• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, June 1, 2006

In another example of a social networking site reaching out to brand advertisers, StyleDiary.net, a fashion-oriented site, has stopped accepting Google AdSense links in favor of cost-per-thousand impression-based ads.

So far, online retailers ShopChiffon.com and Misamu.com (based in Ireland) have signed up. The site also is running a video promotion for Paramount Pictures' "An Inconvenient Truth," starring Al Gore; StyleDiary did not charge Paramount for the inventory.

StyleDiary isn't the only social networking property to recently start offering image ads. Photo-sharing site Flickr also recently struck a deal for its first branding campaign. In Flickr's case, the marketer was the camera company, Nikon.

Marketing strategist Steve Rubel, senior vice president with Edelman's me2revolution group, said he expects that social networking sites across the board will start luring brand marketers. "I'm sure they're all going to go to CPMs," Rubel said. But, he cautioned, sites must be careful not to alienate their users with inappropriate ads. "They need to do it in a way that the community's going to accept," he said, adding that publishers are in the best position to judge what their users will tolerate.

StyleDiary founder and CEO Patty Handschiegel said she stopped displaying Google ads earlier this month in order to give brand advertisers better placement. "We are giving our customers the best real estate on the site," she said.

StyleDiary, which launched in late 2004 and currently boasts about 10,000 members worldwide, offers a mix of user-generated content--mainly photos of clothing and accessories--and articles written by freelancers. The site also plans to soon start producing a twice-monthly video feature.