Are we ready for more aggressive advertising on blogs?
On top of our two articles last week dealing with advertising on blogs (here and here), Tris Hussey asks if the blogosphere is really ready for more aggressive monetization of blogs?
Upon reflection’€”staring at the ceiling when I should have been sleeping’€”I wondered if we, as the collective blogosphere, are holding things back because there is a very vocal segment against this kind of thing?
And I think he’s right.
Beyond the fact that some considered the design to be ugly, there was alot of invective hurled in the direction of Michael Arrington over the TechCrunch design based on the fact that he was now aggressively moneitizing his traffic, rather than taking more of a “Web 2.0 Approach” – which I call “losing money”.
While I don’t think anyone in their right mind would start putting pop-ups or pop-unders on a blog page – who’s to say what some bloggers might do.
It’s never all or nothing, is it? You decide if your blog is personal or commercial. My personal blog is the hub of a commercial blog network. We’ve just announced that we are renting inventory for voluntary viral advertising on Syntagma. We may offer this service to other blog networks too. It’s called business.
There ARE blogs out there that have pop up or pop under ads. I hate them. I won’t visit them.
Matt, thanks for the link and the support. If the world would like to continue to be fed great content, the world si going to have to support it. Support means money. Money, though, brings choices to the blogger. Where to draw the line.
I’m fed up with blog ads. Most blogs with ads are total garbage. I certainly wouldn’t trust any content from splogs.
Laura, This blog has ads, I think more than half of the blogs I visit have ads. Ads are just a way to help the blogger pay for his/her hobby. Sure a small number of pro bloggers are making a lot of money, but that is a very, very small minority.