TypePad adds ads — Why Pro ?

Just got an email from Six Apart announcing that as a TypePad user, I now had the option of displaying ads on my blog in a custom typelist. It is actually not a surprise since the deal was sealed and announced last November.

Bloggers have been using Google or Yahoo ads on their blog for the longest time, and the most heavily read have been making some money. So what I am missing here is why would I need to upgrade to the Pro version of TypePad in order to use that functionality which is otherwise available to me “for free” ?

The ad revenue is credited against the monthly cost of the TypePad Pro subscription ($15). Which means basically that one needs to have roughly 20,000 page views (at a 50c CPM) in order to make up the difference between a Plus and a Pro subscription, or 30,000 page views between a Basic and a Pro.

It’ll be interested to read the reports from Pro users trying the service, in comparison to the usual Google/Yahoo service — in terms of ad relevance, CTR, and management.

Update: I briefly chatted with a Six Apart executive tonight, and suggested that they might want to offer this service to all TypePad users, but stick to the concept of using the first $5 of monthly revenues as a credit towards an upgrade to the next service up. And it would be great to have a free trial period of this new add-on just to be able to test the functionality.