JG etc.

Nick Carr, wrote a piece entitled No Room on the Web, regarding the lack of quality advertising inventory available online.

By contrast, there’s plenty of supply available for banner ads. The problem here is that advertisers don’t much like the space that’s available, particularly the space that’s near user-generated content: “The complex task of spreading media spending across thousands of small Web sites, many with different ad formats, means that advertisers tend to return to heavily trafficked sites, where supply is at a premium. Even on the big portals, marketers are leery of having their ads placed near consumer-generated content that might be objectionable.”

Nick is right; it is all about the content.

As ever, good content is king, and the flood of amateur content doesn’t appear to meet advertisers’ definition of “good.” Maybe professionals aren’t so dispensable after all.

As far as I can see, this is the next big shift in online advertising. Away from the spray buys, contextual algorithms, click fraud, and remnant programs. Maybe the bust of 2.0 is getting too caught up and reliant on good technology? Forgetting there are humans behind keyboards, eyes in front of monitors, and a conscience reading content.

Advertisers don’t necessarily want their message bordering the content of the average blogger or the next MySpace porn star, and like Nick said, they are willing to pay for it.

What this new content world will provide are many more RocketBooms, Adam Currys, and Boing Boings and their content will begin and end online. As the best content is created and distributed online by the most talented of people, the ad marketplace will become more efficient and more money will continue to be dumped in.

Efficient ad values will be created, in part, without a scientific algorithm. Content won’t need to be valued by the tweaking of your ad code or what your last post had for keywords.

This I hope.

Content, is only king when you value it as if it were one.