We didn’t run inline text ads when we started The Inquisitr, but with our ad revenue starting to drop off late last year as the recession kicked in, we gave it a shot.

Kontera is the company we’re using. You’ll notice their links with a double underline within a post, with a pop-up box when you mouse-over them. These style of ads play nicely within Google’s rules, and can also be used alongside Adsense units.

So far, I couldn’t be more happy with the service. While they haven’t countered our drop-off in display advertising, they have gone some way to supplementing our primary ads, and in this market it all helps.

Kontera ads though work better on some sites compared to others.

Making Kontera work for you

The key to making Kontera work on your site is to give it enough text to work with. Kontera runs words in a post and looks for matches, so if you do primarily shorter posts, it won’t have as much to work with.

Posts three paragraphs or more work best with Kontera, as it often finds more, and often better matches. The type of content (and the content that gets traffic) is also an important factor. Like other advertising solutions, Kontera does pay better on tech and more serious content, and pays less on say celebrity content. Types of content in between reflect the general market. This isn’t to say you can’t make money with celeb content from Kontera, but you will make significantly more if you’re running more serious content.

Compliment, not supplement

The key here is to not treat Kontera as a solution alone. Kontera works alongside your existing ads, so it’s an easy way of complimenting your existing blog income. In many cases, you might not be utilizing this form of ad already, so you don’t lose by giving it a shot, at least that’s the way I first approached it.

Do they click?

One thing that has surprised me is how popular some days can be in terms of CTR on Kontera ads. On a good day, our CTR can often be 10x higher than the next highest unit on site. Even on a slow day, the CTR rate is still strong. These ads don’t deceive; it’s clear what they are visually, but by being inline users seem more receptive to them; less ad blindness helps.

Conclusion

Inline text ads aren’t for everyone, and even I’ve been critical in the past about the format. But as the recession goes on, we’re in a game of survival now and this is a legitimate way of making some more money for your site. Put it this way: I’d rather do these ads then something that might upset Google, or make the reading experience unfriendly (like putting up ads in the middle of text…not yet anyway ).

You can sign up for Kontera here. Worse case: they don’t work for you, you can take them down. They also offer a plugin for WordPress that makes it nice and easy to set up.

Using Kontera to increase your blog revenue is a post from: The Inquisitr

As we wrote January 14, the web advertising market is taking a hit in 2009. Since we wrote that post, cuts were announced at b5media and Federated Media, and one analyst suggests that search advertising in the United States, one space that was thought to be immune from the downturn, dropped 8% last quarter.

Things are looking grim, but that doesn’t mean that web site and blog owners will be sitting back quietly allowing themselves to loss money without finding ways of countering it.

Having spoken to a number of people in relation to the market, read a couple of different takes, and having also done my own homework on alternatives (some we’re already trying), here’s the trends I believe we’ll see in 2009.

Conversational Advertising

“Conversation advertising” is the term used by Federated Media to include a modern take on product endorsements. These are ads that include quotes or even video from site owners plugging a product in place of a standard ad unit. Some previous campaigns from FM have included special landing pages with interactive features and competitions.

I don’t believe we’re about to be swamped in this form of advertising, but it will be a growth trend this year, because it makes a lot of sense, not because it’s a new idea, but because it’s a tested idea that is nearly as old as advertising itself. Celebrity endorsements from bloggers with a mix of conversations designed to draw people in and think about products.

Paid Posts

We took a look at the growth in paid posts back in December after a range of well known bloggers participated in shopping campaigns for Izea.

The format remains somewhat controversial, but after some discussion with Izea’s Ted Murphy, I was interested to learn that one of the biggest things holding people back from participating is no longer in play; that is, punishment by Google. Murphy pointed me to comments from Google’s Matt Cutts where Cutts states that as long as the post is disclosed, and the links are tagged nofollow, then Google doesn’t have an issue.

Ironically perhaps, given the history, Izea/ PayPerPost is the safest bet here, as they insist on Google compliance, where many other sites don’t, and in my research, won’t actually pay out if links are tagged nofollow.

The driver in paid posts will be two fold: bloggers looking for additional income given the drop in display advertising, and companies looking at getting better value for their ad spend. While not every one will embrace the idea, it will trend upwards in 2009, and become more common than it is today.

In-line text advertising

In-line text advertising delivers contextual links on keywords within a post. Google has no issue with them as long as it’s clear they’re advertising, and the links don’t pass Google juice.

There are a number of players in this space, and we’ve landed at Kontera. I’ve tried to sign up to a competitor to get a feel for which is better, but despite applying twice, IntelliTXT has never so much as knocked me back, let alone accepted us. Having been running Kontera for around a month, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the results.

I’m seeing these units pop up on more and more sites, and given the CTR rates they receive, they offer a strong addition to standard advertising. Expect in-text advertising to be a strong trend in 2009.

Interstitials

interstitial’s aren’t a popular ad format, interrupting reading on a site for the crime of simply following an internal link, and yet they’re popping up on big company sites now. The appeal of interstitials is simply financial: even on low end display advertising providers, the CPM rates for interstitials are often significantly higher.

As bloggers look for extra ways to make money, we’ll see an increased use in interstitials.

Text Links

Despite the risk of losing Google juice, the recession will drive growth to text links. A number of people I’ve spoken to lately tell me that the market for text links is still strong, and rates have actually increased due to many publishers pulling back since Google started punishing sites for running them.

It’s a risk I’m not willing to take at the moment, but others will. Text link ads will grow in 2009.

Background Advertising

Already popular in the celebrity blogosphere, background/ theme advertising will grow in 2009 as advertisers seek to gain attention at higher rates than traditional display advertising.

These ads usually include a background theme and mix of display ads, often taking exclusive above the fold positions on blogs that run them.

These will grow in 2009 and start appearing on all sorts of blogs as a different approach to product awareness.

Trends in Blog Advertising for 2009 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Across the country, Silicon Valley may seem far removed from the mess. The startups in Palo Alto go on, and on Sandhill Road, the VC’s are still turning up to work. Although we may not see the links to Wall Street on the surface, they are strong, and Silicon Valley is not immune to the crisis. Here’s what we can find on Silicon Valley’s exposure to Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers as an investor

Lehman Brothers may not immediately be top of your list as an investor in Web 2.0 companies, but the company is a major player in the Valley. Lehman Brothers Venture Partners has raised $1 billion for investment in technology, with its last round in October 2007 raising $365 million. A full list of their investments can be found here. Companies you may be familiar with include Comscore, Kayak, Searchme, Zappos and Kontera.

Lehman Brothers Venture Partners is not included in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing, however as part of Lehman Brothers Investment Management, it’s currently on the market. There’s no reason to think that it won’t sell, however one of the biggest investors in the fund is Lehman Brothers itself

Investors in Lehman Brothers Venture Capitals’ funds include Lehman Brothers, Lehman Brothers’ employees, and institutional and individual third-party investors.

Naturally the ties to other areas of Lehman Brothers is strong as well

As an integrated component of the overall Lehman Brothers platform, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners can call on the extensive global resources of Lehman Brothers to assist in evaluating and enhancing the value of portfolio companies. At the same time, the integrity of the investment and portfolio decision process is reinforced by dedicated investment professionals and the substantial capital commitments made by Lehman Brothers and its employees.

The fund may go on, but with the relationships in place it has to take a hit on several fronts, and you’d presume that it will slow or cease new investments until the mess is sorted out.

Secondary financial hit: one less partner for existing firms

Most of the deals I could dig up for Lehman Brothers Venture Partners where not stand alone investments, but done alongside other Valley firms. Here’s a few in the mix via QBase

Kontera
07/2006 Series A 7M Lehman Brothers, Sequoia Capital
08/2007 Series B 10.3M Carmel Ventures, Lehman Brothers, Sequoia Capital

Power Reviews
09/2007 Series B 15M Draper Richards, Lehman Brothers, Menlo Ventures

SearchMe
10/2007 Series D 15M Lehman Brothers, DAG Ventures, Sequoia Capital
05/2008 Series E 12.6M Lachlan Murdoch, Randy Adams, Thomas Banahan, Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, Deepfork Capital, Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Mark Kvamme

I’m not saying that these deals wouldn’t have happened without Lehman Brothers, but an investor with a $1 billion fund does make a nice partner, and any short term or long term absence will be missed.

Lehman Brothers as advisers

I’m unable to find a complete list of tech/ web 2.0 deals Lehman Brothers were involved in, but their name regularly pops up as advisers on big deals. Lehman Brothers managed to the sale of Photobucket and 24/7 Real Media and were advisers to Yahoo on the Microsoft/ Yahoo deal.

There is always alternatives in the market, but with the turmoil at the top among the firms left, Lehman Brothers leaves a hole that may see the costs of advice increasing.

see also Black Monday and its effect on tech.

Silicon Valley’s exposure to Lehman Brothers is a post from: The Inquisitr