I have been watching the debate on advertising in RSS and I have to say that blogs give advertisers the personal relationship with the consumer they've always wanted, but their approach remains crude and clumsy. Iím hoping for something better.
As the space grows, you will have as many different approaches to ad feeds as you do participating companies. In that respect, ads in RSS feeds are no more intrusive than a string of Google ad words down the side of popular blogs or banner ads. (Though I have to admit that most often I don't even see them.) In the stream of information that flows from my aggregator, very little of the advertising in feeds has any affect on me one way or another. So, it canít be working that well.
In some ways, people have lost sight of the fact that RSS is the ultimate web-based advertising tool. What I'm really looking for is an approach that uses the medium provided in a more subtle, sophisticated, and predictive fashion. One that acknowledges and leverages what I am interested in and what I am writing about.
Lets keep in mind that what's crucial from my perspective is the relevance of the information. I have already made that determination by simply subscribing. I wonder if the folks supplying the feeds get that part of the equation - I'm hooked and now I'm yours to lose. Relevance in this context is defined from both a time and interest-based perspective.
As a consumer, I have taken the trouble to subscribe to a source of information because at some level it was important for me to follow. That flow of "relevant" information happens every day. Itís not your standard notion of six brand impressions leading to purchase. But wait, there's more. I'm reading this information and in some cases I am writing about it in my blog. If I am telling others, do you have any idea what I am saying and why?
My blog and my aggregator are, by definition, personal. If you're an advertiser - please accept and respect that fact. Don't bombard me; get to know me and neither of us will be wasting any time. As an advertiser, the technology provides a one-to-one relationship with the consumer. With that you should be able to:
- help me find things I should know about
- tell me about products / services that are best for me
- tell me what you are doing and keep me informed
Remember, I'm not interested in your ad, I'm interested in what you have to offer.
10:55:01 AM 
|
