WordPress.com announced they’ve partnered with Federated Media to provide advertising to WordPress.com bloggers. Could this be the alternative to Google Adsense so many bloggers desire?
Most blog publishers are aware of the fact that Google Adsense is one of the most effective ways to monetize advertising space. Adsense ads are contextual and for the most part, the ads match the content of a site which can be very effective for supplementing blog earnings.
The only problem with Adsense is that it’s the only game in town. Make one mistake or get the wrong person mad at you and your Adsense account can be terminated without recourse.
The need for diversification is obvious as no publisher should ever put all their eggs in one basket but what are the alternatives? In the past, there have been many upstart competitors to Adsense (AdBrite, Chitika, BidVertiser, etc) but all have failed to deliver any reasonable amount of earnings or even relatively matching contextual advertising.
In order to compete in the contextual advertising space, a company must have adequate resources to secure new advertisers. A solid reputation also is required when factoring in the publisher side of the equation. Most of the aforementioned contextual advertising upstarts lacked one or both elements of the equation.
In the recent article Introducing WordAds, Wordpress.com announced they would be providing a contextual advertising solution for bloggers on WordPress.com…
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WordAds is 100% optional and is designed for bloggers who would like to earn money from their blogs by showing high quality ads from brand advertisers. FM is well known for representing top blogs with high quality ads for sites like BoingBoing and Apple Insider. Working with WordPress.com, FM can now extend its representation to more sites. Only publicly visible blogs with custom domains will be considered for this program. |
The question is, will WordPress eventually open up this platform to bloggers outside of WordPress.com ?
Matt Mullenweg (the creator of WordPress) was critical of AdSense, saying it “has been declining in quality and is no longer a great choice for bloggers.”
He’s right. Although Google Adsense is the only game in town, there are key fundamentals Google Adsense lacks. Number one being support, transparency or any type of contact information for publishers.
I’m sure bloggers everywhere would be excited to have the opportunity to work with a WordPress advertising solution. More than offering competition to Google Adsense, a WordPress alternative would be expanding on the community model WordPress has exemplified.
What’s your opinion? Would you be interested in using WordAds on your blog or websites ?
I think WordAds would be a competitive option if it can present benefits that bloggers can’t get with Google Ad sense. I’d love to give it a try.