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MarketingProfs Daily Fix is now part of a new advertising and marketing aggregator site known as The Ad Feed. Those of you still managing our daily Web consumption with bookmarks and email (and my hand is raised way in the air here…guilty!), be sure to check out this site, as it’s tailor-made for people like us....
Featuring headlines from publications like AdAge, AdWeek, AdRants, AdFreak, NY Times, Logic+Emotion, American Copywriter, PSFK, MIT Advertising Lab, Adverblog, ClickZ, Seth Godin and more…pulling a chair up to The Ad Feed is a little like sitting down to an All-You-Can-Eat buffet..the only danger is overindulging.
Which is exactly what The Ad Feed’s Travis had in mind:
Q: So tell me about The Ad Feed. What's the idea behind it?
A: The Ad Feed is a solution to a problem of my own. I'm subscribed to a little over 200 RSS feeds, most of which are advertising- and creative-based. A few weeks ago I got three or so days behind in reading the feeds and wound up with more than a thousand entries highlighted, waiting to be read.
It took several hours to go through them all. (Hey, I could lose out on a golden nugget if I miss an entry.) So I figured there must be a better way to sort through all of this news and creative.
popURLS, a tech and general news aggregator, which is ironically quite popular, was my inspiration in how to organize the best of the best advertising and marketing feeds.
It just so happened, there are tons of others out there just like me that enjoy digesting dozens of feeds served in one location.
Q: So you are a little like the "un-feed feed"? All the benefits of RSS without the hassle?
A: Somewhat. I still love RSS feeds and how they've eliminated the need to manually check every Web site in existence for updates. But I think The Ad Feed presents the prime content in a much more visually appealing manner. A simple teaser image is a lot more interesting than a text link in your RSS reader.
If you're in need of an ad snack or creative fix in the morning or at lunch, it's much easier to get that fulfillment from The Ad Feed than a list of dozens or hundreds of feeds.
Q: Continuing with that metaphor... with all the tasty snacks on the shelves, how do you choose which snacks to stock?
A: A few different factors are considered when selecting the feeds. First, is it something that I read or would like to read? As I said, The Ad Feed is a solution to a personal problem I had, that happened to be shared with others. Personal interest is usually the deciding factor in successful or interesting ventures.
Second, I look at the Web of links. If I notice that MarketingProfs is mentioned on a popular blog and just so happens to be in the link list of five other interesting blogs, I should probably keep my eyes on it. Surprisingly enough, if you look at the blogroll on the larger advertising and marketing blogs, you can get an accurate consensus of what people in the industry read each day.
Third, the quality and frequency of content. If a site keeps their posts fresh and unique, and writes in a way that encourages their readers to join the conversation, there's a good chance I'll add them to The Ad Feed.
Last, a small factor I consider is stats. The amount of links a site has in Google, their ranking in Technorati, and even Beyond Madison Avenue's Top 25, can have a bit of an effect on whether or not that site makes The Ad Feed.
Q: Mack also produces a Top 25 Marketing List.
A: Yes, Mack's list and a few other resources also come into play in the decision process.
Q: So I guess as the gatekeeper, publishers should schmooze you to be included, huh? Do you accept gifts?
A: Schmoozing's nice and gifts are always welcome…lol. But since the site launched a couple weeks ago, I've just really enjoyed having the opportunity to speak to the faces behind blogs I've always loved. It's a great feeling to wake up and see a pleasant comment from Seth Godin, David Armano or Ann Handley in your inbox.
I welcome anyone to send a comment or suggestion to travis (at) theadfeed (dot) com. You can requrest my address there if you'd like to send me a present. ; )
Q: Anything else? The microphone is now yours.
A: I will add one more thing. A huge thanks goes out to all the readers who have dropped by The Ad Feed since its launch and to all the blog and site owners that we're kind enough to let me feature their creative feeds.
Thanks for the interview Ann. This was a ton of fun.
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Comments
I think it's a great idea, however, the design is not readable. Techmeme has a good thing going there.
Posted by: Jim Kukral | 11.24.06
A good idea because I see myself doing the same thing with my RSS feeds. I can't keep up, and I get so far behind that I just clear out them all, just to slowly get behind again all over again ;)
Posted by: Mack Collier | 11.24.06
Ann,
Congrats on being featured on The Ad Feed (and nice interview). I've told Travis I think it's a great idea. Everyone who've I shared it with in the Ad biz seems to really like it. Comes in handy especially when you're not using an aggregator.
Posted by: David Armano | 11.24.06
Ann,
What am I missing here? Unless I am wrong (which is very possible), we still need to bookmark AdFeed. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be an RSS feed or an aggregator I can place on my desktop. In addition, AdFeed contains only three blogs I regularly read, so I'm not sure what the advantages are.
Help me understand why this is a good thing.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 11.25.06
Thanks all for the comments. And Lewis -- there's no elfin magic here.... You still need to bookmark The Ad Feed. Basically, instead of going to those three blogs you read regularly that are represented on it, you could go to the single site -- The Ad Feed -- and scan the headlines on your favorites, clicking through as your interest is piqued. It's a one-stop-shop for many ad-related blogs and web sites, is all....
In the meantime, you might find a few others represented there that you might enjoy as well. Included in Travis's daily compilation, for example, are headlines from the MIT Ad Lab, which I always forget to visit, so it's a nice reminder to have it front & center.
Posted by: Ann Handley | 11.26.06
Congrats on being included - as MPDailyFix should be...
I'm with Lewis on this one. I still bookmark things too much (like Mack's challenge - but with bookmarks).
The thing that would make me a daily AdFeed reader is one feed where I can opt in or out of certain parts.
I'll visit now and again because there IS value - but visiting the site takes more time than getting a feed, no?
Great content over there, though.
Posted by: Mike Sansone | 11.26.06
Thanks to everyone for the positive comments and suggestions. I'll try and cover every question.
As much as you have to bookmark The Ad Feed to save the hassle of typing the URL, I don't see that as a bad thing. If you're a fan of 1, 3, 10, or whatnot of the sites I feature, The Ad Feed just lets you see all of those at once in a summarized version without having to visit each site.
I keep the link in my bookmark toolbar in Firefox and can visit TAF throughout the day, see the best of over 20 different ad/marketing sites, without anything more than a click.
Like I said in the interview, I created The Ad Feed for myself and it just so happened others liked it. It's not made for everyone. There are some blogs of other topics that I wouldn't enjoy reading in such an aggregator. So I still manually visit or use FeedDemon to read political, gaming, architecture, etc… feeds.
But I do enjoy consuming ad content in The Ad Feed. It really has made my life a little easier from a content digestion stand point.
When I was an ad student a couple years ago I had to learn how to read, speak, taste, feel and listen to advertising. I was a newborn and didn’t know where to start.
I think The Ad Feed is a cheat sheet that I would have loved to come across back then. But with that sheet comes a warm feeling in your stomach because you know that some of the big shots in the industry are reading the same thing.
So it doesn’t feel like Advertising or Marketing Blogs for Dummies, it just feels like required reading that you can enjoy.
As my link network grows and more and more sites send me an e-mail letting me know they exist (travis at theadfeed dot com), I’ll find creative and links that you probably wouldn’t in your daily process. That’s what I hope The Ad Feed becomes even more as it grows. A place you can find everything you love in one spot, and find things you would never have had the chance to love.
Hope that covers every question and concern. If you have more suggestions or would just like to talk, send me an email: travis at theadfeed dot com. I’d love to hear from you all.
Cheers.
Posted by: Travis | 11.28.06
I thank you for your comment.
Posted by: Rosie | 03.04.07
I agree with Ann, but appear some questions.
Posted by: Tom | 04.29.08
Thank You Ann.
Posted by: BT | 07.26.08