TheSkepticGuy - 3:49 am on Mar 20, 2007 (gmt 0)

My reference to ad space was on Yahoo search pages... meaning that if the search returns aren't relevant, the contextual ads won't be either... further diluting the value of the banner ad space... and so on.

As for discussion boards... well, my response is going to be biased.

In general, online "advertising" is a mix of response-driven and awareness building messages.

Response-driven ads can do very well in a targeted environment. For example, banner ads for online brokerages on Yahoo Finance pages.

Awareness building ads and achieve excellent results by appearing where people hang out, discussion boards being on such location.

(1) Both... lots of people research intended purchase by browsing posts on discussion boards. Digital cameras, home electronics, and beauty come to mind as prime examples here.

(2) Generally unknown for pure ads... but we've had good success with affinity programs where a product becomes more involved than just appearing in a banner at the top of the page.

(3) A good forum will attract more readers than posters, thereby increasing the pool of people likely to click on an ad. While those participating in the forum are generally least-likely to consider the ads, visitors will.

(4) I'm not sure this applies... the search results we're having issues with are natural returns on content/news keywords. In most of my research tests, there weren't even any contextual ads anywhere.