Some of you may have noticed a small badge at the bottom of the sidebar proclaiming that I am the proud member of the Music network, a group of blogs, forums, sites and feeds all dedicated to music. Yeah, that’s right. Jealous?
It’s a FeedBurner publisher network — right now still in pre-release mode — and I happen to be the network coordinator**. I’m trying to get some more folks into the network to get us publishers even more super valuable in the eyes of advertisers. So far, it’s me, JamBase, Largehearted Boy, Aquarium Drunkard, Muzzle of Bees, SOHH.com, ProHipHop.com, Burning Oak, ByronCrawford.com, Herzeleid.com, Hip Hop Press, Arjan Writes, and ProfessionalRockstars.com.
If you’re interested in joining up and you’re interested in running ads in your feed (and/or on your site archive pages), send me an email or drop a comment and we’ll chat and get you signed up.
I really like this network idea because FeedBurner actually spreads the ad campaigns placed in that network throughout the network as it’s running — not just on one or two of the bigger sites — leaving everyone in the network a fair chance to get some ads served. Hopefully some cross-promotion and some sidebar badges will help with driving more feed subscribers, more ad impressions, and ultimately more publishers in the network — all of which help all of us to look very valuable from an online advertising perspective.
Will being in the Music network make me rich?
Maybe not right away but it all depends on your subscriber level, whether you only want to run feeds ads vs. site ads, campaign details, price, etc. Plus, are you actually making anything off of your feed right now? I know a lot of people that only provide post summaries in their feed in the hopes that it’ll drive more page views to their site. Personally, I’d rather just read a feed with full content and have a small ad inserted at the bottom of the post. It’s rather unobtrusive if you ask me. The Music network will allow you to make a little back from your feed while allowing your fans — the feed subscribers that keep coming back — to reach your content directly and easily.
Will being in the Music network make you super uber/cool/awesome/diggity-dope and stuff?
Yes, I’d say the answer to that question is simply yes. Carry on.
I’m an advertiser. Why would I want to target music blogs/sites through the Music network?
Because the publishers that make up the network are super uber/cool/awesome/diggity-dope and stuff. We reach many music fans on the web and strive to maintain a genre-colorblind approach to bringing publishers together. You can go to other networks, but the Music network through FeedBurner allows you to place ads on sites and feeds with some of the major players in the Music publishing world in one fell swoop (read: one ad campaign and not multiple).
What is a feed?
Start here.
I’m still looking to put together a snazzy network name — maybe a little more fun than simply “the Music network” — with a snazzy logo idea surely to follow. The person to post the best ideas in the comments will win free pats-on-the-back (or swift kicks-in-the-ass depending on the tone).
** Note: I work at FeedBurner full-time but wanted to put together this network on my own accord.