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Advertising in RSS Feeds
As publishers have moved towards monetizing
RSS feeds, their have been vibrant discussions as
to whether advertisements in feeds are viable or
whether they will drive subscribers away. At the
end of the day while it appears that many are discussing
the philosophical approaches to ads in RSS feeds
few are taking the time to examine the options available
for inserting advertisements in feeds. Ultimately
the advertisements served are going to determine
the success of RSS as an advertising medium. The
ads served must be related to the content contained
in the feed. If the RSS feed contains quality content,
the ads are relevant, and the volume of ads is in
balance with the volume of content served, advertising
in RSS feeds will succeed. Take a closer look at
some of the ad serving options currently available
for RSS feeds.
Review of Current OptionsGoogle AdSense
for Feeds
Google's AdSense for Feeds offers contextually
targeted advertisements, with a wide selection of
advertisers. Google chooses not to divulge the percentage
of revenue that is shared with the publisher, so
it is difficult if not impossible to predict monthly
revenue. The current Google AdSense system for feeds
is tied to blogs and does not appear to be overly
flexible.
http://www.google.com/adsense
Pheedo
Pheedo displays categorized advertisements
rather than contextual advertisements. The upside
to this is that Pheedo's advertisements can be used
in conjunction with Google AdSense or AdSense for
feeds without violating Google's contract. Pheedo
works with the publisher to serve advertisements
from similar or related categories associated with
the feeds contents.
Pheedo's system allows for advanced ad filtering,
giving publishers control over keyword ad filtering,
specific ad filtering or url filtering. Pheedo's
system also allows publishers to sell ads to existing
advertisers whom they already have a relationship.
The revenue split is 50% and feeds can be a sponsored
flat rate advertisement or a pay-per-click advertisement,
where the publisher is only paid if the advertisement
is clicked.
http://www.pheedo.com
Kanoodle for Feeds
Kanoodles systems for providing advertisements for
feeds is similar to Google's but they do not have
the breadth of advertisers that Google boasts. Advertisements
are served based on topics, not to keywords. Kanoodle
shares 50% of the revenue generated from the advertisements
with the publisher serving the ad.
http://www.kanoodle.com
Evaluating Options
When evaluating feed ad serving solutions consider
the following:
1. Ad Relevance
In order to generate revenue from RSS advertisements
or for an advertising campaign to succeed using
RSS as a channel. It is absolutely critical that
the advertisements served in the feed contain related
content, the more related the content the higher
the likelihood that the advertisements will be of
interest to the reader and clicked. Also the closer
the content relates to the feeds theme the higher
the likelihood the reader will have genuine interest
in the product or service being advertised.
2. Ad Ratio
Publishers need to retain control over the frequency
of advertisements. Readers will become frustrated
with feeds that are heavily laden with advertisements
and genuine content. The advertiser is happy as
they are reaching a targeted audience the publisher
is happy because their advertisement is being clicked
and generating revenue.
3. Clearly Denoted as Ads
The debate over editorial control and advertisements
rage on. It is generally considered proper net etiquette
for publishers to clearly mark advertisements to
distinguish them from editorial web content. When
selecting a RSS advertising partner consider the
context in which the advertisements are displayed.
Does it blend with the feed or site, while still
being clearly marked sponsored material? Or does
the content blend so well that it appear as a product
or service endorsement from the publisher? Credibility
and reputation online matter, and the segregation
of advertisements and ensuring they are properly
denoted as such will go a long way to enhance credibility
with readers.
Clearly as RSS increases in popularity publishers
are looking for ways to monetize their content.
RSS in advertising is a logical step, and striking
a balance between quality, consistent content and
occasional related advertisements will lead to the
success of advertising in RSS feeds. If the balance
is not found, publishers may be forced to move to
a subscription RSS feed model.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing
for FeedForDev http://www.feedfordev.com
an RSS component for developers. |
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