The Blogroll is a unique service for bloggers created by the advertising team at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive (WPNI). Blogs partnered with WPNI are given a rotating spot on the washingtonpost.com homepage, and are given the opportunity to accept ads from WPNI advertisers. Partner blogs will also be a fixture in our regularly updated Blogroll Directory, which lists all members based on their category.

BENEFITS

For Bloggers:

Increased Revenue - Our online ad reps, who have strong relationships with agencies and clients around the world, will sell the Blogroll members’ ad inventory as an extension of ads sold across WPNI. This relationship is completely open and transparent—bloggers can keep their existing ad relationships and will display ads that WPNI sells only if they earn the member more revenue. You can find more about this benefit under "Optimization of existing ad space" in this post.

Exposure to New Readers - All Blogroll members get rotated into a promotional space on the homepage of washingtonpost.com, with the potential to be seen by the millions of visitors who visit washingtonpost.com. As the program grows, additional promo space may be created in other places and potentially across other WPNI sites, Newsweek.com, Slate.com and BudgetTravelOnline.com.

For Advertisers:

Blogroll is an efficient method for advertisers to reach the blogospheres' affluent, educated, young, hip and tech savvy audience. WPNI has made it easy for advertisers to buy IAB standard ad units on individual blogs or across valuable categories of blogs like Travel, Technology, Business, Health, Auto and Politics. While there are many options for advertisers to work with blogs today, the Blogroll strives to be the most scalable and efficient method. Combine this with our experienced, professional advertising team and you have an unbeatable solution.

For Readers:

The Blogroll Directory and the Blogroll Index on washingtonpost.com's homepage are both useful resources for people to discover quality blogs that they may not have found otherwise.

If you are a blogger and would like to apply to join, please do so here.

It has been a few months since we first announced our intention to start a new kind of advertising network. I know that we have been rather silent since then and am really excited that we are launching this blog.

First of all, thanks to all of the blogs that said great things about our idea. The buzz you generated prompted over 1,200 other bloggers to apply for the program to date. We are stunned by the response and are now focused on living up to the expectations expressed.

The initial idea for the program had two main benefits for bloggers:

1. Monetization - Help bloggers better monetize their blogs by having our large team of online ad reps sell their ad space and then share that revenue.
2. Readership - Provide exposure to the members by promoting them on a rotational basis on the homepage of washingtonpost.com.

As we were building this out, we discovered a few more benefits that I want to highlight now.

1. Optimization of existing ad space - Members will not need to add new space on their blogs to accept our ads. The technology that is powering the program will help members get more out of the ad space that currently exists on their blog.

Here is an example: Lets say that your blog has a 160x600 ad space running Adsense and it earns you an average effective CPM of $1.50. You will tell the Blogroll system that $1.50 is your threshold for this space and therefore we will only serve our ads in that space if it earns you more than that. Otherwise, your Adsense serves as normal. There is no risk on the part of the member.

There is technology out there already that allows you to do this, but our system will make this much more simple and easy to manage. Members will also have the ability to approve or reject all ads before they go live on their blog. No worries of irrelevent or inappropriate advertisers showing up...members have full control over what displays on their blogs.

It is also important to note that the system will support rich media in addition to standard image and text ads.

2. Blogroll Member Directory - We are building out a directory of members that will be linked from the washingtonpost.com homepage. It will display all members and organize them by their topics.

3. Self Service Storefront - In addition to our reps selling ad space, members will also have a self service storefront for the sale of any or all of their ads. This storefront will accept credit card, PayPal and other forms of payment. Buyers will be able to buy ads on your blog directly or can buy across an entire category of blogs. Again, members will have full control to approve or reject each ad before it runs.

If you are a blogger and would like to apply for the program, please do so here.