Great Reads: Content Marketing, Banner Ads and the Business of ...

Each week Unbound will round up the 'best of the blogs' regarding all things publishing and content marketing. We're kicking of this new feature with some great tips for your content marketing efforts, the heroic plans that the New York Times has in store and how reader comments can make advertising dollars.

Content Marketing News (and Tools) You can Use

People just couldn't stop talking about content marketing in 2012. And it doesn't look like 2013 is going to be any different. According to Forbes, it's a top priority for marketers this year.

Nearly half of all B2B marketers plan to increase spending on their content marketing efforts this year. They're also moving their content creation in-house. But producing enough quality content can be ? and is ? a problem for many. That's why the Online Marketing Blog put together a list of 26 content marketing tools to help with the effort this year.

My favorite tip is the importance of a solid editorial calendar. The post links to this how-to (it even includes a template) over at the Content Marketing Institute.

NYT to the Rescue

The New York Times recently impressed with it's interactive feature Snowfall. Some hailed it as a groundbreaking reinvention of online journalism.

Now, it's planning to shock and awe digital naysayers once more by pledging to rescue banner ads.

While other pubs like Buzzfeed have totally forsaken the medium, NYT refuses to give it up. The Idea Lab, a new leg of its R&D Lab, is a team of ten working to help advertisers turn that little strip of ad space into a modern storyteller.

Read all about the plan to save the banner ad over at Digiday.

Can comments become moneymakers?

Disqus, a company that builds and provides commenting tools for websites, talked to?paidContent about the value of user comments and claims that, 'they're more popular than you think.'

According to Disqus, 42% of internet users read and contribute comments. Disqus argues that comments and user-engagement are valuable to any site.

But how can they be good be for business?

The company is working on a second business venture that turns comments into an advertising forum. This new service, Promoted Discovery, will align reader comments next to links for paid-for content. A similar service is already being used at Men's Health and the Observer.

Disqus claims that anyone who reads and contributes comments is passionate enough about the topic to click on the proposed ? and related ? paid content right next to it. Therefore, the comment section is a viable advertising and moneymaking opportunity.

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Source: http://blog.agilitycms.com/great-reads-content-marketing-banner-ads-and-the-business-of-commenting

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