Do blog ads work?
My new highly unscientific study says no. A while back (up until last week, if I recall correctly), Glenn had a patron blog ad for this website, a group of local Knoxville lawyers (one of which has an on again, off again – but mostly off – blog).
The cost of this blog ad was $750 for a week, unless it was given to them free. Did the ad draw droves of traffic to the site? Nope. They went from about 3 visits per day to 16 visits per day. Not a stellar traffic increase from a site that, with a simple post, can send thousands and thousands of hits to bloggers. None of the other sites advertising at Glenn’s had Sitemeters.
Additionally, nearly all their hits come from Instapundit.
Most blog readers block out the ads, it seems. I wouldn’t buy any.
August 17th, 2004 at 7:25 pm
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A first for me
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Sure, I’ve been Instalanched a few times but this marks the first time my site got a comment from Glenn Reynolds. […]
August 17th, 2004 at 1:26 pm
Blogs have ads?
August 17th, 2004 at 2:21 pm
I’ve bought a few blogads, and even though I have really low expectations that they will generate sales, I like where the money goes.
I think of it more as hitting a tip jar, but with a bit of quid pro quid.
For example, a few months back I ran an ad on Clayton Cramer’s blog. (I’m running another one right now.) Over the course of 30 days it generated around 50 click-thrus out of about 33,000 hits.
Would the same $13 dollar have generated more sales through Google AdWords? In my case the answer is definitely yes. But, by supporting Mr. Cramer, I further the cause of original research and writing by an anti-gun control here.
August 17th, 2004 at 2:22 pm
All typos and malapropisms are the fault of my twitchy brain.
August 17th, 2004 at 3:44 pm
Do Blogads Work for Advertisers?
In this case, almost certainly not. Unless you don’t mind paying $8.24 a click for push advertising.
Any counterexamples?
August 17th, 2004 at 3:50 pm
I wonder if the problem isn’t the ad, but rather the audience it’s targeted toward. I don’t know the Instapundit readership, but my guess is that the vast majority of visitors are outside the Knoxville area, and thus have little interest in a local law firm. I bet ads featuring products that appeal to readers regardless of their geographical location do much better.
August 17th, 2004 at 6:38 pm
I’ve run several ads for my conservativediscount.com website. I ran the ad simultaneously on about 10 different conservative blogs.
Results… piss poor. And this was VERY targeted advertising with all the right words (literally… ha!).
The revenue generated from the ads paid for about 40% of the cost.
Bloggers should use my new service at printmyblog.com to monetize their content instead of relying so heavily on one shot advertisers.
Cheers!
Dan
August 17th, 2004 at 10:55 pm
I went to one ad on Instapundits page that was for paintings. Sorry, but there is no way I would spend that much on a painting.
October 24th, 2004 at 5:10 pm
I gave him the ad as a freebie when I had an open slot, and he got one client out of it, so it wasn’t too bad a deal. But I don’t think local businesses will get much action on blogads. The upside — he’s getting local traffic from your blog now!
My wife advertised her movie on a couple of blogs and it did well.