Neil Chase, VP of Publishing at Federated Media, which represents more than 100 of the most respected voices on the Web including Dooce, spoke in a video interview about the state of the online ad business, what FM considers when adding publishers, other monetization options new bloggers ought to consider and how FM represents bloggers in negotiations with companies.
When a marketer has a need for a campaign FM looks through its list of sites and then offers up suggestions, and rather than go by numbers alone they try to tell the story about the unique engagement occurring on the site. “You can get numbers from a lot of places – you can buy a billboard on the freeway and get numbers of eyeballs going by,” said Chase. The tricky part is getting deep and natural engagement with a brand through a site, which is what FM aims to achieve because it’s a win for both the brand and the author.
Chase explained the reason the company chooses to remain fairly exclusive with only 100 – 200 publishers at any given time. “We’re not an ad network because we don’t have a huge volume of advertising sitting in the machine ready to go as soon as somebody walks in.” And when FM does add sites it’s only because sales are going well in a particular content category and they need more pageviews for that category.
“To just build for scale without keeping a close eye on quality and on quantity (how much we’re selling) – we would end up with a large network of very disappointed people, and that’s not good for anybody.”
On the topic of monetization models for new bloggers Chase’s advise to consider other options as well.
“A lot of people talk about advertising but when you first start a site there are a number of ways to make money that may or may not involve display ads. There are other models that people often miss – one of them is sponsorships.”
As part of its model, Federated Media currently acts as the business partner for some of their publishers – meaning that they negotiate campaign deals that go beyond simple display ads. Not only does FM act as the negotiator, they also help to make recommendations to their bloggers in an effort to keep their voice authenetic. Chase explains that at times it can be tempting to accept an offer simply because there’s good money involved, but if working with a brand ever compromises the integrity of the site then it’s not worth the short term gains – an issue they try to work with publishers to avoid.
Duration : 0:7:10
[youtube mm7Qn8Y4ZsY]
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