Not long ago, that created a different picture.

Ad-space in the Internet Real Estate market has been analyzed and studied and now appears gold and platinum districts are being heavily targeted. Pay Per Post recently did a study to find out the average ctr, ctr being Click Through Rate. CTR is how many people visit an advertisers site by clicking the links. They have found that the click through rate is 10.545% for sponsored blogging through Pay Per Post. They compare this rate with .5% to 1.5% CTR from Google sponsored ads. This is an awesome rate when you consider how low magazine and television ads bring in. Then you get the picture of how much money and time is being spent on this issue.

CTR is not to be confused with Conversion. Conversion is when Click Thru’s mean you actually bought something. Conversion rates are the most difficult analysis for a company’s ad guys. People go to a site, they might buy then or come back later and buy. I know from Buttercup Mercantile’s hits that many people will come back and buy. I’m still small enough to track the IP’s and emails. Still, with online sales, this is more easily tracked than say, an magazine ad or posting in a profession related journal.

In the old days you saw catalog codes. The telephone order taker would ask, “What catalog are you ordering from?”. They will even print catalogues with different specials and prices to get at this information. Whenever a catalog was printed, we had to combine the products into an online ordering catalog for our order takers. That assured proper pricing – and the marketing guys were assured juicy data. We all know, that what sold you is golden. I don’t think the notion – “You have what looks like a useful or good product – so I want to buy it” is on their list of reasons. Too easy. As they will tell you – there are thousands of widgets. Why did you pick ours?

Do you remember the 90′s? Internet was evil – It will ruin your marriage – your children – you are promoting big brother. People didn’t buy it, realizing that’s like blaming the automobile and not the driver. Much as Elvis’ hips were blamed for corrupting the obedient children of the 50′s. and cable TV was blamed in the early 80′s. The age old problem – we hate being marketed to but love change.

Now, the new millennium and the acceptance of internet technologies give new waters for fish to swim in and along comes the predators. Mother Nature’s food chain is the only constant. The preferred food hasn’t changed yet, either. Take money out of your pockets and see how quick you become distasteful to the predator.

So, what has changed is who gets the benefits and reap the rewards. In this case, ordinary people have a chance at the Publishing companies’ dollars and the publishers aren’t happy. They raise a stink, those that hate being marketed to raise a stink – the old advocacy tactics come to bear and new social outcasts are born. It’s only money people. You can not only choose to spend it or not, but you can choose to make it. So if you need some carrots before the general public gets tired of carrot cake, you might want to take a look into selling some of your pixels.