We’re lucky this isn’t rocket science.  Otherwise we would be screwed.

Online display advertising is equally as ghetto as it is in the real world (maybe more); you get CPM which means “you pay for every 1000 eyeballs.” Advertisers do not like this, and will pull back these dollars. It’s long overdue. This is not what the Internet is for. Punch someone else’s monkey please.

Text ads, on the other hand, are easily quantified. CPC means “you pay only when people click.” Advertisers like that. There is also CPA which mean “you pay only when the person buys your shit.” Advertisers love that. These are the things that make advertisers spend their dollars.

People will create new metrics for display advertising, like engagement or click-through and charge advertisers in a more transparent way. This is inevitable. The bullshit publishers and ad networks will disappear because not only will they be unable to convert, they can’t even define “conversion.” Advertisers will get fine-grained targeting (eg, “I want to target cute single girls who date fun geeky jewish guys.”)

The future will come. MySpace’s new advertising system is the closest thing yet. MySpace needs to blow it out to publishers across the Internet and not just use it on MySpace properties.

So let’s make it rain, bitches. And before we make it rain, let’s have a drought to kill off the weak.