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posted on 08/12/07
Tumblelogs, Ads, Comments
I kind of stumbled into this argument today. I found a post on a tumblelog discussing advertising on tumblelogs, linking back to mine as an example. Now, I’ve read Cubicle 17’s side. He thinks that if you’re hosting your tumblelog on a place like tumblr, you shouldn’t be advertising, because they’re absorbing the hosting cost. I have a different take on this though.
I’m sure you’ve heard the adage, “time is money.” I think that’s a tough one to argue against. Everyone’s time is worth something. So if you’ve put the time into creating a tumblelog that people want to read and subscribe to, I think it’s your business whether or not you’d like to advertise. I personally try to keep it unobtrusive. I put an ad at the very bottom of the page, so if you want to support the site, you can, but if you don’t want to see it, it’s not in your face. But hell, if you want to put an ad in between every single post, I really don’t care. If it alienates your users, that’s your decision.
Now there are some guidelines I do think tumblelogs should follow. I really don’t like seeing people adding comments to their tumblelogs/tumblr accounts. Why not just get a blog? You could sign up for a free wordpress account if you want a blog. And since tumblr doesn’t offer comment support, it ends up being really clunky solutions, like HaloScan for example.
The other thing I’ve found is that the people that are adding comments to their tumblelog… are people that really aren’t getting that many comments anyway. Tumblelogs aren’t the best medium to start a discussion. If you want readers to contact you, slap an email address up there, but don’t fight the medium. The simplicity of the tumblelog is why it’s such a compelling medium.
I know my arguments on these subjects may seem to clash, but here’s the difference I see: advertising on a tumblelog can work with the medium. Comments on a tumblelog is working against the medium. So I’m just saying, enjoy the beautiful simplicity that is the tumblelog. If you wanna blog, blog, go for it. If you wanna tumble, know what it means to tumble.
Matt
posted on Aug 12, 03:47 AM
Well the flip side of that is, because you have such sort blurbs of text, they’re direct direct and to the point. There isn’t going to be a whole lot of mix up. If you post a picture of an iMac, your blurb will probably say “Apple’s new iMac.” Those are some pretty easy keywords to advertise with. To find a sponsor for a tumblelog however seems much more difficult. How many people out there are really looking to sponsor tumblelogs? And if they are, are they willing to pay enough to make it worth your time?
AATW
posted on Aug 12, 04:01 AM
Hm, you might be right. I’ll probably put up some contextual ads too. Maybe once our t’logs reach critical mass, sponsors might become an option, just like it is for <a href=“http://daringfireball.net/”>John Gruber</a>.
Matt
posted on Aug 12, 04:08 AM
I’d be happy to let someone prove me wrong and pay more to sponsor my tumblelog than adsense pays, but until that happens, adsense is the best option. I’m sure my tumblelog is within the top 10 if you ranked tumblelogs by traffic, so I guess I’m positioned pretty well to test wether sponsorship is a viable option for the medium. So like I said, I’d love to be proven wrong, but we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
Jack
posted on Aug 12, 05:03 AM
I have to agree with you. We must keep tumblogs and blogs different things. Like you said it’s the simplicity that makes tumblog so enjoyable. I don’t want comments to deal with I just want to tumble!
And I don’t really have much to say about the ads side of the argument. Only that I agree they should blend in and that they make me money so I don’t really care what anyone says ;P.
Marco
posted on Aug 12, 11:57 AM
The tumblelog format is so young that I’m impressed by any successful monetization ideas.
AdSense is problematic not because of a lack of content, but because the content on a good tumblelog is varied and changes frequently. AdSense doesn’t deal well with a site that talks about iMacs one day and mattresses the next, or a single page that discusses ice cream, digital cameras, and software quality within a few words of each other.
My (popular) tumblelog gets 30% of the traffic as Marco.org (my main site), but only earns 5.8% as much from AdSense. It’s partially because of ad placement, but mostly because the “contextual” ads aren’t.
Very few tumblelogs have enough traffic for alternatives to be viable yet. The best alternatives, I think, would be those that don’t rely on machine-sensing of context and audience. I bet a well-targeted CPM campaign, for example, would do wonders. Even Amazon affiliate links, which are notoriously unsuccessful, could probably pay more than AdSense with the right audience.
Just to be clear: the official Davidville/Tumblr policy on tumblelog advertising is that we don’t have a policy at the moment, so for now, you’re free to try anything you want. We have no plans to change that anytime soon, but if we later decide to, we will let the community know well in advance. (And I’m sure we’d have a solution that wouldn’t leave you stranded.)
So feel free to advertise on your tumblelogs now. (I do…) We don’t take offense – in fact, it’s nice to see people building tumblelogs with large enough audiences to become profitable.
cameron
posted on Aug 12, 12:33 PM
FYI You might want to re-read my post. I was quoting cubical 17, and if Davidville’s ok with it, then I am too.
Also, I agree with Marco. Ads on tumblelog probably aren’t profitable.
cubicle17
posted on Aug 12, 01:28 PM
I didn’t mean to say that ads have no place on tumblelogs, and I was unaware of Davidville’s policy at the time of posting. I will also say that people’s time is of course worth something. However, I just feel that a lot of hard work went into Tumblr (and probably at decent cost to Davidville), and to turn that into a for-profit venture without the assuming any risk (monetarily speaking) is a grey area, in my opinion.
That said, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about putting ads on my tumblelog (perhaps what made me start thinking about this in the first place).
But ultimately, I think I land on the same side as Cameron: if Davidville’s okay with it, then I so am I. But I won’t be putting ads on my tumblelog anytime soon.
Greg Birch
posted on Aug 12, 06:27 PM
Ads would only make sense if they were beautiful, if they were like the tumblog itself. Like lego bricks. What would an ad like that look like? I don’t know maybe someone can figure that out. I would love a sponsor, but there aren’t many minicooper geek dentist snowboarding freaks like me around.
esquareda
posted on Aug 12, 06:53 PM
I think both ads and comments seem out of place on a tumblelog. For me, tumblelogging is about leaving visual breadcrumbs of things that spark our interest on the web. If I were to consider some type of monetary setup, I would think affiliate links in the posts would make perfect sense. For now, my tumblelog will be comment and ad free. It could use a nice search though.
Karl
posted on Aug 28, 11:58 PM
Sounds to me like Davidville could start a TumblAd network where the specs for the ad-space and creative fit the Tumblr medium. Follow esquarda’s simple statement: “tumblelogging is about leaving visual breadcrumbs of things that spark our interest on the web”—- except apply that as a “requirement” to the advertising and marketing world. I think the ad firms for Nike, Apple, BMW, and Target would know what to do with that TumblAd creative.
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AATW
posted on Aug 12, 03:36 AMI don’t think contextual ads fit tumblelogs. This is why: one usually posts small blurbs of text, quotes, and pictures & videos with a 1-line title to a t’log. That doesn’t give Adsense a lot to go on. As it is, a lot of Google ads on blogs are completely unrelated to the content. This problem, in my opinion, becomes worse on t’logs. That’s why letting someone sponsor your t’log makes more sense.