

WordPress Launches Google Adsense Alternative, WordAds - Urgo
http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/wordads/

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jpadvo
I was hoping that this turns out to be something really classy like Deck
ads[1].

Turns out the underlying technology is provided by the Federated Media[2], the
same company that provides ads for AppleInsider[3] and Boing Boing[4].

There's still a chance they'll do something different, but I'm guessing that
most innovation is going to be on the pricing and revenue splitting side, not
the eyeballs-viewing-ads side.

That is valuable, and having more competition for Google is a good thing. But
oh well. Looks like we'll still be seeing the same ads.

[1] <http://decknetwork.net> [2] <http://www.federatedmedia.net> [3]
<http://appleinsider.com> [4] <http://boingboing.net>

~~~
chrisdroukas
Speaking of Deck, are there any non-invitation services that serve ads at a
similar quality level to Deck?

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damncabbage
If there is, I haven't found it.

I believe the invitation system is precisely _why_ the Deck ads are of the
quality they are. Removing that puts you back in the realm of DoubleClick and
AdWords.

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kmfrk
From the people who named one of their updates "Django", here is "WordAds".

Is there some kind of creative dearth at Automattic?

 _(Thought I was kidding about that "Django" part? I shit you not; here is
your moment of zen:<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2254299> .) _

~~~
gojomo
I think there's a much better case – practical and even legal – for 'WordAds'.

'Django' caused a pure collision with another community project: rude,
confusing, time-wasting for keyword searchers.

'WordAds' fits naturally with 'WordPress', is non-identical, and far less
likely to generate confusion or search collisions. And, Google's money gusher
can defend itself if it there is a legitimate trademark complaint; similar
for-profit competitors should push every possible avenue for attention. (It's
not nice to step on the toes of a free community project, but it's often
heroic to step on the toes of a near-monopoly.)

~~~
damncabbage
Heroism aside, it's still a little reminiscent of "OpenOffice" and "Office
Open XML".

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kreilly
This is actually pretty interesting. Federated Media recently bought Lijit[1]
which has a pretty solid ad exchange. Federated also has an exclusive deal to
rep WordPress sites[2]. Combining these two things will allow buyers to access
a huge swath of long and mid tail inventory programmatically through the Lijit
exchange.

Its nice to see small publishers getting more options in how to monetize their
sites. A healthy ad ecosystem is required ensure we all continue to get access
to quality, free content.

[1] [http://www.federatedmedia.net/about-copy/press/federated-
med...](http://www.federatedmedia.net/about-copy/press/federated-media-
publishing-to-acquire-lijit-networks/)

[2] [http://www.federatedmedia.net/about-copy/press/fmp-
partners-...](http://www.federatedmedia.net/about-copy/press/fmp-partners-
with-automattic-to-provide-exclusive-representation-for-wordpresscom/)

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brd
"for bloggers who would like to earn money from their blogs by showing high
quality ads from brand advertisers" Does this mean less targeted ads from more
well known companies?

~~~
eli
Probably. But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

In my personal experience, most of the AdWords I see on small blogs have
comically bad targeting.

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mkr-hn
" _Creative minds aren’t satisfied being digital sharecroppers on someone
else’s domain_ , and you want to carve out your own piece of the internet and
have a space that you’re proud of because it’s so… you.

If you’re going to have advertising on your site, it darn well better be good,
_and beginning with our partnership with Federated Media we’re ready to start
rolling out WordAds here on WordPress.com_ "

They'll need to make this available to people who use self-hosted WordPress
before these two paragraphs are compatible.

~~~
spindritf
You can host your blog, on your private domain with WordPress.com. It's a
premium feature <https://en.wordpress.com/products/> though.

~~~
mkr-hn
That doesn't change anything. You can't host on wordpress.com—whether it's a
subdomain or your own—if you need to do any kind of customization beyond CSS
tweaks, and you can't use affiliate links.

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grecy
I host my WordPress powered blog on my own server.. apparently I'm not
eligible. What's that about?

~~~
grecy
I asked the question on the linked blog [1] The official reply was " For now,
we are starting with WordPress.com users but look forward to working with
folks like yourself who are self-hosted. "

Sweet!

1 -
[http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/wordads/#comment-143...](http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/wordads/#comment-143819)
(that # href doesn't seem to work too well, do a seach for 'grecy' and you'll
jump to my comment and the reply)

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kylemaxwell
I have no intention to enable this. My blog exists primarily (I hate this
term) to promote my personal brand. It's something to which I can point to
demonstrate my knowledge and skills in my professional areas of expertise,
plus occasionally a soapbox. I don't want to monetize that directly because
that would turn me from "the friendly dude who knows about X" to something
more like a streetwalker, and I don't want that.

Speaking just for myself, of course.

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webwanderings
This is basically for wordpress.com users who purchase something from
Automattic (domain) to sell something to the world (Ads). There is no
indication on what you, the blogger on wordpress.com, may be earning in return
for this transaction, but Automattic certainly knows what they'd be earning.
Good luck!

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mmmmax
I love WordPress but I will take bets on how long it takes them to change the
name, given the obvious competing trademark: AdWords.

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natrius
This is a trademark lawsuit waiting to happen.

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loceng
I'm launching a blog platform called PressWord - want to be an advisor?

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astrodust
I hope it has a "BookFace" feature.

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evanrmurphy
It took me a minute to realize this was for WordPress.com and not for the
open-source WordPress platform (WordPress.org).

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williamchang
Any one know the reasoning behind this move? ie why wasn't AdSense good enough
for them?

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jacques_chester
I'm going to vote for: money.

As others have suggested, this will probably be pushed out to the .org
community through jetpack with the unstated goal of supplanting
AdSense/AdWords for blog installations.

