~TS

Sounds like Michael got an email from a Publisher who had a personal change- probably based on low quality/performance/fraud or a contract change and made up a story about 80% revenue is going away and other publishers are leaving in droves. What is odd is that TC never asked any other Glam publishers like you or Glam for facts before they posted. At the same time VentureBeat and other Blogs took the time to find out facts. Reading the comments says that Glam offers value to their Publishers and that is not changing- all that has happened is one publisher is trying to email news bloggers and hurt Glam and the Glam Publishers future business by throwing dirt.

Is Michael trying to be and beat ValleyWag that hounds him that he says is bad for the web or be like Forbes and WSJ that he could grow up to be? Doing stories without facts, not taking the time to check sources, not disclosing relationships with competitors like Sugar, not disclosing information about joint parties, how is this different than being in the sensational gossip business? How would TC’s advertisers like it if they did this to them?

I agree, Michael should post a retraction and issue an apology or stop complaining about stories on valleywag.

How about that party you are throwing in Hollywood with Sugar? (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/20/geek-goes-chic-were-partying-with-popsugar). Could your relationship with them be the reason you are always so nasty to Glam?. How about a little disclosure about your vested interest in Sugar Publishing?.

Don’t you think you owe it to your readers to disclose these facts? That’s one of the rules of blogging: FULL DISCLOSURE

Furthermore, some of the other bloggers and I were taking today and so far we are sticking with Glam.

How about eating a little humble pie and admit you got it wrong this time?

Bottom line is we are not leaving in droves as you indicated in your post.

Maybe in future posts about Glam or any other competitor you should be a little more candid in revealing your business relationships

I must admit as an admirer and follower of you and Techcrunch I am losing respect.

It’s a free market people. Bloggers can go where the money is, but Glam is not a charity for bloggers- they don’t have to pay for you to blog.

As for the other networks - show me the money - I’ve had lots of networks promise the world and under deliver. Glam is the only one who actually came through on their promises.

Frankly the safest thing to do is get your own ad person and build your own ad relationships, but that is an endeavor all it’s own. I personally wrote over 300 invoices last year and answered 20 RFPs - I’d rather outsource that to a network or contract someone to take over sales, but I won’t do it if it means selling our inventory cheap.

Frankly I think Glam did us a favor by highly valueing our inventory so that I can keep my rate card high. That’s something Burst and Valueclick were never able to do.

Let the bidding begin!

Michelle Madhok
shefinds.com, momfinds.com
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20.....rgain.html

And, while I can appreciate that losing guaranteed CPM ad dollars from Glam is a difficult adjustment, I think it also a creates an opportunity for publishers to introduce into their sites new revenue-yielding advertising products.

Again, PursePage.com is a good example of a publisher that includes a broad mix of media elements. They feature Google Ads, Glam Ads and Shopzilla Publisher Program Ads.

Publishers have a huge range of options and my experience has been that when online ads (or links) are more well integrated and contextually relevant, they tend to yield incredibly high eRPMs (perhaps even richer than the guaranteed $3 that Glam previously offered).

David Weinrot
SVP, Operations & Business Development
Shopzilla, Inc.
http://publisher.shopzilla.com

I think quality blogs need to strive to receive more than $5 CPM. Not sure how, though…

She explained to me why there were doing this, she took the time to put my mind at ease and referred to the section in the e-mail that says: “On March 25, Glam will reduce the number of house ads we deliver to your site and will begin serving the new default ads in their place. However, we will continue to run paid house ads on your site to fulfill the minimum commitments that Glam has contractually agreed to”.

Now that I understand how this new system works I am even more firm in my decision to stay with Glam.

I have been a network member since 2006 and so far I have nothing but good things to say about Glam. I don’t see how this new system is detrimental to bloggers. It will give us more choices and opportunities to make money.

Besides the money I make in banner ads I get revenue from other programs that Glam offers. I just do not see Federated Media or Gorilla Nation doing that.

I looked into Federated and Gorilla and the experience of dealing with them, specially Gorilla left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I will stick with Glam for the foreseable future: They provide me with very decent CPMs, other revenue opportunities and treat me as a valued partner in their business.

This posting may be a case of a blogger getting hysterical over something she or he doesn’t understand. If I were Glam I would be wanting to know who is sending all this e-mails around trying to get the bloggers upset.

Is the $3-$5 CPM something they offer certain bloggers through a special contract or is it something they only offered in the beginning?

I run a popular fashion blog but didn’t want to apply to glam because I didn’t want to make only $.50 per click! That’s kind of insulting.

I wouldn’t say that Glam fooled investors. It’s called a strategy, specifically the “loss leader” in order to get customers in the door. And it worked for them, they got publishers, Comscore numbers, advertisers, and ultimately a high valuation.

Another good example was YouTube, who gained in traffic primarily off of illegal, copyrighted content. Once you have the numbers, no matter how you got them, you can always change the model and retain a high percentage of the traffic. And that’s what’s going on. It’s smart really…

“This was reported incorrectly. If there is a real revenue level that the publisher is guaranteed, Glam ensures that level is met by using house ads, and it will continue to do so.”

“Glam may acquire blogs cheaply….This is not correct. As a web site and blogging business yourself, you would understand that success online comes from tremendous continuous energy to create and build an audience online. Any short term changes simply would not work, as there would be little long term success after the deal closed.”

“This also includes letting publishers run their own ad server. This is a step beyond what other networks, say Federated Media offers its publishers. (VentureBeat uses Federated Media for its ad partner, for example, and Federated Media controls access to our ad server).”

Sounds like minimums have no change, revenue is not dropping as reported, and Glam is offering publishers more choices than networks such as FM???

http://venturebeat.com/2008/03.....ad-change/

Robert Kadar
CEO
Good Health Advertising
http://www.GoodHealthAdvertising.com

Robert Kadar
CEO
Good Health Advertising
http://www.GoodHealthAdvertising.com