Who says big can’t be small?
That underwear ad you see to the right is one of 483 million American Apparel is serving, making it the No. 1 fashion advertiser online, according to Comscore. That amazes me: that the top advertiser would also be advertising on blogs, including this one. So don’t accept it when you hear that blogs are too small for the big advertisers.
Tags: ads
August 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
These American Apparel ads are the only pleasure I get from your blog. KAYOO!!
August 4th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Hey Jeff - jumping out of lurk mode to say - blogs have not been considered too small for a long time now by advertisers - just ask Mediavest and others. The question is scale and relevance - and the big guys not understanding the dynamics of the long tail publisher.
However- don’t you think we can do better than serving up old style banner ads - or - gulp - even google ads on a blog [or any other site for that matter?]
Great - for the publisher of certain “small scale” - not so great for the reader/commenter in the long run. Static banner ads - still graffiti in my mind - sometimes pretty, sometimes noise.
I’d like us to come up with something better in this social medium
curious your thoughts
August 4th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
i refuse to look at that beautiful body in those scant panties… my luck it’ll be that dude who just gave birth.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Deb: Graffiti? Are you kidding me? A hot body in panties juxtaposed with Jeff’s face. Now you know engagement is higher than every — because of the ads!
August 4th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Blogs too small for big advertisers?? I think advertising on anything other than small niche blogs is a waste of money. Why go mass when you can target your audience precisely? It’s who vs. how many, and who always takes precedence Take it from Chris Anderson at longtail.com:
The traffic today is still mostly going to Facebook and MySpace. But as they struggle to target ads based on the faint signals of consumer behavior in a generic social network, the smart money is going to the niche sites, where laser-focused content and community makes targeting easy. The Long Tail of social networks isn’t just more satisfying if your community is actually about something, it’s richer, too.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Advertisers are turning to bloggers. This is today’s trend. But, they tend to rely on useless ranking systems. Google will penalty those sites that advertise and make money with dofollow links. I think it is not wise to check on only certain ranking to value a blogs’s ad value.
It is good to see you are making some money from this giants.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] online advertisers, the strategy and the buy. 5 08 2008 Jeff Jarvis says not to listen to the people that tell you blogs are too small for big advertisers. Using American [...]
August 5th, 2008 at 11:09 am
And with Firefox’s Adblock Plus add-on, I don’t have to see it!
August 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Look at it this way: everytime you block an ad, you steal from me. I’m happy to get quotes and links but I want to serve ads. It’s how I make money on this blog. I’d say that blocking ads is unethical and impolite to bloggers.
August 5th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Delighted as I am that an advertiser has ponied up to sponsor your blog, Mr. Jarvis, I could do without the very in-your-face, soft-porn images that American Apparel favors (and their print ads are no better). I won’t block the ads, of course, but I won’t buy the product, either.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
“Look at it this way: everytime you block an ad, you steal from me.”
Ah - but isn’t that the same argument that TV makes about we who use TiVo to skip through commercial breaks?
August 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Sure, and I can whine like they do.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
This same guy who bragged that he blocked the ad whined in another post about paying bloggers to cover schoolboard meetings - how are you gonna do that, Jarvis, huh, huh? With the ads you block, fool. That’s the answer.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Connect the dots, professor. You can’t avoid the ads in print. You can’t avoid them in broadcast unless you time-shift or use the Mute button.
But you can avoid some of them on the Net. Hmmmm. What to do? Users seem to have too much power.
If blocking ads and scripts is “stealing,”take that up with the good folks at Mozilla.org.
I don’t see any different as shuffling newspaper inserts straight into the recycling bin.
My point re. school-board coverage, etc., is that you cannot count on avocational bloggers to do day-to-day journalism, whether they sell ads or not.
Best wishes,
Phil.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:25 am
But, Phil, you’re not talking about some faceless monolithic, monopolistic, conglomerated media giant. You’re talking to me. You block the ads, you take money out of my pocket. I hope you feel guilty now.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Jeff,
The larger point is this: The little rectangle that I am looking at now is MY space. (Hmm, that would be a cool name for a web site!).
To some extent, I control what is on it. That is more control than I have when I look at the pages of WIRED or THE NEW YORKER or the COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE.
People like having control of incoming messages. By analogy, I don’t let everyone into my house who knocks at the door, and I bet that you do not do so either.
You might as well accuse someone who reads your RSS feed of “stealing” too, since they will not see everything that’s on the main Web page — sort of like reading the AP stories on My Way instead of in the paper-and-ink GAZETTE with ads next to them.
We live in an advertising-saturated environment. You won’t get much traction trying to guilt-trip people into avoiding a small percentage of the advertising.
Just a little consumer rebellion here …
August 6th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Before you subscribe to a magazine for an advertiser-subsidized $1 per issue do you tear out all the ads?
You’re being anti for the sake of being anti and you’re being unfair.
If I could block you, I would. How’s that feel?
August 7th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
“If I could block you, I would. How’s that feel?”
Ooh, touchy touchy.
Just don’t forget to shut off your RSS feed. All those people who subscribed to read your stuff are able to browse without seeing the American Apparel ads.
Thieves, thieves, all of them!
August 8th, 2008 at 4:57 am
I’m trying to make a point. You block my revenue. How would it feel to block you. You’re not conceding at all that you are at least being rude to me by your actions. It’s like going to your grandmother’s house for dinner and not even saying thank you. My RSS feed has ads, too. I hope American Apparel buys some there.