Why blogs will never die – and the ad wars

Last week, issue #73 of The Daily talked about blogging in Facebook’s world. I talked about how you cannot rely on Facebook for your traffic.

But, I want to take it a step further…

Last week, Facebook also made another announcement you might have seen. They are straight-up banning all ads having to do with cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and ICOs. Personally, I don’t find it suprising, although it is overreaching. And I think they’ll fine-tune it and it will all work out just fine. But…

Once again, a decision from Facebook can make or break whole businesses. Google does it, too.

But, it is all part of a larger war. You need to know about it. It is also why blogging will never die. It is why your blog is your most powerful marketing tool.

That war is on advertising.

Let me ask you this…

Do you run an ad blocker? Do you find ads kinda annoying?

Of course you do. 🙂 And when you’re pissed off about the ads you see, it affects Google and Facebook, too. It is a direct battle with the marketers. Marketers want to send you BUY BUY BUY!! all the time. But, us end users hate it.

Even the web browsers are building in protections now. Built-in ad blocking, built in cookie blocking so you can’t be tracked.

End users are the true customers of Google and Facebook. Marketers are just the monetization strategy, but the true customer is you and me. Google and Facebook care about OUR user experience and they’re going to fight the marketers to the degree needed to ensure it.

This is why you see the terms of service for the ad networks get more restricted. And why you see marketers complain every time something changes.

It is a war.

But, you can either fight it. Or you can practice a little digital judo.

Judo is that Japanese style of combat where you use your opponent’s own strength against them. When they throw themselves at you, you redirect that energy so they basically throw themselves right over your shoulder.

In other words, you don’t have to fight it. Go where the puck is going.

Let’s look right at Facebook’s own advertising principles. I quote…

“Advertising is how we provide our services for free. But ads shouldn’t be a tax on your experience. We want ads to be as relevant and useful to you as the other posts you see. “

You get that? They want the ADS to be as relevant and useful as the other posts.

In other words, ads that don’t look like ads. Ads that are useful.

What’s useful?

Content.

Blog content. Videos. Podcasts.

What’s NOT useful?

Squeeze pages, video sales letters, sales pages, etc.

So, should you just look at the specifics of the ban hammer and try to get around it…. or should you just give Facebook and Google what they want?

They want content. Give them content.

Set up ads which point right to your blog posts.

Optimize the blog post for your opt-in. Put in content upgrades. Get rid of the visual distractions (like a sidebar) and just use your CONTENT as your “landing page”.

This is why blogs will never die.

Blog posts and other kinds of content usually posted to blogs are exactly what these networks WANT in their ads.

End users want to see great content. They won’t be using ad blockers to hide from your content. End users resent you when you try to take from them without giving them value. So, lead with value. Lead with content.

You win the war by not even taking part in it.

– David