Tuesday, November 27, 2007

newmusicstrategies.com U.K. blogger Andrew Dubber's readers are selling ads for him and earning commissions. Good idea?

Andrew Dubber, who blogs on the music industry and new media at the U.K.-based New Music Strategies, has some cute ideas for monetizing what has become more than a hobby, "without getting in the way of the content, and without jeopardizing the integrity of the blog." The twist: He's giving a commission to his readers.

"I'm not just going to sit and wait for the advertisers to come to me. I'm going to take what I think is probably the unprecedented step of offering commission on sales to the readers of my blog. That's right -- you can sell advertising for me, and I'll pay you a cut.

"When I worked in radio, the commission on advertising was 15 percent of the ticket price. Double that seems more fair, don't you think? If you sell any of these advertising packages, I'll give you 30 percent commission as an independent sales contractor.

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"Better yet, to get things kick-started, if you sell December, I'll make it 50 percent. Yep -- you get half."

This is what they have to sell:

1. Sidebar ads. "I will only accept advertising that I absolutely approve of, and will certainly never take your cash if I don't like what you are pushing. While the money would be nice, my reputation is my business, and I will not flog crap."
2. RSS feed ads. At less than half price to independent artists (but two will be listed). Again: "I will only accept messages that I personally approve. The standard will be quite high, but if your message is of genuine use and interest to my audience, and meets certain ethical criteria, then I'm happy for it to be attached to the bottom of my posts."
3. Sponsored blog post. Price: £40 for 300-500 words. "Here's the catch: I'll make it perfectly clear that it's a sponsored post, and I will be entirely honest. But you get the power of veto. If I don't like your service or product, I will give you the option to have me not publish the blog post, or post as is. If you decide against it, you won't have to pay me."

Last week Dubber told me: "It's working." Also, his first sponsored post is already online.

Of course, this strategy would not be appropriate for most traditional news organizations. However, it could yield interesting options for some online publishers -- especially independent bloggers.

That said, there are risks. For instance, Google recently stripped of their page rank bloggers who used the controversial PayPerPost advertising system, which bears some similarities to Dubber's approach.

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