Online ad dollars are drying up quickly and it's going to gradually affect more and more sites unless these sites find new business models or unless advertisers develop more realistic and original strategies. I always try to click a few banners whenever I'm at a site I like. I like this one so much I paid for the membership
Hopefully, if enough of us do that we can keep this site around.
I actually work in Internet marketing for an advertising agency (doing primarily search engine optimization) and have dealt with quite a few online media buys. There's an axiom that we use regarding Internet advertising:
the great thing about it is that you have instant data . . . and the worst thing about it is that you have instant data. In other words, when you start to see ad-clickthrough rates in the neighborhood 0.05% a perspective advertiser's purse strings suddenly get VERY tight. It really frustrates the hell out of me since advertising in other media isn't held at this level of accountability. Think about it, when was the last time you saw or heard a commercial for a product and then IMMEDIATELY rushed out to buy it?? Sure it happens some (particularly with food commercials), but even then I'll bet you it happens less than 1 out of 100 times you're exposed to a commercial. But companies will not think twice about spending tens of millions on TV ads, yet freak out when you start talking about online ad costs because they don't feel it creates the same impression.
As broadband becomes more and more common and as we start approaching average speeds measured in hundreds of Mbs (and eventually Gbs) I think you'll start to see a massive resurgence in online ad funding. TV-quality streaming video will become an option and the online advertising market will
hopefully have matured into one with more realistic expectations. I'll get off my soapbox now. RIP StorageReview.com
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