If there is one area of business that continues to see innovation, it's online advertising. But being first (innovating) at something doesn't mean it's a good idea. Case in point, co-registration company Coreggy has developed a "technology" (and I use that term loosely, very loosely) that offers affiliates/publishers the ability to include in-line (within website copy) co-registration links.
Coreggy's approach is certainly unique (and it might ultimately gain some traction) but, much like in-line ads themselves, it's destined to fail.
How CoReggy works: Affiliate/publishers select an advertisement to target and embed it within the body of their web page (displayed as a highlighted intext hyperlinked underlined keyword). When users click on the highlighted text link, a small advertisement expands within the page and asks users if they would like more information on the product. If the user agrees, the offer expands with a registration form the user can complete to receive more information on the product/offer. From there, leads are verified by CoReggy and sent to the advertiser. The affiliate/publisher generates revenue on all verified leads that are sent through the Coreggy platform.
Charlo Barbosa, vice president of Coreggy's parent company, Blue Whaler Investments, SA stated that the intention behind their vision is to "enable the affiliate blogger to monetize on his content without forsaking valuable webpage real estate. Unlike traditional inpage in-text advertising, the surfer will remain on the page, even after filling out the product request form or advertisement. This is important for bloggers, because it enables the surfer to finish reading the content of the blog. The product is simple enough for even an unseasoned affiliate to implement. All they need to do is cut and past our javascript tag at the bottom of every page they want the in-line text links on."
I can't deny that this is an innovative twist on in-line ads and co-registration, and I agree with Barbosa pretty much word for word. But in-line text ads have already had their moment. I don't believe that consumers are going to be willing to interrupt their Web experience to fill out a form (without doing their research first).
