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http://www.shootingatbubbles.com/2008/04/12/advertising-for-bloggers-has-to-change/ -
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One must pay their dues, hit the trade shows, speak at conventions, become recognized as a leader in their space, or they are just another guy with a rant log.
For many bloggers the idea of having to be sales agents when their inclination is just to write about products, news or other such things is not something they are prepared to handle and so they end up settling for second best and getting screwed in the process.
In an age where everyone is a superstar, it seems everyone also needs an agent.
(Seems like a via business for those so inclined...)
I don't think it unthinkable that such a thing will happen, but the problem is, the M in CPM is still based on traffic, no matter what you do.
There are networks springing up all the time. We're starting to experiment with a company here in San Francisco who claims it will pay us more than AdSense and some of that (they say) is because the specific focus of our site is more valuable to advertisers. We're very small (~350,000 page views/mo) so even if we got a $10 CPM (we won't, it will surely be less) it's still in the realm of pocket money (especially split betwen 2 people). But if it's more pocket money than AdSense, that's at least a step in the right direction.
No matter what happens though, to make a good living off of it, more scale must be achieved. I'm guessing whatever happens with advertising there will be one "who get paid well" for like every 1000-10000 who don't.
If it's about the money, scale matters.regardless of how the advertising works.
I'm not sure I was really trying to suggest anything. It was just more of a rambling that when it comes to the mid-size blogs the only ones making any money are the ad networks and yet the bloggers still have to try and do something to even just pay for their costs.
I agree with that. Some can for sponsorship match making service would definitely be interesting. I think that creative commons is only trying to see how they can reduce the transaction cost overhead of content sharing/syndication so I think that it is worth keeping that conversation alive.
Edwin
There is more competition than there used to be, and if you can't step up to the plate, then you may not be in the right game.
Full thoughts...
http://www.takingthebridge.com/2008/04/response...
Great post. You've nailed three big issues:
1. Top-quality, original content doesn't usually mean lots of traffic
2. As it current stands, pageviews are still the king of online advertising - no pageviews, no advertising.
3. The AdSense revenue share is unfair but Google's not going to change the rules any time soon, and the viable alternatives are few and far between.
My experience with markevanstech.com mirrors your post to a tee. It gets lots of traffic through RSS readers but only a modest amount of pageviews, which means it's not a great advertising vehicle. If I was really into getting more ad revenue, a return to partial feeds would be something I'd consider. People may not like them but if the content is good, maybe they would click through to the blog.
Mark
Have you tried the ADSDAQ Exchange? Publishers can name their own CPM price and thereby receive control on yield that publishers don't get from AdSense and others.
John