Pheedo’s Bill Flitter on the state of RSS advertising: “Consumers believe ads are ads when they are not relevant to them; otherwise it’s called content or information.”
I think the best bet for companies thinking of advertising in feeds is to publish a feed yourself. It will be more effective in the long run. Ads in feeds are not working for me as a feed subscriber—I aggressively tune them out. And feeds themselves are advertisements for the publisher. Old definitions of “advertising” and “content,” birthed with broadcast media, quickly fall apart in this domain.
The same goes for companies who want to show up high in Google results (which is everyone): Publish a blog that’s worth reading. You’ll do better in Google. It’s a matter of determining what’s more cost-effective and realistic: advertising elsewhere or publishing your own. Publishing no longer costs anything but it does require manpower. For overall impact in this environment though it will outdo advertising when done right.