Rethinking Ads

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Notice anything different here? About two months ago I decided to try an experiment with advertising on Macdrifter. I’m not militant about ads in any one direction. As a reader, I appreciate that ads can be annoying when repetitive and sparse on information. As a writer, I appreciate that ads helped to buy the nice fonts, logo and design holding up these words right now. I can only guess what it’s like for the product creators that rely on ads for sales. They want a good return on investment.

So about 6 months ago I started to make notes about ads.1 I noted the ads that caught my attention and the sponsorships that were memorable. I took particular note of ads that resulted in me spending money or time. After 4 months, I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to do on Macdrifter.

Memberships

Before getting into ads, I’d like to address the idea of user-sponsored writing.

Paid memberships can work for some sites, but I think there is a significant relationship, commitment, and personality cult required for them to be successful. Memberships don’t easily scale for a single voice today.

I subscribe to a few sites and overall it’s pretty cheap to sponsor work on those sites. But, there is either a sizable benefit as a member, like access to additional content, or there is a unique personality I’d like to help perpetuate.

My preference is to pay for positivity and attention to detail long before paying for negative and critical opinnions. But there’s a limit, not just monetarily, to what I can pay. It’s one more thing to track. It’s one more renewing payment to monitor and update. It’s one more problem when you lose a credit card.

Self Evaluation

After abusing myself for several months by researching ads, I think I understand my relationship to advertising a bit better. There are a few specific features that get me to spend money.

Context

I believe context is the most important attribute of a good advertisement. Ever notice how a funny ad catches your attention when you’re watching a sitcom? Ever notice how disconcerting one is when run against a dark drama?

Similarly, running an ad for an Android app on an Apple-centric site is a waste for sponsors and disorienting to readers.

So I’m only accepting sponsorships for products I currently or will use.

Substance

The best ads are the ones that make me write something down. They have their own intrinsic value beyond the product. This is very rare because most sponsors are squeezed into a quick punchline or uniform pitch. My favorite ads are those that describe how to derive value from their product. It’s humorous but the ad for a ketchup that gets my attention is the one that shows a recipe using it, not someone eating a burger topped with it.

I want to have ads that show real-world value because they feel less like a pitch and more like a recipe.

Character

Repetitive ads don’t encourage me to spend money. The truth is, repeating the same ad programs me to ignore the content. It makes it easier to identify the message as an ad and subsequently easier to tune it out.

So, how do I create ads that users bookmark and share that also sell stuff?

Advertorials

So here’s the experiment: The ads on Macdrifter will fit what I normally do here. They are thoughtful tutorials about things I think are awesome. I get to write words I’m proud of. Readers get to read an ad that makes them want to read to the end. Sponsors get customers that really understand the products.

You can see some of the recent examples here:

I plan to continue this format through the rest of 2013. Each week there will be one tutorial about a sponsor’s product. It will be unique and respect everyone involved.

Not a Standard

I don’t think my model works for every site and I’m certainly no one to condemn the methods of others. If I don’t like a sponsorship model, I just discontinue reading the site or skip the ad. The forgotten truth of the Internet is that it is enormous. There is nothing unique. There are always alternatives. The same is true with this experiment.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect this style to propagate across the web. It requires a lot of knowledge about the product and a significant time investment. I don’t support myself with this site. In fact, this site officially lost money in 2013. If I limited myself to only apps that I can write a 1000 word tutorial about, I doubt I could run 52 ads a year. There are plenty of good honest ads on respectable blogs that work. But I want to do something different here because that’s why this site exists.

Work

My advertorials are hard work. They do not come easily. Each one takes a minimum of one hour to write. Some take 3-4 hours to create data, take screenshots and construct a narrative. My assumption is that good work is its own reward and so far that’s true. I enjoy highlighting stuff that I think is awesome and teaching something new along the way.

I’m not sure if this is sustainable. I’ll know by the end of the year. For now I think it’s a worthy attempt to change my own perspective about advertising and maybe someone else’s too.

I also have a powerful fondness for independent developers. If I can make them a few bucks, then I feel really good about myself and Macdrifter. That’s also why this site exists.

Conclusion

At the end of 2013 I will know if this was a success or failure. It will be a success if I have more sponsors for 2014, readership continues to increase and sponsors make some new paying fans.

If you know a product that you think is awesome or a developer you appreciate, send them my way. I’m always happy to take a look and maybe it’s something that fits here.

  1. This might be the most self flagellating task I have ever performed. ↩︎