Recently, Mixx has introduced a brilliant way to introduce online banner advertisements to the web-savvy, no-click generation.

The Sifter is their latest and greatest feature – allowing participants to earn 100 extra Karma points and a wicked bonus prize to the weekly winner of the Sifter, usually $25 gift cards to retail stores and iTunes.

Why it’s Smart to Sift

I applaud Mixx’s effort to build a revenue stream in the ever-failing social media advertising world, this is really genius.

Typically, web savvy folk do not even bat an eyelash towards a banner ad. This is why Digg is struggling to make ends meet – they get a variety of users, ranging from my grandmother, to a power user and web masters, but I know better than to click on an advertisement. It’s irrelevant to me, and probably 82% of the Digg community. Since Mixx isn’t amazing for driving traffic to sites, but that’s ok – their Alexa ranking speaks for itself. They get traffic most sites are envious of. However that traffic doesn’t necessarily translate into traffic for promoted content. Most recently, the sifter’s creatives were for the movie Terminator 4.

Social and Viral media have such great mainstream influences, it is in the best interest of new media producers to invest an advertising budget in the online game. Because when it comes to geeky or nostalgic news, those of us that care, REALLY care.