Top search engine Google recently put an end to its AdSense referral program, but it has already introduced a new revenue-generating option for AdSense users. Google recently announced on its AdSense blog that they had launched a new feed advertising system, which makes it possible to earn money by putting AdSense units in RSS feeds.

The feed advertising program will include both pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertisements. According to Google, they will be specifically targeted to the type of users who view RSS feeds. Content authors can customize the advertising in several ways that are specific to RSS feeds; they can choose how often the ads are displayed throughout the feed, as well as the minimum entry length they should be applied to. Google AdSense Help Center now provides a section on “Getting Started” and “Troubleshooting” the feed advertising system, and the AdSense blog offers a short explanatory video with screenshots of the new system.

When using any RSS feed advertising system, advertisers should take into consideration the kind of people who will see their ads. Generally, it can be predicted that people who subscribe to feeds are at least fairly skilled in using computers, spend enough time on the internet to have an interest in subscribing to these feeds, and have their own computers (rather than only using publicly available computers). Free RSS reader applications are available for almost any operating system, so anyone who can afford an internet connection has access to them. Users with recent browsers like IE 7.0 have built-in RSS support, so they might be somewhat more likely to use it.

This new Google AdSense program gives web site and blog operators another opportunity to generate advertising revenue, if they produce RSS feed content. As with other companies which are introducing feed based advertising, it also provides Google advertisers with another promotional option. On the other hand, some readers of RSS feeds are displeased with this change; such feeds were previously free of ads and other “clutter” often found on web pages. This was probably to be expected; sources of information seldom remain ad-free unless they require a subscription fee or are operated by the government.

On a more positive note, Google’s new feed advertising program may encourage some web site owners to introduce new RSS feeds, even if they were previously reluctant about using RSS. However, feed operators should be careful not to overuse advertising in their feeds, keeping in mind that this could cause some users to unsubscribe.

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