TechMeme (formerly tech.memeorandum) is a site that bloggers and others check frequently for news. It is an entirely automated web service that looks at what bloggers are talking about, and linking to, and decides what is news based on that analysis. In many ways it is an anti-Digg. Humans have no say in what appears on the TechMeme homepage, other than by blogging about it.
TechMeme is focused on technology news. It, along with sister sites Memeorandum (politics), WeSmirch (celebrity gossip) and BallBug (baseball news), is one of the more important technical innovations that has come out of the new web.
Tonight Gabe Rivera, the founder of TechMeme, just invented something else - advertisements delivered via RSS. NOT advertisements embedded withing RSS feeds, but actually using RSS as the delivery mechanism.
You can see the initial ads, which are for sale on TechMeme (details here), in the right sidebar on the home page of the site. The ads are also shown in the image to the left.
Advertisers send the ad to Techmeme via RSS (typically this would come from a blog, but any content would work). If the advertiser wants to change the ad, they simply change the RSS content.
The way it works is simple. A sponsor's blog feed is polled every few minutes, the latest post of which appears in its assigned slot (first, second, or third).
Advantages of this approach over banner advertising are numerous. "Click-throughs" can lead to the visitor browsing, commenting on, and even subscribing to the sponsor's blog. And a sponsor has direct control over what appears on Techmeme simply by posting.
Pricing: First, second, and third slots are $4,500, $3,500, and $3,000 per month respectively, with a one month minimum term. CPM equivalents are low: in the $5-8 range.
Great Thought !!! Keep thinking...