Pajamas Media Vs. Blogads

What a day.

First of all, I find out that RWN is being blocked by The United States Army Reserve and then I don’t even get an offer from Pajamas Media. Granted, I probably wouldn’t have signed on the dotted line, but it would have been nice to have at least gotten an offer, because sometimes, it really is the thought that counts.

As to why I didn’t get an offer, I do have some suspicions.

I’ve always gotten along with Charles Johnson & Roger L. Simon, so I’m guessing that either I was too closely associated with Blogads for their taste (I’m going to be running a conservative MiniNetwork for them) or more likely, I was making too much money with Blogads — for my traffic — for them to match.

As a side note, the reality is that a lot of bloggers don’t charge enough for their Blogads. I don’t want to mention any names, but there are several conservative bloggers who are bigger than I am who could probably double their prices and not see any significant drop in demand for their ads because they’re so underpriced right now.

But anyway, since I don’t have that problem and since from what I’m hearing, Pajamas seems to be offering people about what they’re making with Blogads right now or just a little more, bringing on a blog like RWN at the same level I was making with Blogads probably would have eaten into their profit margin too much for it to be feasible.

Still, even setting RWN aside, from what some bloggers who have gotten offers have told me privately and from what Ann Althouse & Ace have said publicly, Pajamas Media isn’t putting great deals on the table at this point.

They’re asking bloggers to leave a proven advertising agency (Blogads) in order to make at least a year long commitment to an agency that has changed its roll-out date & business plan over and over, that doesn’t have an up and running web page, and that doesn’t seem to be offering people significantly more than they’re already making.

With all due respect to Charles and Roger, I’m not sure what the appeal is supposed to be.

I mean I understand that some people may love the idea of getting a “guaranteed salary,” but is it really guaranteed? Keep in mind, they haven’t even gotten started yet, so who’s to say they’ll even be in business in a year? Take it from me, I was running a humor zine on the net back when the tech bubble burst and all the advertising money dried up. There were a lot of people making “guaranteed” money then, too. Guess what? The advertising agencies paying them had to default because there simply were no ad dollars rolling in. Don’t think the exact same thing can’t happen with Pajamas Media, because it can.

Furthermore, even though Charles & Roger are both talented and successful bloggers, in the world of internet advertising, they’re totally unproven rookies starting a brand spanking new company — and start-ups are tough business under the best circumstances. The reality is that most new businesses don’t make it.

That’s not a slam at Charles and Roger, because they’re both sharp guys and I certainly hope they do succeed because the more competition there is for blogger advertising space, the more all of us stand to make in the future.

But right now, Pajamas Media has a very short and unimpressive track record, they’re being very secretive (What’s going on with syndication and Marc Danziger? Why didn’t we hear about this 12-18 month deal until the last minute?) and they’re looking for some very long commitments. Until that changes, Blogads is probably the better deal for Bloggers.

PS #1: More from Ace & Ann Althouse (here & here) on this subject.

PS #2: This post has been edited slightly, mainly for the sake of readability.

*** Update #1 ***: Does anyone else find it odd that you can still buy 3 month Blogads on both LGF and Simon’s blog at this point? Is that an oversight or are they still a long, long way from rolling out?

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