June 8, 2008 by Kevin

Advertising on RSS feeds a plus for lawyer blogs and legal publishing

Zachary Rodgers on the The ClickZ Network had an interesting piece this week on RSS advertising showing signs of life.

This bodes well for the legal industry, not necessarily with each lawyer picking up a enough in ad revenue for an extra pint a week, but in other respects.

First the key points from Rodgers' article.

  • 34% of global respondents to a March social media survey from Universal McCann said they use RSS feeds, a huge increase from just 15% a year ago.
  • 19% of Americans use RSS feeds. Admittedly less than the RSS-addicted nations, Russia (57%), Brazil (55%) and China (54%).
  • Gawker Media, one of the more successful blog networks, grew its revenue from feed-driven traffic by 300 percent in Q1 2008.
  • Gawker now pulls an average CPM of $4 or $5 for its RSS inventory, only little less than they they get on the blog sites themselves.
  • Some publishers are seeing their page views from RSS nearing the page views of blog and Web sites themselves.
  • Google's FeedBurner will soon deliver AdSense ads contextual to the subject of the feed in addition to premium CPM ads directly sold onto RSS fee content.

I don't see lawyers needing to run ads on RSS feeds to keep a roof over their head. Some bloggers need to make money in advertising from their blogs. Such bloggers are akin to magazine publishers - ads keep the lights on.

Lawyers do not have to sell ads on their blogs and RSS feeds. Lawyers make money by blogging in an effective manner. Doing so lawyers enhance their reputation as thought leaders, landing business the lawyers want as a result.

But I see three areas where ads on lawyers RSS feeds hold value.

  • Tasteful, brief ad mentioning that the blog and resulting feed are sponsored by a particular lawyer, law firm, or practice group. Much like an ad you would hear on local NPR radio. Low key for branding purposes.
  • As revenue for a third party syndicating law blog content to to a lawyer's target audience (clients - current & prospective, bloggers, traditional media - trade & mass). Blogging lawyers will come to understand the tremendous value of such third party publishers aggregating (with editorial review) relevant and timely blog content for delivery of such content to this target audience. Syndicators with significant overhead in people and publishing platforms will need a revenue model. The alternative to ads is charging lawyers.
  • The cost of maintaining a professional turnkey blog solution required by leading lawyers, law professors, and law students could be supplemented by ad revenue.

As traditional publishers are being pressed by declining distribution and ad revenue, we need to look for new opportunities to generate revenue. With increased use of RSS feeds and more cost effective ways to deliver ads on RSS feeds, maybe there's some opportunities.

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February 2, 2008 by Kevin

Law blogs and legal publications should heed mistakes of newspapers

The way advertising is presented in online newspaper sites is killing them.

Per Robert Niles at USC's Online Journalism Review:

News publishers like to point to television, free news online, English literacy rates and slew of other reasons to explain their readership losses. But the contempt that newspapers show for their readers by burying their editorial content beneath their remaining advertising surely is not helping keep readers around.
He provides examples of the garbage we're served up.
Everyday I check the website of the Pasadena Star-News. And every day, the front section of the website's homepage is obscured by a pop-up widget urging me to take a survey about the site's new design. Click the red 'X' in the corner to close the widget window, and the op-up appears every time you return to the page. (If you click the button declining to take the survey, the window disappears for the remainder of your session.)

If I register with the LA Times website, the Times insists on spamming me with commercial e-mails for products about which I do not care. If I opt-out of the e-mails, the Times cancels my website registration. (Which is why I don't have a Times website registration anymore�

And let's not forget the slew of pop-up, pop-under and screen take-over ads that accompany any visit to more newspaper websites than I am any longer able to count.

Doc Searls, my source on this post, highlights Niles' solution - getting content to the front.

...if news organizations are proud of their news content, why do so many insist on hiding it?

Readers owe you nothing. They have no responsibility as citizens to read your reporting, and no responsibility as consumers to look at your ads. The have the right, and ability, to go about their lives without ever once glancing at your publication.

If you want people to read your publication, you then need to do whatever is necessary to make them want to read it.

That means leading with your best shot.

By and large, legal publications whether they be from ALM, the ABA Journal, or others have not been too bad about throwing advertising in our faces when we click to their online sites. I hope as ALM's off line revenues start to slide that they can resist the temptation to launch sites with click through ads and registration.

The ABA Journal may not be as tempted as their online site is a start from scratch approach. It's not a regurgitation of the ABA Journal hard copy, where ALM's Law.com appears to be online publication of their print properties.

But I have had legal publications and legal bloggers call inquiring about building a website or blog with click through registration, pay to access, or click through pop up ads. No matter how shortsighted I tell them that is, they usually turn to another party who will do what they say, as opposed to offer wise counsel.

It's all about making your content relevant. That means making it easy to access without distraction.

Sure have ads, but don't be stupid about the way you present them. Look at what Google, Yahoo, and Newsvine have done. Ads and content can coexist.


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