding an easy way to implement the actual ads and then trying to track how many people download and listen to each episode. It was a logistical nightmare that made it almost impossible to run an organized ad campaign across multiple podcasts. Fruitcast changes all that, making podcasting a viable medium for traditional ad campaigns by automating ad insertion, payments, and reporting for both podcasters and advertisers."

(Via Problogger)

Technorati Tags:

podcast, fruitcast

Advanced Adsense Case Studies

2005-11-07T11:52:00.000Z

Inside Adsense have put a useful demarcation between the case studies for beginners and the case studies for more advanced publishers which I have listed below:

1. Ask The Builder

2. Camcorder Info

3. Weblogs

4. Science Daily

The common theme is methodical experimentation, analysis and tracking.

Technorati Tags: adsense, blog advertising

Chitika Forum

2005-11-07T11:39:00.000Z

If you're starting to explore the functionality of Chitika it might be worth visiting the Chitika Digital Point forum. It's pretty embryonic but there are already some interesting discussions and views flying about over there.

Technorati Tags:

chitika

Trust Issues Over Corporate Blogs

2005-11-07T11:18:00.000Z

Emarketer has posted the the kind of survey I love, as it gives a glimpse of the evolving interaction between the corporates and blogging. Data was compiled from Technorati and public relations firm Edelman via a survey of 30,000 (821 respondents) Technorati newsletter subscribers.

The findings are no brainers, but very interesting nonetheless:

1. Blog respondents are predominantly seeking authority in their field.

2. Largely skeptical response to corporate blogs. Approximatley half of those surveyed had huge question marks over trustworthiness.

3. Bloggers were far more trusting of a blog created by an employee.

"For an in-depth look at the ramifications of blogs on business, read eMarketer's The Business of Blogging report."

Ensight Pulls In The Chitika Dollars

2005-11-07T11:00:00.000Z

Chitika does seem to be taking online advertising by storm at the moment as Jeremy Wright of Ensight shows you don't need a product related blog to pull in the Chitika dollars: "Just a note that I had another great month with the new Chitika ad network. I pulled in nearly $700 from Chitika. The per-click pay has dropped in recent months, but most search engine visitors still find them incredibly appealing. If you haven’t given them a shot yet, it’s likely worth it even just for a few days. They don’t work for everyone, but they’re working incredibly well for me." Technorati Tags: chitika

Adsense Affiliate Scheme Goes Live!

2005-11-04T18:29:00.000Z

Further to Jenstar dropping hints to a forthcoming Adsense referral program; Adsense appear to have just gone live with it.

In their words:

"Referrals is a feature of AdSense that allows you to increase your revenue while increasing your users' awareness of useful products and services. By adding a referral button to your site, you can direct users to products like AdSense and Firefox with Google Toolbar. When your referral connects a user to AdSense or Firefox, you can generate more earnings while helping new web publishers monetize their websites or improve their web browsing experience. You can use our step-by-step instructions to add a referral to your site in minutes."

"Pick out a referral button, and add it to your site. Users who sign up for AdSense through your referral button will learn about a great product, and you'll have a new way to generate revenue - $100 when each user you refer first earns $100."

Adsense Affiliate Scheme

2005-11-04T18:04:00.000Z

Rumours of an Adsense affilliate program on Jensense. Interesting, but strange why they didn't think of that one ages ago. Maybe Chitika's affiliate scheme has focused their thinking!

Audible Tools And Podcast Advertising

2005-11-04T17:19:00.000Z

According to an excellent post by Heather Green of Blogspotting - Audible a download audio company are launching some pretty nifty tools to trial advertising, pay per downloads and subscriptions on podcasts.

The plan is to track metrics which will be manna from heaven if advertisers can make podcasting work. You only have to ask radio industry insiders in the UK about the problems of audience metrics. This obviously won't resolve that, but it may make traditional radio advertisers thinking of experimenting with podcast ads sit up and take note of the accountability this will offer. Interestingly, Audible also intend to employ copy protection technology which will control how and if podcasts are shared.

So what's in it for Audible? Well according to Heather Green "they will make money off the tools through licensing or revenue shares from the subscription or advertising."

Blog Advertising Coup For Gawker

2005-11-04T17:07:00.000Z

Problogger reports that Gizmodo has apparently captured an important ad campaign from Apple for it's iPod products, which link to the official iPod page. No doubt Gawker who operate Gizmodo are feeling pretty pleased with themselves.

Adsense Tinkers With Policies

2005-11-04T16:44:00.000Z

Handy update from Jensense on revised Google AdSense Policies. As Jenstar points out "when you agree to the terms, you agreed to comply to the policies, even when they are changed." The changes don't seem to be anything earth shattering, more a case of tinkering. Still, it's important to take note of these things.

Teenagers Are Becoming Avid Consumers of Blogs

2005-11-03T14:53:00.000Z

Some interesting statistics posted on Marketing Vox indicate "19% of actively online teens create blogs and 38% read them; of those, 62% read solely friends' blogs and 36% read those of friends and others, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, reports ClickZ."

Playboy UK Goes Blogging and Viral

2005-11-03T14:28:00.000Z

Playboy UK seem to have well and truly plunged into the world of new media with a blog and the release of a new viral video - don't worry it isn't visually rude but you may want to keep the volume down if your in the office! (Via Adverblog)

Technorati tags: viral, playboy

Adsense Experimentation Is The Way Forward

2005-11-03T12:57:00.000Z

Type in Adsense into any search engine, scroll down and you'll soon see a plethora of sites, pundits and ebooks offering to help you make your millions from the ubiquitous Ad program. I find it incredible how many such people and organisations can blandly eulogise on Adsense Optimisation with little consideration or disclaimer for the largely subjective nature of the topic.

Yes there are principles which are helpful and we will be exploring some of these in the weeks to come, but what applies to one site may not necessarily apply to another. You'll note that I try to be careful in my posts to point out that useful info on the topic is a "guide" or "helpful advice" and if I don't do this, tell me so!

Do your research, collect hints and tips by all means, but your own experimentation and exploration is key to optimising your own Adsense revenue.

Higher CTR With Good Adsense Design

2005-11-03T11:21:00.000Z

Obviously Adsense positioning is pretty important and the "heat map " is a useful guide.

However, Adsense design is another equally important facet to consider. Probably the most common piece of optimization advice you'll see is matching ad design to site design.

Engineeringtalk's recent design makeover discussed on Inside Adsense and my previous post gives further credence to this:

"The Engineeringtalk team experimented with AdSense designs, focusing on optimization through typography and placement. They found the biggest influence on CTR was the similarity between the AdSense type (size and font), and the main body text of the page. The more similar the type, the higher the CTR."

Technorati tags: blog advertising, adsense placement, adsense design

Adsense Positioning vs Useability

2005-11-03T09:51:00.000Z

If your planning to redesign your website, have you given any consideration to Adsense positioning? According to Inside Adsense - Engineeringtalk embarked on a process of redesign and soon learnt that ad placement should be integral to your early thinking. A wise observation I think. However, Chris Rand of Engineeringtalk goes on to say "Why are we prioritizing helping visitors find their way around the site when they've already come straight in to what they're looking for?"

It's an interesting observation but one I feel is fatally floored. Looking at my own experiences and at traffic logs it is amazing how many readers landing on a site for the first time navigate elsewhere to explore what else there is to offer. By making navigation less obvious you are reducing the possibility of a new arrival reaching the "comfort zone" with your site i.e a state where they feel relaxed with your content and what you have to offer. The further they move into the comfort zone the more likely they are to return.

Take a look at Engineeringtalk's old design and compare it to the new design here. You'll notice that they have relocated site navigation from the "heatmap" hot spots and inserted Ads at the expense of useability in my opinion. The application of heat map theory to the letter is probably something that should be avoided, particularly if you start losing touch with what makes a good site in the first place!

Technorati tags: adsense positioning, adsense placement, adsense heat map, blog advertising

Photoshop Infomerical Via Videocast

2005-11-01T13:12:00.000Z

A videocast or vlog released by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals about the ubiquitous Photoshop has apparently become a popular ipod download on iTunes. According to Media Daily News "the free video podcast offers viewers tutorials and quick tips for mastering Photoshop, as well as industry news and interviews involving the digital photo and imaging software." It's a surprising but interesting development that people are actually choosing to view what is effectively a downloaded info commercial. Could this be a glimpse of a vlogad future?

(Via Adjab)

"It's An Ill Wind That Blows Nobody Any Good"

2005-11-01T13:09:00.000Z

So US newspapers are having a hard time of it with virtually flat revenue growth - check out Media Post for the details. No surprise there really. On the bright side, online newspaper revenues are projected to grow by 25% in 2006. No doubt this will also translate in increased revenues for blogs too.

(Via Marketing Vox)

Ice Cream Goes Blogging

2005-11-01T12:31:00.000Z

Blogspotting picked up on an interesting collection of blogs set up by Denali flavors - an established US ice cream company.

"The four blogs are, Moosetopia, an entertainment blog about the company's mascot; Denali Flavors, about the company, and Team Moose Tracks, the company's cycling team that's raising money for an orphanage." There's also a blog that the company is sponsoring called Free Money Finance which might be considered to be a slightly odd addition to the others.

According to Blogspotting - John Nardini the companies vice president of marketing set them up for $700 but has since enjoyed an increase in visits to their main site by 25.7%. Not a bad result and I must say they are actually quite fun.

Juicy Fruit Blog Bites The Dust

2005-11-01T11:38:00.000Z

As I discussed here some time ago Juicy Fruit came up with a pretty poor excuse for a blog and have now decided their experiment is to end. Juicy Fruit's foray received such stinging criticism from everybody in the world of blogging (Shel Israel felt so strongly that he even slipped a reference to it in his new book Naked Conversations ) that I wonder whether it inadvertently raised the companies profile through the mass of bad publicity it received!

(Via Blogspotting)

Adsense Smart Pricing

2005-11-01T11:23:00.000Z

Some useful facts from Inside Adsense about smart pricing and how to maximise your revenue:

1. Many factors determine the price of an ad.

More than conversion rate goes into determining the price of an ad: the advertiser's bid, the quality of the ad, the other ads competing for the space, the start or end of an ad campaign, and other advertiser fluctuations.

2. Clickthrough rate doesn't affect advertiser return on investment (ROI)

The percentage of clicks that convert for an advertiser is the most important factor in an advertiser's ROI, so it's not only possible, but common, to have a low CTR and a high advertiser conversion rate. It's also possible to have a high CTR and a low conversion rate. Don't remove the AdSense code from your site just because it has a lower CTR - it may be one of your best converting sites.

3. Remember the old chestnut: "Content is King"

The best way to ensure you benefit from AdSense is to create compelling content for interested users. This also means driving targeted traffic to your site -- advertisers don't gain as much ROI when paying for generic clicks as they do for quality clicks that come from interest in your content. Good content usually equals a good experience for user plus advertiser, which can be much more valuable than CTR. Keep in mind that like most Google technology, our system for calculating advertiser pricing gets updated regularly. We're constantly improving our ad products to benefit both the publisher and advertiser communities; what benefits one side ultimately benefits the other.

Experimenting With Ad's Is Essential

2005-11-01T11:11:00.000Z

Useful guide to Ad sizes from the Blog Herald.

I think the thing to bear in mind here is what works for one blog may not work for another. Experimenting with placement, colours and even alternative ad programs is essential.

Qumana Release Ad Program Upgrade

2005-10-31T16:05:00.000Z

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

2005-10-31T15:35:00.000Z

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

2005-10-31T14:54:00.000Z

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

2005-10-28T21:23:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-28T20:25:00.000+01:00

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"

2005-10-27T20:46:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-27T19:38:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-27T18:41:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-26T13:52:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-26T13:26:00.000+01:00

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!

2005-10-26T12:42:00.000+01:00

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?

2005-10-26T11:40:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-25T10:25:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-25T09:54:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-24T15:45:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-24T15:02:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-24T14:13:00.000+01:00

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?

2005-10-24T13:26:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-21T10:00:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-21T08:59:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-20T09:34:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-19T16:12:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-19T09:51:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-19T09:26:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-18T17:30:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-18T16:20:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-18T09:07:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-17T17:10:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-17T09:16:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-14T10:21:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-14T10:05:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-13T13:00:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-12T12:30:00.000+01:00

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?

2005-10-11T11:10:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-10T15:33:00.000+01:00

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

2005-10-06T22:48:00.000+01:00

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

193The Moderate Voice 238

194Blog Maverick 160

195Joi Ito's Web - JP 108

196Cool Hunting 66

197b2evolution News 493

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

329Anneâ€™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

Ads On Blogs is receiving enquiries on a regular basis from both advertisers and bloggers. If you have a successful blog, or you're an advertiser looking to place inventory/sponsorship then please let us know on info@orbital-media.com we may be able to help.

TECHNORATI TAGS blog advertising advertising advertising on blogs blog ads blog ranking A list blogs blog search

Blogging and Journalistic Differences

2005-10-05T15:34:00.000+01:00

Interesting dissection by Thomas Crampton at joi ito of the differences between blogs and journalism. It's a question often raised by agencies considering blog advertising. I have summarised Mr Crampton's analysis as follows:

Involvement: Sparking conversation and feedback is part of blogging.

Timing: Timing is not as critical in blogging.

Tone: Blogs are more informal and personal.

Opinions: Blog postings work best with strong opinions in them.

Length: Postings are never longer than a few paragraphs.

Reporting: Primary reporting not necessary for a Blog posting.

Simple and quick: Blogging is pretty quick and easy.

Mr Crampton is encouraging additions and critiques to his list at joi ito .

The History of Blog Ads

2005-10-04T20:19:00.000+01:00

Interesting history lesson at Blog Herald on Henry Copeland's BlogAds.

£1bn Projected For UK Online Ads

2005-10-04T20:08:00.000+01:00

Threadwatch have picked up from the BBC, that UK ad spend will probably top £1bn this year, having already seen a 6% growth in the first half of 2005.

"Revenues from online adverts rose 62%, on a like-for-like basis, to £490m in the first half of 2005, outstripping growth in overall advertising of 3%. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) said UK online ad values could surpass £1bn in 2005, driven by take-up of broadband internet connections."

The Diversification of Blog Advertising

2005-10-04T19:19:00.000+01:00

Interesting post from clickz on two different blog advertising models being pioneered by John Battelle and Phillip Kaplan, both celebrated internet publishers, authors and currently blog advertising entrepreneurs.

Kaplan's AdBrite is spread within a raft of niche sites. It's described on clickz as "like a transparent AdSense, where buyers pitch ads to sites and sellers can reject whichever they don't like." The company has grown from humble beginnings to a major player within the emerging blog advertising industry. Advertisers apparently like it too, "since they can add specific blogs to their media plans on an ad hoc basis." The current number of sites joining up daily is approximately 200 and growing.

Battelle's FMP are offering specialised deals to only the highest traffic sites. Sites like BoingBoing, Om Malik and PVRblog. He has recently been courting agencies in New York and Los Angeles commenting that "So far no one's slamming the door in our face." Although he appears to be well aware that buying ads on blogs is still very much foreign territory for most industry executives.

Whilst FMP and Adbrite are currently engaged at opposing ends of the market, Google continues to evolve, providing ever greater choice to advertisers within it's AdSense Network. Will these innovative alternatives survive the Google onslaught?

Where's The Money In Podcasting?

2005-10-03T21:21:00.000+01:00

Interesting post from Jason Calacanis on the trials and tribulations of creating a viable business model from podcasting. It's a fascinating but tricky problem. Even Mr Calacanis says he is "stumped".

Anyway, he's determined to work through the problem and currently offers podcasts on several of his sites. He is also offering a positon for someone to blog themselves silly about podcasting.

Growing Need For Definitive Blog Ranking Index

2005-10-03T20:25:00.000+01:00

Stephen Baker at Business Week has picked up on an interesting symbiotic relationship within the world of blogging. It is that, with ever more successful blog campaigns (e.g Audi) you will see increased efforts to drive traffic and elevate rankings. Personally, I think the jury is still out on which ranking is most worthy, they all seem to have their weaknesses.

In recent discussions with over 50 agencies I found that almost without exception, calls were being made for a comprehensive and accurate list, if only to sort the wheat from the chaff. As blogs become more mainstream, I have no doubt these calls will become louder. Who will step up to the mark? Well according to the Jason Calacanis weblog, Technorati say "it’s a lot of work to groom that list and that’s why we only do the top 100." It will be interesting to see who steps up to the mark.

The Trillion Dollar Homepage. Not quite!!

2005-09-30T14:06:00.000+01:00

Alex Tew who set up his Million dollar homepage in early September draws a striking paralell to the early pioneers of the Klondike gold rush. The story of the Klondike is fascinating and anybody with a passing interest in economics and social trends should read up on the details. In summary the story goes that a couple of chaps "struck gold in them there hills" made a fortune, and more importantly became the celebrities of their day, enjoying seismic newspaper headlines. The result was a stampede of naive prospectors. Unfortunately, the thousands who followed largely found nothing but squalid conditions and death on the infamous Chilkoot Pass. Enough of the history lesson already!

The point is that these imitations will probably find limited success, although I had to laugh at seeing a post on Adjab for the $10 million dollar homepage. Will it be long before we see the billion dollar homepage or the trillion dollar homepage!! Come on guys use some imagination please.

Tags advertising, blog advertising, PR

New Adsense Electronic Transfer of Funds - About Time To!!

2005-09-30T13:07:00.000+01:00

According to Jensense Adsense's long awaited Electronic Transfer of Funds (EFT) has come out of Beta. Say goodbye to snail mail cheques and hello to an easy life!

Blog Advertising Gives Value For Money

2005-09-29T19:40:00.000+01:00

Interesting post from Marketer Today which highlights how blog advertising can be value for money.

Marketer Today mentioned two success stories:

"A campaign strategy that the CEO of GMD Studios ran for Audi, titled "The Art of the Heist" spent one-half of one percent of their media buy budget on BlogAds. Those ads selling space on some of the highest-trafficked blogs ended up accounting for 29 percent of the traffic sent to the campaign's landing page. "
"Another illustration of blog success lies in the Xanga’s “advergame” campaign garnering 250,000 posts containing the game, and 3 million interactions with the game."

Blog Advertising Survey by Qumana

2005-09-29T19:33:00.000+01:00

I can't see much information about who took part in this Qumana survey and therefore I am a little sceptical of it's content, but it's worth a look nonetheless. Not surprisingly Adsense was the most popular ad program.

Fastclick Ads Could be Worth Considering

2005-09-29T08:41:00.000+01:00

Nice review of Fastclick Ads at the Blog Herald .

The feedback seems to be generally positive although you'll need to be generating more than 3000 impression a month to join. If you're running Adsense and want to try Fastclick then just be aware of your TOS, in particular running ads that look similar to those of Adsense.

Blog Boom or Bust

2005-09-28T08:27:00.000+01:00

A Reuters article entitled "Has the blog phenomenon been blown out of proportion?" (via Adpulp) seems to take a dim view of blog infiltration into the wider UK population. It claims that "in a survey of British taxi drivers, pub landlords and hairdressers nearly 90% had no idea what a podcast is and more than 70% had never heard of blogging." These professions are often seen as a barometer of popular trends and even economic activity, which should make this survey highly relevant? Well not quite.

Whilst this offers an interesting perspective, there are a few points to bear in mind:

1. Yes there is always a habit of getting ahead of ourselves when a new technology appears. The internet and the subsequent bubble is a case in point. The fact that the internet is still here and has revolutionised the world is a compelling paralell to blogging, even if they maybe of a different magnitude.

2. The survey fails to recognise that there may well be an unseen osmosis of information from customer to service provider. For instance, I was in a taxi only yesterday and the driver happened to ask me my opinion of the new ipod nano he had just purchased, I nodded in admiration but mentioned reading various worrying reviews. The taxi driver did not ask where I had gleaned this information from, taking my words at face value. In fact, I recalled later in the day that the reviews I had seen were in fact from blogs. This is obviously a microcosm, but how many others are relaying information about products or services in the same way? This is where the survey completely misses the point.

3. Interestingly the survey was conducted by the DDB agency a unit of New York based advertising group Omnicom. Coincidentally they specialise in conventional mass media, so absolutely no hidden agenda there whatsoever!!

Blogs Trusted by Consumers

2005-09-27T17:55:00.000+01:00

A recent survey quoted on BBC.co.uk seems to indicate that UK consumers see blogs as a reliable source of guidance for products and services. The survey found the following:

75% of shoppers consulted blogs.
Shoppers trust blogs because they are written by real people, drawing on personal experiences.
Blogs could soon rival other media for information on products and services.
83% of those in the 25-34 age group were likely to let opinions on blogs influence what they bought.

Paul Halfpenny, product manager at survey sponsor Hostway is quoted on BBC.co.uk as saying "Consumers are tired of marketing gloss and so the interest in blogs is not surprising. We all want impartial advice and information, as far as consumers are concerned blogs deliver this," (Via A time to reflect)

Business Blogging Survey

2005-09-27T09:52:00.000+01:00

According to Adrants the Guidewire Group (Organiser of the BlogOn conference) has joined up with content management company iUpload to survey businesses on corporate blogging and blogging strategy. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.

Blocking Unwanted Ads in Adsense

2005-09-27T09:12:00.000+01:00

A post at REvenews suggests that the elevated limit of blocked urls (to 500) in Adsense, should almost eradicate unwanted ads.

REvenews further suggest culling the lower value ads to maximise revenue. This tactic is a little bit contentious as you maybe inadvertantly blocking highly relevant and optimised ads. Google have also voiced their concerns in a recent post at Inside Adsense, but then I suppose they would do, wouldn't they!!

Online Ad Figures Mean Good News For Blogs

2005-09-27T08:25:00.000+01:00

According to a ZDNet article via Search Engine Watch Forums, the Interactive Advertising Bureau have annouced online ad figures for the first half of 2005:

"As of June, advertisers had spent $5.8 billion to place ads online this year, a 26 percent increase compared with the first six months of 2004, according to a new report. Overall, search ads accounted for 40 percent of Internet ad sales, in line with last year, the group said. Banner ads and classified listings were the next-biggest ad categories, attracting 20 percent and 18 percent of the spending, respectively."

This IAB news release offers more detail. The complete report will be available via the IAB web site next week.

Adverts on Flickr Cause a Stir

2005-09-26T20:22:00.000+01:00

According to Adrants - Yahoo have begun using their recent purchase of Flickr to insert ads onto subcriber's personal pages. No surprise there then! By all accounts it's causing a bit of stir amongst Flickr members, although I can't see they have much to complain about considering the service is free.