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Google AdSense in RSS!

Oh, it's pretty much official now - Google is putting AdSense in RSS. Take a look at LonghornBlogs (run by my good friend, Robert McLaws). Specifically, their feed. It seems to work in every other aggregator except for NewsGator (or, I'd imagine, anything based in Microsoft Outlook). This is a huge win - and much more newsworthy than their announcement earlier today:

With site-targeted advertising, advertisers set a maximum CPM bid - that is, the price they are willing to pay for every thousand impressions - and pay on a per-impression basis. This means that, unlike pay-per-click ads, you'll earn revenue each time a CPM ad is displayed on your site. For every eligible impression, both pay-per-impression ads and pay-per-click ads compete in the same auction. Our technology will automatically display the highest performing ads on your pages.
Because of these new features available for advertisers, the number of image ads in the Google advertising network will grow. To take advantage of these ads, and the increased earnings potential that they offer, we encourage you to review your image ads preference in your AdSense Account Settings page.
You can also choose your image ads preference on a format-by-format basis when generating your ad code. For publishers who want to fully leverage image ads, we now provide an image ads only selection.

I'm pretty much avoiding the banner ads game (save the stuff I'm running through Henry Copeland's service). That said, I'm looking forward to possibly returning full text to my personal feeds if Robert gives this new option a thumbs up. If you haven't signed up for AdSense already… give it a shot.

7 Comments

Brandon Paddock

April 25th, 2005
at 5:51pm

They seem to work fine in Newsgator for me.

Brandon Paddock

April 25th, 2005
at 5:53pm

Scratch that. I see the ads, but I get a cookie error when I click on one. Not sure if it's Outlook for Maxthon's fault.
Still, AdSense in RSS is a wonderful idea. Wasn't I suggesting that to you just last week ;)

cameron conner / desk003

April 25th, 2005
at 11:14pm

DAMNIT! NO! WE DO NOT NEED MORE ******* ADS! NO!!!! I do not understand why people want to put ads everywhere? People just block them anyway! Why waste our time? It wastes your bandwidth and our time scrolling by or blocking em. IDIOTS!

Roger Benningfield

April 25th, 2005
at 11:52pm

Chris: Unless they do it via some sort of server-side include, AdSense in RSS won't fly. Most credible desktop aggregators disable Javascript by default, and since the security implications are even more dire, virtually *all* web-based aggregators do the same.

Jason, it's not javascript. That was ruled out long before we ever got serious with the project.

Cameron, maybe you're missing the point: web sites, like Lockergnome, have costs to cover. Lots of them. Advertising can sometimes help offset those costs, or help turn a profit.
Somebody needs to pay for the space, computational time, and bandwidth.
The government isn't going to pay for it, and the providers of those services are not going to accept monopoly money.
For a site like Lockergnome, a $10/hour job, or even a $100,000/year career, would not pay for it either. So, the money will need to come from somewhere else: either directly out of your pockets, or via advertisers who attempt to get the attention of promising prospects.
While the Internet in general is already flooded with advertising, Google Adsense (and contextually relevant text advertising in general) is a wonderful alternative to interstitial, pop-ups/under, and those damn animated GIFs that cause you to have seizures, because it's (for the most part) contextually relevant to the content on that web site. That's a good thing for all three parties involved:
It's good for you, as a consumer, because it's not so much crying for attention as it is saying “here I am, here's what I have to offer, and here's why it's relevant to this site.” So, when you click on that ad, you're, very often, going to get something that interests you. That enhances your web experience.
It's good for advertisers because they get a consumer who is already interested in what they're attempting to sell. It's a very targeted way of getting prospects, which makes selling a product easier, and offers a very high likelihood that the product will make the consumer happy (assuming it's a good product), which means the likelihood of that particular consumer returning is very high.
It's good for publishers, like myself and Chris, because not only do we get additional content for our site, but that content is often very relevant to what we're writing about, which means we get to offer an additional service to our readers. Which, in turn, means you, as a reader, can not only find what you came to read about, but also additional information, products, and other sites relevant to what you're reading.
Also, Google AdWords (the AdSense auction engine) has certain terms and conditions for web sites. You're not going to find certain things from an AdWords click (pop-ups/under, for example). And, if you do find these things, a simple report to Google Support will nix those sites from advertising via AdWords.
Google AdSense also has some rules for placing their ads: no more than 3 Google ads can be displayed on non-premium sites (I have no experience with their “premium” service).The ads cannot be placed in pop-ups/under, and cannot be used as interstitial, because the AdSense terms of service state that the web site using these ads must have relevant content.
When used properly, AdSense makes a lot of, well, sense for content-driven websites, and especially technology like RSS. So, Cameron, I do not see how this would make your life more difficult.
Heck, you block ads, so why are you complaining?

I think it's great. The fact that they're at the bottom of the feed makes it that much better.
I've never had a problem with text ads, and once in a while I'll click on them if they make sense. Google has a strong product in AdSense, and it's just getting stronger.

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