FeedBurner

Last week we were switched from FeedBurner's ad and feed delivery system to the new, more robust Google servers and the AdSense ad program.

I've always been loyal to FeedBurner, even capitalizing the B when most don't. Yet, as I predicted, the move to Google's ad program has been very disappointing. I can only hope that the program will get better over time. Immediately after Google acquired FeedBurner I was nervous that FeedBurner would ditch their awesome advertising network for Google's low paying, text ad AdSense program. Sadly I was right.

Here are some of my additional thoughts in video:

Adam Ostrow wonders what type of ad matching Google is doing based on the ads that he has seen in the Mashable feed.

We have been relatively successful in selling our own RSS ads. Perhaps there is room for a new RSS ad player to take the slot that FeedBurner's ad program occupied. We are testing the Pheedo feed advertising service and I will provide a side-by-side comparison in about a month.

I've written several times about my thoughts on FeedBurner dropping their awesome, high-paying RSS feed ad network for the Google AdSense program. Nik noted last weekend that FeedBurner is moving feeds over to Google hosting (we were moved today) and that now feeds will use Google's strong server farms to handle feed processing.

Tonight we were also added to the Google AdSense program for RSS feeds. Setting up ads in the feed is simple - same process as setting up an ad unit in the traditional AdSense program.

The options are:

• Name - the feed name
• Size - this is automatically set by Google
• Ad Type - text, text/image or image only
• Frequency - how often do you want ads to appear - I've selected every 3rd item
• Post length - how long of a post do you want ads to appear in
• Position - where in the feed do you want the ads to appear - options are bottom or top
• Channels - same channel system as with the traditional Google AdSense program

While I won't be able to share many details on how the system performs, I will share as much as I can and also compare it to the other feed advertising programs I've tested. I still believe that my feed for a buck proposal is the best way to go.

Duncan Riley is reporting that former FeedBurner CFO (before they were acquired by Google) has left Google to join Vibes Media.

Riley notes, "He also headed up Yahoo’s business operations for some time before his FeedBurner days. Chicago-based Vibes Media has been creating text message-based marketing campaigns for a full decade. As such, we pity its employees’ social lives; surely chicks can’t be willing to hand over their digits to a guy whose job involves sending out text ads."

We've also learned that former head of PR for FeedBurner Traci Hailpern left Google in June.

Earlier today we reported on the Google announcement that Google AdSense ads will soon be available in FeedBurner feeds. Overall I think this is a good step forward to get us all discussing RSS monetization. I still believe that paying a small amount for a full feed with no ads will be the most popular way by the end of the year. If a person isn't interested in paying, then they get a partial feed with ads that drives back to the site. With the speed of mobile devices and broadband connections, there's no reason to not want to visit the content creator's site.

I am very interested in feedback on the above and your ideas on how RSS will be monetized. This overall discussion could become one of the hot topics later this year.

Come inside to view the video »

A month ago today we wrote that Google AdSense for FeedBurner RSS feeds was coming and today we have learned more details via a blog post on the FeedBurner site. Starting next week, a select group of publishers who are part of the FeedBurner Ad Network (we are part but apparently not in the test group) will begin to push Google AdSense ads out to their feeds.

Eventually the program will open to anyone using Google AdSense and seems to be driven through the AdSense program rather than the FeedBurner program.

FeedBurner suggests that those of us in the Ad Network will continue to run "premium CPM ads directly sold onto their content" -- I have watched the number of these premium ads drop like a rock since FeedBurner sold to Google and it was a fear of mine which sadly has been realized.

Maybe after Google AdSense pushes out to the mass, my "buck a feed" concept might actually start to move forward.

Digital Inspiration found some Google ads in feeds a month ago - remember that there's no JavaScript in a feed so these ads will be run via a HTML imagemap.

Late last week, Steve from FeedBurner (owned by Google) posted an entry explaining that you will soon be able to login to your FeedBurner account using your Google account. This isn't really that exciting but it does mean that Google can now tie even more together.

The juicy part of the entry was Steve's comments regarding the FeedBurner integration with Google AdSense. Steve noted:

FeedBurner will start to look and feel more like a set of Google services, and we will be completing much tighter integration into other Google services such as Google AdSense. (If you are a feed advertiser, don't worry: we have some happy surprises coming for you as well, and if you are an advertiser who is not yet a feed advertiser, you too shall be blessed with good fortune.)

Last month I asked whether FeedBurner had given up on its own ad network. Note that FeedBurner currently serves over 1.5 million feeds. The FeedBurner ad network was one of my absolute favorites over the past year - the CPMs were very high and the ad quality was exceptional. The fill rate wasn't all that great but overall it was a very impressive program. Looks like the program will probably go bye-bye, replaced with the lovely tiny text ads that only pay on a click or worse, an acquisition.

Over time what this will mean is that RSS feeds might become cluttered just like Web sites and the quality of ads will be lowered. On a positive note, perhaps this will finally get us talking about my buck a feed concept!

Lastly, I wonder if this move will push some FB publishers away - could this be an ideal opportunity for another RSS play to make a move? Are you looking forward to AdSense in feeds?

When CN was accepted into the FeedBurner ad network, I was very excited after all of the positive reviews I'd read. From the early days, FeedBurner was able to sell great quality ads at amazing CPMs -- the typical CPM averaged at $8-10. While the fill rates were never great, the income was better than any of the other ad networks we were using. The FeedBurner ad network offers publishers a way to add advertisements into feeds hosted by FeedBurner along with ads on the site in posts supported by a feed.

Last June I wrote about my somewhat selfish-fears about Google acquiring FeedBurner and what would happen to the ad network. It looks like my fears might just be coming true.

In August FeedBurner began offering a self-service ad model which if you are reading this in a RSS reader you might see one of those ads. Most of these ads are feeds from other sites that rotate through on mine. The CPM rates are mostly $3/CPM with some $6/CPM. Fill rate overall has been ok at best but a nice additional boost in overall fill rate.

What I've experienced since the 3rd quarter 2007 is a slow dropoff in the number of big name advertisers using FeedBurner. This was just about the time that FB introduced the ability to run Google AdSense within the Web site ad spot. While AdSense is currently not available inside feeds, could it be far off? I've hoped that FB would keep their own sales staff and sell the higher quality ads that they have since the beginning but I fear that we will soon see AdSense in the feeds.

If you are using the FeedBurner ad network for your feed, what's the fill rate and ad selection look like for you?

Update: as I noted, it appears Google probably forgot to move the clocks causing a shift in the time-space warp. Dick from FB reports that numbers should be back on Monday. It seems Google was focusing on the OpenSocial launch. :-P

Appears that the time shift caused some weirdness at the offices of FeedBurner. I just got a note from Dr. Hung that he is seeing RSS subscriber counts across the FB network being nearly halved from yesterday's counts. I can confirm that checking the CN count, it is down about 40% from the previous day. This comes nearly a month after the last FeedBurner bug which added 1 million new subscribers to the TechCrunch feed.

And yes, I still stand by my earlier comments that RSS subscriber numbers are the 2007 version of hits. But it's a concern that actual readers might be affected.

If your subscriber counts are off, please report the % change in the comments below.

Update: Zoli is reporting (in the comments) that Google Feedcatcher is not reporting and that's the reason for the downward movement.

Dick Costolo, CEO and co-founder of Feedburner, has been giving me a lot of free advice lately. I got to see him and Steve Olechowski at the Future of Web Apps and hear a little bit about being acquired and working for Google. Then he gave a must-watch presentation on their entrepreneurial experience and has been writing some great blog entries on similar topics. Dick’s got four start-ups under his belt and I took notes constantly.

I first met Dick in June 2004 when Kevin Werbach took pity on me and gave me a pass to attend Supernova. Not only had Dick just decided that txting ruld, but that making it easier to share and consume RSS feeds was very important. He was right on both. What they did with Feedburner was stunning. They made structured XML mark up extremely sexy and business-friendly.

But I’m wasting your time. What you should be reading are my below notes from Dick’s presentation and his recent blog entries on first hires, exit fallacy and start-up offices.

Come inside for my notes »

Yes, it appears that FeedBurner, the RSS service from Google, is down. I first noticed it down around 6:30 Eastern, down since and I have received a dozen emails since then asking if I know what's up. Unfortunately I do not have any further information, but from what I can tell, feeds are still being served as normal. I have emails into the team and will report back if I hear anything back.

Where is Pingdom with an uptime report?

Update: as of 10:24AM Eastern, the site is back up.