I will always feel a little nostalgic about this blog; it was my first foray into the blogosphere, and I have used it to write about things both personal and professional. However, I have had the Sips from the Firehose blog for more than 2 years now, and I've switched to writing and posting multimedia there.
Please go there, or to the Mobile Web Design blog (where I write about how to "mobilize" your website), as I am now deactivating this blog. I don't think I'll post here again - although I am reticent to completely abandon this URL, because it's been in existence long enough that it has significant "Google Juice" -- which means that it has value to spammers, pr0n merchants and pharmascammers. So I'm going to leave this post and much of the old content up here, but as a "free" blog, just to make sure that when people do Google searches for my name and this URL comes up, they don't get hit in the face with anything more noxious than my chuckleheaded opinions.
See you over at Sips.
This is the bookend interview I did for the story on Real-Time Ads.
Joel Kramer explains how MinnPost.com is using Real-Time Ads to build up business with local advertisers by giving them a product that they can't find anywhere else.
However, he goes on to explain that the media business has irrevocably changed, and that the "gravy train of advertising" will never again support newspapers. His solution to the revenue crisis facing news organizations can be heard starting at about 7:10 into the interview.
Download Interview with Joel Kramer editor of MinnPost about Real-Time Ads
The following is an interview with Brad Flora, editor of WindyCitizen.com, about the Real-Time Ad product they’ve launched.
Download Interview with Brad Flora of WindyCitizen re Real-Time Ads
Brad Flora explains in more detail how WindyCitizen.com came up with Real-Time Ads, how real-estate businesses were already coming to the site to try to promote themselves, and how they became determined to offer their clients something more useful than banner ads.
At about 8:05, we also have an interesting discussion about the future promise offered by doing more robust targeting of the ads, so better match the advertiser with the user by means of leveraging the personal user data that a quasi-social networking site like WindyCitizen.com can gather.
At about 13:30, we address how to strike the balance between too much control of the conversation on a site vs. allowing things to get out of hand. He talks about the “broken window” theory of policing the site of a niche aggregator.
At 18:00 we talk about how crucial it’s going to be for sites to have simple, self-service ways for your users to buy advertising and give you money. At about 26:10, we address the issue of whether or not Real-Time Ads could ever grow to the point where they would start replacing the revenues newspapers have lost to Craigslist.
This is the audio podcast of the Mobile Advertising session at the OMMA 2009 conference.