MSN Spaces Serves Ads on the Long Tail

Bill's thrust towards towards long-tail ad serving has begun.

Via David Utter:

Bloggers who use MSN Spaces for their posts can place advertising on their blogs now, with options for Amazon associates and Kanoodle ads offered.

MAKE MONEY FA$T! That's the implicit message behind two of the many changes MSN implemented recently, as they added a couple of options for monetizing a blog on MSN Spaces.

The service now permits users to have associate links to Amazon on their sites. Associates receive a piece of the action whenever someone purchases an item through the Amazon link containing the associate ID.

MSN also said bloggers can earn money with Kanoodle advertisements. Microsoft's relationship with Yahoo, which provides contextual advertising on MSN, ends in June 2006. It is interesting that MSN is going with Kanoodle here instead of Yahoo, as either solution would likely serve as a place-filler until MSN adCenter launches in July.

Perhaps Microsoft likes Kanoodle in an acquisitive way. Microsoft's CFO, Chris Liddell, did suggest Microsoft may buy its way into online advertising through picking up smaller companies. And Kanoodle does have some good partnerships in place with the likes of MarketWatch and USAToday online.

Now I'd like to see him try selling ads to the long tail, Google-style. After all, his buddy Steve-o wants to "fucking kill Google".