As those of you without ad blinders may have noticed, SEOmoz has switched out our paid banner ads in favor of some Amazon sponsored links to books (and possibly other materials in the future) that we recommend. The banner ad model appears to be successful at sites like SERoundtable, SEWatch, Threadwatch, Blogoscoped and others so why the switch you might ask. The answer lies in the vlaue the ads were providing.
Since we re-started the ad program in late March, we were collecting between $1800-$2200 in total revenue each month from advertisers. Yet, the clickthrough rate was exceptionally low and it was my impression that visibility was also low. Thus, I felt the advertisters weren't getting their money's worth, despite receiving highly targeted banner impressions at relatively low rates for the industry.
I also perceived that the ads were hurting our internal brand a bit. Several of the ads' subject matters had aroused some (largely negative) commentary via email (and in person) around the industry. The ads also caused some new readers of the site to make assumptions about the type of resource SEOmoz is. New visitors to SEOmoz from sites like Digg, Wikipedia and Slashdot commented on the ads in a way that made me believe we were leaving external links on the table by continuing the banners. We'll see if this new model is better receveived.
Fundamentally, SEOmoz is a very different kind of blog from most. The parties we're serving are more than web-savvy, they're ad-aware. The level of scrutiny and attention most of us pay to advertising on a site far exceeds that of the normal surfer, but it doesn't translate to clickthroughs or branding - just the opposite in many cases. Our unique audience here at SEOmoz would probably rank lowest among all active web audiences in terms of CTR or branding effectiveness. The only metric we're good at is ad memory retention (i.e. - "Text-Link-Ads... yeah, I think they advertise on SEOmoz").
If you've got ideas for SEOmoz's blog monetization (and the content throughout the site), please let us know. I'd also love to hear your personal experiences with blog advertising and success rates.
I think you're nuts. Low clickthrough rate does not mean it's not hitting the target audiance. It's just that you have a ton of regular visitors that see the ads all the time. If it's topical and a good service you are advertising, what's wrong with a paid placement on your site?
I bet less than 0.5% of your visitors had a problem with your ads and I bet they stopped 0 people from reading your blog or linking to you.
IMHO, you are pissing away money by not having them there.
I tend to feel overall that ads cheapen a site. The new TechCrunch design illustrates this imo. Of course it can be done really well like the deck advertising network. But then that's advertising to the design-literati.
I think its a good move dropping the ads. There must be a better means to monetize the blog while retaining a quality feel. Surely there are means to use this space as leverage more towards the goals of your organisation as a whole (rather than bringing in a few grand a month from advertising)?
Hi Rand,
You are correct in your assumptions about the audience. Some of my favorite posts on your blog are book reviews. A link from the main ad to a Book review page with other books would be helpful in my opinion. Many people who come to your blog are here to learn something new.
If you also had a Blog Category called “Book Reviews” this could be a link near your main ad. All book reviews done on your blog would be listed with comments and all.
As long as you’re doing book reviews anyway, you should monetize it. I personally appreciate Amazon Affiliate links this way because I use Amazon and the link is much more convenient for me than something like a link to the author.
Have you read the Tipping Point? If not, I highly recommend reading it. After you read it, I’m sure you will want to share the knowledge by doing a review.
Aloha, Dave.
I think is a great idea, the loyal readers of this site will consider buying a book recommended by you guys. Next week i'll definitely buy kroug's book. 2k's idea is really good to, in fact, some section of recommended materials (free and paid) would be a nice place for advertising, and a great resource.
You could try answering with ads the following questions... -What do SEOmoz guys read for SEM? for SEO? for simple marketing? -What do they use for tracking and analytics? -What do they use for site analysis? -What do they eat? (Optional hah!)
Edd - that's a great idea, actually. Maybe I can set up a relationship with Indextools (our analytics guys) and Swiftco (our host). I don't know if the Thai restaurant we frequent is going to go for it, though. (just charge an extra $0.25 per pad gra pao and send it our way) :D
Rand,
I've been meaning to say something about the ads while the thread about negative feedback was goign on but never got to it. So, what I have to say now is:
1. Recommending books definitely looks more suitable for your audience - this is most on topic and useful and likely to convert. 2. The old ads were not doign a good job - it looked like you vouched for them placing them on your site and yet soem of them looked a bit spammy, to put it mildly. 3. Why Adsense model is not likely to work for this kind of site - see my post
Yeah - you've hit the nail on it's head. AdSense would be virtually useless as the audience is basically the advertisers.
Rand, I have a blog on one of my sites and monetize it via adsense. That part of the site has some of the highest time-on-site and pageviews per visitor. I am sure that it is visited by some of my most important visitors - repeatedly. The adsense CTR on those pages is about the lowest on the site - and ad placement there is identical to other parts of the site.
I think that you bring up an important issue and that is the balance between content and advertising - and the balance is not a study of the income. It is instead a study of the visitor perception of the site.
You have done a nice job with the Steve Krug book - making it recommended reading and thus advertising is also content. However at the same time it is placed in a page position that is superior to your content links. It has one of the prime locations on the page and that is at the expense of your very valuable brand - thus brand visibility is being sold for pennies.
An idea for ads would be detailed reviews and "how to use this" articles of products - such as log analysis, software, ebooks, adsense, etc. These could each have special pages on your site that are SEOed for commercial terms. Then you could promote these pages as "endorsed product lessons" or "software reviews" or benefits of reading Steve Krug. Each page would teach a lesson and thus be content and at the same time you might earn a little money from those pages via either commission or rentals.
a suggestion... Place more books on the recommended list... for example we're using something like this and users like it a lot ;) Instead of one book, they can scroll several recommended books using the arrows.
and yes... steve's book is a good read...
I really like that system... I wonder if Amazon offers something like that?
There's nothing like homemade solution ;) Linking that to amazon would be very simple as it reads xml-feed.
Rand I like the new ads. I just clicked on the the Steve Krug book, checked it out, it looked interesting and useful, so I ordered it.
I never bothered to click on the text link ads button before. Why? Well, I already know about them and have used them at my place at work. I think you are right that most readers of this blog are probably highly web aware and ad aware and are looking for more advanced, useful information. A certain percentage will be new to the field, but I think your brand gains by being an expert on the subject and truly recommending quality resources and books that can help everyone who is interested in improving their site.
Btw, the threadwatch link up there should be threadwatch.org, not threadwatch.com.
Thank Michael, not sure how I messed that one up. :P The book is great, too - I force everyone we hire to read it cover to cover. :D
I dont mind the ads Rand, and I agree about the CTR of your targeted audience. One suggestion is, instead of "just" throwing up banners, even though they are industry related, would be to maybe write a review of a book, give us more reason to look at it. Give the book more Trust so to speak :P
https://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=46
:)