Metafilter: A Profile in Successful Community Building and Advertising
Community sites have long been regarded as one of the “killer apps” for the Web (that’s a good thing). They are often characterized by user-generated content and a two-way conversational ability via traditional message boards or other posting systems (see Inside BigBad, July 2001).

Metafilter is one of the most successful new community sites on the Web, with approximately 6 million page views per month. It is presented as a group Web log: any registered user can post links to the main page (after a probationary period), and any user can post comments to any of the main links. It is this commenting ability that is the real strength of Metafilter.

Metafilter is the creation (and ongoing effort) of one individual, Matt Haughey, and is largely a product of his own vision. From the beginning, Matt seemed to eschew any sort of overt corporate sponsorship, and chose not to have the banner ads that seem so ubiquitous on other sites. Because managing Metafilter took more and more of his time, and because he is currently unemployed, he started using something popularly called “micro ads,” (referred to as “Textads” on his site) to bring in enough income to keep the site running and allow him to continue to administer Metafilter fulltime.

Micro ads are unobtrusive ads that, in the case of Metafilter, appear on the front page (which is the most-viewed page). On the surface, micro ads just seem to be of the same vein as the more traditional banner ads, but without graphics, and in a smaller form factor. So what's the big deal? Well, most micro ad implementations revolve around enabling buyers to purchase ads in very small quantities for relatively small amounts of money. This means that buyers can purchase small targeted ads in smaller quantities. This results in a much larger group of potential ad buyers, and results in a larger overall revenue. Because there are no graphics or other forms of rich content involved, more of the basic functions can be automated so that a smaller group of administrators are needed to run the ad program.

So are micro ads suitable for you? Should you offer ads on your site, or buy micro ads on other sites? That obviously depends on your company positioning and online strategy, but it’s definitely something that you should keep in mind.

Resources and other sites using micro ads:
Google AdWords are an interesting variant on micro ads: www.google.com/ads
Jakob Nielsen’s post about micro ads
Flazoom's using micro ads too. www.flazoom.com

—Brian Short Inc.