It may be a simple wordplay but WordAds is a clever move by WordPress.
WordPress announced their partnership with Federated Media back in October this year, and it was no small partnership with the deal announcing the agreement to provide Federated Media, the advertising rights to all of WordPress.com inventory (so in short the right to provide advertising across the 24million WordPress.com hosted sites and blogs).
We’ll tell you what WordAds means for WordPress bloggers and advertisers.
Previously it was only high-traffic blogs on WordPress.com, those with 25,000 + page views each month, who were able to implement advertising, below that there was no advertising offering.
WordAds looks to be the first output of this partnership and is WordPress's answer to AdSense. The sale of this inventory means more revenue opportunities for wordpress.com, blog owners and of course the brands.
What does WordAds mean for WordPress.com blog owners?
Over the years one thing blog owners and content creators have been united on is calling for WordPress.com to allow them to earn money through ads. However for reasons of “taste” and a belief that Google AdSense was “state of the art”, advertising was originally resisted.
But WordPress.com has come around: “You pour a lot of time and effort into your blog and you deserve better than AdSense.”
WordAds is being pitch as “100% optional and is designed for bloggers who would like to earn money from their blogs by showing high quality ads from brand advertisers.”
WordPress.com blog/site owners will now be able to display Federated Media ads on their blog and will also be able to accept sponsored posts.
What does this mean for advertisers?
Federated Media focuses on connecting brands with engaged audiences, allowing them to become involved with topics and discussions.
The original partnership announcement from Federation Media highlighted a few of these proposed advertising opportunities that will be available from the partnership:
Content curation â Brands will be able to pull in curation from WordPress.com's 25 million hosted sites
Sponsored posts â WordPress.com bloggers will have the chance to write posts concerning a subject, giving advertisers a more seamless integration with blog topics
Conversation targeting â Keywords might be great for some topics, but conversations are king. By allowing brands to focus advertising at an entire conversation and its context, Federated Media is putting massive power into the hands of the brands and the publishers alike
Access to WordPress.com's inventory will open another channel for brands targeting wider audiences and by the sound of things they will be doing so effectively through a content and conversation-driven advertising offering.
Where can WordPress.com Blog owners sign up:
You can apply for the WordAds program here, just follow the link, log in, and fill out a form signalling your interest in taking part in the programmes.
WordPress has stated that only “publicly visible blogs with custom domains” will be considered for the WordAds program.
Initial requirements have been posted by WordPress.com “election will be based on level of traffic and engagement, type of content, and language used on a blog”.
WordPress.com has forewarned “Some blogs may not be accepted”.
If you're looking for an experienced team of online advertisers that can help you target larger audiences and attract more targeted traffic to your site, visit our Online Marketing pages and get in touch with us.
