Advertising programs of the Technorati 100

I've been reviewing the advertising, and sponsorship campaigns used by the top 100 blogs as listed by Technorati.

I'm going to test these different services out, but here are my preliminary findings:

Technorati Top 100 - Ad programs

36% - Network affiliates
Many of the larger blogs have formed a network to boost the potential traffic to their advertisers. The network is typically managed by one person who handles sales across the network. Alternately, there are a few companies that place ads, but they are a closed network, in that they are invite-only, and don't have an automated process for the public.

The main networks are:

BlogAds (17%)
BlogAds is a popular choice for placing graphic banner ads, usually in combination with Google or AdBrite text ads.

Federated Media (6%)
A bit more exclusive, they seem to offer a suite of services to publishers, with an eye for turning their content into a media franchise instead of just a blog.

Gawker (5%)
Gawker has branched out from its flagship blog, to create a mini-empire of 14 hot titles including Kotaku (one of my faves), LifeHacker and more recently, ValleyWag. They've tightened their chokehold on the Geek and Gossip audience by relentlessly promoting their own blogs on their network. And it seems to be working, considering 36% of their portfolio is in the Technorati 100.

Weblogs, Inc. (5%)
Where Gawker has gone for quality, Weblogs, Inc. has gone for quantity. This AOL acquisition has well over 200 blogs in its porfolio. With Engadget (#3), Joystiq (#28), The Unofficial Apple Weblog (#51), and Autoblog (#30 in Chinese, #88) making it into the top 100. Impressive for the network, but less so for writers, considering less than 2% of their blogs have made the top 100 -- it seems like a scattershot approach rather than the careful media promotion found on the other networks.

The Deck (2%)
The Deck has taken a minimalist approach to advertising. A network of high traffic blogs, A List Apart(#17), 37signals (#65), Daring Fireball, Waxy.org and Coudal Partners.

33% - Multiple providers
Most sites used more than one advertising provider, usually a text-link ad provider such as Google AdSense or AdBrite and a banner-ad provider from their network, in-house, DoubleClick or FastClick.

26% - None
Some people actually work for a living, and don't need to place ads on their website. Imagine!
AdFreeBlog.org even has a snooty icon you can use to show the world you look upon on all the bloggers who pimp themselves to the 'man'.

21% - Google AdSense
The king of text-ads, Google ads are almost a pre-requisite for any ad-driven blog.

9% - AdBrite
AdBrite is the next most popular text-ad provider. Owing much of its popularity to being the provider of choice for the Gawker network. It seems like they might provide more customisation of the ad links than Google.

9% - In-house
Some of these cowboys wouldn't trust their web advertisement to any profit-skimming third-party when they can code it themselves. A home-brewed ad-banner engine is the way to go for uber-techies.

7% - Paypal donations
Ain't too proud to beg? Neither are the Technorati 100. If you love their content enough, toss them a couple of bucks.

7% - Amazon.com product placement
A few people are making commissions by recommending books or music for you to buy on Amazon.com. A couple of people are flogging their own books as well.

5% - DoubleClick
DoubleClick used to be the dominant ad-banner provider, but they fell out of favour due to their habit of sending browser cookies and tracking people across sites.

3% - Fastclick
Fastclick is the friendlier version of DoubleClick, not bothering with all the cookie sending. Seems like a reasonable alternative, if you don't have an in-house ad agency.

I'm going to be trying out these services on a test blog. Watch this space!