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By:
Sharon
Housley
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.
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Review of Current Options
Google 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.
Article
Source: http://articleswell.com
About
the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for
FeedForAll www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and
podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for FeedForDev
an RSS component for developers.
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