Cliff,
Here are my observations as a publisher of a medium sized site
(circa 1 million unique visitors a month).
One of the central issues that still hasn't been resolved online
is, can online advertising be used for purposes of branding? In
the early days of IPOs and inflated CPMs, young dot-coms were
buying huge amounts of banners in an effort to create their
brands. Their demise greatly discredited the idea that online
ads could be used for branding. That led to a two-year dry spell
in branding ads and only now do you see some high-end creative
ads that seem primarily aimed at branding.
In the earlier round of brand advertising, medium sized sites
like ours (GardenWeb.com) were able to get a piece of the pie
through ad networks. Now those ad networks are either gone or
are mere skeletons of their former selves.
It remains to be seen if an ad network able to market high-end
creative ads will open that market to medium-sized publishers
who are unlikely to attract national brand advertisers on their
own. Personally, I don't see much of a chance for a real
recovery in online brand advertising until ad rates offline
recover and then get somewhat expensive again.
But I disagree with your assessment that current situation is a
bad one for small advertisers. Most of our advertising is now
sold directly to medium-to-small mailorder gardening companies.
The ads are simple, some even primative, but they work. Rates
are nowhere near what many people online had hoped for a few
years ago, but I think we all know now those hopes were
unrealistic.
Smaller advertisers should consider looking for smaller sites to
get the exposure and attention they require.
looking to the future, online advertising is still in its infancy
and in ten years you will find myriad forms of advertising on the
Web.
The only thing I have learned for certain is that nothing on the
Web is certain for long.
Bob Stewart
The Virtual Mirror
Received on Fri Jan 10 2003 - 08:55:36 CST
