Adsense for Feeds
In May 2005, Google unveiled Adsense for feeds, a version of Adsense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Google blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising - and, in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from."
Adsense for feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by the reader/browser, Google writes the ad content into the image that it returns.
The ad content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's site in the same way as regular Adsense ads.
With the huge growth of blogs and RSS feeds, it's only logical for Adsense to be included. However, this doesn’t work out well for the website owner for the following reasons:
- You only get to place one ad unit per feed
- You have no control over finding the best location for the ad unit
- The ads are usually poorly targeted since it's difficult to have a niche blog that gets good traffic
- People develop banner blindness in that they are only interested in the blog or feed they are reading rather than the ads on the side
People like being able to read full postings in their feed reader. However, if your website depends on generating Adsense revenue to survive, then bring them to your website and show them the ads there. |
