Ads in Feeds? OK, If…

The issue of whether ads are OK in feeds has flared once again – this time between Dave Winer and Jason Calcanis. Frankly, I think both of those guys are being needlessly pigheaded and adversarial. They’re not moving this important conversation forward. Yet another example of the profound limits of argument culture. Blech.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with ads in feeds, as long as they’re handled in a way that complements the real content and suits the target audience. Here are my suggested guidelines for putting ads in feeds…

CONTEXT: This list represents suggested guidelines only. I’m just thinking out loud here – so consider this a work in progress. My intent is to focus on goals in a flexible way, so that people can apply these guidelines in ways that suit them and their webfeed audiences.

I welcome your participation in this creative process. Please comment below with your suggestions and observations. However, let’s avoid polarization. There’s already enough rigid head-smashing happening on this topic. If your position is that ads in feeds are either totally necessary or always wrong, this probably is the wrong discussion for you to enter.

SUGGESTED GUIDELINES FOR ADS IN FEEDS, First draft:

1. Audience Suitability. Ask your existing audience (or your target audience) how they would feel about ads in your feed. Offer a sample ad so their imaginations don’t run wild. Expect some vocal resistance no matter what – change is never entirely easy or welcome. However, use your judgement as to whether that resistance is significant enough to indicate that feed ads would undermine your higher goals.
2. Transparency. Ads are clearly (CLEARLY) differentiated in both the headline and body text, ideally with a preceding character string like: ADV.
3. Frequency. No more than 1-2 ads per day. No ads are inserted on days when there is no fresh content. Also, ads should not outnumber fresh content items on any given day. (That is, if you only post one content item on a given day, it would be overkill to run two feed ads on that same day.)
4. Length. Feed ads should be SHORT! Just a headline and a few lines of body text at most. A feed is not an appropriate venue for an infomercial.
5. Legitimacy. The feed publisher should click on every ad to see where it leads, to verify legitimacy and relevance. Some people place phony ads to lure people to porn sites, pyramid schemes, or other irrelevant or undesirable destinations.
6. Ad Suitability. Feed ads should be directly relevant to your content and your target audience, in order to not undermine the whole concept of information syndication. Also, consider carefully whether specific ads might undermine your editorial credibility by creating the appearance that you are promoting certain advertisers, practices, etc. This concern may or may not apply to you, but it’s a good idea to make that choice consciously, up front.
7. Control. The feed publisher should reserve the right to preview all feed ads and reject any ad for any reason (competitive, taste, relevance, language, etc.), either prior to running or after the ad has started to run. This is especially crucial if you’re contracting with an ad delivery service rather than individual advertisers. In your audience’s eyes, you’re ultimately responsible for the ads they see on your feed.

OK, that’s my first draft. Thoughts?

Oh, and for a thoughtful overview of this topic, see Dave Taylor’s recent post: Ads in RSS feeds? Corrupting the idea of information syndication