Time for Pfblogs.org to have ads
I’ve mentioned Pfblogs.org here before. It is probably one of the best tools that many of us pfbloggers have. Not only does it drive a small amount of traffic and lend exposure, but it also gives us a great place to find new blogs to read and gives us a gauge of what everybody is talking about.
To the credit of the owners of Pfblogs.org, they have kept the site ad free thus far. Of course, the bandwidth and hosting and so forth do cost money and as a result, they have been dependant upon the participating blogs to make freewill donations. While this can certainly cause problems with funding issues, the purpose is to not infringe on anyone’s personal rights as a content owner. It’s great that they do that, but now the “gap” between the “friends of pfblogs.org” and those of us who have not contributed is growing larger. In the beginning, it got you a star and a direct link to your blog. Now it still gets you that, but it gets you top billing on the sidebar, an obnoxious red stripe for your title to draw attention, and preference in the pfblogs.org sidebar widget.
Perhaps it’s time to end that though. I think it’s time that pfblogs.org got some ads. I think they should still shy away from per-click based ads, but head more into the pageview area. They get the pageviews no matter what content I put out. Pageview ads are not content sensitive. Sure they would still be financially related, but unlike Adsense, they would not be chosen dynamically by the content of the day.
Why put ads on pfblogs.org? It directly benefits the owners ability to provide newer, better services. It helps out the smaller, newer bloggers like myself who are financially unable or unwilling to donate money, by eliminating the “gap” between those that do contribute and those that don’t. The focus is narrowed too much by the “benefits” given to the “friends of pfblogs.”
I know that many of you who read this blog, read pfblogs.org. What do you think? Maybe I’m completely off my rocker. Or, maybe I’m not.
Technorati Tags: pfblogs, pfblogs.org, ads, adsense, revenue, donations, donate, friends of pfblogs.org
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Michael said,
Wrote on May 16, 2006 @ 4:46 pm
How would this be different than pfblogs.com?
thatedeguy said,
Wrote on May 16, 2006 @ 4:52 pm
Last time I checked, Pfblogs.com uses Adsense ads. These are determined by the content of the site, which would be the aggregated posts, albeit in concentrated form, of the bloggers. I’m suggesting something more like a static ad that is always the same no matter the content that would pay something like $20 a month vs. $.05 a click.
blogs agog said,
Wrote on May 16, 2006 @ 6:43 pm
You mean sponsored links?
Not sure about the ads - I think a lot of people would revolt. But you are right, the red bars are obnoxious. I have gone back to my RSS reader and just check pfblogs.org occassionaly now. This site is just turning into a paid marketing thing… Perhaps not what was intended but it is happening.
Michael Kimsal said,
Wrote on May 22, 2006 @ 10:54 am
Let me start off my saying I’m the pfblogs.com guy. It started as an outgrowth of a personal project I’d started to track pfblogs I read. I added adsense after a couple weeks to help offset the hosting cost. I run a dedicated server at a cost of about $100/month. I do a little bit of hosting for other projects on there, and each bit helps to offset the cost. Adding adsense was intended to help defray the cost. Between adsense on all projects (pfblogs.com included) I make about $30/month (give or take). I’m not retiring off of pfblogs or any other individual project.
I will say the pfblogs.org revolt was a bit of a shock, and irked me some in that the .org project has been a bit self-righteous in their ‘finally! an ad-free aggregator’ stance. Yet, they turn around and are begging (yes, it’s a strong term) for handouts/donations. And they’re selling promotion space to pfbloggers. Many in the pfblogging space are well-off, not doubt, but many more are on strict budgets - we can see that by reading their blogs! Yet I can see the .org site turning in to a place where those that can pay get more traffic than others.
I’ve tried to turn this around a bit and am offering adsense rotation to any contributing pfblogger. There are about 5 pfbloggers in rotation. I’m not suggesting anyone will retire off this, but I felt it was a way to help spread the minor wealth and give back a bit to the pfblogging community.
The site essentially functions in two capacities now:
1) A resource for regular readers who are looking to keep up with good current blog entries
2) An extra ‘adsense’ outlet for participating pfbloggers to make a bit more.
The site traffic is currently low/down, but RSS is up, and we don’t have ads in RSS (perhaps in the future?). Getting more traffic to pfblogs.com will indirectly aid the adsense efforts of all participating pfbloggers, and I encourage anyone else interested to contact me (mgkimsal@gmail.com) for more info on joining the rotation.
pfblogs.org selling stars and colored bars sort of seems like advertising to me, just in a slightly different way. Those who don’t want their content syndicated in pfblogs.com have contacted me and I’ve quickly removed them, and I continue to add people who are interested in having their feeds added. But I will continue to run adsense or other programs, as well as look for ways to share that small income with those who want to share. Any other ideas/suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks…
thatedeguy said,
Wrote on May 22, 2006 @ 11:11 am
Michael,
I’m glad that you stopped by to add to the conversation.
At first, I was the same way as many of the pfblog.org people. Unwilling to have my site on the pfblogs.com site because of the ads. Recently, I’ve come to realize that there are many sites that do the exact same thing, and nobody complains about them. Those sites are technorati, google, msn, cnn, etc… Each and everyone of them has ads. So why is that a big deal? Like you said, the costs of running a site like your’s aren’t cheap.
Michael Kimsal said,
Wrote on May 22, 2006 @ 12:56 pm
Thanks for the acknowledgement. I’m up front about this - people can email directly if they have problems, can choose to opt out, etc, which other services don’t make it easy to do.
For the record, there were (IIRC) a total of 5 people who asked for their feed to be removed, and a dozen or so who asked to be added.
The costs *aren’t* huge - as I said, I have a server which is $100/month, and I’ve born that cost before pfblogs.com existed. Any extra income from pfblogs.com ads helps defray that cost, but it was designed to be a free service. As an aside, I ‘ve run a couple other services in the past which relied solely on donations, and found they never even came close to paying for themselves, and at the same time seemed to look, well, chintzy. I look at ‘donate’ buttons as begging. Perhaps others don’t, and I’m just a bit harsh in that view (?).
I had some public and private discussions with the original pfblogs.org people who complained about my ’stealing’ their content. The ‘google/search engine’ angle was my response then, and it stands now. pfblogs.org had (has?) more than a couple feeds which have clearly ‘no derivative works’ clauses in the feeds. Perhaps those people asked to be included, but I’m not sure they did, at least at first. When I brought up the ‘no derivative’ issue with a pfblogs.org person (I think), the response was I was dodging the issue and ‘ND’ clauses didn’t apply to them because pfblogs.org was not a ‘derivative work’.
At any rate, thanks for the feedback and allowing my responses here. I’m glad to see people are realizing that the ads aren’t really intrusive, nor is this that much of an issue. I think pfblogs.org have backed themselves in to a corner with the ‘we pledge to remain ad free’ and may regret that stance at some point. Or they may start doing something which is basically advertising but not calling it that (which I think the ‘friends of pfblogs.org’ program is, btw). I’m not *against* it - I think it’s an innovative approach to fundraising, but I think it’s advertising all the same.
It may sound like this is turning in to a flame/rant/whatever, and that wasn’t my intention. Apologies if this comes across as too strong…