Advertising is everywhere. TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, clothing and the web. We have gotten to be relatively good at tuning these things out.
At each step along the way, the advertisers need to try and improve (read: get more annoying and intrusive) to keep enough people watching to make money. All sorts of stupid ideas have been tried (the Mortal Kombat blood-squirting posters, anyone?).
They’ve got a new idea.
RSS Ads is going to provide a way for advertisers to put their ads in RSS feeds. Sign up for it and you could make money from click through or per view advertising.
In principle, this is a nice idea to let people make a little money from their sites. I’m all in favour of that. But, and you knew there was always a but coming, it simply won’t work.
Some people will immediately black list any sites containing the adverts. Others will come up with clever filters to get rid of the majority of the adverts and get back to normal browsing. The rest of us will simply use these filters and hope for the best.
The outcome of ignoring the adverts is the same as everywhere else. The market plummets, the advertisters get more desperate, and a new round of annoyance begins. Ad infinitum.
Maybe this is just pessimism, but web users don’t like adverts and are becoming more and more savvy to ignoring them every day. It won’t work.
Posted: January 26th, 2004
#Permalink: Bringing Ads To RSS, By Gary Fleming
I agree with what you’ve said here, but I’ve got a bit to add:
Since when did advertising become the only way we could give back to the authors of content we’re interested in? I’m pretty sure the reason for this is not that we’re all incredibly cheap and want something for nothing (incidentally, I really am that cheap), I think we’re just not yet used to the idea of giving small amounts of money to people for reading their thoughts. I mean, when was the last time you gave your friend money for an insightful comment or good advice? Does the concept even make sense? (The fact that such micropayments are currently not technically feasible is also an issue to consider, I’m sure, but I find it must less interesting)
Any other ideas?
I would not underestimate the power of cheapness. If people can get a free ride, most will take it rather than pay. While some of us will make fair contributions to a site, I doubt that most web users would. Of course, the lack of a micropayment system currently prohibits finding out.
# Posted by Gary Fleming, on January 27th, 2004 at 10:22 am