SOME RANDOM DUDE

As discussed recently, I posed the question to the community whether it would be beneficial to integrate advertising into Some Random Dude. Soon afterward, I read the article, How Ads Really Work: Superfans and Noobs and I became instantly intruiged by the idea of advertising by types of users based on refferals. I feel very staunchly about not penalizing this community (or any for that matter) for the sake of ad revenue. However, for visitors of tag pages which are primarily one-time visitors coming from Google searches, AdSense advertising is actually a good fit. Through studying my logs, I know that Google referred users that visit tag pages tend to leave after on visit - meaning they most likely did not find what they were looking for (unfortunately). AdSense, with its contextual advertising could actually benefit a large segment of this segment sense one or more of the ads may end up being more relevant towards what they were seeking. In addition, these pages are basically never viewed by the frequent readers/visitors, so their experience has been left pristine. This, from my view, seems like the best of both worlds.

I have plans for different areas of Some Random Dude to include non-Some-Random-Dude-content, but I refrain from calling it advertising at this moment. While I would love to go into that, it is a completely different discussion for a later date (hopefully soon). This AdSense integration will most likely generate very little revenue, but it is an interesting experiment that is worth trying. At the very least, if I am going to write about online advertising, I better be participating in it as well…

If you are interested in seeing what the AdSense advertising looks like, just have a look at this tag page. As you will see, the main content is unblemished while still offering the opportunity to generate some revenue. Please let me know you thoughts on this. I personally think it works very well with the goals of this site, but I really want to hear how you feel about it.ad revenue, adsense, advertsing, beneficial, benefit, contextual advertising, frequent readers, google searches, noobs, one time, online advertising some random dude

I have been quite vocal on my lack of regard for online advertising and have even spent some time writing about how I think it could be improved. While it may not be in the online world, it is good to see some companies trying to improve the advertising we are exposed to. Our good friends at Google are interested in making TV advertising “useful” for its viewers. I assume this model will be loosely based on their highly successful Adsense program. After spending my youth watching TV and subsequently ridding my life of TV after living on my own, I can understand how some people think TV advertising could get a little smarter…

According to this article, Google is planning on making $11 billion in ad sales - not too shabby. It is not a secret that Adsense is a success from many different standpoints. I would definitely like to see online advertising go even further in its usefulness and site-by-site basis, but I recognize how large of a leap Adsense made to online advertising. Old media advertising could definitely use a shot in the arm at this point - and who better to go it than one of the best success-stories in new media. Still, it will be interesting if new media ideas still work in a different medium. Old media definitely will be eventually making the slow transition to new media - perhaps that evolution will take care of the problem on its own.

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For many, the internet symbolizes innovation, creativity and unique expression. Why then is internet advertising so unoriginal, uninspired and uninterested in the people it is targeting? Online advertising symbolizes all that is wrong with the current state of the web. The basic model of advertising bombardment and sensory overload can ruin a site’s reputation while rarely giving the financial return expected. Why have site creators and online advertisers settled for such an unbecoming system? For many site creators, the allure of making income from their site outweighs the needs of their audience. This approach can ultimately cause much more bad than good.

Over the next few weeks, I will be writing about online advertising. This article will focus on what is currently wrong with the most common advertising model used online, the second will discuss my opinions on a better alternative and the third will flush out those ideas into pragmatic examples.

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