Fan Mail

In my recent article at iMedia Connection on the X-Internet (AKA Web 2.0) I fail to mention how Publishers can monetize services and their data over those services. I also fail to mention how advertisers can involve developers in creating effective campaigns. I know I failed to mention those points because more than one reader has pointed these facts to me.

Look for more on this subject in my next article. And thanks to all who've given feedback. I appreciate the effort toward greater clarity.

Posted by Kelly Abbott

10:37 PM 0 comments

Users Click RSS Ads More Than Banners

NEW YORK Users receiving RSS feeds are much more likely to click on feed advertising than regular Web ads, according to a new study.

The 2-year-old award, created in 2003, in an effort to honor campaigns that break ground in the industry, was not presented last year. In 2003, the trophy was given to BMW Films, the online film series that inspired the creation of the award.

Pheedo, a San Francisco company that helps publishers put ads in their Really Simple Syndication feeds, found that RSS ads received a 3.2 percent to 8 percent click-through rate during a study of traffic during the fall. Banner ads typically receive a click rate of less than 1 percent.

The best-performing RSS placements, Pheedo found, were stand-alone ads that represented the entire post, rather than embedded ads placed below editorial content. Standalone ads were clicked 8 percent, compared to .85 percent for the embedded approach. Pheedo said the highest RSS ad click rates were gained by placing ads in every other post, a tactic it found three times more effective than one ad per post.

--Brian Morrissey, AdWeek

Posted by Reid

2:35 PM 1 comments

The Internet of Things will be bigger, better and faster. Familiar tune from an unlikely source (no pun intended). The UN is getting in on the futurist fun. Nice work if you can get it. Link.

Posted by Kelly Abbott

11:54 AM 0 comments

Kelly's Principles of Good Design

In no particular order . . .

• Future compatibility
• Increase the probability that the users gets what the users wants
• Create engineer free zones (don't' make me think)
• Technology Agnostic
• Platform independent
• Context implied from structure
• KISS
• I mean, really simple
• Shortness (such as 78 character line lengths in email) is better than longness
• If it's easy to type, it's easy to read. NoTLikeThisKindOfStuff but this kind of text instead.
• Make it "hackable." Reward users who dig deeper.
• Elegant degradation.
• Keep it Modular, Stupid. Loose coupling is great.
• Deconstructable is maintainable. The person who cleans up after you is not always you.
• Obey the standards. They're not just dumb rules.
• Use source control. Save often.

Posted by Kelly Abbott

4:27 PM 0 comments