I’m happy to formally announce that Search Engine Land has joined John Battelle’s Federated Media advertising network. Yes, we’re still selling our own advertising directly (and our team is more than happy to help!).

Yes, we’re still doing our own thing editorially and are owned by our parent, Third Door Media. Partnering with FM allows us to try some other ad formats and be part of a great collection of other independent authors.

One of the things FM has pioneered is conversational marketing, where brands want to spark discussion among pundits, analysts, and others. It’s a new thing, and potentially risky if authors don’t let their audiences know what’s going on. Since I’m about to participate in my first such conversational marketing campaign, here’s what’s up.

Thomson Reuters has launched a site called The Future Of Search. As part of the campaign around that, they’ve asked to use reprint a few preexisting articles I’ve written on the topic over there, plus to reprint two future articles I’ll do on the subject. One of those will be my Search 4.0 article I’ve been promising since I did my Search 3.0: The Blended & Vertical Search Revolution piece last year.

The other piece, well, I’m still thinking about it! I’ve had a couple of pieces banging around in my head, and I might do an updated look at my Why Search Sucks & You Won’t Fix It The Way You Think article from 2006. I guess I’m getting old and grumpy, but when I see the same ideas coming back up around the wheel for the third or fourth time, I tend to want to rant at anyone nearby that no one seems to remember anything, which is part of the reason we seem not to move ahead as quickly as I’d like in search. Maybe it’s just me.

As John wrote (he’s also taking part in the project), there’s no editorial guidance or oversight being given on the part of Thomson Reuters. With any advertising, there’s always the concern readers will think you’re going to somehow sell out or be nice just to protect ad dollars. I’m not. Never done that, and I’ve got no plans to change. If someone needs poking at, I’ll poke away.

Beyond this project, we’ll also be carrying some of FM’s graphic ads in the near future.

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About The Author: Danny Sullivan is a Founding Editor of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues who has covered the space since 1996. Danny also serves as Chief Content Officer for Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series. He has a personal blog called Daggle (and keeps his disclosures page there). He can be found on Facebook, Google + and microblogs on Twitter as @dannysullivan. See more articles by Danny Sullivan

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