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Seth Godin Joins The Ad Movement
A month ago I posted a video around the following question, "How do you compensate content creators?" I’ve re-embedded the video below for anyone who didn’t get a chance to see it the first time around. Last week Seth Godin joined the movement with his post titled, "Ads are the new online tip jar". It’s great to see Seth say basically the same things I did last month. Maybe with his wide-reaching voice, the online advertising discussion can move further along.
Seth begins with the widely used phrase, "I never click on ads," and then he notes that it’s almost a badge of honor to say that. I completely agree but for a different reason than Seth. Seth believes it’s due to not having the time to interact with the ads. I believe it’s "cool and hip" to block and/or not interact with ads.
Seth continues, "If you like what you’re reading, click an ad to say thanks." Amen to that. Clearly no one is suggesting clicking on ads just to click on them. But interacting with a sponsor or advertiser provides a benefit to the user, publisher and advertiser. And it shows that you value what the content producer offers. Though I would expand Seth’s comment to any content including video, audio, image and text.
Here’s my video on the topic:
I feel your pain, Allen. My issue is that while I read tech blogs, I’m not a techie. The tech blog ads are normally for things like SAP, so I quit looking at them a long time ago.
Unlike others, I don’t believe you’re calling for click fraud or “guilt clicks”, but just to ask visitors to open our eyes and see if any of the ads displayed would sincerely be of interest. And, hey, there is one! I see you have an ad here for Qwest and I’m actually looking to change my service provider because Comcast sucks, so I’ll happily click on that one.
Thanks for the nudge.
I agree with Dawn D. the intention of the clicks is very important part of your message — disingenuous clicks will make you some money in the short term, but if people aren’t genuinely interested in the advertising and just clicking to support you, it’ll be a big disappointment to the advertisers. That will drive down the value of those clicks in the long term.
What content providers can do to help is make sure that the ads on the page are relevant; find sponsorship that is truly useful and interesting to the audience and integrate it well with the site.
The moment the thought of ads being a tip jar comes into a visitor’s head, the ads lose their purpose. They should only be clicked because the visitor is interesting in the offer.
I don’t know what ‘interacting’ with an ad is, the ads here and elsewhere are a pretty straightforward offer. Unless I’m interested, they don’t want my click.
I think the tip jar is great, I can send money for the thing I value, not ‘pay’ by misleading a sponsor.
Allen,
We’ve developed a widget which allows anyone to sponsor your content. This can be used in the exact same way as Seth is talking about. If you’d like to tip a site then upload an image and set an amount. Your sponsor runs for 30-days and there is no click-fraud with our system. Everyone wins. The publisher gets an alternative revenue stream and the sponsor receives promotion, unlimited impressions, and possible click-thrus for 30-days.
Greg
If you aren’t interested in the ad ultimately interacting with it is the same as clicking it for clickings sake. This is really only beneficial to the content provider. So I think you have to be careful when you say, “If you like what you’re reading, click an ad to say thanks!”. I would say if you enjoy reading a blog – instead of blocking ads – just take the time to look at them and see if any interest you. if they do, then get your click on. Doing it this way the content provider can find out which type of ads are working for them. Advertisers also get genuinely interested people clicking through. Its a happy world and we can all hold hands and skip through a virtual field of daises. Or something like that.
This advice is from 6 years ago. Bloggers have been asking for clicks since blogging began!
Allen:
You’re an idiot. The hypocrisy of your video is astounding. Do you realize you’re complaining about people not compensating content creators when you in fact have some pirated software on your own computer. Have you purchased every piece of software that you use? I know for a fact you haven’t.