Comments on: Adgator: An African Blogger’s Ad Network

By: Global Voices Online » Adgator: Africa’s First Advertising Network for Bloggers

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:18:51 +0000

[...] has money and credibility to run an ad network: Afrigator recently had a sizeable stake acquired by MIH Print Africa, a division of Naspers [...]

By: techmasai

techmasai — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:06:09 +0000

wwe love the fact that the people at Afrigator keep on evolving and growing, they are an inspiration

By: jscarantino (Josef Scarantino)

jscarantino (Josef Scarantino) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:13:29 +0000

Introducing Adgator to South Africa, Africa’s first ad network for bloggers: http://tinyurl.com/5qxcvy Good news for African bloggers…

By: Christo Volschenk

Christo Volschenk — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:12:35 +0000

Hi Taylor,

Oh, yes. I didn’t think about the “wider audience”. That could help Adgator. But, on the topic of Adgator’s business model: I really think it should not only be an “ad server”. As a second leg, it should also enable bloggers (and the “wider audience”) to easily turn some (or all) of their content into paid content on their sites. So, to make content a second source of income – for both blogger and Adgator. Here one must look at what http://www.klatscher.com has done. There is a guy taking the widest possible angle at income-generation – for his own benefit, as well as his bloggers’.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:34:55 +0000

@Christo – I think my thoughts on audience we’re assuming a much larger install base, not just blogs, but any African web site (traditional news, etc.) that might want online advertising. The blog world is simply one kind of site where adgator could be used. Am I missing anything here? I’m sure there are African bases businesses using things like Google already, so how do we get them to use adgator instead or in addition to?

By: HASH

HASH — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:00:24 +0000

@Taylor – You’re right on with Google Ads being their greatest competition. They have to prove that it’s more profitable and at least as easy as setting up with Google to make this work.

By: Christo Volschenk

Christo Volschenk — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:34:16 +0000

But, now I have to think this thing through…otherwise the ideas in my previous comment hang in the air: If I was Naspers I would not spend money to grow the blogger audience. Why spend money to move the audience I ALREADY have on my websites (where advertisers pay steep rates) to blogs (where advertisers will by peanut rates)? Not only would that NOT make financial sense for Naspers, it would also amount to “canabilisation” of existing, successful Naspers websites.

So, SA’s blogging scene will always be a “rand-aktiwiteit” with no financial viability. (I deliberately hold back on a view of Adgator, but suggest Naspers look at a business model such as the one at http://www.klatcher.com.)

By: Christo Volschenk

Christo Volschenk — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:35:46 +0000

No, no. The biggest job isn’t getting the advertisers. They will come where the audience is – don’t you worry about that. The biggest problem with blogging in South Africa (and I guess in the whole Africa) is that there simply are no page views. No audience. At this stage, no blogger in SA (well, maybe one or two), can expect to earn more than a few rand (my guess between R30 and R100) per month from running a blog.

So, Adgator is far from a “no-brainer”, as Taylor suggested above. At least, not in the next 3 – 5 years…

To share on a 50:50 basis under these circumstances, is way off the mark. To get the virtuous circle going of bigger audience, more and better blogs, more advertising income, bigger salaries for bloggers, more and better blogs etc…the phenomenon will need a financial push. I’m thinking of a financial injection into blogging by Naspers, in the form of a small basic monthly salary (very small), plus all the ad revenue income. This to selected bloggers. And for a predefined period.

Otherwise, the blogging scene and Adgator won’t get off the ground.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:54:05 +0000

What a no-brainer. Really hope this works out. This should be a shoe-in. They’ve got the brand already there, now it’s mostly a matter of getting some advertisers lined up. Are most bloggers who are doing ads right now using Google? What’s the advantage to changing over to Adgator?