Ads on Blogs

Steve Hodson says, “Advertising for bloggers has to change.” There are a number of Ad Networks that are trying to address the issues he raises. I am anxious to see how this plays out. I am now on Forbes, IDG, Washington Post and TheDeal (all powered by Adify, all business blog networks).

Forbes is actually launching tomorrow. IDG’s TechDispenser network has been alive for a while. But both networks are in the midst of hiring new executives and account managers, and expect that they would start to show real $$$ later this year / next year. Adify executives say that it takes 9-18 months to ramp a network, so this year will still be for the networks to “learn” how to do this right.

The networks, I am afraid, have a LOT to learn. At this point, they are pretty clueless about how to use their chips, including traffic, brand, and ad sales forces. They don’t really understand how to use links, they don’t know how to sell high CPM ads, and they don’t know how to converse with the blogosphere effectively.

I think, the game will get interesting next year, if we give them somewhat of a long leash to go figure this game out.

Related reading from the Deal Radar 2008 Series: Federated Media, Adify, TechCrunch, GigaOm, Glam Media, and Seeking Alpha.