Well, yes, by now those of you who surf the blogosphere have discovered that Pajamas Media is shutting down its blog ads network. Jeff posted the letter we all received here. I wasn't going to bother commenting, but after surfing around a bit with some of the reaction, I'm compelled to comment.

What does that mean here? Well, nothing really. It just means the ads and the PJM button you see over there on the right will be going away come April 1 (at latest -- probably sooner). It saves me a bit of a decision which I've been grappling with for a long time -- ever since PJM changed their rate sheet and increased the minimum amount of traffic you need to get any money for sporting the ads. I've often wondered whether it was worth keeping the PJM ads, or getting rid of them and taking back the space for alternative revenue-making or even just more total control over my space.

I'll tell you a little secret -- most quarters I don't get quite enough traffic to get a check anyway, and when I do, believe me, the amount isn't earth-shattering. When they changed their terms some time back I went with the "non-exclusive" option (which allows me to add other display ads if I choose) -- the trade-off being that I would get half of what I would have had I gone for the exclusive option. Well, half of nothing is still nothing (or half of little still very little), so it's been a no-brainer. Still, I've always figured to stay with it, since I think being part of the network has had some value and a certain cachet -- contrary to what some of PJM's detractors have said. It's a trade-off. I display their ads, and in return I'm part of a project that's investing millions in the blogosphere. Everyone gets something, though the exchange isn't necessarily a straightforward one.

It's been good to be associated with PJM. I've had a couple of good experiences I wouldn't have had otherwise. When I wrote The Silencing, PJM put their weight behind it, which included their PR firm who ended up getting me radio appearances. It was interesting to see how it all worked, and a good experience for me. During the Lieberman/Lamont race, PJM got me press credentials for the Lieberman victory party down in Hartford. Yeah, they got off cheap -- I ended up driving home at about 2am since they were too cheap to offer me a hotel room...but it was my choice to go. I got something out of it. As Roger Simon says about some of the people now complaining:

Or Rick Moran:

Quite right on both counts. I certainly feel in no way betrayed. Now, if they had gone public, and they didn't give me some stock, or at least give me a chance to buy in to the IPO (whether I went for it or not), then I would have felt betrayed...but as it stands, everything's been completely up front in the deal, so nothing to blame anyone for.

[Edit: Though, Roger, the whole "dole" thing is not well taken. The big bloggers who have linked and supported PJM with traffic and notoriety all this time were also doing PJM a service. Would PJM be where it is now if all these well-trafficked blogs hadn't sent traffic and name-recognition your way? I doubt it. If you paid more than you could end up bringing in, well then you also got something for having all these people on board.]

On the other hand, that's easy for me to say. I have a day job (such as it is). Some of these guys were actually relying on PJM ad revenue for a modest living, so I understand the frustration. Ace is taking it quite well. It's sucks, and I do feel for them, but what can you do?

I think PJM is great on the content they provide, and they are clearly doing well on traffic. When they had a crawl of links in their sidebar, I got a good rush of hits when they linked me. Trouble is, now that Instapundit has replaced the crawl, that's been shut off, but it's clear that the site itself is well trafficked. Some are criticizing the whole PJTV thing. Personally, I like it, and would watch it more if it were free. Isn't that always the way? I just can't justify the added expense for a subscription. Roger Simon hints at some of the thinking that's going in to the emphasis there:

Will it work, indeed. Who knows. I wish them luck. I haven't heard of any of that stuff before. Sounds interesting. One of the troubles with internet advertising is as Tigerhawk points out, it's too transparent. You can count in an absolute manner how many people are clicking through to your product. Not so in conventional display advertising which relies to a great extent on that classic of human manipulation techniques: Human desire and self-deception. You have no idea how many people are really getting your message with a magazine ad, but you can imagine it. It should work the same way on the internet, with advertisers just paying for impressions, but it doesn't, since other data is available. You can't get in trouble with the boss for running the same traditional display ads you've always done, but you can for trying something new and then showing data that doesn't justify -- even if that's unfair. I overpaid for years for Yellow Pages advertising in my business, long after I'm sure it really mattered. When the salesman came around with plans for YellowPages.com, I gave it a try, especially as I could see a lot of competitors had gone for it as well. When they came around to renew, the salesman tried giving me the pitch based on their stats of how much traffic they were pushing to my web site -- unfortunately for them, I can read my own referrer logs and I wasn't buying in to their overpriced nonsense. I knew exactly how much traffic their site was pushing to mine...almost nothing.

Now the whining part, well...not really. I was going to go on to a long ramble about blogging and traffic generally, but TNCITB (There's no crying in the blogosphere). I know exactly the things that I could do to increase traffic around here, it's just a matter of doing them. I agree completely with with Simon and Moran...I'm a conservative, pro-business type, and while not perfectly so, the blogosphere is a pretty decent meritocracy. The opportunity is there, and traffic is hard to argue with. The market speaks clearly. On the other hand, I'd be less than human if I didn't admit I'm pretty...put off...thinking about how much money some of these other bloggers are pulling in, and measuring it against the fact that I doubt many of them put more time into it than I do (I've gotten all sorts of wonderful kudos over the years, but that rarely translates to...you know...mortgage payments and the like). I know that's not how it works, just saying, it's a natural reaction.

So that's my take on the PJM thing. I would have hoped that it could have turned into something more for smaller bloggers like myself, but that didn't happen (it still could!), but I'm fine with it.

The Anchoress has a post with some good trackbacks to follow for reaction, and The Moderate Voice also has a good post with a roundup of reaction.