BLOG @DVERTISEMENT

This post is a follow-up to my post, THE KEY(WORDS) TO ADVERTISING. Will 2004 be the year for an advertisement boom on weblogs?

Martin Nisenholtz of New York Times Digital is interviewed (Putting blogs in their place) in Wired Magazine. He gives the reporter mixed signals, don't you think?

Is Google's AdSense program the winning horse, or will Henry Copeland's Blogads be the dark horse? Mr. Copeland said in David Ranii's article, Blog plugs appeal to niche audiences, that "Blogads had a slow start, but business has surged this year." Could Glenn Reynold's decision to place Blogads be a significant reason for the explosion of ads on weblogs?

The commercialism of the blogosphere has recently become a hot topic. Adam Herman of MediaPost.com, wrote an article with the title, New Ad Models Take Flight, and Kate Kaye had a segment titled, Blogs Make a Ripple in Media Pool. Here is an excerpt:

"Although Blogads appears to be the only blog-exclusive advertising network around, it's not the only means of attracting the opinionated and influential people reading blogs. Advertisers can run text ads on the Textads Dot Biz network, which features about 100 blog sites. Viral marketers can use Blogstakes, a sweepstakes service that gives prizes like books from humor publisher The Onion to bloggers who link to and refer winners to an advertiser's contest. And Richards Interactive, an agency that has developed blog marketing strategies for Home Depot and Dr Pepper's Raging Cow, employs a network of influential bloggers to spur word-of-Net on their blogs for advertiser clients." (MediaPost Communications, April 2004 Issue.)

Jeff Jarvis was moderator of a IRC session ("Blogging as a Business") at BloggerCon on April 8. I think that the following statement from Jeff's post, BloggerCon wiki open for business: Making blogs make money, is very crucial for the future success of advertising on weblogs:

"$ We can target advertising on relationships [Editor's note: Emphasis added.], not just on adjacency (print) or gross audience size (broadcast) or word coincidences (Google)."

I am happy with the continuously steady stream of clicks thru Google's AdSense program, and it is interesting to watch how the search engine robot is coming up with matching ads for my blog. For some interesting examples on how you could make money on advertising, read the articles, The Hundred Dollar Click by Jay Currie, and Hands Off My Google by Rick Aristotle Munarriz [Editor's note: Great middle name, b.t.w.]. Dean Esmay points out some hilarious examples of ads generated on his blog, in his post, Google Ad Quirk.

I think that the Blogads idea will catch on in the future and create a paradigm shift of the advertising business. A new dimension of social networking will emerge and give room for the exchange of ideas, services and products. Click here for an example on how I got in touch with a supporter and advertiser.

Is an advertisement on your blog a proof that you have "sold out," paraphrasing Tim Blair in his post, Open For Business? ;) I don't think so. On the contrary, I think it is an opportunity to add value to your blog and introduce new sources of interesting stuff to your readers. You could also use blogads in order to promote non-for-profit things. Here is an excerpt from Daniel Henninger's article, Spirit of America:

"The First Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Army in Iraq want to equip and upgrade seven defunct Iraqi-owned TV stations in Al Anbar province--west of Baghdad--so that average Iraqis have better televised information than the propaganda they get from the notorious Al-Jazeera. If Jim Hake can raise $100,000, his Spirit of America will buy the equipment in the U.S., ship it to the Marines in Iraq and get Iraqi-run TV on the air before the June 30 handover."

A Small Victory and Dean's World have together started a "campaign to raise funds for U.S. Marines to equip TV stations in Iraq." I think it is a good cause to take up the fight against the propaganda spread by "Jihad TV"... Maybe this is the start of a "Radio Free Middle East"?

I want to end this post by informing my readers that you could find my blog in a new directory compiled by Commissar of The Politburo Diktat. My blog is listed in the "War Bloggers Yellow Pages."

UPDATE 04/19/04: Wow! That was a quick "response" from the traditional media! Is the media attention a sign that blog advertising is catching on? Maybe the journalists at NYT and WP are reading my blog?! ;) [Editor: Note to self: Check Site Meter's referral report for "NYT" and "WP" URLs... *grin* ;)]

Read the following articles [found via Henry Copeland]:
Many Started Web Logs for Fun, but Bloggers Need Money, Too by Julie Flaherty (NYT Technology).
Some Candidates Turn To Blogs to Place Ads: Sites are Low-Cost, Reach Thousands by Brian Faler (WP 2004 Election).