clipped from: www.whatsnextblog.com   

Mainstream Publishers Forming Blog Advertising Networks - But Still Misunderstanding Blogs

moneyman.pngBy B.L. Ochman
Mainstream media is in a major hurry to start selling ads on blogs. I was part of the Washington Post/Newsweek network (a total bomb) and have recently been asked to join the Forbes Business and Financial Blog network. I hope Forbes learns from Washington Post/Newsweek's blog advertising mistakes.

The secret sauce
NBC ran some absolutely horrible ads on this and other high-profile blogs earlier this year. The clickthru rates stunk, and I'm willing to bet their agency turned around and said "blog advertising doesn't work." And that's true, it doesn't, unless you understand social media, social objects, and blog readers.

But blogs are not traditional media. There is no ideal measurement vehicle for blog traffic right now. One needs to combine and average the stats provided by Google, Urchin, Feedburner, Technorati, Site Meter and others to get a true picture.