Advertising and Blogs — Does it Work?
Some very good questions have been posed about blogs and advertising. Seth says it all in his post, so be sure to read through that — it’s worth the read.
I just started this blog recently — so advertising really hasn’t come into play (not sure if it ever will). However, there are several blogs I visit via RSS every day that are laced with advertisements.
So…what are your thoughts on advertising in blogs? Is it effective? What advertisements seem to work best? What placement seems to work best? Text or graphics?
5 Comments Add your comment
Stephen December 21st, 2005
We put up a small ad for basecamp on our site. It's a tool that we truely enjoy using and we thought we would ad it just for fun to see what we thought.
I'm sure it doesn't make these guys to happy.
Nate Klaiber December 21st, 2005
RE: Stephen - I like their philosophy, 'put a banner advertisement letting people know you dont use banner advertisements'. ha.
It's funny, I noticed the basecamp ad shortly after I posted this - but don't think it's directed at anyone/site. I actually like the simplicity of small banner ads. Especially when it is for something useful. Knowing you as a person, and trusting your judgement, I would check out the ads you have on your page - because I know they are not just there for space fillers. Also, it seems to flow very well with your layout/design. You don't just throw ads in there at any point. However, there are other sites out there that are laced with google adwords that I skip right over. Especially since most of the ads don't really pertain to anything im looking for.
It's two-fold, but I WILL check out advertisements from trusted sources. If I am just a visitor to a site and there are advertisements everywhere I would be more prone to skip over them and try to find the content.
Basecamp does look to be a pretty cool tool. I checked it out a few weeks back.
Stephen December 21st, 2005
Actually the ad is for their other product called backpack. Aaron uses that program and likes it fairly well.
David Swedlow December 27th, 2005
Mixing channels of promotional, editorial, and reporting has always been a tricky business. Big media hasn't figured it out, exactly, yet. Perphaps the blogosphere can teach them how it's done.
My comments and thoughts on Seth's post are here:
http://meme-pool.blogspot.com/2005/12/eternally-findable-self-promotion.html
The gist is that if we make it clear where our self-promotional stuff is, so that the people who want it can find it easily, then we don't have to bother those readers who could care less.
Nate Klaiber January 1st, 2006
RE: David
I agree with what you are saying. We need to make it clear. When it becomes too jumbled and overbearing, thats when people begin to lose trust or stop paying attention to any advertising that is present.
So far, I have seen some blogs that do well with this - and some that do really bad.
Happy new year by the way :)
Peace,
Nate