NaturalNews Launches Advertising Program for Natural Health and Green Living Companies

Monday, February 23, 2009 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: advertising, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) Beginning March 3rd, NaturalNews will launch a new advertising program that allows providers of high-quality health and green living products and services to display 300 x 250 ads on NaturalNews, replacing the same-sized Google ads that have been present for the past five years.

A CPM pricing model allows even small and medium-sized companies to appear in the advertising space on NaturalNews, while strict advertiser guidelines eliminate the possibility of sub-standard ads appearing on the site (which has been a problem with Google from the outset).

Although I personally will not be approving or rejecting ads (because I will have no such oversight over the advertising department), I have written some stringent guidelines on what kind of ads we will and won't accept:

• No ads promoting products containing dangerous ingredients: MSG, aspartame, sucralose, yeast extract, hydrogenated oils, toxic man-made chemicals, etc.

• No ads promoting cosmetic surgery, mastectomies, mammograms, vaccines or highly invasive, harmful procedures.

• No ads from pharmaceutical companies.

• No ads from weight loss products unless they meet stringent nutritional guidelines.

• No ads from companies that do not provide excellent customer service.

(Other requirements apply. NaturalNews reserves the right to reject any ad, for any reason.)

In addition, ad space will be routinely donated to health freedom non-profit organizations and companies under assault by the FTC and the FDA.

For example, we will donate ad space to Daniel Chapter One, Wilderness Family Naturals and other companies being assaulted by the FDA and the FTC, along with a special graphic indicating the fact that they are being targeted for termination by the FDA (so that you can help support their businesses so they may defend themselves against tyranny and oppression).

We aim to promote at least $100,000 in ad space to such organizations over the next twelve months!

Improved reader experienced, improved visibility for small companies

With this change, we are actively taking steps to improve the reader experience on NaturalNews (bringing you far higher-quality sponsors with clean, interesting ads in the margin) while boosting the visibility opportunities for small and medium-sized companies that deserve your business.

Ads are offered on a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions) at very reasonable rates. To learn more, email [email protected] for a media kit.

About revenues and ads

It is a practical reality that publishers of quality content must generate revenues to fund their operations. For more than five years, we've adhered to a Google Adsense advertising model as a way to generate that revenue without forming any direct relationships with advertisers.

Unfortunately, the quality of Google Adsense ads have not notably improved over time. This has caused two serious problems on our site:

• The common appearance of "belly fat ads" and other annoying graphic images that appear in the 300 x 250 Adsense ad space.

• The appearance of ads promoting products that we are against! When we write about Splenda, for example, Google ads will appear promoting Splenda products. This has been an annoyance for both the readers and our staff for quite some time. (Google allows you to ban a limited number of ads, but not more than one or two hundred. We have tried to police this, but there are too many ads to police.)

In addition, even though Google Adsense is a wonderful service in many ways, Google does keep a significant portion of the ad revenues, yet they still do not reveal what percentage they keep (estimates put it at 60% or so).

As a result, Google advertisers are paying more than double what they should be paying to appear on NaturalNews. In this time of great economic stress, that has put many high-quality smaller advertisers out of reach of the visibility they desperately need to stay in business. By allowing them to advertise directly with NaturalNews at a rate that costs 60% less than Google (estimated), we are enabling these quality companies to reach a quality-minded audience for a lot less money than what they're spending now.

What about conflicts of interest?

I have long been a critic of medical journals, newspapers and cable news channels for running websites promoting pharmaceuticals and toxic personal care products. So what's different about NaturalNews advertising? It's simple:

We don't promote poison!

You will never see an ad on this new NaturalNews service that promotes a toxic product, period!

What about conflicts of interest? There is no conflict because we will not accept ads unless we philosophically endorse the product or service being offered. Over the past five years, spanning over twenty thousand pages of content, we've established an unswerving position on nutrition, green living, naturopathy and natural health. All ads you see on NaturalNews will be completely compatible with that philosophy, and unlike with the medical journals, there will be no man-made chemicals (that might kill you) being publicized on NaturalNews.

To further remove any possibility of conflicts of interest, I will personally not be involved in the ad approval process. That is being handled by a separate department within NaturalNews. The first time I will see the ads is when they appear on NaturalNews, just like you. (If there are offensive ads that appear, however, I do reserve the right to cancel the ad campaign and refund the advertiser. So I hold VETO power to banish ads from the site.)

What will NaturalNews do with the ad money?

This new ad campaign will replace the ad revenues we're receiving from the 300 x 250 Google ads. Accordingly, it will most likely be a revenue-neutral event, meaning we will earn no additional revenues beyond what we are already earning. (Advertisers, however, will save money, since Google will not be keeping 60% or so.)

The revenues we are earning right now are being used to pay for employees, web hosting, IT services, office space, computer hardware, contract journalists (and videographers) and other costs of running a quality content website.

It is these revenues that allow us to bring you this outstanding daily content that you're enjoying right now. For us to keep NaturalNews content free (which is our intention, of course), we must maintain a reasonable revenue stream that covers operating costs.

I've seen advertising done wrong, and advertising done right. When done right, it's actually a very interesting part of the content, without being annoying. For example, when I pick up a copy of a natural health magazine at the bookstore, I'm not interested in the articles at all (most mainstream magazine articles are ho-hum); I'm interested in the products offered by the advertisers.

With the principles outlined here, we aim to keep a healthy balance between content and advertisers, bringing you the best of both. It all starts March 3rd.

Potential advertisers interested in appearing on NaturalNews may email us at [email protected] for more information. Impression inventory is available on a first-come, first-served basis. You must provide your own ad creative. Videos are acceptable as long as auto-play is turned off. Animations are limited to five seconds. No flashing ads or annoying images. See our media kit for more details.