Last month after people noticed that Linden Lab was running AdSense on official Second Life sites, I asked, "Hey Linden Lab, now that you got AdSense on your SL site, why not encourage SL content creators to use it too?" And now... Linden Lab is encouraging content creators to use it too:
These ads are a great opportunity for advertisers to reach the large, global audience that visits the Second Life web properties every day, and we want to extend that opportunity to Second Life merchants as soon as we can. For Merchants, advertising on the Second Life web properties will be a new way to get their offerings in front of potential customers, while at the same time making the ads extremely relevant to every Second Life user who sees them.
No idea if my post and this announcement are related in any way, so I'll just go ahead and take the full credit. Actually, no, I'm pretty sure this was the plan all along. And frankly, a great start to adding more revenue streams to SL. Like I said back then:
I'd gladly drop $10-20 to put an ad for my book or blog on the official SL site, and I bet thousands of other content creators would want to do that too. And while no one likes ads of products they're not interested in, a steady stream of ads for SL content is likely to be a lot less annoying to SL users in aggregate than ads for tampons, action movies, adult diapers, jet skis, whatever. And because these ads will be directly relevant to SL users, it's not only going to bring Linden Lab more revenue, but SL content creators too (via new and returning customers). So that's happening soon.
Hat tip: Damien Fate.
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Sounds good to me, I'll probably give it a try when it comes out.
Posted by: Damien Fate | Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 10:44 AM
Oh great... apparently I can now buy Filipino brides from the Marketplace - can't wait to these ads start making an appearance inworld! How about some sneaky product placement incorporated into every snapshot we take too?
Posted by: Serendipidy Haven | Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 11:24 AM
I'll just watch and see how it works for others over the next quarter.
Posted by: Shockwave Yareach | Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 12:33 PM
I can now buy REAL stuff from the Marketplace, even that I want to escape from real life, those ad banners just don't leave me alone, they keep reminding me that SL and the virtual creations are not REAL.
It's a joke.
Posted by: SLfashionist | Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 03:24 PM
By the way, the Ads are also introducing me other online games now, should I join them?
Posted by: SLfashionist | Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 03:41 PM