Today, we’re announcing our plans to roll out a new advertising platform — Digg Ads. Digg Ads will give you more control over which advertisements are displayed on Digg. The more an ad is Dugg, the less the advertiser will have to pay. Conversely the more an ad is buried, the more the advertiser is charged, pricing it out of the system.

The platform will launch as a pilot in a few months, and it will be an ongoing work in progress as we learn more from the Digg community and adjust the system. We’re still in very early stages of working with advertisers and building the system, but we wanted you to be the first to hear about our plans.

Digg Ads will appear alongside stories in the river. The sponsored content will look and feel similar to regular Digg content, but will be clearly marked as sponsored. It may link to stories, video trailers, independent product reviews – many of the same types of content you see on Digg every day. The goal here is to give advertisers a way to present content related to their brands and get immediate input on whether it’s relevant to the Digg audience, or not. Here’s an example of what the ads might look like:

Our goal for Digg Ads is to create a better experience by giving you more control over advertising content that appears on Digg. You’ll start to see changes on the site in a few months, but we will continue to iterate over the course of the year based on your feedback. This is an exciting step for Digg as we work to create a compelling, innovative advertising experience for our community and the industry at large.

Thanks,
Mike