Community CEO Calacanis Is Seeking Advertising Help With Mahalo

Jason Calacanis (aka "The Community CEO") posted an article on his personal blog earlier this week about advertising on Mahalo. Up until now it’s all been handled by Google AdSense. There are two topics that I will reply to below: ad placement and ad selection.

The fact that Google only lets you do some basic filtering pisses me off (though I do understand why it’s done this way). I spend many hours every week making sure that the ads shown on the sites I own are ones that aren’t past my guidelines. I’ve refused very well paying campaigns because they either were unethical or I felt that they just weren’t a good fit. And I applaud Jason for thinking about these questions as well – it’s a very important and sensitive subject.

As for ad selection, Mahalo is now testing Shopzilla ads where available on Mahalo search pages. These ads are CPA ads (cost per action) and require the person to actually make a purchase before Mahalo generates any revenue. The concern I have with these ads is for my Mom. If I suggest to Mom that she should use Mahalo, I would explain to her that humans are picking the content on the page and that it will be better for her than using Google. While the ads are noted in header format "Ads By Shopzilla" – I am concerned that Mom won’t know that it’s not something that a Mahalo staffer has selected for her. There are thousands of affiliate programs inside Google and through any of the affiliate programs that could provide ads that Mahalo staffers can approve over using a generic Shopzilla module.

Jason notes, "My thinking is that if you are super upfront about what’s an advertisement and what’s content folks will really focus on the ads *IF* they are in commerce mode. If users are not in commerce mode we don’t want to try and trick them/shif them…. let them stay in information mode." The issue Jason will learn (if he hasn’t already) is that mainstream Internet users don’t know the difference. They see all content as the same content. In all of my usability and focus groups with thousands of people (mostly women), the subject(s) would click whatever I wanted them to, whether it was ad, content, image, etc. Jason’s idea of making the ads appear as content will prove rich in clicks and potentially dollars, but will it tarnish the reputation Mahalo is going for? I’d say yes and that’s why I note my suggestion below.

As for ad placement and using the iPhone page in Jason’s blog post as the example, I’d suggest moving the ads outside the content area and moving them to the right. Then I could see something like, "Looking for an iPhone? Here are some retailers that carry it:" and same for the accessories. That way Mom can be assured that the content in the middle is "mahalo approved" and that the supplementary purchases are still available. And that also addresses Jason’s point about coming in commerce mode versus information mode.

The last concern is will Mahalo create pages in the order of which generate the most potential revenue. What I mean is that if Mahalo can find good paying advertisers that they can approve for a category/page, will they push these pages to the front for their guides over the more important, but lesser paying, content pages. I guess we will need to watch as they grow.

If Jason can find appropriate advertisers and partners for the categories that Mahalo creates pages in, it could be very beneficial financially for Mahalo.