Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

Yet another means of making some money is presenting itself through the stock photography company started by Bill Gates: Corbis.

What the company is doing is allowing bloggers to use some of their images for free in exchange for embedded advertising in the photo.

The embedded advertising could be an ad overlay or or the type that pop up after a visitor runs their cursor over the image.

Photos can be accessed with a link through a new website called PicApp.com, now in beta or the testing phase.

If a photo is used, revenue is generated per click on the photo, although it's not clear the at this time what the share will be for bloggers.

My first reaction to this was extremely negative, as I could see this overwhelming visitors if a blogger is monetizing through text and display ads. If the included photo can't even be viewed without an ad, it could possibly chase a reader away quickly.

But in thinking about it, if it's done right, it wouldn't necessarily be a turn off for visitors who could appreciate the included photo, which would also provide them with something that may interest them via the ad.

Of course the same old problem of relatedness and interest to the reader or viewer come in again. But Google (GOOG), after all their time working with text ads, still isn't great at providing relevant content all the time. There are consistently many cases of unrelated text ads by the content.

I would also think the imprint of the ad would have to be small on the photo as well, as photos are definitely an important part of experience for readers.

I'm reserving judgement on this until I see it in action. It has potential, like anything else, to do good or bad. This is definitely an intrusion issue, and presentation will be everything. Do that right and it may work fine for everybody affected by the ad.