Comments on: When content becomes free advertising

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:29:17 +0000

Forgive me for not thanking all of you sooner. I was without web for a little while. Thanks to all for your great ideas. I especially like TR's suggestion of having a policy. Sometimes, one just has to lay down the law!

By: TR

TR — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:45:39 +0000

It’s all a matter of having a policy. Since our calendar is editor-maintained, we don’t have a problem with people trying to post that sort of thing as events. But we do have the occasional problem in our forum with people trying to post free ads – taken care of by the fact we have a clear, posted policy. There are opportunities for businesses to post in our freebies/deals/sales section if what they are offering truly qualifies. But no standalone posts simply touting what their business does day in and day out – our ads are insanely cheap for the amount of people they reach, a lot less than most of these businesses would think nothing of paying for a backpage ad in a community paper, or a coupon in a mailer, etc., yet much more effective.

Re: contextual opportunities, we aren’t particularly scientific about it, but for example, we have a security system banner ad atop our Crime Watch page right now. That’s contextual! And if your events page allowed it, you COULD choose to sell short-term ads for events that wanted to buy higher-profile showcasing – like “listings free, add your flyer for $25/week” or something. I am making that up – nothing on our event calendar is a paid placement – but it’s one way to look at monetizing it if you so choose.

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:16:57 +0000

Thanks, Justin and Kathleen, for your input. I actually don’t have a problem with posting one-time events, or even regularly occurring (ie, weekly) events sponsored by nonprofit organizations.

But my problem is with commercial venues (eg, restaurants, retailers) who want to post regularly scheduled “events” for free on the website. I’m just not comfortable with posting things like daily buffet prices, weekly drink specials, even less frequent discount dates on an event calendar for free.

It feels like commercial interests are taking advantage of what should be a community resource and possibly diluting its value.

Should I just suck it up?

By: Kathleen McDade

Kathleen McDade — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:38:40 +0000

My site runs on the same platform as Justin’s, so I have the same self-service event calendar and ads. However, your post makes me think perhaps I need an upfront, written policy for the event calendar/comments, so that if someone complains about me deleting them I can point to it.

By: Justin Carder

Justin Carder — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:18:52 +0000

I try to think about the bigger picture when it comes to monetizing my site in Seattle. It’s rare that a one-time event is a good driver for a long term advertiser and I don’t have the bandwidth to try to build my business around hustling every event organizer for a buck to promote their events. Instead, I try to think of the site — and all the ‘free’ coverage we do — as building a pile of attention. Attention is valuable and that pile is a better product to sell over the long run. That means you end up giving up all sorts of ‘free press.’ I do, however, have an additional advantage in that I can use event pitches as an opportunity to introduce local businesses and organizations to our self-serve tools. Our events calendar is open to the community so anybody can post to it. It’s a good gateway to our self-serve advertising tools. So, when I get a pitch, sometimes I’ll include it in our coverage but I *always* respond with an invitation to create an account and put our platform’s tools to work. Between the attention and the growth of community contributed content, I’m happy to get all the freebie pitches I can get.

By: Jennifer Deseo

Jennifer Deseo — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:06:43 +0000

I’m inclined to agree with your comment:

“I would never NOT put something in the events calendar because it seems like free advertising.”

But there were times when local businesses (usually restaurants) asked me to list things beyond one-time events: weekly discounts, lunch buffets, whatever. I never published that stuff, but I’m curious if you (or anyone else) does. Maybe my head’s screwed on backwards?

You also wrote:

“[I]f you do feel like you have to do ‘convincing,’ then come up with an ad opportunity that’s irresistible – something high profile, something contextually placed.”

Sounds interesting! I’d appreciate more information on this.

By: TR

TR — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 06:34:45 +0000

We don’t do a lot of business in advertising one-off events. We keep an events calendar too, and it’s just something that people expect – I would never NOT put something in the events calendar because it seems like free advertising. Exposure in the events calendar is nothing like exposure with a (likely) colorful ad on every page of the site. Ideally, you don’t have to “convince” people to advertise – you have a place they want and need to be. But if you do feel like you have to do “convincing,” then come up with an ad opportunity that’s irresistible – something high profile, something contextually placed. Did you have ads on your events page when you ran your old site?