Ads In Feeds Removed

June 20, 2005 | 19 Comments

I’ve decided to remove the Google Adsense ads from my feeds. They weren’t generating any revenue and I figure there isn’t much of a point to advertising that isn’t working right?

So, they’re gone, probably for good. I also figure I’ll leave them full text as I don’t think that makes much of a difference either. I always doubted that folks who actually clicked though to my site would pay any attention my my ads. The numbers seem to back that up as well.

I tend to wonder how any sort of advertising in feeds will work, unless it’s somehow placed right into the content, which, while I’d not rule out, I’d be reluctant to try. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how it develops.

Filed under: Web General
Keyword Tags: advertising feeds rss atom adsense

Comments

1. Rimantas said:

That’s interesting. I can understand it from the PoV of user like myself: in Bloglines I see you have new post, so I take a look, and the only link I’m going to click is the link to your entry (I prefer to read whole thing on site, not in Bloglines) so ads in feeds have no chance.
On the other hand, people who read entire thing in theri agregator do not even bother to click single link to site, so I wouldn’t expect them to click on ads either.
All this is pure speculation, of course, I am really looking forward to see what other think on this matter.

Posted on June 20, 2005 04:20 PM | #

2. nortypig said:

I ditched normal adsense for the same reason. My biggest gripe was that if they’re going to do context advertising how about putting cds, tshirts, anything a reader may be interested in. Instead readers of my blog were offered a service to write their blog content and cheap web design for budget buyers… i wouldn’t click them. But hey someone makes money lol… what can I say.

It doesn’t strike me as too geared into the why of people using RSS - quick information they ask for being fed to them. They may be quite unlikely to be sidetracked unless it’s particularly good - FREE Star Trek underpants?! just a theory.

You’re right, there’s no use doing it if people don’t click. Has anyone had any lucrative income from ads in feeds yet??

Posted on June 20, 2005 05:32 PM | #

3. Sean Voisen said:

I use Gush to read my news, and I don’t recall ever seeing any ads in your feed. But I just realized that it displays them as very small thumbnail images, which are basically unreadable unless expanded.

Posted on June 20, 2005 05:39 PM | #

4. -b- said:

Slashdot has ads in their feeds now and they’re all for Microsoft. Context was the exact problem with the experiment I did with feeds. The ads had zero to do with the content of the post.

Posted on June 20, 2005 06:11 PM | #

5. j said:

Does anyone actually make money with adsense?

Posted on June 20, 2005 10:46 PM | #

6. Jens Meiert said:

Reasonable decision. One of the things to bear in mind when it comes to advertising is that (proven by Stanford-Makovsky’s 2002 Web Credibility Study) “one or more ads on each page” have a negative impact related to the perceived credibility yet. Yes. This holds true for feeds as well.

Posted on June 21, 2005 03:18 AM | #

7. bob said:

I never understand why anyone clicks on AdSense ads. They’re consistently off-topic or advertising sketchy products. Simple web truth: no one clicks on ads.

Posted on June 21, 2005 07:22 AM | #

8. Josh Williams said:

There is a TON of money made off of Google’s Adsense ads. Not everybody is making that money, but there are plenty who are… A good friend of mine turns over $500 a day. Yes, that is $500 a day.

Sorry for the ultra-cheesy site, but here’s the pudding.

Posted on June 21, 2005 08:10 AM | #

9. Jough Dempsey said:

For me ads tend to only work if they’re paid per impression and not by click, and by “work” I mean “make money for me.”

However, I’ve noticed that some ads tend to generate more clicks than others - and those tend to be the big non-animated “leaderboard” (728x90) ads that have big bright high-contrast text in them.

Ads in feeds… unless someone’s reading your full-post content in the feed reader and not just using it as an ad hoc mailing list to click through to your actual web site, what’s the point? Most people who read your site won’t even subscribe to your feeds, and most of the ones who do will just click through to the relevant post - so I guess you’re serving ads to the extreme minority who reads blog posts in a feed reader. And those people are accustomed to not having ads in a feed reader, which is probably why they read full texts in a feed reader to begin with.

Good call on pulling the ads, even if you pulled them for the reason of their being ineffective rather than because they annoyed your readers.

Posted on June 21, 2005 08:19 AM | #

10. Keith said:

Just a little FYI – You can make money from AdSense. I don’t make a ton, but I’d pull the ads if I made nothing at all.

Let’s put it this way, I make enough to have reconciled the hit my credibility takes to having ads in the first place. And like Josh says, there are people out there (many with less valuable content than I’ve got) who make serious bank with AdSense.

Posted on June 21, 2005 08:27 AM | #

11. Jough Dempsey said:

Also, this site (http://www.adsense-secrets.com/) is clearly violating the Adsense TOS by posting their Adsense earnings, which is not allowed. Ouch. I hope they don’t drop him, because then he’s out that money, having put all of his eggs in one basket, etc.

Posted on June 21, 2005 08:35 AM | #

12. Josh Williams said:

Jough – Joel has permission from Google to post his earnings. He simply can’t post his CTR and impressions. Google doesn’t want to can people like him.

Posted on June 21, 2005 08:55 AM | #

13. Ray said:

It’s nice to see “they’re gone” ; )

Posted on June 21, 2005 11:26 AM | #

14. Mike Steinbaugh said:

I tried it in my feed for a week and didn’t get one click.

Posted on June 21, 2005 11:50 AM | #

15. Wesley Walser said:

Those ads were never ledgiable in my feed reader.

Posted on June 21, 2005 12:32 PM | #

16. Garrett said:

This is ridiculous. I’ve permanently unsubscribed from your feeds. The ads were the only valuable content in there. ;)

Posted on June 21, 2005 01:43 PM | #

17. Nick Finck said:

There were ads in your feed?

…seriously I don’t recall seeing them. And even if I did I doubt I would ever click on them… well maybe just to get you some extra cash, but not out of true interest.

I think it’s interesting that people are trying to advertise in a space that is all about delivering content and information… walking around the design, ads, navigation, and everything else.

I think you could potentially make money via a feed if you offered more focused and targeted ads specific to what you KNOW you readers are interested in. I am sure you know that already tho.

Posted on June 21, 2005 06:20 PM | #

18. Sheldon Kotyk said:

It’s funny, I’ve never clicked on an ad on my TV and there are tonnes of advertisers spending lots of money there.

I was told once that advertising by car companies was more to encourage people that had already purchased a car from them that they made the right decision. “Branding” if you will.

I think the problem with advertising on the internet is that usually, the ads suck. It is too easy to advertise on the internet, therefore, advertising is usually either ignored or removed via a browser extension.

If I were you, with a successful blog and I wanted to make some money on advertising on my RSS feed, I would approach companies that you would actually use your voice to advertise for.

On sports radio here in Vancouver, jingle ads are being replaced by the same voice that does the show, doing an advertisement telling how they buy from a specific dealer. Sometimes the ad is 10 seconds, sometimes a minute. I find I actually listen to the ads because they inject their own personality into the ad. Would I buy from the car dealer? Maybe not, but I honestly feel like that radio personality would buy from them which makes me trust the dealer more.

Maybe what needs to happen for blog advertising, is that the owner of the blog went to businesses that he trusted and offered to pitch their product for a larger fee than they would pay for anner bads. Then as part of an article, the blogger talked about the product a bit.

I think we all understand that running a blog costs money and would be willing to read the ad. We may not click but I don’t click my TV either. Except to turn it off because the content itself sucks.

Posted on June 23, 2005 03:35 PM | #

19. Orizu Nwokeji said:

Beware - lending your voice to particular products
can have a negative effect on your credibility.

I for one can respect independent views on any given topic
but sponsored endorsements…

When there’re bucks involved in a recommendation how can we
be sure you’re not wearing your “sponsored agenda hat” when
blogging on Adobe’s phasing out of Dreamweaver in favour of the dreaded GoLive (you know they want to).

My take on ads in feeds?

I see ads as explicit obfuscation that delays my getting the info I want.

I “just feel better” clicking ads from your site.

Posted on July 1, 2005 08:43 AM | #