Jim Kukral on BlogKits, the tiny little blogger and where online marketing is going

An Interview by Thord Daniel Hedengren

Jim Kukral is a self proclaimed online marketing genius, although he says it with a wink of an eye, or something like that. However, the guy sure seems to know a thing or two about marketing, and carries quite a lot of “cred” among other notable blogosphere personalities.

With his BlogKits hitting the news recently it seemed like a good idea to have a chat with Jim and see what he thinks of online marketing, his plans for the future and other stuff we tend to ask about in our interviews here at Bloggertalks.

So here goes.

Hey, I know you! You’re that guy that didn’t give me much slack when I blogged over at The Blog Herald…! Please tell me you can paint a better picture of yourself here, or this interview will be a pain in the ass… Who are you, Mr. Jim Kukral?
I’m sorry about the lack of slack, you must have hit one of my hot buttons, and if you did, I’m sure you deserved it! :0 I’m an online marketing guy, rooted in blogging and affiliate marketing primarily. Before that, a converted print designer turned html web design (before tables) in 96 or so. Been blogging since 2001 about a month before 911. Been doing affiliate marketing before that really as an affiliate first, and in the last 6-years more on the agency side of the affiliate business. I’m an Internet super-geek really. Ask me a super geeky online marketing question and I bet I have an answer for you!

Yeah, I probably did… An online marketing question, right, so give me three done deal niches to blog about if I want to make good money?
Sorry, I won’t do that, because if you’re starting a blog just to make money, it’ll fail. The only way that your blog will succeed is if you write about something you’re passionate about, or know a lot about. The money will come from that knowledge/passion.

No matter what niche? Let’s assume we know lots of stuff and can do a good blog in just about any niche, where should we go to maximize revenue?
There are going to be exceptions. I mean, if you’re going to write a blog about underwater basket weaving and there are literally 10 other people in the world that weave baskets underwater… well then, that’s your audience. But then again, it would be pretty easy to get all 10 people reading your blog and making you the authority thought-leader in your field. Which brings up a good point. Sometimes the indirect profit you can make from blogging is better than cold hard cash. Blogging can make your career flourish, and indirectly, you get more money and more respect within your community, etc…

There are dozens of ways to monetize your blog today. What makes your service – BlogKits – a better choice than the competition?
We’re targeting the long-tail. In other words, the 99% of 50 million blogs who are considered low-traffic. So for those bloggers, the people who don’t care to learn how to be a pro blogger, we offer them a simple, yet effective way to make a few bucks. Plus, our ads are designed for bloggers, to fit in their blogs in a way that both them and their readers are ok with.

So who should use it? The personal Blogspot blogger? Michael Arrington? Bloggertalks?
Andy Beal really nailed it best the other day. He said it’s like Federated Media for low-traffic bloggers. It’s definitely not for people who are professional bloggers, however, they could still use it. The people who should be using BlogKits are bloggers who are having trouble earning money with their blogs. That could be bloggers just starting out, or bloggers for the past few years who just keep blogging, but haven’t had any success making money. For pro bloggers like Bloggertalks, you might try it as a filler.

Like we’re doing at the moment then, right. Where should the pros turn then?
Pros should do look at what other pros are doing. Either get somebody the FM to sell your ads, or DIY it and sell them yourself. Copy what the big boys are doing is what I’m trying to tell you. Look at how TechCrunch sells ads. Look at Marketing Pilgrim. Look at Problogger.net. They know how to do it, so learn from them. One thing you will notice on all of the “big blogs”, is a unique lack of Adsense presence. Why? Because they make more money selling sponsorships, and use Adsense as a filler.

Blogkits has three types of ads for the blogger to show, depending on what kind of readers the blog has. Why not more, like keywords?
We’re not contextual, so keywords don’t matter. We actually have three types of “ad pools”, which are groups of advertisers based upon a blogs’ audience. So if your blog is read by techy/Internet people, you would use our “Tech & Internet” ad pool which would show ads from those types of advertisers. We have two types of ads, a text ad that we ask you to put under your blog entries to fully engage your reader, and a banner ad that is designed to be understated that fits in your sidebar.

The banner ad is 120×240 pixels. Would you way that are the best size for ads in the sidebar? Why not wider than 120 pixels?
BlogKits has taken many polls over the years, and seen all kinds of ad units and success/failure on blogs specifically. For example, in one poll we asked what was more important to bloggers in an ad on their blog, and the top few responses by far were “understated, white and non-flashy”. Combine that knowledge with the fact that at 120×240, we’re sure to fit in every blog sidebar… Well, that was enough for us to choose that size. In the future we’ll have tools that allow you to custom size your ads if you wish, not required, we want to keep this easy peasy!

Text links and one banner ad size, as far as I can see. Isn’t that a bit limiting? Will you expand the choices in the future?
Actually, yes, we have two really cool features we’re adding in January 07 that are much more fun and smart. I could tell you about them now, but I’d have to kill you.

Aww, that’s no fun. Will it involve RSS feeds? What’s your take on advertising in feeds anyway?
Right now we have zero plans of getting into the feed ads business. I think that it will grow, especially when Vista comes out and changes the way people think about feeds into just being “bookmarks”. Once again, making something simple is the best way to get it implemented and accepted.

How do you see online advertising developing in the near future? Is CPM dead?
No way, CPM is going to live on, unless the big boys decide to build web browers totally in Ajax which would eliminate page views. I don’t think that’s going to happen, despite what Steve Rubel says. I think video is a hot ad area. The company that figures out how to add ads into, or around a video is going to do very well in the next few years. This is a great time to be in this business, so much innovation!

Revver is kind of doing that, with ads after the actual clip, and Google is toying with video ads through Adsense. Is that the way to go then?
All I know is that I believe that in 2-3 years the web will be saturated with videos, and I’m not talking just about stupid kids riding skateboards and falling down. I’m talking about professional, short videos from businesses that are mini guides or infomercials about their brands.

And companies will want to show their infomercials on blogs?
I think that once you have video, and if it’s good, it will be shown everywhere, including blogs. A friend of mine owns Magnify.net, which is essentially a mini YouTube tool, however, you can use his tool to create your own mini communities of video. Like having your own little YouTube business where you control the content. If I was a company creating videos, I’d need my own place to store them and that’s what I’d do. I’d also store them in YouTube and Google Video and Revver, etc. Just for the added bonus of extra exposure.

What about podcasting, how would you monetize that?
Personally, I don’t own an Ipod, and I don’t listen to podcasts. I don’t have time to sit around and focus on an audio conversation. I’d much rather read the transcript. However, I do think that online radio is going to take off. The guys at Blogtalkradio.com have a good thing going.

Finally, if you could give bloggers just starting out – no matter their ambition – some pieces of advice regarding advertising, what would it be?
Forget about making money with your blog for the first 6 months. All you need to do is write, write, write. Be passionate and stay on focus and just keep cranking out excellent thoughts and opinions and whatever it is you want to write about. The audience will come, and they’ll see/read your passion and if they are into your niche, they’ll stay. Then, start reading places like Problogger.net or sign up at Blogsmart.com and begin to start trying things like BlogKits and other tools, even Adsense. Feel that out for the next 6 months and see what is working best for you and stick with it.

I’d like to thank Jim Kukral for doing this interview and being such a good sport. Now, why don’t you check out BlogKits?

This Interview was published on December 17, 2006 at 9:37 am • Did you like it? Subscribe!
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