Valleywag's Sponsored Rss Feeds, Good Idea to monetise a blog! Options

[projectphp]

Valleywag, the Superficial for teh ugly tech crowd (no disrespect), has a pretty awesome idea: they include, in their RSS feeds, Sponsored posts, that click through to advertiser sites e.g. from Google reader:



Seems to me to be a great way to get revenue that is essentially lost when people hhave an RSS reader and don't actually visit the Blog/site.

Has anyone tried this, and what success, if any, you have had?

[A.N.Onym]

Not sure, I prefer to see sponsored links/ads at the footer of an RSS feed. This way my RSS reader isn't cluttered with junk titled "Sponsored". Not to mention no one reads these posts from RSS readers (or so I hope).

[saschaeh]

Not to mention no one reads these posts from RSS readers (or so I hope).

I read a lot of my RSS feeds in OUTLOOK. If it is really interesting then I 1: go to site or 2: print it out and read it somewhere away from my computer

[projectphp]

Seems to me to be another thing to try! To be honest, everytime I see those posts, I admit to pausing. Difference throws a brain exception, at least for me.

I also wonder if doing things beause people like them really matters. Ads on TV are a pain. but hey, they pay the bills!

Also, seeing as today was the first time I can remembe going to Valleywag (as the RSS has been in my reader goodness knows how long), ta business needs some way to monetise the likes of me.

[iamlost]

Are those ads intermittent?
I loaded all discovered feeds (4) into sage and took a look - nary an ad.
I do have NoScript but it said it wasn't blocking anything. No blank white gaps...

That said - it would be a nice test (surely someone has done it by now?) - traffic/subscribers/conversions against exerpt feed w/o ads, full feed w/o, and full feed with ads.

[projectphp]

I honestly don't know. http://feeds.gawker.com/valleywag/full is teh fdeed I have, and when I switched to Google reader, I just imported all my old RSS feeds, so I have no idea how it got there (had it for like 3+ years).

This is addressed at no one, but it's funny, people have this tendency to find everything that is wrong with a new idea. There is a guy down here who builds these God Aweful landing pages for AdWords like this: http://www.jam3.com.au/landing-page.aspx?id=212, and be warned, it has sound!

I thought these pages were atrocious when I first saw them, but the thing is, they messure return and response rates, and the ugly, sound driven, picture and text pages work the best for conversions. But whenever he presents this (and I've seen him do it a few times), people want to say why it won't work, when it wont; etc etc. Um, hello, it does work, and sure, not for everyone, but certainly for businesses that want leads rather than sales.

I am on a bit of a mission lattely to find all the possible revenue models that can possibly work, and this one seems to me to at the very least be original (I don't see anyone else doing it) and another tool for teh "revenue model" kit.

[iamlost]

I am on a bit of a mission lattely to find all the possible revenue models that can possibly work, and this one seems to me to at the very least be original (I don't see anyone else doing it) and another tool for teh "revenue model" kit.

That should be every web devs mission. I have certainly spent enough time over the years imagining, testing and analysing.

As I run very few feeds and then only extracts (I could care less about feed-only readers, I want bums in the seats) I have never bothered with feed ads. I know others have talked it about for a year or two and some said they would try but I never heard any numbers and it doesn't seem to have taken off. Of course they might simply be keeping very quiet.

As no two niches are the same and even what one person/site can do might not be transferable anything is worth a try. Oh, and feel free to share your findings...

[A.N.Onym]

Off Topic

Okay, in the example above, sound and music aside, I really believe the conversion can be upped with a better placed, improved form. Somehow, I don't believe they have done everything to maximize conversons.

Btw, sascha, when you see a post titled "Sponsored" in your RSS reader, do you even look at it? Or print it out and read it away from the computer?

[iamlost]

Off Topic

I agree about that form. The page devs (aussiewebconversion) do a better form on their own site. At least they don't tell you how to enter your number, etc.

But then tests tell many a strange tale.

[projectphp]

Tests do tell a starnge story, indeed. The original versions of these were much better, IMHO, because tehy had less text. But Google's quality score killed 'em, and they had to add all that text.

Funny that their product worked a treat, and Google made them change it...

[iamlost]

Funny that their product worked a treat, and Google made them change it...

But treats are bad for users.

I have never bothered (or had a need) for ppc. But reading the findings people are nice enough to share and to study landing pages is a valuable education. Many of those ideas translate directly to ecommerce and indirectly to organic traffic.

the only problem I have is with the ppc marketers - it is amazingly amusing how they highlight their income checks but never show the one for the ad spend...

[saschaeh]

Btw, sascha, when you see a post titled "Sponsored" in your RSS reader, do you even look at it? Or print it out and read it away from the computer?

Either i have never noticed it, selective perception, or never got it. I am signed up to good 10 feeds using outlook 2007.



What about contextual ads. Where the links are part of your copy? Would that not be a good way to work with feeds. Its not in your face, clean - only thing it may feel, to your readers, that it is misleading me as id expect it to be links to other articles that are useful, not adverts.

Novice speaking here but feeds are little more sensitive then adding sponsored links elsewhere. Somehow that is your direct link to your site users. If you start putting adverts in them it might devaluate the feeds slightly. Saying that there is really nothing wrong with monetizing all the hard work which goes into those feeds!!!

Purely theoretical talk: You probably wont loss readers but you might slow down new sign ups. First feed they receive and the feed has big sponsored links in the feed might make the person question the integrity/genuine of the feeds. That is based on the idea that there is a general perception that people who author feeds/blogs are just passionate about what they do - do it for the love sort of thing. "Anyone wanting to make money from it cant be as passionate as the other guy." Shrug... just thinking out aloud.


Sascha


This post has been edited by saschaeh: Apr 30 2008, 03:07 AM