I wrote a blog post recently on advertising/Internet marketing and my thoughts on how vulgar and useless some ads can be. Cheap, intrusive and sneaky ads that bring short term gain while screwing over people who visit your blog are not good for anyone.
I’d like to think that one future of blog advertising is where ads actually make the blog better so that the reader and the owner/writer gets something back. Your readers get new valuable information while you get some money.
I’m still playing around with Gastronom.ie and have a few UI changes and backend additions before I seek out sponsors/advertisers. For that site, the main section is the aggregator that aggregates Irish Food Blogs and on the right is a section where a sponsor will write a blog post giving away valuable information that will make the site even more valuable to the readers but I also make money. I was thinking it would be a good space for Wine companies to talk about what wine goes best with what meal and then listing some wine that fits that from their range or maybe a restaurant talking about how to prepare one of the items on their menu or a food company talking about putting together a festive meal and including some of their products. That’s how I’d like to see advertising on blogs. Professional ones. I still won’t have ads on this blog.
If you were a company though and wanted to get word around on loads of blogs I’d go along the same lines and follow one of the online reviews/carnival thingies. There’s this thing called the Blawg review where each week a law blogger will give a summary of what the law blogs are talking about. Other law bloggers point to this blog or find you via the main blog, so it means a massive traffic surge when you are the the chosen blogger that week. I’m not sure would it scale in Ireland but having a rotating blog post each week with valuable advice from a sponsoring company would be great for the company and the blogger in question. Having your own blog would make it easier to coordinate all this too.
Beats a banner ad.
Totally agree with you, I have been struggling with ads on my blog as they can make things particularly ugly at times and also detract from the main content. Quite often the ads on site are not as relevant to main site content.
I have started running free ads for educational sites as the revenue for generic ads is hardly worth it. A sponsorship arrangement where a sponsor got to post on site is a far better model….. it is getting sponsors I guess.
Interesting. The sponsorship idea is a very good one. Of course, from my perspective, my blog IS the ad, and Murphys sponsors my time. As you say, the issue then is traffic. For companies who don’t blog, they might be delighted to have their own website highlighted on a blog with appropriate content.
It seems to me another way to make money from the web as a single blogger would be to do a guide-book approach for any variety of topics – for example Cork restaurants and hotels and look for sponsorship. There might be some ethical issues here, but only if you charge people who you’ve already decided to include. Bridgestone Guide and Georgina Campbell charge to give you a physical plaque for your establishment once you’re in the guide. Companies might well be willing to pay to have an on-line, virtual plaque they could add to their own website, plus, of course the links. Needless to say this could work outside the food and hospitality business as well…
For aggregators, such as Gastronom, a larger food group such as Tesco, Diageo, etc. might like to sponsor it to be part of the Irish foodie conversation…
Yes mass market advertising along the lines of “free smileys, ringtones” are intrusive and annoying and just encouraging the click through for the cookie drop
Does that just not mean pay per post where you have felt its a product that you would reccomend to your respective audience and how long before yout swayed with just a good money offer which isnt much difference than having a block of 4 or less small interferring ads which are common on many tech/seo/marketing blogs
How to do you differentiate between bias from a company
Good advertising is good for a reason not necessarily because of the tag line or overworking the creative whether on or offline, its about hitting the right audience and let them make an informed decision based on recall, experience (first time or other)
Advertorials are pretty much what your getting at saying a restaurant could explain how to prepare a meal
Quality content which is not sponsor driven e.g by written by the sponsor is far more valuable for your audience
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I would love nothing more in the morning than opening up favorite tech magazine and have someone explain the benefits of how to restructure my marketing activities but was based on a particular companies viewpoint
Like the blog disagree with the logic of this post, especially considering your background
I think I have a point, except it had nothing to do with correct spelling or grammar 🙂 just read the above again my english teacher would have been proud