Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo.

But Dave Taylor, true to form—thank you Dave—has a post looking at the other side of the story, essentially, umm he does have a point.  Granted, this article is truly more about fear-mongering than really investigating  both sides of the issue, it does cite some examples of the Blogosphere gone wrong.  Libel, slander, lies, character assassination.  Yep, the Blogosphere has those.  Hmm, wait so does the real world.  Insightful commentary, breaking news, scoops, opinion, thoughtful reviews and analysis.  Check, the Blogosphere has those too ... oh and the real world too.  See a pattern here?  The Blogosphere is a microcosm of the world at large.  The difference is that news on the Blogosphere travels infinitely faster than in the "real" world.

A group of bloggers including mainstream journalists from outlets such as CNBC, The Nation and The New York Times are banding together to strike a blow at established media and pick up some ad dollars in the process.

http://www.pajamasmedia.com/

"It's always nice to see the big players finally waking up to the power of blog networks. Obviously everyone's keen to see what the incredibly creative people who are involved with PJ Media come up with but, until we see what they actually have up their sleeves it's a little hard to get too nervous.

Even in just the 1 short month b5media has been around, we've already seen 3 networks promise big launches, only to tone back their expectations (one launched with 50 and now only has 35, for example).

We look forward to the competition and new ideas PJ Media will bring. It's always nice to be challenged, after all."

Where does Qumana fit into all of this?  Qumana, we think, is the tool that can help empower bloggers to be able to write for multiple networks.  With the multi-blog capabilities you can write post, select another blog, post, and so on.  That is exactly what I'm going to do with this post.  This post is going to appear on BBC and Qumana.  The BBC version will be shorter and point to the post on Qumana.  The Qumana post will also have an ad in it, which is the second part of what Qumana adds to this equation, the ability for bloggers to monetize their content easily.  Imagine how the networks would operate if each blogger got a portion of the overall site's revenue plus the revenue from an ad placed in their own post.  Write a super popular post, reap the rewards.

It's been a not-so-secret secret for a couple of months now - the new-and-improved Qumana. It's finally here.

This version of Qumana is not just about easy blogging anymore - it's about making money. For you. This new Qumana lets you insert post-centric, keyword-driven ads into your post with one click.

We're extremely excited about this. We've been testing the process for months, you've seen the ads in our posts for sure. We've got it down.

Qumana 2.0 brings together advertising and blogs in a new way:

• The ads are images, so they flow from blog to RSS to e-mail seamlessly.
• The ads are keyword-driven, so they don't conflict with contextual ad programs.
• You choose the keywords, so you can decide which ads are best for your readers - not some computer algorithm.
• You can track the clicks by ad - that's right, you can watch to see which keywords are working out for you simply by tagging your ads with a title you can then see in your stats.
• You can change the look of your ad: the colours, the text, the size. Each time - or save your preferences.
• You can preview your ad before you insert it - and we tell you if your keyword does not match any ads.
• You don't have to insert ads in every post. You decide. You can even put in more than one, if you wanted.
• You can move the ad, just like an image, anywhere inside your post.

Inserting an ad with Qumana is as simple as one click.

This is one ad, for "mp3" and one on "dogs" - see how I've changed the look of the ad? You can go from simple to detailed, depending on how your blog looks. The control is in your court - each and every time.

New Features in Qumana v 2.0

Qumana has stayed simple, elegant, and easy to use - it's just more powerful now.

We've also listened to what you want, and offer:

• post-centric keyword-based ad insertion
• ability to insert HTML
• better functionality with WordPress and Blogger platforms
• improved old post editing
• a new-and-improved website with more information, and easier to find Help
• a new DropPad design
• better drag & drop from Firefox
• post to email (ads & images too!) with our integrated SMTP server

Check out our new website - it's full of all the info you need, a great tour, and easy-to-use help information to get you started with Qumana - and to start earning money!

So, here's your chance to start using Qumana - to set yourself free from blog platfrom restrictions, from web browsers, and from restrictive ad programs.

Download and install Qumana. Sign up for an account at AdGenta.com, Qumana's own ad network. Approval is automatic, so you can be putting ads into your posts in minutes. We want to see you make money - you can blog about it. Say what you want. No restrictions.

Thanks to everyone for continued support and encouragement! We listened - try it yourself and see the difference!

Our look at advertising and opinions therein from the Qumana Survey concludes with a comparison of advertising types. In general, there are two main ways to generate blog advertisements: contextual and keyword-based.

Contextual advertisements are computer-driven. A computer will scan your post and/or your entire blog page to determine what the post is about and which ads would best suit it. In a contextual world, you are completely dependent on how well the computer can determine what you are saying and in providing ads based on that content only.

Keyword-based advertisements are people-driven. Bloggers write their posts then determine which keywords best describe what they have written OR which keywords would be most attractive to their readers. And there you spot the difference: the power of the human brain. Our knowledge and insight are, at least for now, far superior at determining the best ads to place. We can choose to insert ads about blogs when we write about blogging - or we could insert ads about podcasting, as something we think our readers would like.

Without this description or influence, we asked our users which way would be easiest to manage ads. 44% wanted to be a part of a program to insert contextual ads on the blog, and 8% wanted the same for the RSS feed. If we jump from contextual ads to keyword-based ads, 33% showed interest in the ability to manually insert ads of their choice.

According to our survey, 70% of our users (n=71) believe that contextual advertisements are more effective. The vast majority of advertising programs are based on contextual algorithms, but people are not as satisfied as they would like to be. In fact, we know that more than half of you are really not satisfied with current ad programs. So, maybe contextual advertising programs are not as effective as we believe them to be, and don't fit all blogs or all use cases.

n=66

If we look at the patterns of this entire survey, we know that people don't make much money from their blogs... but want to. Some don't use blog advertisements programs... but want to. People find advertising programs complicated, and need help. And bloggers have yet to see the return from RSS advertisements.

Here's what I think. Contextual ads are just not cutting it. If you write a niche topic, you have a better chance of getting some good ads on your blog. Even with that, you're not likely to see great ads in your feed. RSS advertising is stagnant - there is not enough content per post to determine the best ads, and they are too obtrusive and restrictive to earn any return from them.

The best of both worlds would be to use both keyword and contextual ad programs. While 39% of our users would like contextual ads only, a clear 47% would like both contextual and keyword-based ads. Right now, that's possible with some ad programs. It depends on how restrictive the terms of service are - which means more work for bloggers to figure this out.

n=74

Bloggers are cut in by many restrictions with advertising programs. They need to know where their blog templates are, and how to modify them. They need to know HTML. They have to spend hours, if not days, going back to modify the ad blocks. They need to be approved for RSS ads. And they cannot control which ads get displayed from major contextual ad programs.

The ads from major blog advertising programs are either connected with every post (or page) or are turned off - there is no happy medium to decide when and where the ads go. The on/off switch is a concept that just doesn't cut it anymore.

Blog advertising needs a change. And that change is coming.

69% of our users would be interested in using Qumana to insert advertisements. That day is coming. And that day is tomorrow...

Related Survey posts:

On Bloggers
The Use of RSS
Use of Advertising by Bloggers
Blog Advertising Earnings
Opinions on Blog Advertising

Technorati Tags: qumana, advertising, blogs, blogging, money, onlineadvertising, adgenta

We're almost at the end of our analysis of the Qumana Survey. I will be talking about advertising in blogs for 2 more posts today, just so I can break up the topics, and Tris will be sharing some great feedback on Qumana itself.

This post will focus on how our users feel about blog advertising in general - do they like it, do they care, why is it such a hot topic.

n=79

According to our survey, 94% of you read blogs that include advertisements. I would expect that it would be difficult to find blogs that don't have advertisements on them in some form or another, so this makes sense. It also says that there are very few people out there who would take the trouble to find blogs that are ad free, regardless of their opinions of online advertising.

When we look at this from a broader perspective, it shows a general acceptance, or mere tolerance, in some cases, of advertising and its presence in and on blogs. This question does show that advertising is pervading the blogosphere, and that its value to readers and bloggers is increasing. An interesting note here is on value. People tell us, as we'll see later, that ads provide contextual value to content, rather than detracting from it.

n=79

I decided to ask specifically if people were in the least annoyed by advertising in blogs - specifically ads that flow through to RSS, which has been a hot topic out there.

Well, a good 55% of our users think it perfectly fine to insert ads in RSS, 25% don't think it's good, and 20% simply don't care. We know from a previous post that 38% of our users don't like blog advertisements at all, so this is not a bad proportion. Somewhat inconsistent, but showing a more positive figure.

It's not enough just to say "do you think it ok to include ads", so we followed up with an open-ended question asking people to share these opinions.

Although you might think from the above question that people simple didn't like seeing ads in blogs, we have some clear reasons for this opinion. The two biggest complaints are the fact that ads are simply not relevant - even those that are contextual! - and that they create a cluttered look when placed all over the blog and in every single post at the bottom in RSS.

So, based on this question we can come up with an optimal ad program:

• uses text ads, not images or flashy animations
• is unobtrusively placed
• does not pop up anything
• goes into RSS and the blog
• has control for where you place the ads
• lets you place ads in some posts and not others
• is very relevant to the post (most important!)

I think we will find that advertisements have a greater opportunity to provide value online, and especially in blogs, than in any other context. Unlike magazines or television, we do not have to generalize our advertisements, and can be more specific with demographic and psychographic information. Blogs epitomize niche trends far more than we are currently seeing with the segregation of television channels.

Advertisements that are displayed with tact and are right on topic, or provide value with complementary information, will not only be tolerated, but appreciated. So, the task at hand is to provide a way for bloggers to ensure their ads meet the demands of their readers.

All we can say... stay tuned for tomorrow.

Related Survey posts:

On Bloggers
The Use of RSS
Use of Advertising by Bloggers
Blog Advertising Earnings

Technorati Tags: qumana, survey, blogs, blogging, advertising,

• “Web 2.0?
• "Tris Hussey"

Note, that Web 2.0 has results in the main content area and that Tris Hussey doesn't.  No, I don't feel slighted, but I write a lot on a lot of blogs, how can there be only 7 references?  Searching for blogs in news isn't the best idea.  Blogs report and analyze the news, not just adjuncts.

• http://tris.hussey.gada.be/
• http://boston.red.sox.gada.be/
• http://qumana.gada.be/
• http://vancouver-canucks.gada.be/

Let's make it even cooler, especially if you use Lektora!  If you put "opml" at the end of the URL it generates an OPML file of the results.  Now if you use Lektora ... well it automatically senses that OPML as a series of feeds to import.  Talk about expediting your search feeds!  I just bulk added searches for Qumana and me in like three clicks.  This becomes info gathering on steroids.

• tech.memeorandum @ 8-50 AM ET, October 6, 2005
• Micro Persuasion- AOL Buys Weblogs Inc. - Report
• TechCrunch » AOL Acquires Weblog, Inc.
• PaidContent.org- October 05, 2005 Archives
• One By One

For me it's not the money.  It's not, wow Jason made a killing.  It's that blogs are now hot media properties.  AOL doesn't buy online properties just to have domain names or even the content, per se.  It's the advertising potential, it's the market reach.  Weblogs Inc. has some of the hottest blogs out there.  Many of them are on my must read list.  Blog-vertising has now reached a whole new level.  A level where blogs should now be recognized as the marketing force they truly are.  Think about it, where would you rather advertise, a general site where you might hit the target you want, or a site with an engaged, focused niche audience?  Yeah I thought so.  Here's an example close to home (like my home), I just started a blog about fine writing instruments, a pen blog.  Granted it doesn't have a large audience, yet.  But think about who is going to read this site.  Much to the amazement of some of my friends, dropping over $100 on a nice pen isn't outlandish to me.  I have my eye on some multi-hundred ones as well.  That's a pretty darn good market for advertising.  And not just pens, but other related items, paper, inks and expand to things this demographic might also like single-malt Scotch, cigars, or watches.  See?  AOL has purchased a huge potential market.  Gadget freaks, parents, techies, car nuts heck probably everyone would find a blog that they are interested.  Targeted advertising at its best.

Today we'll follow up on the post about the Use of Advertising by Bloggers with a post on how much people earn from their blogs and how satisfied they are with these earnings.

n=26

On a per month basis, 69% of our bloggers (those who previously indicated they participate in advertising programs) earn less than $20 per month from all income sources: advertising & sponsorship. It's rather a pity that so many bloggers, of whom we have identified as being experienced, are not seeing any return for their efforts.

You can see from the graph that there is a real hurdle between $50 a month and anything above. From general experience, I know that blogs tend to go through several earnings ranges. You can be stuck on one range for a long time then jump up to the next without really experiencing a gradual incline in that direction.

We can see, for example, that there is a big barrier between earning $50 per month an anything greater than that - it would appear the next gap starts at $200.

n=31

We asked our users if they were frustrated with what they make. In the open-ended comments, most bloggers indicated they wanted to make more; some didn't know how, and some felt they were just beginning.

All of these are valid points that can be made, but they all point to the fact that people just don't know how to make money from their blogs. I don't know how many blogs there are out there trying to teach bloggers all the tricks and modifications you can do to tweak your ads, get the right context, or so on. It's really an overwhelming amount of information. And can leave some feeling they are "just not there yet" - that you need to be very savvy to start making money.

I disagree. I think everyone has the ability to start making money right away, and think it should be simple. The tools we have right now are for techie geeks - even the integration of AdSense in to Blogger is not a solution - it still puts a lot of pressure on people to understand the nuances of ad programs to be able to get something back in return.

n=79

We asked some more questions of the full set of respondents about making money from blogging. When asked if they want to make more, a clear 59% of people say yes. A surprising 20% don't want to make more - these bloggers fall into the category of those who don't have advertising because they don't like it.

If we take the 20% who don't care as some who just don't think they have a chance at making money, we have an even stronger indication that people really do want to make more money. Who doesn't, after all?

n=67

Since we knew going into the survey that most people were going to want to make more money blogging than what they currently make, we put in a question asking them how much they wanted. Of course, these results have just a bit of bias because 'want' and 'reality' are not necessarily the same thing, even when reality is a good chunk of change.
Looking back, if I had answered this question, I would have said $1000+ too - partially because I do want to make a living from blogging and see myself there eventually, but partially because it would be funny to say.

So, it came as no surprise to see that 22% of our users also want to make more than $1000 per month from blogging. It's not a bad goal. Since most of our users are experienced bloggers, and have shown to stick it out by posting on more than one blog and for an extended period of time, we'll likely see a lot of them reach this goal.
I was surprised to see so many answers of below $20 - these bloggers don't earn much now, being new or not knowing how, so would be happy even with a small return for their efforts. Such a return would likely pay for the blog, and very little more.

I'd like to see more of our bloggers reaching for higher earnings goals. Blogging can be a career - Tris and I have proved that. Advertising is a part of how we make our living, and we think that we have a powerful message to spread about making money blogging. But what we can learn here is that it's just too hard to figure out right now. We need to make blog advertising easier.

-----
Stay tuned for my next post on people's opinions of advertising in blogs and later for keyword vs. contextual advertising.

Related Survey posts:

On Bloggers
The Use of RSS
Use of Advertising by Bloggers

Technorati Tags: qumana, survey, blogging, bloggers, advertising, blog ads, money, professional blogging