I kid! I kid!
The WordAds network was announced last week, as WordPress makes an attempt to beat Google at it’s own game—online advertising.
While I don’t doubt that WordPress has a much better handle on what WP bloggers want from from the ads they run (namely more money), I think they’ve missed the boat on why ads aren’t converting currently:
The content.
WordPress bloggers have been frustrated for some time with Google’s AdSense program, which seems to consistently serve up ads that have nothing to do with the content on their blogs. It wouldn’t surprise me if Google could do a better job however the responsibility lies in with the blogger, first and foremost.
Time and again I see bloggers with little or no vision and focus to their blogs, trying to wrestle a little extra spending money out of their readers—and failing miserably. Just throwing ads up won’t produce growing revenue. Just like a retail brand must create a focused identity for their products, bloggers must have vision and focus to their content. Without it not only will you never gain truly dedicated readers but your ads will rarely match the context of your content.
So if WordPress thinks they have the answer to serving better ads on WP blogs, more power to ’em. I’m not holding my breath.
But I will sau they should consider rebranding this product. C’mon, WordAds? Seriously? You can do better than that.
