What’s this? Ads In My Feed?

posted on 04/29/09 at 11:52:59 pm by Joel Ross

For those who read RossCode.com by visiting the site, this post won't mean much to you. For those who subscribe to the feed, you may have noticed a new item in the feed: An advertisement. And that's a big change for me.

About a week ago, I joined the RSS Room of The Lounge. It was not a decision I took lightly. My view on advertising has always been to make money on casual visitors (mostly from Google searches), but not to make money off of the dedicated readers of my blog - the ones who subscribe to the feed.

So putting an ad in my feed is a bit hypocritical then, right? Well, not exactly, and let me explain why. Until joining The Lounge, the ads on my site were never really relevant. Yeah, Google thought they were relevant, but I never looked at the ads and thought, "I'd use that." That's not the case with the ads on my site now. I look at the companies advertising here and realize that I use their software, and I feel like they actually add value now. So putting ads in my feed no longer feels like I am just making money off my readers. Your opinion may differ, and if it's a real problem for you, please let me know why. I'd love to get feedback.

Oh, and while we're at it, The Lounge is conducting a survey to get feedback on who their target audience is. You'll also have a chance to win all 41 of the Manning In Action books, so please take a moment to fill it out. I did, and it doesn't take more than a few minutes.

Categories: Blogging