Over on the TCF we’re having a amusing philisophical discussion initiated by a family man who’s upset that his TiVo has been advertising a “Free SI Swimsuit Video.” While I don’t find that text offensive, I did come across a troubling 
Cosmo ad last night after watching Jericho (on tape-delay). This AM, prior to my morning Starbucks run, I shot a quick video. So ignore me when I say the offer is linked to my credit card… The TiVo is linked to my credit card, but the subscription results in a snail mail or email invoice.
I have a second reason for posting… Last week, Google launched AdSense for Video as a means for web publishers to monetize their video content with contextual advertising. However, during the beta, they’re only accepting sites with over a million monthly video views. According to YouTube, I’m only responsible for about 330,000 impressions over the last 20 months. Fortunately, Amazon also recently launched a new affiliate service allowing smaller publishers (like me) to spam their viewers, as you can see above. Unlike Google, publishers pick the advertised products and frequency - but Amazon pays commissions on sales, so it’s probably harder to make a few bucks. Though, I’m relatively pleased with Amazon’s encoding and the clean look of the video widget - and placing ads is a simple process.
As a viewer, I’m interested in your thoughts… Are those few ads tolerable if it encourages me to shoot more video (and get a better camera)?
