I just read Jon Armstrong’s blog post about online advertising.  I have a lot to say about this subject, more than Jon has space for on his blog.

For over 10 years, I bought and sold online advertising for well-known companies.  It was a great, fast-paced world that I truly enjoyed.  And then, ads such as Google and Facebook started selling their ads and paying by the click-through.  It pretty much railroaded my advertising business and I got out before I lost my sanity.

Yes, I realize I have Google ads on my website – but, I assure you, they do not pay for my time and hard work keeping this blog active and alive.  However, they do pay a nominal fee each month…enough to make having them on my websites worth the cost of my web hosting/server fees.

But, let’s talk about online advertising.

Many years ago, I vowed to never accept pay per performance (PPP) ads for the websites that I represented.  My thoughts on the subject pretty much mimic what Jon has to say about PPP ads – they are NOT representative of selling a brand.  That brand is usually remembered by a viewing audience, whether they click through on an advertisement or not.  How do you measure sales in that case?  I explained it as best I could to my potential advertisers – if you go to the store to buy a gallon of milk, do you get to walk out without paying for it, just to make sure it’s drinkable when you get it home?  Do you place advertising in newspapers or magazines and only pay for those who go directly to your website?  NO – you pay for the number of ads that are printed and there’s absolutely no way to be able to count the ROI (return on investment) based on the ad itself except through increased sales and/or people visiting their website.  Just because a magazine blows in 1000 postcards, it does NOT mean that every single one of those postcards are read.  It doesn’t even mean all of those magazines or newspapers that were printed are actually sold.  But, you pay for those ads based on the number printed in a newspaper and/or blown into a magazine.  And big business has no problem paying for such.  So, why do they have a problem paying for premium space on a website or blog?

There are SO many reasons to refuse PPP advertising for the website publisher.  Most of it involves the creatives that the advertiser sends for placement on websites.  What if the ad itself stinks?  What if there’s no action statement in the ad creative (such as click here)?  The advertiser does not take the blame for this – they accuse the website of poor performance…and that leads directly to faulting the advertising buyer being blamed for a lack of performance.  SO. NOT. RIGHT.

Then, there’s the sponsored blog/website posts.  I do believe that these are great avenues for advertising, though they have taken a bad rap in the audiences of readers who complain about the bastardizing of content in lieu of funds for sponsorship.  Why shouldn’t bloggers and website publishers be allowed to be paid for their hard work in building a viewing audience and then marketing to them? 

Many companies want to send you free product in exchange for a (nice) review of their product.  hmmmm, wonder if it works that way in real life?  Do you get to walk into that proverbial store and exchange your product for that gallon of milk?  Not even worth an answer.

There has also been research done that shows that a viewer’s eyes begin to IGNORE static ads on a website…they come for the meat and taters and not the veggies!  And those meat and taters are the content of the page.  Get it? 

Mind you, occasionally, I will accept this form of blog sponsorship – if the product appeals to me.

But, true blog post sponsorship should be paid for by the advertiser.  They should send the product for review AND pay for the space to a blogger.  This is the utmost and best form of advertising that is acceptable to me.  It not only legitimizes a review of a product, but it also shows the audience that the product has been used and tested by the blogger/website publisher.

I once did book reviews for a website.  The publisher sent me books and I wrote a review of said books.  Many times, I was happy with this exchange of books versus web-published reviews because the books were great and usually right up my alley – anyone who is as much as a bibliophile as I am would understand that.  But, when the books continued coming and I posted a bad review because I truly did not care for the book – the publisher decided to go elsewhere for their assistance.  Honesty is the only way I’ll go – if you don’t want to hear the truth from me, then don’t have expectations that everything is rainbows and cute fluffy-tailed bunny rabbits!  Not to mention I was never ‘paid’ for my work – except through a galley copy of a book. 

Of course, with my extensive knowledge of online advertising as well as my direct, no frills reviews of books or products – I was no longer considered a quality avenue for blog sponsored posts.

Bottom line is – get real online advertisers.  Your expectations of counting clicks is laughable to those of us who have been in the industry a while.  To make something truly worthwile to bloggers and website owners/publishers, EXPECT to pay for such.  Be happy to pay for web space that not only will improve your bottom line, but it will be measured by increased sales of your products.  A website is NO different than a newspaper, except an audience comes to the website specifically for the content that is placed there.  Which makes a whole lot of sense to have sponsored content and truthful reviews. 

As for those PPP ads?  I would remove them in a heartbeat if I had a paying advertiser who truly understood how great their brand is and create a relationship with bloggers and/or website owners/publishers who respected paying for ad space based on their branding. 

Besides, why would I even want to advertise a brand if that brand was not interested in actually paying for web space???  Is the difference between buying a brand name ketchup versus the store brand – the taste may have to be acquired but the principle element of trusting a brand is completely left off when that brand is not interested in paying for advertising space.

Advertisers – do NOT ignore this truth in advertising.  It will hurt you and your brand in the long run.  Ready.  Set.  Go.  Send me your proposals for advertising to a great audience whose expectations are that I will be truthful in my reviews and earn the income I deserve to be paid for said reviews and my web space.