There are a number of ways to monetize your RSS/ Atom web feeds, including the direct and the indirect. Some of them are pretty blatant, others are more subtle. If you present them in tasteful fashion, in a way that helps feed subscribers, I don't see why  the majority of them should find the ads offensive. Here is a by no means exhaustive list. Note that it is an aggregate summary of some recents posts on this journal.

1. Direct:
• Advertising in each feed item. These "inline" ads would presumably be contextual, based on the text content of each feed item. This means that your feed has to be full-text. That is, your feed items must contain the full-text of each associated web page, else your context sensitive ads may not be properly targeted.
• Advertising in individual feed items. In this case, "standalone" ads exist as their own feed item, and alternate with text items. Studies show that ad CTR (Click-Through Rates) are much higher for standalone feed ads. Because these ads stand alone, they do not necessarily have to be context sensitive. However, they should be topic sensitive. That is, if your feed contains content items linking to articles about real estate, then the ads could be about mortgages, investments, finances, or even financial software. Don't strain the relationship between feed content and advertising.
2. Indirect:
• Promote your yourself. Promote your own products and services in a tertiary manner by writing about them in a way that helps your readers (and feed subscribers). Excerpt these articles in your feed, and induce feed subscribers to click-through to your website by making sure the excerpts are well-written. The intent here is that a fraction of feed subscribers will return to the site and eventually make a purchase.
• Turn your feed into a podcast. Include audio files, either in full or excerpts, that offer your expertise on a topic. Supplement each audio file by including text related to the focus of the podcats. Go one step further and interview other experts. Include excerpts in your podcasts. Build trust with your site visitors by showing your expertise.
• Insert your own graphic ad banners into your feed. These could be as simple as something advertising your site, or more specifically targetting one of your offerings (product, service). As an incentive, include standalone coupons in your feeds to reward your feed subscribers. By embedding your logo into the mind of subscriber via these ads, the trust you've built by offering your expertise free of charge will eventually bear fruit.

Not everyone feels this way, but from a marketing point of view, I highly recommend using only partial-text feeds so that subscribers have to return to your site. Sure, you'll lose some people. But the return visitors you do gain will be that much more interested, and more likely to turn into a customer in the future. But if you give everything away, content-wise, in your feed, this is much less likely to happen.

If you do decide on a partial-text feed, then you probably will not be using context sensitive ads embedded into each feed item. However, all the other ways of monetizing your feed still apply. Ideally, you should blend both your own ads/ promotions with , as well as that that of other companies into the feed. As incentives for drawing customers back to the site, make special offers available only via the feed.

Promote your site and its content, not just your products and services. Point out in your own feed "ads" what it is that the subscriber could gain from being a regular visitor to your site. Of course, on your web site, actively and openly promote the web feed and its benefits. Bottom line: saving time (excerpted articles) and money (promotions, coupons).

(c) Copyright: 2006-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://www.chameleonintegration.com/

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