Seth Godin wrote an interesting post today that sparked some debate within a networking group that I belong to.

Since I honor the “what is said on the list stays on the list,” I can’t bring you the whole discussion. Suffice it to say the debate was about whether or not what Seth was encouraging was click fraud or not. Just for fun on a Friday afternoon, I decided to take the contrary point of view, and I’m going to share it with you here. Its worth some consideration.

I’ll bite on the controversial point of view.

I’m a bit amazed that he didn’t get into more specifics, since CPM based advertising provides the content producers with some revenue whether the user clicks or not. Maybe the “tip jar” analogy doesn’t work for everyone, but people should thank the advertisers for bringing us all this great, free content. All we’re really asking for is the user to give our clients a little consideration when they are making their next purchasing decisions.

As a staunch defender of pre-roll, I often find myself explaining a contrary point of view. As (I hope) most of you saw, there were three independent pieces that came out in support of pre-roll this week. Tremor (self interest disclosed right here), Break/Panache, and Nate Elliott’s report for Jupiter. We all understand that there is a value exchange that has to take place in order for our business to survive. Sure we want to squeeze every last bit of performance out of our advertising and marketing efforts, but at the end of the day, someone or something has to pay to produce that content. We work in an ad-supported industry. So don’t the ads actually have to support the industry somehow?

When I see a pre-roll (reasonably targeted, appropriate length for the content, but not the point of this discussion) that “presents” or “sponsors” or otherwise enables me to get the content that I want for free, I say “Thank you” in my head, because the alternative is paying for it. Do most of us buy the NY Times at the newstand or read it for free online? Thought so.

Seth didn’t get into enough detail to make a strong case for “saying thanks” vs click fraud, and thats a shame. While display and text ads are much easier to avoid, tune out, or not engage with than video ads are, without clicking, we’d all need to go back to a straight CPM based pricing model to ensure that revenue moves into the hands of content producers. If content providers and producers dont get paid, then what we have is a hobby and not a business.

Performance based pricing models put the pressure on all of us to make our advertising really work, and that is certainly a good thing. But doing whatever it takes to ensure that people can continue to bring us the content that we want for the price we want to pay (read: nothing), then the tip-jar-click shouldn’t really be considered fraud. Advertisers don’t have to pay, and content producers don’t get paid, when we see an ad and it registers and reminds us to buy something in the store over the weekend. Maybe Dynamic Logic can introduce a “pay per brand consideration” pricing model. Again, I’m just taking the other POV for fun this afternoon. Don’t hate me because I pre-roll.

Just to keep the conversation lively, is the idea so different than Radiohead’s “pay whatever you want” to download their last album? The people that liked what they got said thanks by paying for it. Comscore reported that 38% of the people who downloaded the album paid for it at an average of about $8.

I’m well aware that we’re talking aout paying directly for the content vs. forcing an advertiser to pony up for someone elses product, but is it really “click fraud” or just the natural course of events of the business model we operate in? Maybe Seth - or all of us, for that matter - should just slap a PayPal button on every article and allow the money to flow straight to the publishers. Whatever happened to that micropayment concept anyway?

We said so. Seems like most people agree. Check the comments from Chris Albrecht’s piece this morning.

I tried to watch a few live streams and was only able to after telling the player that I had a different cable provider. The content was of fair quality, a bit stuttery, and overall, very difficult to navigate. I just wanted to watch some women’s team archery, damnit!

Andy Plesser, over at Beet.TV, seems impressed with the stats that Neilsen put out, though. To each their own, but I’m still disappointed so far. I’m with Chris. The navigation is a little clunky, and I’d really like to have set up Miro to download the events I wanted while I was at work or sleeping and watch at my leisure. When I went to the “Longform Rewind” page, and selected the RSS feed, I was greeting with a “Sorry, the requested page is unavailable” message. Bummer.

But to Andy’s point, there’s myriad videos to choose from, and probably satisfies most people’s needs. Damn us nitpicky bloggers.

Combe Incorporated’s VP of Interactive Communications Tom Cunniff recently launched a blog about consumer packaged goods marketing. Get inside his head at iCPG, “Consumer Packaged Goods, Outside the Box.” Catchy title, too.

Tom’s post, “Modern Marketing, An Allegory” explains why the video below contains everything you need to know about online marketing.

Ok, so maybe there’s a little more you should know, but it is definitely a good start!

In case you haven’t clicked on every link in our blogroll (but why haven’t you?), head on over to Mark Glaser’s MediaShift blog. Mark spoke to a number of industry leaders about the state of online video advertising, and I must say that its one of the most balanced pieces you’ll get to read.

But if you absolutely refuse to read anything about online video except us, here’s what I had to say:

Probably the biggest mistake people make is in equating professional, studio-quality videos with the more amateur content that dominates video-sharing sites.

Yep. Some content just isn’t monetizable. Go figure. In case you need a refresher, pre-roll isn’t bad. Poorly placed pre-roll is. Remember the covenant! And more importantly, remember not to piss off Steve Hall.

Head on over to Kevin Nalt’s Will Video For Food and read his post on video sponsorships, product placement and selling out. Its spot on.

In it, he cites 5 trends for online video product placement. I particularly liked #4:

4. There will be no trend four. Trend four is often wrong, which itself is a growing trend.

So go read the other trends, and the rest of the post.

Sitting in the back of the room has its drawbacks. I would have / should have known that there was an “Official” IAB Live Blog of the event. For another (official) perspective, head over for their recap.

We’re not celebrities. They aren’t celebrities. The restaurant hasn’t been “the” place to been seen in years. But dining at New York City’s Balthazar last night, OVW met Narragansett Pictures’ Chip Benson, an independent television producer…..and a die-hard Red Sox fan.

Narragansett Pictures produces the Red Socks Diaries, a daily video blog comic strip - about the Red Sox - featuring improv comedian and voice actor Ron Hayden impersonating Big Papi David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and closer Jonathan “Papelbuns”

I’m obviously biased given the subject matter, but here’s a great example of high quality, well produced, short-form niche content that reaches a targeted and loyal audience. The duo previously produced another Sawks inspired show, The Red Sake Show, which you can still catch on Brightcove. Go Sox!

For a look inside the Blip.tv office and a good interview with CEO Mike Hudak, head over to Pop17, or watch below:

(h/t Andrew Baron via Twitter)

Ugh. April Fools day in the Blogosphere. Arrington’s suing Facebook, Zuckerberg’s doing SNL, YouTube Rickrolled their front page while Blip.tv announced support for the rick-roll ad format. And someone in my office named “April F” just sent an e-mail about free pizza in the kitchen, (the humanity!)

Google employees alone appear to have spent weeks worth of twenty percent time on pranks across the company’s numerous properties. OK Virgle’s not bad (”Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B”)…

But we’re only halfway through the day and I’m ready to return comedy to the pros. Here, watch the Onion for a while, isn’t that better?

Above: The Onion: Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 08 Election

Above: The Onion: Army Holds Annual Bring Your Daughter To War Day

Corey Adds:And more bubbling in the blogosphere, don’t miss Sean X. Cummings & Adam Broitman’s expose on Sprockets, and why they are the next big thing you need to know about (today).

This week, TV Week’s New Media Minute with Daisy Whitney takes an exclusive look at Hulu’s demographics, comparing numbers from Hitwise and Nielsen to see who’s tuning into Hulu. (Hint: both my parents watch it.)

She also takes a quick look at Revision3’s Internet Superstar, a podcast I’ve been grabbing through the Zune Marketplace for the past few weeks.