I’ve talked about before how direct ad-sales is the best way to truly maximize your revenue capacity. We own a lot of XXXX.org domains - we then get custom advertising for the site (often times contacted by advertisers to our high SE rankings), and make pretty damn good money. Recent case in point: Site with 100 impressions a day earning maybe $30 a month from AdSense is now doing $250 a month in a direct ad-deal. Time spent on it? 30 minutes. This also underlines the power of domains, but that is for another day.

The more interesting example I wanted to point out is our Blog Flux Directory. For about the last month Jacob had been managing our new self-serve ad-system. Basically any category/tag page can have top/skyscraper bought out. Direct link to your website. All ads would be vetted, so of course it would be relevant (and thus not a PR-based sale).

We released this system about 2-3 weeks ago via a massmail to our members (emails are key). We had about a dozen sales, each at a minimum of $50 a month.

This is a great start. I have a site that does micro-ad sales of roughly $15 a month. The site generates over $10,000 a month (with little intervention on my part). Blog Flux is not only bigger but also far more reaching in its scope.

But this is only the start. Sure we had people come advertising themselves (we have both blogs and commerce websites as advertisers). Our next job is now to go out and find specific advertisers for the largest keywords.

The point here is - we created an self-service ad system, we let our own users know about it, and have already started to make more (with revenue of $750, we have displaced roughly $50). $700 extra per month (most of them are subscriptions) that will keep recurring. Our CPMs are damn high, but I am sure our advertisers are also getting their return back.

Google Adsense is a nice base. But don’t let it be your flat base.

I don’t know what I used to do before Commentful (product of ours). The reality is that tracking conversations can be hard. There is so much information online that losing track is as easy as counting to 1-2-3.

So it boggles me when companies don’t use email to connect with their current/potential customers. Email is a fantastic tool - for those interested in your product, it lets them drop their email quickly and move on - they expect you to re-initiate the conversation with them. For those already your customer, it is a great way to re-establish your connect with them, and let them know what is up.

Case example: iBegin Source. Admittedly I failed at this recently - we had no way of letting people subscribe for updates (since fixed). Since day one we have been hard at working, tweaking the system, adding more data, etc. Superficially, it isn’t obvious to see - there is more accurate data, but it happens gradually. We started with ~11 million listings, and are upto ~12 million listings. That didn’t happen overnight - it happened gradually.

So - we had some stuff in the pipeline that we wanted to let people know about (you can see read about the upcoming updates to iBegin Source). At the same time, we require that you register before you can download (or purchase the data).

We sent out about a thousand emails. We got quite a few emails back. Most important - a few people let us know they were buying very soon. A few people even thanked me for emailing them, saying that they had forgotten about this and wanted to move ahead. That email address was essentially an invite - “come inside, lets talk.” But I had to take that first step - I had to open the door, come inside, and speak up.

Sending out that email was only positive. It let our current customers know what is going on. It reminded potential customers that we are still around (and getting stronger).

For all of the ’shift’ towards IM/private messages/etc - email will get more attention than either of them. And not using all that you have at your disposable (especially something as easy as email) is a foolish mistake.

Full disclosure can be really tricky when someone doesn’t want to be disclosed.

I myself am in a tricky situation. We sell business data to companies interested in the local space. We also cover interesting companies in the local space.

So - we have a customer who bought data from us months ago. This same customer put this website live about a week ago. I emailed him to ask if it is okay I disclose the connection with iBegin - he asked me not to (which is completely understandable - I would likely do the same). But now - I want to cover this website, but I can’t, because of this conflict - I have a business interest in them succeeding, but they have asked me to not to disclose our relationship. At the same time, I think they have a good product that the readers of this blog (about 300 subscribers) would find interesting.

So I’m stuck.

Plus - it is extremely interesting in what ways our data is used. I mean - in ways totally outside of the realm of ‘online local’ (and I’m not talking about direct marketing either).

Anyway the gist is - I like to disclose any relationship I have with any website/product I review. I just gave a specific example where such a conflict can arise.

The thing about local blogs is … unless you live in a city, you likely don’t know it exists.

The only reason I know of Gothamist LLC was because of their Toronto blog - Torontoist.

So with that in mind, I’ve been amazed at how established some local blogs are.

While reading about Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks (to be honest, some of them were small-fry), I saw that Gothamist was mentioned. It was slightly confusing - the revenue says ‘monthly average of $50,000 to $60,000 over the past 12 months’, yet the first line says ‘estimated monthly revenues of $250,000′ But - with an estimated 7,000,000 pageviews a month (I don’t think even Yelp manages that), $250,000 a month sounds right.

Or to rephrase it - a local blog network that covers 14 cities generates roughly $3,000,000 a year. Hell, this would be a smart buy for a Yellow Pages company or a media company.

Next we have b5media acquiring Level9. Level9’s most popular blogs are their Starked blogs - which cover NYC, SF, LA, and DC. While the blogs veer into a broad category (eg NYC covers media, LA covers Hollywood, etc), the blogs still publish local content.

As an aside, JLA Ventures, the people behind Zip Local, are the investors behind b5media.

Lastly, we have Mediabistro.com purchased by Jupitermedia (the guys behind internet.com) for a cool $23 million. One of their most well known blogs are the Fishbowl blogs - covering NY, LA, and DC. Except they focus on media matters rooted around each city. And with only 600,000 unique visitors last year - they must know how to monetize the sites well.

So - three local blog networks, all kicking ass and taking names. Gothamist’s numbers are impressive, and Mediabistro got a nice buyout. How come we never hear about them from local analysts?

I’ll be in Seattle from August 9 to August 15 - first for Gnomedex, and then for the Domain Round Table (where I will be a panelist on ccTLDs - another area we have a strong investment but something I rarely talk about on this blog … perhaps I will).

So - if you will be in Seattle during that time, and you read this blog, I would love to meet up with you. I especially encourage you to come to the domain auction - free to get in and view the madness.

Anyhoo - if you want to meet up for coffee (not that I drink coffee) or lunch or dinner or what not, use the contact form.

The traditional Yellow Pages companies depend on the number of books distributed to charge their advertisers the maximum possible. As such, it creates an (obvious) incentive to keep distribution numbers as high as possible.

It has been quite common to talk about the real distribution number vs stated number - it is a very common scene to see stacks of unused YP books. By the dozens. Everywhere.

So I had a hearty laugh when I saw that this very complaint was on the frontpage of Reddit. While we can all agree that Reddit is far more tech-oriented than the average user, it still underlines how people have moved en-masse from the yellow pages to online. And in most cases, these tech-users (early adopters) set the tone for the future - be it from video games to computers to the internet, these people are a harbringer of the future.

There has been other anecdotal evidence that the YP companies are not lowering their ad rates. So - with (obvious) declining readership (ie, actual users) - when will ad rates reconcile with true distribution?

The YP companies are basically playing with a poker face - the moment any of them break down and start lowering rates / revising distribution numbers, the rest will be dragged along, kicking and screaming. Alas, none of them have had the guts (yet) to accept reality.

Often times I check the # of bloglines users subscribed to a feed. A quick and dirty way to estimate how popular the feed is overall.

Bloglines that Blog X (which we own) has 236 subscribers. Feedburner on the other hand says 680. I understand there is some variation (especially between Sunday and Monday), but this is a bit more than that.

Anyone have a clue what is going on?

A few days late, but better late than never.

Today Bloggy Network announced the launch of is My Home. A mini-network blog, focused around cities.

Launched in nine cities, we should be in at least a dozen by month’s end.

This all ties into iBegin’s increasing reach into the local space. While not part of iBegin itself (iBegin and Bloggy Network are two separate companies), you can be sure they will be working together.

It is good to see that the high ground is still being espoused by people in power.

Replace ‘paid links’ with ’sponsored themes’ and you have the previous argument all over again - there is no definitive line between the two. This ain’t black and white.

My fellow cohort Jacob has written a nice post on sponsored themes: this ain’t black and white. My contribution was the title - I think it fits.

Or so that is what I’ve been told by one of our staff

I’m not sure if it is ready yet (been mostly hands off), but it should be interesting. I think the first few months will be a bit bumpy, but I think by month #6 we should be looking really gravy.

More as it develops - just another tease

UPDATE: And here it is.