When advertising agencies discovered the Internet they gave the new medium’s ads different names: digital advertising, online advertising, interactive and combinations of these and a few other words. But whatever the name, the first references and discussions involving the new advertising arena always came from the advertiser’s point of view – how can the advertising budget be allocated online? Only later on, the completing angle of the publishers got attention as well – why and how should websites place ads? In other words, first, there were services like Google Adwords and Yahoo Sponsored...

What makes those double underline links so promising as a method of advertising? It’s the crucial difference between interruption and permission. Although this concept still seems very fresh, the idea was presented by Seth Godin a decade ago in his marvelous book Permission Marketing, and if you still haven’t read it, it’s never too late. Traditional advertising is based on grabbing the attention of people away from what they’re doing – TV commercials, newspaper ads, telemarketing phone calls, and even online display banners. Godin calls this Interruption Marketing and shows how it’s...

I generally dislike discussions about new media that start with ancient history and the development of the Internet in the sixties of the previous century. We’re beyond that. This said, however, there is much to learn from comparisons of the Internet’s evolvement with other media in the past. And if there is one clear pattern that repeated itself in all media – newspapers, radio, broadcast television, cable television, and lately the Internet – it is the penetration of advertising. We’ve seen it before – from a medium where ads are not allowed, to organizations who protest against the...

People filter out the ads. This is true on TV, in a newspaper, and mostly – online. We read online content, look at pictures, view videos, but we don’t notice the ads. Fighting back, the advertising industry launched a battle over the attention of online readers. Wonderful companies like Eyeblaster pushed the evolution of banners forward and, in fact, saved the monetizing business. Banners began jumping around, animated characters walked onto our screens, full page ads covered sites entirely, and when moving the mouse away from the content, we mistakenly activated sound from banner ads. Even...

Revenues from ads on websites are dropping. If you don’t know this by now, you either don’t monetize a website or extremely smart or lucky. After several happy years of sharp angle graphs showing numbers growing insanely, the trend has changed. Theoretically, the positive growth should have kept going. The disturbing economic downturn caused a general decrease in advertising budgets in general. But as part of the process, advertisers are seeking measurable and direct ways to communicate with their potential customers, and online advertising is the leading choice. Therefore, online advertising...

I like to wake up in the morning with a smile knowing that my work contributes to the positive side of the world’s delicate balance, don’t you? Well, strange as it may sound, I actually get this feeling when monetizing websites, and if you’re in this business – you’re invited to join me for the ride. The Internet was born free, has changed our way of life, and should stay pure and free of any capitalist interests… would you please stop? The Internet is a wonderful communication tool and a magnificent source of information, but it has costs. And in the real world, somebody needs to pay...