An Interesting Idea: 125×125 Ad + RSS Icon

Apr 20, 2008 by Matt | Posted in General 2 Comments

I just thought of an interesting idea.

The standard RSS icon is available in a 128×128 pixel size. Using Photoshop, you could reduce it to 125×125 easily, and add a legend to it. Put the name of your blog, or something describing your blog (in my case, “Webmaster Resources”) over the bottom of the icon. Make it visible, but don’t cover-up the antenna symbol. (I’d give an example, but I don’t have a copy of Photoshop on this computer yet.)

Next, purchase a 125×125 ad slot on another blog, give them your ad creative, and tell them to link it to your RSS feed.

What do you think? Would it work well? Obviously this would work better with FeedBurner feeds, since clickers will get a list of recent posts. Some bloggers could reject your ad though, out of fear that viewers would confuse your ad for their feed link.

  • http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

    I’ve seen bloggers do this with linking back to their website, through their comment names.

    It worries me though, because what they are saying is that the default FeedBurner page sells their blog better than their actual blog’s home page does.

    If that’s true, then there is something seriously wrong with your design. :(

    Using your idea to advertise your feed on your own blog is a different matter though. :)

  • http://www.webmaster-source.com Matt

    I didn’t think of that…

    But I still wonder how many subscribers you would get, as opposed to just linking to your index. There’s no real way to test it though. There are too many variables. There’s the design, as you pointed out. Then you have the varying audiences of sites you could advertise on, etc. I can’t think of a reliable way to run an experiment.