Ever since Buzzfeed-style link-baiting articles took Facebook readers attention the style and quality of online reporting has changed drastically. It’s hard to compete with momentary distraction of kittens and what she did last summer. One way around keeping readers on your web property without linking them out elsewhere is native ads.
Though the payment isn’t typically high, reciprocating links inside native advertising sites tends to create more overall traffic health. Native ads are the “read more” articles that pop up after you’ve scrolled through an article or slideshow. When done well, the selected content matches a reader’s interests and priorities. Keeping traffic on your site is the priority.
As the world and climate of eco blogging evolves (are we even called bloggers or eco anymore?) –– what about impact generators? –– we need to expand our publisher tool kits to manage and collect resources. Readers tend to look up to us for moral higher ground and for that making the right choices on who should advertise on your site can be a big question.
Is it okay to promote links to online gaming sites, if the revenues pay for articles that educate on global warming? These are some of the questions we have. The jury is in that native ads can be a good way to share ad revenue and traffic between like-minded websites.
