WebProNews

The latest figures from Nielsen//NetRatings and its AdRelevance service show incredible ad revenue growth.

News Corp's pickup of MySpace looks pretty prudent now, as it led general community web sites in racking up $33.5 million in ad revenue for June 2005. The press release shows the category grew year over year by 214 percent.

Interest in health and fitness sites increased with the start of summer, and their June revenue jumped 80 percent to $4.5 million.

Sites in the business, men's interest, and shopping & auction categories rounded out the top five in terms of year over year growth. General community sites delivered over 11.7 billion ad impressions in June.

"General community sites tend to have a higher level of engagement or interactivity with their users, making the sites very attractive to advertisers," said Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings, said in the statement.

In ad spending, the moneylenders were the big money spenders. The financial sector spent over $80 million for 17+ million ad impressions in June. Web media sites followed with $74.7 million in spending.

The biggest percentage increase came from the retail sector; its $72.7 million spent was a 77 percent increase year over year. Telecoms and travel sites closed out the top five.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.