ChasNote

AdBrite recently signed their 20,000th publisher site, according to ClickZ, and BlogAds is “migrating to a more robust platform that will allow it to accommodate more sites and a larger ad volume.”

Meanwhile FM, with its mere 85 sites, is slowing down the pace at which it adds new publishers. Trouble in Paradise? Well, according to John Battelle, FM’s founder and my boss, here’s why: “Our promise to authors and to advertisers we work with is that we have the human being factor. If we’re going to sell 200 sites, it’s very important we have the right number of sales people, engineers, [back-end and finance people] to make sure the network works as we’ve promised.”

The difference between FM’s model — fewer sites that are selected for quality content and influential voices, and a commitment to human-based service to authors and advertisers — and the broad online ad networks is becoming more apparent. In the words of ClickZ’s Zachary Rodgers, “An utterly different model from Battelle’s high-touch, high CPM network, AdBrite considers itself more of a competitor to AdSense and other monstrous contextual networks.”