Trying out a new advertising option

IF there is one thing I have found difficult to offer readers of This French Life it is a simple advertising option that puts them in control.

I've helped a few companies who have services that will appeal to lovers of all things France, but I've only be able to offer plain graphic ads for a flat fee that are not easy to measure or require me to update.

So I am hoping that a new service I am promoting on the site will appeal as I believe it is simple to understand, allows people to easily set a budget and gives them the tools to edit their ads whenever they want.

I have written up a piece offering advice to business owners who want to advertise on This French Life, so I won't repeat myself here.

But as a bit of background on the actual advertising platform it has been made available by Rick Waghorn and the software engineers he has worked with who have produced Addiply, see Here we go… Our little baby Addiply suddenly comes of age for Rick's write up.

It is a text ad service that is aimed at connecting publishers with small business owners who just want to buy an advert on sites they already know in a couple of quick and simple steps.

People deposit a minimum of £10 in their advertising account and pick the website they want to appear on, there are only a handful available at the moment, but as the number of publishers increase then buckets of sites could be bought in one go.

For now if someone has a product to promote to readers of This French Life they can place a minimum bid of 50p per 1,000 page impressions, so this will see their advert displayed 20,000 times across more than 3,000 pages - I don't think that's a bad deal.

And the advertiser has complete control over their advert headline and text, as well as tools to see the number of times their advert has been clicked and how much they have spent.

It is early days yet and I expect to receive a few questions from potential advertisers, but I do think it offers business owners a simple way to target websites they often already know and read - letting them promote their products to readers just like them.