CrispAds Mimics Adsense for RSS and Atom Feeds
CrispAds for Blogs, RSS & Atom Feeds
I first saw CrispAds, a new contextual ad network a week or so ago and didn't really think it too newsworthy at the time. Since speaking to the Queen of Contextual: Jennifer Slegg of Jensense though I've finally gotten my head around it.
Jen knows im a simple chap and can explain things to me on a level i understand (not to many syllables..)
From Jens post threadlinked above:
CrispAds - text ads for blogs as well as RSS and Atom feeds, are jumping on the contextual advertising bandwagon, but by offering something that AdSense currently does not - the ability to advertise on RSS feeds.
From the advertiser perspective, it offers advertisers a very tight niche community - blog writers and readers - and the ability to market related products to them. CrispAds does not disclose what the CPC is for advertisers until after signing up (you are charged an initial $5 for credit card verification).
From the publisher end, it offers a 95% revenue share and after signing up, all the publisher needs to do is submit categories and insert the javascript. Payment is by PayPal.
After a quick IM session I think we've both agreed to be "unsure" but kinda keen on it :)
The problem with CrispAds is...
They don't have many advertisers, and when you don't have many advertisers, publishers won't give up their page/feed real estate to run them. So that is a problem they need to solve (even if they pay publishers for running and clicking on affiliate ads for blog-related products). Because a lack of advertisers will result in advertisers and publishers not signing up.
But it is a unique product offering something AdSense doesn't, so if bloggers are looking for ads to place on RSS/Atom feeds, this could do it... if they scrape together some more advertisers.
Concept
I think the concept is a winner, but what put me off from publishing it a week or so ago was the "get payed via paypal" thing. It just struck me as small time.
It's a viscious circle with advertisers, you need publishers to attract them and you need advertisers to attract publishers... they cant have any backing for this otherwise they'd have gone to town with a launch and PR right?
Small time impressions...
I never saw a press release or anything, just a couple mentions here and there on other blogs.
As for the PayPal, I completely agree with the impression it leaves. But I also know whenever there are "alternative AdSense payment" threads - PayPal is one of the most popular options, believe it or not. However, while AdSense may eventually do direct deposit, I can't see Google paying with PayPal, unless they buy the eBay/PayPal empire. So CrispAds may have seen some of those threads while researching, and thought PayPal is an easy way to pay, and publishers want it.
I also think they could have picked a better name than CrispAds...
It breaks feeds
I tried Crispads with no success. One of two things happened. It either broke my feed or it just didn't do anything. I don't know that I'd consider it a good 'mimic' anyway. It basically allows you to pick a topic from a list of less than a dozen and then serves whatever ad (in image not text format) is available for that topic. I'm not knocking it for what it does, but I don't expect it to replace adsense and the new Kanoodle (Brightads) service for RSS looks to work better as far as actual contextual ads go.
Moreover & Kanoodle
I think the partnership announced yesterday between these two will really kick this whole advertising on RSS bandwagon off.
If you go here - click on start the wizard and you will see that "Ads by Goooogle" are already there.
Personally - I like the idea of advertising in feeds very much as long as there is enough contextual ads.