Dr. Augustine Fou wrote a brilliant article yesterday, Five Unintended Consequences, Counter-intuitive Outcomes that Publishers May Not Have Thought Of,  that got me thinking about the advice I’d give publishers as a buyer. Here they are:

• Remove all the tracking widgets from your site. That Facebook “Like” button only serves to exfiltrate your valuable data to an entity that doesn’t have your best interests at heart. If you’ve got a valuable audience, why would you want to help the ad tech industry which promises “I can find the same and bigger audience over here for $2 CPM, so don’t buy from the publisher?” Sticking your own head in the noose is never a good idea.
• Prevent your SSP from re-selling your inventory, period. It’s being re-sold to who-knows-who, contrary to your interests by your “partners” (actually “vendors”). They’re placing malvertising on your site, colluding with those spoofing your identity and laughing all the way to the bank.
• Get rid of the crap. A catch-all, I know, but that’s the content widgets, native advertising, tricky ad units, etc. I’m willing to pay a premium for cherry media, but your site has to look premium to command a premium.
• Sell more direct. I’m a dinosaur, I get it. But it creates a virtuous cycle–as you only sell to quality advertisers, quality begets quality. Rates go up.

By the way, everything I suggested above is not only good for publishers, it’s good for advertisers. We need access to media to succeed. We’re willing to pay for results. We’re sick of paying for bots and ad tech.