About to start here at Darren Rowse’s at SXSW on Online Advertising…
/* Main Holder, adjust width to suit your page. */ .cil_mainholder { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; width: 470px; background: #ffffff; border: solid 1px #333333; } /* Adjust the height to best suite your page */ /* Remove height property to have all text show without scrollbars. */ .cil_blogholder { position: relative; overflow: auto; height: 600px; } .cil_title_liveblog { font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; color: #323232; } .cil_title_date { font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; color: #323232; } .cil_title_date a { border:none; text-decoration: underline; color:#E85D00; } .cil_title_date a:hover { text-decoration:none; } .cil_chatmsg { border-bottom: 1px dotted #999999; width: 100%; vertical-align: top; }</p> .cil_msgtime { font-weight: bold; width: 40px; height: 100%; background: #E8E9E0; padding-left: 3px; padding-top: 5px; margin: 0px; } .cil_msgtext { padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px; background: #FFFFFF; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;
} .cil_msgtext a { border:none; text-decoration: underline; color:#E85D00; } .cil_msgtext a:hover { text-decoration:none; } .cil_commentmsgtext { padding: 0px; margin: 0px; } .cil_host_text { font-size: 12px; color: #000000;

} .cil_viewer_text { font-size: 11px; color: #003399; } .cil_popup_text { font-size: 11px; color: #000000; } .cil_complete { overflow: visible; font-weight: bold; font-size: 13px; padding: 2px 10px 0px 10px; color: #E85D00; background: #f8f8f8; border: solid 1px #CCCCCC; } .cil_footerholder { height: 30px; padding-top: 7px; background: #E8E9E0; border: 1px solid #999999; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 100; text-align: center; } .cil_footer { padding-left: 9px; vertical-align: middle; display: inline; z-index: 1; } .cil_green { color: #789a0e; } table { border-collapse: collapse; } Live Blog: Online Advertising for Newbies SXSW(03/09/2008)
Powered by: CoveritLive


Close



10:00
Good morning from SXSW!
10:02
Heath Row is starting the opening remarks … Heath is from DoubleClick (soon to be Google I guess). I’ve worked with Heath on a few projects … sharp guy
10:05
Heath is doing a great job of getting a feel for the room and what the level is … always important for topics like online advertising…
10:06
Panelists … Heath Row Research Mgr, DoubleClick
Darren Rowse ProBlogger
Rett Clevenger Online Media Mgr, Backcountry.co.
Wendy Piersall CEO, eMoms at Home

Jim Benton VP of Sales, AdBrite Inc
10:07[Poll]Do you have/want ads on your blog?
Yes

( 50% )

No

( 0% )
Yes, but they don’t work

( 50% )


10:11
Darren — make money from your blog directly (advertising, etc) or indirectly (like consultants).
Flavours of advertising … huge range here … we’ve grown beyond just the Adsense ads most of us started off with. Text link ads used to work well for me, but since Google is nailing those who do … they are long gone. Which is unfortunate because they were really easy to use. Maybe that’s what the problem was.

10:17
Wendy’s story is interesting because her break into fame was a link from Darren, the ProBlogger, himself. I think that’s how a lot of bloggers get into it. When your blog suddenly becomes popular … getting into advertising becomes compelling.
10:20
Diversity in online ads is key … when text links had to go, Wendy was ready with alternative — if she hadn’t she would have taken a huge (huge) hit in income.

Her move from using ads from others to using an ad network/firm–hers I believe–was part of the scale and growth of a popular blog.
10:24
Jim Benton of adbrite is giving good advice about picking a network. He stressed transparency and control. I would also add what the depth and breath of inventory is….serving crap ads doesn’t help. As Wendy said in her comments, your readers are coming to read you not click on ads. This has been my experience and why I haven’t worked on the ads on my personal site much (I need to start though)
10:26
Rett Clevenger is getting into affiliate marketing arena. One part that is important to know is that good affiliate marketing needs to be a symbiotic relationship…
10:27
PIcs http://www.flickr.com/photos/tris/23...7604061602690/
10:27
You have to find the affiliate that will let you match the offerings to your readership … direct sales, comparison shopping, etc.
10:28[Poll]Affiliate links…good thing or bad for blogs?
Good

( 50% )

Bad

( 0% )

Beyond evil

( 0% )

Just send me my cheque

( 0% )

Good, but tell us

( 50% )


10:29
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tris/23...7604061602690/ pic of whole panel
10:31
Man I have couple good questions to ask, but ….here I am live blogging. I might just have to get up and go to the mic.
10:31
[Comment From Sam Harrelson]
how do they recommend finding those affiliates? that&#039;s the toughest job for any affiliate network or affiliate manager.
10:33
One part that is coming up often is tracking and metrics. Now I know the tools are better than back in the day, but they still have a ways to go. But advertisers are getting data that helps them find better performing blogs.
10:34
From adbrite … advertisers are now willing to pay a premium for ads targeted to small, niche groups (males, 24-30 in Austin, TX)
10:35
Be right back … going to ask the question from you all … post your questions here and I’ll go to the mic with them
10:40
Darren on Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ has a site-wide disclosure but not on every link. On ProBlogger http://www.problogger.net/ Darren puts a disclosure on all the links. Wendy didn’t at first … but now is. Both Darren and Wendy agree that it depends on the type of site.
10:41
Darren and Wendy have found that when they disclose an affiliate link, they perform better … because you know that it’s helping them personally
10:43
Paid reviews: Darren doesn’t do them. Wendy (like me) experimented with them…she hand picked her reviews. “People don’t like their advertorials mixed with the content that they love.” — Wendy

Wendy doesn’t do them anymore … because like Darren said (and I as well), what I recommend says a lot about me. If the product is crap, and I say it’s good … it’s my rep, not the product’s that is tarnished.
10:44[Poll]Paid reviews?
Yes

( 0% )

No

( 100% )

Open question

( 0% )



10:44[Poll]Disclosure policy for affiliate ads, etc
Site-wide

( 50% )

Every link

( 50% )
Hybrid

( 0% )


10:47
Tracking and metrics…
This is key. Crazy Egg, Google Analytics, click tracking … MyBlogLog … I think this in GA, but I haven’t seen it either. I think I’ll sit down with Wendy and see if we can figure it out.
Click data helps you figure out the best ads and such for your blog.
Again … it’s all depends on the blogs.

10:49
What are the demographics of people who are clicking ads…the report that came out that said people who click are young unemployed males … the writers of the report sell behavioural/demographic targetting for ads
10:49
[Comment From Sam Harrelson]
do they monitor the search channel for how bloggers are using keywords to drive traffic towards ads? any concern about trademarks, etc?

10:50
Good question Sam … great I have to get up again.
10:51
I didn’t note that Heath called me out “Are you Tris?” … cause we’ve worked together. And Sam’s question got the “I know Sam!” from Wendy
10:52
What is the right metric? Clicks aren’t the whole ball of wax. There are many ways. Does an ad for something you buy offline in the store … clicks? Or track traffic to impressions to sales?
10:52
[Comment From Sam Harrelson]
yep, wendy and i go way back. dammit, i need to be there!
10:52
Doh! I didn’t give the link to this when at the mic …
Wow queue coming up to the mic … Sam, maybe I’ll get your question on video for you!
10:56
How do you get in the door with a company who you want an affiliate? Darren suggests Googling your niche (it’s neesh not nitch btw) … the Commision Junction, Performix, LinkShare … the biggest affiliate networks.
10:56
[Comment From Sam Harrelson]
no worries! keep on bloggin&#039;
10:56
Adify.com network of networks. Great selection, Wendy says that their UI sucks, though.
10:58
Good point … this has been very blogger heavy. For dating sites, myspace layouts, emoticons, etc… affiliate links, no dice. You’re going to have to look for a good network. adbrite, I’d say adsense too … thinking of others, but stumped. Comments here, pls
11:00
What is the threshold when you go from using the networks to doing it yourself? Wendy is right, it depends on your niche. 500 uniques is a good time to start approaching advertisers.
Darren has a great point, which I had forgotten, which is put ads on from day one, because if you add them when you hit 1000 uniques, you’ll get a user revolt.
11:01
Regional networks … but local search … city, geotargetted … this works pretty well. yes. If you want to by a camera, you don’t want an add from a place you can’t buy from.
11:02
And that’s a wrap! Thanks everyone for reading. When this closes you can leave a comment on the post.
11:02
[Comment From Sam Harrelson]
don&#039;t forget the CPA networks like MarketLeverage, NeverblueAds, RocketProfit, and the new Pepperjam network… easier to get in the door at those (typically) than CJ or Linkshare if you&#039;re just starting out
11:02
This Live Blog has now ended.

CoveritLive is a 2008 CNET Webware.com Finalist!
Vote for CoveritLive







Good panel…really enjoyed it. Not just saying that because Darren is my boss ;).
Tags: b5media, Darren Rowse, online advertising, SXSW, SXSWiShare This
</img>
</img> </img> </img> </img> </img> </img> </img> </img>
</img>