There is a post today asking how WordPress is going to make money. The primary question being asked, is with the pageviews they are getting why are they not put advertising on all of those free blog accounts.
I think I know the answer, and share some of the same sentiments that Matt Mullenweg does. He is not real found of banner advertising. How this relates to what my company does is somewhat similar.
My team decided early on to not put advertising on all of the pages at Blubrry.com, because we felt that the content creators needed to be allowed have their shows be the focal point on the website. We did not want to clutter up their pages with advertising, and we also based our business model on other revenue streams.
I think way to many sites “bet the farm” that they will be able to sustain themselves through banner advertising. A site like our at Blubrry.com has moderate traffic levels, yet we understand that their is more value in bringing unique services to those that are part of our communities that will generate revenue. While we do have a big advertising component, it is within the produced content where amazing listener engagement takes place.
It is obvious that Matt and the crew over at Automatic only received the money they did with a monetization plan that made sense to the investors. But one thing that he will be up against is to make sure that the monetization plan tracks as presented, because the second it doesn’t we will likely see banner ads on all wordpress sites. Mark Evans
While I will never leave that banner advertising option off the table as well, one thing for sure is that it would be on a new site where the goal was massive pageviews.