Train Thoughts

We were presenting at a conference and they asked exhibitors if they wanted to present. Anytime I get a chance to talk to a group, I try and take it. Never can get enough practice speaking to groups. Anyway. I’ve been super slammed and had to really hustle to get a presentation together. I watched a panel on making money with your blog and was totally disappointed with two of the presenters. They just did infomercials and didn’t share any real knowledge. I felt bad for the people that paid to hear what they had to say.

So, I was going to give a talk about how to get text ads to perform. Jeremy Schoemaker had already told the group that he doesn’t use text ads, but I felt he didn’t give them a fare shake.

I put together a deck. Practice the presentation three times and show up to the stage. There was only one person there. I was like, I’m not going to talk to twenty empty chairs and one person. So I sat down next to the person and went through the information.

Here’s what we covered.

• Publishers need to optimize the formatting and placement of text ads to increase their revenues
• Misconceptions about text ads. How to block advertisers you don’t want and that you don’t need to make a site look spamy to perform well
• Vary formatting per ad spot, Consider how the ecosystem of ads on a page works together, Alignment is key!
• Less common ad sizes can achieve big results
• Use slightly lighter backgrounds than navigational elements
• Use darker fonts and link colors
• The highest earning period is 10 am - 2 pm
  About 20% higher eCPMs
• 2-3X the Click Through Rates for search referrals
• How to use analytics to improve your advertising performance