Solo Technology

Displaying advertisements on a blog out at the end of the long tail is not too different from walking around a party with your fly open. Everyone notices, but very few are comfortable mentioning it. Well, I’m not shy! I’ve dabbled with a few different ad networks over the last 7 or 8 months and will share my (admittedly naive) thoughts below.

I should mention, before starting, that I have no hopes of actually making money (profit) via the ads you’ll see here. I do have a hope, however, of at least defraying hosting and related costs. At my level of traffic, hosting isn’t all that expensive… but if ads can help pay the yearly hit — without annoying visitors — then I’m game to try.

Starting with the obvious: Google AdSense. This is where most folks start, with the grand-daddy of the contextual ads. I’ve found it simple, reasonably easy to setup and easy use. They offer a lot of help and tips about placement and optimization and have great reports to keep track of performance.

I briefly dallied with Yahoo! Publisher Network earlier this year and, in the future, I may try them again. This is another contextual ad service, similar to AdSense. At the time I tried, it was in beta and I was a bit underwhelmed with the ads being served — they really weren’t very related to the content on the page. However, that was quite some time ago so it may be worth a look again in the future.

Do be sure to read terms for the various ad services. For instance, AdSense folks wouldn’t be too happy to see YPN ads on the same pages. Don’t mix and match contextual services!

Performancing Partners is a rather young ad network that I signed up for a month or so ago. The idea here is that the Performancing folks will sell ad space on your blog to advertisers in exchange for a cut. The rates look decent (loosely based on traffic and ad placement), but after a month all I’ve done is give Partners free advertising. One issue may be that they can’t seem to take a thumbnail picture of my blog. Thumbnails, an advertiser’s first look at your stuff, are only taken of the contents in the root directory of the blog. My thumbnail is not flattering. *sigh*

Text-Link-Ads (affiliate link *grin*) is another ad network that will sell direct ads on your blog. They’ve been around longer than Partners and seem to be roughly what Partners modeled rates on. I’ve been with these guys for about 2 months and sold my first ad a couple weeks ago. Simple, low-key and easy to use.

Text-Link-Ads is associated with a newcomer by the name of ReviewMe. Just received my “pre-approved” email in fact. This is where things start getting a bit gray: The blogger gets paid to write posts about the advertiser. Now, similar schemes already exist and tend to elicit howls of protest, but there is a positive wrinkle here. Two wrinkles actually.

1. You must disclose that the article is a paid review “in some fashion.”
2. There’s no mandate that the review has to be positive.

I think those 2 items really help redeem this service. Sign up now and your first payment could be to review ReviewMe itself. Clever way to buy some word-of-mouth I reckon. (this was not a paid review)

So there you have it, the services I’ve used or at least joined in hopes of covering the hosting costs. At my current run-rate, I do believe I just might cover the majority of it this year. Maybe. Definitely no new cars in my future.

2 Responses to “Advertising and the Long Tail Blog”

1. Colleen on November 15th, 2006 11:36 am
   

   I’m registered there as well. What are your throughts on Blogitive at http://www.blogitive.com ? I’ve be interested in hearing what you think of it. They’re really ramping up now and putting the call our for bloggers. If you’re not registered, use me as a referral - colleen_cc@yahoo.com

2. Chris on November 15th, 2006 10:43 pm
   

   Hi Colleen - thanks for the link. I’ve not run into blogitive yet. I’ll have to poke around there soon and try and get a feel of what it’s about.

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