I’ve been meaning to mention the elephant in the room: that naked butt to the right, the happy ass. Some of you like it. It led Scott Heiferman to click on it and find “transcendent navigation.” Stowe Boyd sees a connection between an ad for toilet seats and reading newspapers. But this appropriately self-described curmudgeon was offended, so much so that he couldn’t bare bear to link to me and chose to steal a post of mine. That’s fine.
I’m proud of the ad, not because I’m a customer for $1,000 toilet seats (not made for the Navy) but because it represents my return to Blogads, where you should feel free to buy an ad and replace that ass. Hint, hint.
This means I’ve left Federated Media. I have nothing but respect for John Battelle and FM, but it was not meant to be. I earned less there than I had earned at BlogAds and I think I know why. Battelle’s original vision was to sell high-value federations built around blog authors and topics. Of course, I liked the idea, it appealed to both my ego and greed. But it turns out that selling a federation of media wonks is hard. It’s possible, I think, if you find just the right advertisers who want to reach my dear fellow media wonks (read: you). But that would take a lot of effort, it would be an expensive sale as a result. Federated had more immediate success selling big advertisers like Best Buy, but I can’t compete with all its placements when it comes to traffic. Federated also went down a road they called conversational marketing, where I didn’t want to go. So I decided to shift. I wish FM the best of luck; I’m rooting for them to make blogs profitable, which will mean more blogs get made. God’s work.
I’m relieved that blog advertising pioneer Henry Copeland at Blogads would take me back. And that butt is my first ad, the fruit of Blogads’ sales. My second was for a serial killer (a Showtime show). And I’m happy to have both of them. If I make a lot of money on those ads, maybe I can afford one of those toilet seats, which are pretty amazing (but don’t take that as an endorsement . . . this isn’t Pay Per Post).
