AdSense and FeedBurner
We've been patiently waiting for the Google AdSense in RSS news to leak out, and it looks like it has. Google's approach is straight-forward: you edit your source feed template and modify it so that you include a linked img, the src of which includes the URL of the permalink associated with that item. That piece of markup gets generated once, and the img that returns can change over time. That prevents the feed from being marked as modified if they want to change the ad that gets slotted for an item.
FeedBurner has had a framework like this in place for quite a while, and we're excited to be able to add support for this program, which we detail in the post Google AdSense Support. Our offering will open up this program to user's that can't edit their feed template, but we can add a bunch of value to all publishers. Using FeedBurner to add your AdSense ads will give you a number of additional configuration options, like:
- only including ads in posts of a certain length (at least 100 words, for example)
- including in alternating posts instead of every post (if you're worried about advertising overload!)
- choosing which categories/tags to add ads too (include ads in my "venture capital" posts, but not my "family" posts)
The most exciting thing we can do, though, is integrate your ad performance statistics with your existing FeedBurner stats. Wait until you see our new Total Stats PRO paid offering -- you're gonna like what you see. Ad performance on a per item basis anyone?
Anyway, as John Motson likes to say, "things are hotting up now!" It's so much fun to be in this space right now.