blogger interrupted

Hint - now would be a good time to hit my Tip Jar!

I made this YouTube and titled it “Do I Freak You Out?” for a reason.  Looks like I really do freak some people out, including my own ad network.

I joined ClickToBlue’s progressive ad network before launching my new blog.  I’ve been on the hunt for a way to monetize blogging for years, and ClickToBlue’s business model seemed the way to go.  So when I heard about it, I went for it.  

No one knows more than me how controversial my blog can be.  So I gave my ad network the heads up.  My blog launched on April 14, and that day, I had the following instant message exchange with David Rubenstein, my ClickToBlue rep.

11:56 AM me: u there?

David: yes 

how’s your launch been going?

11:57 AM me: just launched…..gettin some traction, slow though

do me a favor

  you will get emails from people who want you to pull the ads off of my site. when you get them, i want to know who they are.

11:58 AM David: why will we get e-mails like that?

 me: trust me

  it’s why the name of the blog is blogger interrupted

11:59 AM David: ok then

 me: just let me know as it happens. it might not occur for a while, but trust me, it will occur

12:00 PM David: noted

 me: thanks

On April 29, I noticed a steep decline in my ad revenue, and immediately emailed Rubenstein for info.  I got numerous strange responses, which culminated in an email on May 3.

OK, so here’s what I’ve found out.  The guy who covers this stuff has been out of town, but I gathered that some of our advertisers requested their ads be pulled from Blogger Interrupted.  So the ads that ended up leftover are lower CPM [which pays per 1,000 impressions] or CPAs, which sometimes carry no CPM but very high returns on clickthroughs and resulting actions.  With the combined factors of Noah being out of town, my moving into a new place and our general business, this all got lost in the mix and you weren’t informed.  I apologize for this.

That’s when I started digging into my stats, and learned that this is line of crap.  ClickToBlue pulled the paying CPM ads from my site on April 28 without notice, despite me warning them that this would occur on April 14 and specifically asking for notice in real time.  April 28 also happens to be right around the time the Marc Dann stuff was hitting fever pitch.

Most of the ads that were pulled were from companies which actually share ClickToBlue’s address in New York - Hudson TG, Gotham Ghostwriters, and ClickToBlue’s own ads.   Hudson TG principal Ben Geyerhahn, is a ClickToBlue cofounder at a billion dollar venture capital fund, and Alex Sherman is a Hudson employee who is also ClickToBlue’s VP of advertising.  Ads from Amazon and Air American Radio were pulled, too, but the majority were internal to ClickToBlue’s own company.  

In short, someone complained to ClickToBlue and ClickToBlue pulled their ads, and all the other paying ads.  Of course I knew this would happen, which is why I warned them on April 14.

Hint - now would be a good time to hit my Tip Jar!

When I learned how this went down, I emailed Rubenstein, Alex Sherman, and Noah Yago, the venture capitalist whose multi-billion dollar fund is also a co-founder of ClickToBlue, for answers.  I got the silent treatment.  So then I decided to ask the question to the Google Discussion Group at ClickToBlue, to see if any other ClickToBlue bloggers had similar problems.  I learned that I am no longer a member of the ClickToBlue Google Group.  So I asked Eric to email the group for me.

And literally, within minutes of Eric’s email going to the Google Group, I get this email, from Ben Geyerhahn.

Dear ClickToBlue Beta Participant:

Thank you for participating in the Beta phase of the ClickToBlue Network.  We appreciate your time.  Unfortunately, we will not be extending you a contract to participate in the network going forward.

I am sending this blog post along to the players named here and the ClickToBlue member blogs with the following message.  I don’t know how a blog advertising network can make money if they cashier a blogger when he writes something controversial.  I would love to remain in the ClickToBlue network, but not if one of the unwritten rules is that ClickToBlue can operate with this kind of unprofessionalism, and is susceptible to some nutcase deciding to send an email to say pull the ads.  That’s just Amateur Hour, folks. 

I’m under no illusions, here.  I know my blog is gonna scare off some advertisers.  But that situation will arise at some point with just about any blogger, not just the ones as freaky as me.  Lucky for me I’ve been down this road a few times and it doesn’t really phase me as much as it used to.  But I guess I do freak you out, don’t I?

Hint - now would be a good time to hit my Tip Jar!

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