Cheezhead

As we progress deeper and deeper into a “find and feed” ecosystem on the Web, sites relying on revenue via advertising - particularly banner and/or pay-per-click ads - to prosper are in a real quandary:

If users can simply get site content via RSS feeds, they won’t see the ads which surround that content on a regular basis. If they don’t see the ads, sites won’t make money.

For example, Indeed.com’s primary source of revenue is PPC advertising. If someone signs up for their job content via feed, they’ll never see the PPC ads. In this scenario, Indeed makes zero dollars, while the user gets the value of their site. It’s a win-lose.

In contrast, Simply Hired’s feed takes users to SH before they can view an entire job (how it is on Bloglines, at least). This is good for SH’s pageviews and thus PPC advertising and bulk resume services, but I’m not it’s for the overall good of the user.

If you make money via job postings, a la CareerBuilder, RSS is a good thing. Users can opt-in for your content, similar to an e-mail job agent, which gets employers in front of more users more often.

True, CareerBuilder is sacrificing direct traffic, but do they really care? OK, Monster’s spam machine probably cares, but too bad, right? Likewise, if you’re selling merchandise, RSS is a good thing. Sites like eBay and Circuit City utilize RSS quite nicely, helping the bottom line and the user.

In short, the Googlization of the Web - providing free masses of content while making money on advertising - while popular and effective as of today, seems to fly in the face of a world that is progressively moving toward a feed mentality.

How will ad-driven sites solve this issue? Ya’ got me.

Adding advertising in feeds is one answer. This blog provides sponsored links in its footer, for example. But the real estate is relatively limited, and the risk of ticking off users with overkill is all too prevalent.

Providing snippets of content in a feed, requiring users to visit the site for the “rest of the story” is possibly another solution, but I for one hate feeds that do this. Or maybe we should look at television and movies for their use of product placement as a possible answer.

OK, I admit, maybe there aren’t any good answers. And certainly the page view is in trouble on more than one front.

But if content sites and the “Indeeds” of the world are to thrive, I think they’d better figure out the RSS dilemma sooner rather than later.