New Blog Ad-Network Stirs Debate

2 Responses to “New Blog Ad-Network Stirs Debate”

1. Daniel
   Posted from: 72.67.5.79

   March 26th, 2008 at 3:25 am

   Hi Piers,

   I am a little confused by this, bottom line you are saying that blogs cannot possibly be well represented by a network and they need to do their own ad sales.

   First of all it seems to me this goes against two strong market forces:

   One is that we don’t always want to do ad sales all day, many of us much prefer creating content. Especially for those of us who aren’t yet Nick Denton with well 100+ million monthly page views to sell that might justify hiring a whole sales team.

   Two is that big media buyers don’t want to have to deal with hundreds of proposals from hundreds of little blogs and then manage the payouts and serving of campaigns for every little site.

   Moreover you are assuming that someone’s brand can be so specialized that no network of any size or style can ever understand it, but if advertisers and networks can’t understand it, then your brand is probably failing.

   Are you saying a niche ad network that caters to a trend-spotting demographic could never well represent PSFK simply because there would be more than one site involved?

   Also I think you are shying away from putting any blame on the bloggers themselves. If a blog doesn’t have the guts to say no to a campaign that their network sells for them, then they must take the blame at least as much as the network. Somewhere in there the blogger gives a green light to the campaign.

   I argue that if a blog has a decent ad network they can pick and choose campaigns that reflect their brand if they are willing to really work with the network.

   Speaking to your Federated Media critique, we (NOTCOT) have been with them for over a year now and have had wonderful success with them, partly because we work closely with almost everyone on their team and have helped them get to know our brand and our boundaries.

   If your relationship with your ad network is passive then you get what you put into it.

   A blogger who finds a network that represents them well and then takes the time to give that network what they need to understand their brand and sell their sites will do fine.

   At least that is what has been working for us.

   ~Daniel
2. Joelle Kaufman
   Posted from: 67.169.51.217

   April 14th, 2008 at 12:32 am

   Daniel’s comment is on point. A vertical ad network should be providing both the advertiser and the publisher/blogger with transparency and control. These controls ensure that bloggers can select which advertisements run on their site - including review of the creative itself (if the Vertical Ad Network is powered by Adify). And the Network Builders using Adify are experts in their category and spend their time understanding, packaging and cultivating the publishers in their community.

   Vertical Ad Networks are fundamentally different from the performance ad networks that ESPN publicly opted out of a few weeks ago. Vertical Ad Networks - like Forbes Business Blogger Network, Martha’s Circle and FM Publishing - bring together a community of premium properties for a long-term relationship where these properties offer premium placement on quality content in exchange for premium rates. They often share distributed content and drive traffic among network participants as well. Publishers in networks powered by Adify are routinely offered campaigns with strong publisher CPMs.

   These Vertical Ad Networks are nascent - many have existed for under a year. The success they are having with premium advertisers speaks to the exact issues that Daniel highlights - advertisers want and need a trusted partner to select, review, contract, deliver, report and pay a community of premium, quality publishers who attract the audience the advertiser needs to reach. With the continued fragmentation of the internet, the need for these partners, these vertical Network Builders will only expand and the opportunity for focused, committed and diligent Vertical Ad Network Builders will continue to grow.

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