I'm certain that this will ruffle a few feathers, but it has to be
asked - is all this talk recently about micro advertising mostly hype?

Lots of small websites are looking towards micro ads such as those on
Metafilter or Blogger as a potential way to attract viewers, and
MetaFilter and Blogger hope that micro ads will help fund their
sites. However, is there any real evidence to indicate that they are
working for both parties involved?

Case in point is a recent comment left on Blogger at
http://www.blogger.com/discuss/?t=705849&c=486051 where one customer
commented that they had 1000 impressions, but only a single
clickthru. At $2.50 a clickthru, is it really worth it, or would most
of these sites be better off by pursuing other avenues? If, for
instance, there was a relevant thread on a community / shared blog /
mail list that related to something someone had written for their
journal, why not link people to the relevant article on your site
instead? It's worth noting that the user who posted the comment I
mentioned will almost certainly get more than one clickthru to their
comment, which goes to show you how much more effective "word of
mouth" advertising is than any form of online ad could ever be.

I don't think that any person experienced with advertising would
argue that *ANY* kind of 'new advertising', whether for the web or
for any other form of media has a lifecycle - which is to say that
people pay attention to advertising at a higher rate when it is new
or original, but start to tune out over time and with repetition.
Right now, micro advertising is somewhat of a new phenomena - does
that mean that we can expect lower clickthru results later? If all
the other forms of online advertising are any example, the answer is
probably yes.

This leads to one of the big issues involved in the failure of the
dotcoms - lack of accountability. A huge amount of money was spent on
advertising that just didn't work, and the people providing the ads
to some extent were responsible. False expectations were set,
essentially, and good money was thrown after bad.

Another issue is the effect of services such as BlogSnob, which to me
seems little different than an updated form of webring. Such services
could undercut the target market for the advertising on MetaFilter
and Blogger.

Are there any statistics for the clickthru rate on these ads at
MetaFilter or Blogger? I know that both Matt and Ev. read this list -
would either like to share the statistics on the clickthru rates for
these ads, or would other people who have used these ads like to
comment on how the ads worked for them?

Ultimately, I have to wonder whether most of those who will use micro
ads for promoting their site are doing it, expecting a return on
investment. Far more likely is that they want to support the site
selling the ads. If that is the case, why not be direct and just
stick out a tip jar instead?

Mark
LiveJournal.com