Let us not put ads into blog posts! I believe there are much more obvious and healthier ways for Steemit to connect to advertizers budgets!

A static ad banner embedded in primary content is more or less how advertizing started in the Internet - we all know how this evolved. Let us not follow this path!

Providing metrics to enable advertizers to convey their messages to the "right" audience is only the beginning of what is increasingly percieved as spying and stalking out there in the web. For Steemit this could mean that our upvotes will eventually be monitored, so that we will see "individualized" ads based on our preferences, whenever we open a post of our interest.

Let´s not go through this again! It will not evolve into something good, I´m afraid.

Steemit has already the right logic to do this much better. And if it´s done right we will not only appeal to advertizers but also to the ~200 Million websurfers that have adblockers installed - a significant market opportunity.

What are advertizers actually paying for? Advertizers are paying for exposure!

Exposure is precondition for getting messages out, for getting and directing traffic and for engagement with customers. Steemit has exactly two means to provide exposure to advertizers (and to any other user of the platform):

1. Making content that is perceived as valuable.
Instead of intruding into third party content, every advertizer can start his own blog. If their content is valuable (unique, entertaining, funny, emotional, informative, etc...) they will be seen!

2. Buying vests
Advertizers don´t depend on third party content in order to gain exposure on Steemit. To ensure that their content and messages will be seen, they can simply buy a sufficient number of vests. Aside from content, it´s vests that attracts followers, incentivizes user engagement and makes blogs been seen.

As I understand it, the Steemit mechanics are already ideally suited to attract advertizers and to provide them with exposure in a healthy and non-intrusive manner. What we are lacking so far are is a sufficiently high number of active users. Let us focus on getting this number up and nobody needs to worry about how to attract advertizers money. It will simply flow-in in a self-driven manner as our network effect grows. But then, let advertizers run their own account like everyone else does. This would be very different to the situation we meanwhile have out there in the Internet. And it may even prove to be more effective for advertizers than the poisoned promise of targeted advertizing.