party your body with blog ads

one of the things i get to do at my job is place ads in a variety of political blogs in california, such as capital weekly, the california majority report, and flash report.

i place ads in newspapers (and their online versions) as well as blogs. it's very loosey-goosey with the bloggers. the vast majority of them don't require a formal insertion order. they have an attitude of "just send it and i'll put it up." it's refreshing but sometimes nerve-racking when deadlines are involved.

many of my clients prefer advertising on blogs as opposed to newspaper websites because blogs are way cheaper and more targeted. one downside is that bloggers oftentimes cannot provide the sort of statistics that newspaper websites can, like click-thru rates, but there are ways to get around that if you've got a programmer (my clients don't bother). also, blog ads tend to pile up and visitors are faced with all these flashing squares...not sure if that really compels visitors to click on any of them.

so blog ads may not be the best way to introduce a new product or service, but it is a good way to maintain your brand (an essential thing to do, as taught in the branding strategies class) with a specific target audience.