It’s time for a new poll here on Problogger – this time the question is:
Do you Run RSS Ads on Your Main Blog?
RSS advertising has been around for a couple of years now and I see quite a few RSS ads appearing in my own RSS reading – but I’d be interested to know just how far it extends into the blogosphere – so lets see shall we?
{democracy:37}
Looking forward to seeing the results of this poll.
I do, but I built a custom a custom RSS ad script. Every 10 articles, there will be a full page rss ad for my current sponsor. I might re-consider when AdSense for Feeds is open to everybody
Yea, I do run RSS ads on my main blog.
I don’t. I made virtually no money from it, it had a terrible click through rate compared to my main website!
I am using Bidvertiser CPC ads in my blog. And it has Bidvertiser for feeds open for everyone. But I am still not using it on my main blog. Just because I want to build my RSS readers first( not with any black hat tricks! ). After that, I would consider using them. But CPM ads would be good. Or the combinatio of CPC and CPM ads(i.e., AdSense for Feed) would be best to use.
So I will surly wait until Adsense for feed is open for publisher. ANd I want to build my RSS reader base till then.
I like to keep my RSS feeds clean as the layouts in all feed readers can be different. That can mess with banner ads and what not.
Keeping referral texts and links within the context works best. It allows me to monetize my feeds without losing beauty of natural text.
http://www.justindupre.com
I don’t run any direct money making ads on my feed, but I do advertise my Twitter profile by displaying my latest Tweet. It is dynamic so it always displays my latest Tweet to my RSS subscribers.
I have just over 1600 RSS subscribers on Installer Apps and I do not put Ads in my RSS Feed.
Maybe I should, but I how it is to see ads in my RSS feeds. I’d rather not lose the subscribers.
I would vote, but since I am new to blogging ( two months in the game) I was wondering if you could write a post about RSS Ads, and their benefits. I’m sure as I grow my blog I will experiment with many monetization techniques, but I haven’t quite been exposed to RSS Ads to this point.
Thanks,
Darren
No, I still don’t have enough subscribers
No.
Google Adsense doesn’t work for me, so there’s no point. Besides which, RSS advertising in your feed is prohibited at Blogburst. And I get some traffic from there (more post views though than click throughs), so I must behave. :)
Also I don’t use Feedblitz to deliver email subscriptions because of their ads placed in feeds (not to mention I get no benefit from them, let alone my readers).
I am not averse though, to putting a private advertisement in my feed’s footer. As always, it will be an advertiser that fits my blog’s subject. No ad-network type clutter for me. Comparing the costs and benefits would weigh in favor of a private ad.
Interesting, back in 2006 the same ProBlogger poll returned 75% as “No”. Both RSS and monetisation have grown in popularity a lot since then, I wonder whether this poll will show a big change or if people are still disregarding RSS advertising.
FWIW, I voted No this time because I’m focussing more on content currently rather than monetisation (have done some monetisation though).
I use Feedburner Ad Network, but there’s been no new ads for around two months.
I’ve well over 2000 subscribers, so I’m hoping I get into the Google AdSense for Feeds (or whatever they are calling it) soon. I’ve not actually seen any AdSense in feeds yet – have they actually started getting people into the beta?
I don’t use RSS ads. In fact as far as I am concerned any ad on my blog is there to help my readers. As I (now that I feel I have enough content and have learned how) put together E-Reports I add an affiliate page with useful ads but not of the same style as my blog.
Example I have banners for the Indie Bible. This ad earns me a decent commission yes but the book itself if used by any musician who purchases it can increase their music business at least 3 fold. Since this is what my blog is for this is the kind of ad I want to run.
I feel my subscribers rather RSS or E-Mail only want a quick view of the information I give out. For a fuller view they will head to the blog and this is where they will spend the time to decide if the book is for them. I do from time to time place affiliate links in my blog posts and these go to subscribers as is, and of course are relevant to the post and many of the readers.
What are you using to embed polls (such as this one) in the RSS feed itself?
Nope. Not enough subscribers, plus I just don’t like them right now, at least the ones I’ve seen.
Nope. I only have 100+ feed readers, and I think it’s not a enough number :(
Paul – yes that’s why I’m doing this – to compare the 2006 results to this one. So far there does seem to have been a bit of a shift.
Yes so far there is a shift. If there is a big enough shift I look forward to your followup post on RSS advertising methods! :-)
My “main blog” is a personal blog – which has ads. But if I put it in the feeds? My readers would flip. out.
I don’t have enough subscribers to make it worth it!
And at the moment, while I’m establishing my blog – i’m trying to keep it Ad free!
I’d like to run ads in RSS, but so far I haven’t seen many options. Who offer ads for RSS?
ari
To those saying their subscriber numbers are too low to use RSS ads, do you think even with low numbers it could be worth it since an RSS subscriber is usually a highly engaged reader (ie quality traffic)? Not to mention they are interested in the topic enough to subscribe to your feed so the CTR could be very good if the ads are properly targetted and of value to your readers?
I did for a while but since my blog has been syndicated with blog burst I took them out. I probably will be adding them again once I reach a large number of RSS subscribers.
No I don’t run RSS Ads. I think thats like overboarding the advertising.
I don’t but I want to. I’ve download some plugins for RSS ads but never try yet. I need some review about all of these plugins
It seems to be the case if you have thousands of subscribers then okay but if you are still building then its not a good idea.
Its a matter of opinion weather it annoys people, i personally don’t mind them as i just don’t see them, Is it called Ad blindness?
I am of the latter,but i am always experimenting with different footer affiliate text links.
MaxHomeBits
Unless you’re a “big wig” like ProBlogger, then I say don’t bother. They’re gaudy and irritating.
It’s one thing to have ads directly on a site, but it’s another to have them “invade” your RSS reader….
Yes, but I have nearly 1000 subscribers only, so it does not make a big difference on income.
I answered “Yes” but I don’t think I’m doing what you’re expecting.
I sell “post footer” sponsorships for $XX a pop. These aren’t graphical at all – entirely text. It’s a max of about 250 characters, including a link or two. They’re clearly marked as “Post supported by” and are in italic. They work well and are popular, since they get to all of my subscribers rather than just the Web hits.
I agree with others above that graphical ads perform extremely poorly in the main (I was getting 0.0025% CTR from FeedBurner’s ads some months – on tens of thousands of impressions!! – no that’s not too many zeroes by accident!) but the “post supported by” concept makes me good money and the sponsors get visitors. Textual ads nearly always trump graphical.
No, I dont.
Nopes.
I don’t have that many subscribers yet.
It’s not my ultimate goal to make money with my personal blog at any cost. I myself have subscribed to about 200 feeds and it’s already hard and time consuming enough to decide what to read and what not to read. If someone would make my decision process even harder by putting ads into his feed, thereby adding visual clutter, I’d strongly consider to cancel the subscription as my time is precious.
No, I don’t.
Not yet.
No, But I am VERY interested in putting datafeeds on my sites. Any help in this area would be appreciated.
I don’t primarily because I’ve heard they convert very poorly and become more of a nuisance to readers.
I’ve said I would offer RSS footer advertising on my advertising page, but it would have to be Textual now as I’m really not convinced anything other than a “Brought to you by..” message would have any real CTR given my blog is about tech and gaming.
I also use BlogBurst and like some of the linkbacks I get back from that system as I tend to use my RSS footer to publicise pages on Zath or other sites that I’m involved with – that’s probably worth more to me than any image ads would be.
My blog is pretty new so I don’t have any advertising right now but I am looking into monitizing it near the end of the year. What are the pros and cons of RSS ads and how do they compare to AdSense?
Not so far. I’ve debated it, but I’d probably be thinking about something customized if I went that route.
I tried once with Bidveriser for feeds but did not get any clicks over a week and stopped it! However, I am convinced that feed footer can be used for affiliate banners etc rather than ads.
“What are you using to embed polls (such as this one) in the RSS feed itself?” – Jeffry Pilcher
I would also like to know the answer to this question…
I would like to give it a try if I once come to know what it means in the true sense. Darren, please enlighten us on this.
I would be waiting for this.
the poll is run by a wordpress plugin called democracy
Heck, the only reason I don’t put RSS ad is because I am trying to build traffic first.
I have not tried monetizing my rss feed and i am not sure i want to. This is one topic however that I really am not clear cut on but there is something about it I do not like but I can not even say for certain what it is without sounding like a hypocrite.
I guess i feel that you need to not overwhelm your readers with “buy now” in every aspect… I think you should use the rss feed to get the readers and then make the post (like you did here) call for them to get involved and be part of the community and have the marketing messages here.
Curious as to your thoughts Darren.
I would like to, but I have not figured out how yet!
This would make a great post.
I do have some text affiliate links in there now, but they are doing very poorly.
Sorry if I voted twice – I clicked vote and the page simply reappeared without update. Does that plugin require cookies or something stupid like that?
I don’t run ads in my RSS feed because it appears on other sites (with my blessing) that don’t allow ads in the articles. I do have ads on my site.