July 30, 2005

How do you like those pajamas?

Did you get your offer from Pajamas Media yet? Are you going to put on the pajamas -- take a flat fee to commit the top four spots on your sidebar for a whole year? I thought Pajamas implied a bloggy freedom, different from a corporate, mainstream mentality. Are we supposed to marry Pajamas and give up on Henry Copeland's delightful BlogAds, which has been beautifully designed with a feeling for the spirit of blogging? Ah, I don't like pajamas anyway. I want to blog naked. With Henry.

UPDATE: I have more to say on the comparison between Pajamas Media and BlogAds here.

AND: Welcome Instapundit readers. Please read my newer post, linked in the update: I've got much more concrete analysis there.

19 comments:

I'm Full of Soup said...

I never sent in the paperwork but still have it in my office. If the pajama crowd strikes it rich, I guess I'll have a souvenir to remind me of my error.

Craig Howard said...

Of course Blogads is now accepting new "clients" by invitation only." I can't even get them to respond to an email. Not exactly what I'd expected from them either.

Ann Althouse said...

Craig: I think BlogAds always involved applying and waiting for them to email you. It probably has to do with the traffic level at your blog. I'm not sure Pajamas is going to be different.

AJ: Why are you assuming that if the Pajamas entrepreneurs get rich, the bloggers who sign on with get anything more than a pittance? They are asking people to lock in for 18 months or a year. If it works out, they should continue signing more people up and it might be that the deals will get better.

Brendan: Maybe everyone on the radio is naked! We're supposed to have this podcast thing going within 2 weeks!

Tim Worstall said...

I was puzzled by the offer as well. Sure, I’d like the increased exposure etc of the "Standard" level, yet they’re offering less than I make out of my ads already.....so I wouldn’t benefit (financially) from the increased exposure.

Not the most appealing offer ever been made to me I have to admit.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks, Tim. Read my new post on the subject.

Charlie Martin said...

Pictures?

Ann Althouse said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ann Althouse said...

A picture would cost WAY more than the amount offered by Pajamas for a year of advertising on this blog.

Ann Althouse said...

Dave: I got mine on Friday. Interesting to see what the roll out is like and to speculate about how the timing of the offers may have been structured to control the publicity. They certainly didn't try to make me like them!

Judith said...

I haven't gotten an offer yet, although Roger asked me to send him my traffic estimate. I was part of the initial feeler 6 months ago, but it's been vaporware since then.

glad to see something is happening for somebody.

Ann Althouse said...

Judith: I was part the initial feeler to, then I heard nothing until I got an insultingly bad offer. If that count sas "something happening," give me nothing.

Ann Althouse said...

Patterico: The offer is based on April traffic, and if your figures now are better you can request a better offer. But, as usual, I'm not your lawyer. Remember you'll be yoking yourself to these people for a year and subordinating the BlogAds. Make a good decision.

Nick said...

Seeing as how most of us are piddly bloggers who initially signed up with Pajamas... we haven't gotten emails yet. Only the big fish have so far I believe.

Ann Althouse said...

Nick: You see me as a big fish, but they treated me like a little fish and I was offended. Maybe they should have gone to the little guys first, because if you don't already have BlogAds income, you don't have the problem of making a trade-off to consider.

DaveG said...

It's things like this that convince me that my blog must just suck. I've had 5 or 6 links to various postings from Instapundit, but no solicitation at all from the Pajamas folks. That could be because I was somewhat outspoken against the idea when I first heard about it, but it's more likely to be my substandard product.

Oh well, I wasn't in it for the money anyway.

Ann Althouse said...

DaveG: I'm guessing they don't really have the money to do things the way they wanted, and they chose a strategy to get started with some elite group, but then they went about that strategy in a bone-headed way that alienated people in the target group. I keep coming back to the idea of how flat-out bizarre it is to be asked to commit for a year to a group you don't know anything about. Yeah, you know them and like them as bloggers, but who's really running the business and why should they be trusted doing that?

Nick said...

I'm late responding to your comment Ann... but oh well. I don't think they treated you like a little fish, I just think they're making a classic marketing blunder.

When coming into a market, you really have two choices. You can either try to steal market share from a competitor (which it seems they're trying to do with Blog Ads), or you can create new market share. You're suggesting that they should go to the little fish (like me) who BlogAds won't even touch because we don't get enough traffic.

I agree. I think that they could easily create a new market in bulk advertising to smaller bloggers who are affiliated with their network. Our readership may be small, but it tends to be very very loyal. And it's also easy pickings since we all know that the other major advertising companies wont' touch us.

Of course that means that they'd be competing against Google Ads which many bloggers use. But... they would have a major advantage over Google in that they'd also be offering more than just ads, they'd could be offering linking services as well as other services that would promote smaller blogs.

Oh well... kind of irrelevent as they don't seem to be going that way. In the mean time I've had to give a pass on an advertiser who emailed me, interested in my blog because I signed Pajama's hold agreement... and have gotten very little news out of it. Granted I knew that risk and didn't think anyone would actually be interested in me, but still a litte upsetting.

Jerry said...

I got to know your blog from google while i was searching for Blogads invitation. Do you mind to send me an invitation if you happen to have one? Thanks :)

Ann Althouse said...

I don't have BlogAds invitations. I think maybe at some earlier phase of BlogAds that some bloggers were put in that position.