Re: Advertising/subscription feeds?

["Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@hotmail.com>]

Sorry to have not checked the archives first.  

> This really is kind of a pandora's box and I don't see an end 
> once it starts. 

But like the ostrich, sticking one's head in the sand only gets you 
shot in the ass.  It's something worth a discussion.

> Kind of the chicken-and-egg problem: Why build a service that
> generates no revenue, and why advertise on a service that has 
> no viewers?

This was why I've always supported using *just* headlines or teaser 
text in the distributed feeds.  This as a means to keep the 
marketdroids from invading this format.  I'm figuring if the feed 
drives the reader back to the web site then the marketing folks will 
keep their grubby hands off.

It also avoids the fact that most readers don't support embedding 
user authentication into their subscriptions.  

Hmmm, I wonder if the sites are monitoring consumption of their 
various XML files?  It would be interesting to see what would happen 
if a feed started including advertising.  Would folks wimp out 
and 'read around' the ads or would they unsubscribe?  I, for one, 
would drop the feed like a hot potato.  I'm sure I'd read the 
valuable items via aggregation from another source; just without the 
ads.

-Bill Kearney