Written on February 8th, 2005 at 12:02 am by Darren Rowse
Should Google be the Blogosphere’s Ad Agency?
Jeff Jarvis has an interesting post titled Should Google be the citizens’ ad agency? where he questions whether Google is the best ‘ad agency’ for citizens media and writes:
‘But it makes me wonder whether we’re foolish letting Google be our ad sales agent. For Google undersells the value of citizens’ media: Google sells the coincidence of a word on a page when the real value of citizens’ media is in its conversation, its relationships, its influence.
Mind you, we should bless Google for taking the cooties off of citizens’ media and showing that, indeed, real people have a message and audience worth attention.
But now I think it’s necessary for citizens’ media to find its own path, its own sales agent who can sell its own value.’
Jeff makes some valid points which are worth taking on board - as usual he sees both side of the story. My opinion? It is getting late so let me attempt a few points:
1. Google Adsense is the main way I make a living - so I’d better declare that up front. What I earn from them pays my rent and is well on the way to getting us a deposit for a house - so whatever I say here is going to be biased. Having said that my experience proves to me that blogs are a viable way of earning an income and that Adsense has the capacity to deliver that income.
2. Whilst I am a fan of Adsense, I am also really cheering for the new advertising programs that have been springing up lately because they are providing new alternatives, some of which are perhaps even more suited for blogging than Adsense (for example see the latest news from Blog Kits). I’m particularly excited about this because these emerging blog advertising programs are rising out of the blogosphere itself and are doing so with experience in and knowledge of the way in which blogs operate. In the long term I see a bright future for some of these programs. Some of these newer Blog specific ad programs include:
- Blog Mines
- Chitika
- Crisp Ads
- Blog Kits
- Blog Ads
3. Having said this and despite the fact that the signs are promising in the long term, I’m yet to see real return so far on the new programs that I’ve tried so far. I’ve not tried them all yet and am hoping to do so shortly but my experience to this point is that in comparison to the massive stockpile of advertisers that Adsense has that the new programs cannot compete on the types of blogs that I run. Of course this will and I trust is slowly changing as blogs become more popular, but until one or some of these ad agents get to the tipping point I suspect that Adsense will continue to be the dominant go to program for most Bloggers serious about making a living from blogging.
On a positive and encouraging note is that some of the above systems (if not most of them) are compatible with Adsense (please check the Adsense regulations when signing up for other ad programs). I think that this leaves us as bloggers with a way forward - lets give some of the new programs a go and encourage them - even if in the short term they may not make us big dollars I think its worth us supporting them because as we do we actually help them to find advertisers willing to sponsor blogs and we’ll all do better as a result.
Written on February 7th, 2005 at 10:02 pm by Darren Rowse
Are Google paying out less to Adsense Publishers?
Om Malik has an interesting post looking at the record earnings that Google have been reporting (largely due to their earnings from Adwords) but the apparent decreases in payments that they are making to publishers.
‘Intrigued, I looked up some of the SEC filings and discovered that for past four quarters Google has been paying more money every quarter to the affiliates. However, TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues generated by network sites is declining. For instance in quarter ending June 30, 2004, the company had paid out 80% of the revenues generated by its network. In quarter ending Sept 30, 2004, it was down to 79% and now in the December 2004 quarter, that number was down to 77%….’
It is something I have no real opinion about as my statistics over the past 12 months have been so up and down that it is impossible to make any assumptions from it - however if there is truth in them skimming a little more off the top I’d be pretty disappointed in Google.
Read more at Om Malik: Google making more, but dishing out less
Written on February 7th, 2005 at 10:02 am by Darren Rowse
enternetusers Changes
Thank you to all the well wishers who have stopped by in the past 24 hours to check out the new home of enternetusers.
Many thanks to those of you who have already changed your links to our new URL and RSS feed. I was expecting to loose a certain amount of readership in the short term after the move - however have logged on this morning to find more than normal activity on the site over night. Considering its the weekend still for most of you that is a positive sign.
I’m also taking on board the feedback on the design of the site. A number of people are having trouble with the orange/yellow links and the contrast between them. Let me know your thoughts on that please if you have a moment.
More changes coming: In addition to a new URL and design I’m hoping to make a few more changes to enternetusers in the next few weeks. The first one will start late today with the publishing of our first interview. I have been talking about doing interviews with enternetuserss for some time now and have three ready to go and a number of others on the way.
Come back later today with the first one - an interview with Joel Johnson - editor of Gizmodo.
If there is a enternetusers that you’d like to see an interview with please let me know - also you can continue to suggest questions for on ProBlogging - I’ll answer as many as I can but also include some of them in the interviews.
Written on February 7th, 2005 at 09:02 am by Darren Rowse
Questions for enternetuserss
Are you starting, or thinking of starting, a commercial blog? Do you have a question that you’ve been trying to figure out around some of the topics of ProBlogging? Feel free to submit your question for enternetuserss in comments below and I’ll try to get back to you with an answer - or at least point you to a previously written article on the topic. Questions might also feature in future interviews with enternetuserss.
Your questions can focus on anything from using Adsense on your blog, to which Blog tools are best, to Affiliate programs, to Search Engine Optimization, to writing content through to business blogs. No question is too stupid to ask. If I don’t know the answer I’ll open it for general discussion and see if our collective knowledge as enternetuserss can work it out.
Written on February 6th, 2005 at 06:02 pm by Darren Rowse
Ask Jeeves Buys Bloglines
Napsterization breaks the big news that Ask Jeeves is buying Bloglines! The news will be announced on Monday according to the report. This is pretty big news and is just another example of how blogging and RSS technology is making it to the mainstream.
The interest will now be in how Ask Jeeves uses, adapts and monetizes Bloglines.
Found via Micro Persuasion
Written on February 6th, 2005 at 06:02 pm by Darren Rowse
Wordpress 1.5 Gamma - Review
Weblog Tools Collection has a good review of the soon to be released (I hope) Wordpress version 1.5. The review is glowing and leaves me hanging to see what it is like for myself. I’ve recently moved a number of my blogs (including this one) to Wordpress (1.2) and found it to be a highly effective tool and am hoping version 1.5 launches soon.
You can also read an interview with the guys behind Word Press at The Inside Scoop.
Written on February 6th, 2005 at 01:02 pm by Darren Rowse
Welcome to a New Look enternetusers
Congratulations - you’ve found your way to a new look enternetusers in its new home at enternetusers.net.
I started enternetusers last September as a place to keep a record of the lessons that I learnt from blogging both for myself and for those I knew who were trying to make a living from their blogging. The blog design was primitive and I just tacked it onto the livingroom domain that I used for other blogs.
enternetusers quickly turned into something bigger than I had anticipated and I soon realised that I would need to consider moving my 500 or so posts to a new permanent home with a more professional design. Rachel over at Cre8d Design was kind enough to take the project on and has put together what you see before you today. I love her designs and would recommend her services as a professional blog designer.
The new design is still new and we are making some final touches. I’m certain there are a few things we’ve overlooked so as you look around and make yourself at home please don’t hesitate to let me know of any problems that you might find. Also give you feedback on the design itself - how does it look in your browser? Any suggestions or critiques (constructive ones preferred) are welcome.
Don’t forget to vote for enternetusers at the Business Blog awards here.
Lastly - if you have a link to enternetusers in your blog roll I’d really appreciate you making an adjustment to it with our new domain at enternetusers.net - also don’t forget to change your RSS feed for this site to this new one.
Written on February 6th, 2005 at 12:02 am by Darren Rowse
RSS ads in Boing Boing
One of the biggest blogs going around, Boing Boing, has decided to experiment with RSS ads in their feeds. They publish their full content in RSS and have placed ads on every third ad using the contextual ad service being tested by Feedburner and Overture (not available to the public yet). Feedburner currently only allow most bloggers to display amazon ads using their service but contextual RSS feed advertising is sure to follow on a wider scale in the months ahead.
Written on February 5th, 2005 at 11:02 pm by Darren Rowse
Does Frequent Posting Boost Traffic?
Susannah is tracking if her blog’s traffic levels correlate with her levels of posting and writes:
‘Generally speaking, it looks like the theory of more posts = more traffic holds true, but of course what the logs don’t tell you is that on the days I was posting a lot I was at a blogging conference and the blog URL was up on the projector between every session. Nor does looking at this graph reflect the posts that were controversial. That first spike is accompanied by a barely significant increase in post numbers, but was on a topic that caught a lot of interest.’
This is something I’ve done a little research into on my own blogs also. What I’ve found (although I don’t have as nice a graph as Susannah) is that my overall traffic does tend to increase on days that I post more - however there are a couple of further observations that are worth making.
1. The increased traffic on the days where I post a lot comes mainly through RSS feeds. My feedburner stats show quite clearly that the days I post a lot I get more RSS readers. That makes sense.
2. My biggest traffic days have little to do with the quantity of posting - instead they have more to do with two other factors:
a. What I post - As Susannah writes - controversial topics, useful tips, posts with intriguing titles etc can all spark an influx of traffic. Similarly - posting on a topic that is being searched for on Google (whether you did it by accident or by design) is obviously another traffic generator. Three weeks out from the Melbourne Cup horse race posting a post titled ‘2004 Melbourne Cup Winner’ (and then adding the winner the moment the race finishes) is one such way of spiking your traffic.
b. Who links to me posts - the beauty of blogging is that a blogs success is so often in the hands of other bloggers. My very biggest days traffic always comes from larger sites linking up to my posts. When a site like Slashdot, Gizmodo, Engadget or a major newspaper link up the rollercoaster ride can be quite staggering. I still remember the first day Slashdot linked up to one of my posts and crashed my server in three minutes of them linking up - that had nothing to do with post quantity and everything to do with some unknown person submitting my site to a megablog.
So - yes quantity of posting helps and is a good strategy for building traffic levels - however the heaviest traffic is generally a result of some other factor.
Written on February 5th, 2005 at 11:02 am by Darren Rowse
3% decrease in Keyword Cost in January
Those bloggers utilizing Adsense as an income stream who track their statistics usually notice that the price paid per click fluctuates from month to month. I track my cost per click earnings and it is not unusual to have a 20% drop or rise from one month to the next. Fathom Online tracks this too across many keywords and noticed that in their last period after the holidays that there was significant drops in some kewords and an overall drop of 3%.
‘Most surprising was the 28 percent drop in Telecom-Wireless products and services from $1.09 to $.79, possibly reflecting the trend to give cell phones as a gift during the holidays. Keywords in the Consumer-Retail category also decreased significantly by 11 percent from $.58 to $.52 per keyword, evening out some of the huge gains that category registered early in the fourth quarter 2004 when the frenzy to buy shopping keywords was at its peak.’
This doesn’t surprise me in the least - with the rise in keyword costs in the lead up to Christmas things had to slow down at some point.
Check out their table tracking different keyword categories - the big winner this last month was Finance/Mortgage keywords.
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