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Comment by ppeetteerr | Hacker News Reader

Display ads are dead. They have been dying for over a decade. Video ads have picked up some slack but they too are being commoditized. These days, publishers are turning to the paygate model and commerce.

Anyone who thinks that ads can pay for publishing are fooling themselves into believing they are part of the top percentile of publishers for whom this works due to sheer impression volume.

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There is also the opposite end of the spectrum where advertising works - niche publications by small teams.

In the Apple ecosystem there is Daring Fireball. John Gruber charges $6500 a week for one ad that appears on Monday on both the website and RSS Feed and a thank you post at the end of the week.

He also charges $5500 for three ads in each podcast.

It works for some, there is no doubt. I would believe that industry publications (transportation, forestry, etc.), and popular blogs, still make decent coin on selling print ads or sponsorships on the web.

It's different to the original post's comments. They are looking at a public audience with ad blockers.

Podcasts are a different affair altogether. I would love to see the numbers for those as I'm never in front of my computer when I listen to a podcast and I don't remember the ads long enough to followup even when I'm interested in the product.

Also, thanks for sharing that Gruber has a podcast!

I would love to see the numbers for those as I'm never in front of my computer when I listen to a podcast and I don't remember the ads long enough to followup even when I'm interested in the product.

It's not always about direct action, it's often about brand awareness. If you listen to a lot of podcasts, you'll know the first company you think about when you are in the market for:

- Mattresses

- Eyeglasses

- Creating a website quickly

- online backup

- shaving products.

- Mesh networking devices

It's an old joke that the definition of a podcast is "two or more white guys talking about tech sponsored by Squarespace".

Whether you act right then, when someone asks you to build them a website, your first thought is going to be to point them at SquareSpace.

Since the same sponsors keep buying ads on podcast and most of them have coupon codes to tell them where their customers came from, they have metrics that tell them the return on investment.

Oh jeez, don't tell podcast advertisers, but I read your list, recognized that I've heard ads for every one of those products repeatedly across multiple podcasts, but I couldn't remember any of the brand names except for shaving—and I think that's only because I recently got annoyed when a YouTuber I subscribe to started to advertise for Dollar Shave Club (I assume that's who you refer to) at the beginning and end of his videos.

But maybe advertisers are happy enough if I remember their name when I eventually go looking for, say, eyeglasses and recognize their name in the search results.

- Mattresses (Casper)

- Eyeglasses (Warby Parker)

- Creating a website quickly (Squarespace)

- online backup (Backblaze)

- shaving products. (Dollar Shave Club)

- Mesh networking devices (Eero)

> Since the same sponsors keep buying ads on podcast and most of them have coupon codes to tell them where their customers came from, they have metrics that tell them the return on investment.

This is a good point and I would love to see the value of advertising on podcasts on the direct (custom links) and indirect (awareness) outcome.

Yes, and the recommendations are semi meaningful, even. Google and Facebook have no incentive to actually show you ads for good products, just ads you are likely to click.

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