Guest Post: The advent of ad/blog networks

Blogs started earlier this century as isolated Web properties without any concrete notion that they would eventually become media properties. As blogs like TechCrunch and BoingBoing and their traffic attained journalistic cachet and start to imitate media brands like Forbes or NYT, lights suddenly flickered on the new Madison Avenue. Ad Networks are the New Dot-Coms (New York Times, Nov. 7, 2007):

"In just the last two days, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, BuzzMetrics and ZoomInfo all said they would start ad networks. Most significantly, Facebook is preparing to start one that draws on the information it has about users."

Brand name marketing arrives for batches of blogs that comprise the ad networks. Blog networks aren't new, but their brand names for the most part aren't recognized by the public. Martha Stewart and Facebook can leverage their popular brand, as can the blog networks now evolving within brands like Forbes and NYT. The recent $1.5 investment in Curbed.com marks the first foray into branding a real estate blog network that will roll out across American cities. NYT concludes:

"Prediction 1: We’ll see dozens more ad networks announced in the next six months.
Prediction 2: 95 percent of them will be gone in two years."

--Pat Kitano, Transparent Real Estate

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