25 February 2010

8 Main Providers for RSS Feeds Monetization

RSS feed is a popular data format used for serving users frequently updated content and they offer great opportunities to publishers who are looking for alternative systems to generate revenue from their original content.

An RSS (most commonly expanded as "Really Simple Syndication") document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. 
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With the growing popularity of RSS feed-based syndication, many Internet publishers became concerned that subscribers to their RSS feeds would not be exposed anymore to the advertising on their web pages, as some readers could now read all of their content inside their RSS reader. In this light, some decided to publish only a short part of their articles in their RSS feeds so that those interested would click through to their site to read the rest of the content.

While initially this approach has given good results to those using it, recently more and more online publishers have decided to provide the full content of their articles inside their RSS feed not to alienate those readers on the move or offline who were frustrated by their inability to read the full content of the articles without clicking through to the main site.

Several years ago, several companies started to offer the opportunity to automatically insert ads inside RSS feeds. These RSS feed monetization services enable publishers to place ads inside their RSS feeds and earn money when these are read or clicked upon.

The revenue models offered by these RSS feed monetization services are different ones: they span from CPC, CPM to flat rate plans; additionally, publishers can choose between contextual text-based ads, banners and interstitial ads, which are often completely customizable.

Consider the following points, while exploring the topic of RSS Feed Monetization and developing a relevant strategy:
  • Type of ads: the typology of advertisement offered, whether contextual or random text links, banners, interstitial ads, etc.
  • Every how many posts the ad is shown: the exact positioning of ads within the RSS feeds.
  • Ability to select and approve the ads: the possibility for the publisher to choose which ads can be included and which cannot.
  • Stats about ads performance: the availability of a control panel that allows the publisher to monitor the revenue and performance of ads within RSS feeds
  • Rate: the method of payment offered to the publisher, whether CPC (Cost Per Click), CPM (Cost Per Mille – which estimates the cost per 1000 views of the ad) or flat rate
  • Requirements: special requirements that the publisher needs to have in order to insert ads in her RSS feeds (which might correspond to a high authority, pagerank and number of RSS feeds subscribers).
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Main Providers

Google AdSense for Feeds

AdSense for feeds allows web publishers to earn by placing targeted Google ads in their feeds. AdSense for feeds works the way the rest of the AdSense program works: by delivering ads that are relevant to your content and your readers.

Like other AdSense ads, feed ads can be paid in two ways: by click, or by impression. Feed ads can also be targeted in two ways.

  • contextually targeted to the content in your feed
  • targeted by advertisers to your specific feed when you set up an ad placement
You can control the frequency, appearance, and positioning of Google ads in your feeds. The ad size is automatically determined based on where your feed is appearing. You can get detailed instructions on how to start using the program on Google AdSense website.

Kannodle

Kanoodle is a pay-per click network which includes hundreds of thematic ad categories from which you can freely choose. Through BrightAds RSS, Kanoodle’s content-targeted sponsored links will be inserted directly into site owners’ RSS feeds within posts or as individual posts, with relevancy of the ads assured through Kanoodle’s topic-based approach. You can sign up for the partnership in the program from the company website.

Pheedo

Pheedo’s FeedPowered advertising platform converts your RSS feeds into rich, dynamically updating advertising that engages your audience. Pheedo retrieves your RSS feed several times an hour and updates your FeedPowered advertisements with any newly published items. With Pheedo FeedPowered you can also monetize your syndicated video content. Get started, signing for the Publisher section on the company website.

TextLinkAds

TextLinkAds provides a service to bloggers called Feedvertising, which allows them to run text link ads in their RSS feed. Whether the ads come from TextLinkAds, your own in-house efforts, or your affiliate links the choice is always up to you. Feedvertising is currently available only for WordPress 2.0+ users with more blogging platforms coming soon. There are no variable CPM rates or cost-per-click systems: publishers get paid according to a predictable flat rate pricing. Join the Publishers program, signing on the company website.

MediaFed

MediaFed is a service that lets you generate revenue from your feeds by inserting suitable advertising in the feed items. MediaFed ad placement system automatically inserts adverts into your feeds in one of two ways: either adverts are inserted every x number of articles where you control the value of x, or by matching keywords to your article contents to target relevant advertising. The program is mostly oriented on the European customers. You can inquire about the potential partnership, sending email, posted on the company website.

FeedShow

FeedShow is a web-based RSS feed reader and first the online aggregator to remunerate publishers theough Google AdSense. Revenues are generated by clicks on the displayed ads. FeedShow gives the publishers 50% of the revenues generated by the targeted ads. When displaying ads, both your Google AdSense codes and Feedshow codes are used, so that the number of ads displayed for the publishers account and the FeedShow account are the same. Google and the AdSense program will then pay the editors directly without any interaction with FeedShow. Sign in for the program on the company website.

AdGenta

AdGenta is a service that allows you to choose which advertisements to put onto your website or in RSS feeds by selecting specific keywords. You have total control over the advertisements your visitors see, because they are no longer bound to the content, but to your personal choice. Besides, there is no approval process or minimum traffic requirement to use AdGenta. You can join the program by signing in from the company website.

ThankYouPages

ThankYouPages is a service that allows publishers to insert advertising into the links contained within their RSS feeds. When a user clicks a link from your RSS feed, they will are shown a short, fully branded, interstitial advertisement between the click of the link, and the final destination. You have control over the look, feel, and format of the page, as well as how often offers appear to your user. If you are interesting to join a program, you need to complete first the ThankYouPages application process at http://www.thankyoupages.com/join_now/.


Sources and Additional Information:

14 February 2010

Free Fun Photo Utilities from Comeks

Fun Photo Blogger from Comeks is a charming new application that merges mobile messaging with microblogging with images to create little mobile comics. It’s an innovative idea that came from a group of Finns in Helsinki. Comeks allows for visual mobile communication. It’s simple to use. Just download the free application. Create funny comic style images by adjusting your photos, adding stickers and bubbles with text. Software offers different fonts to choose from. You can share them in Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, Tumblr or Flickr or to other phones or email. Use it for invitations, greetings or blogging.
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There are two more applications, offered by authors, which can be downloaded from the website. Comeks Shorts, allows to create your own custom avatar and sending the fun Shorts messages. Modify body parts, mood, props and background and type your message in the speech bubble. Thee messages can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and through email, and work on Sony/Ericson phones and iPhone.

Bikini Babe Yourself - iPhone App – for Twitter, Tumblr, and email allows to create funny images by combining your own face with steaming hot bikini babe templates. This application is however not free and costs $0.99 at iPhone App Store.

06 February 2010

5 Free Services to Estimate the Value of your Blog

Many blog owners look closely on the PageRank as a criterion of popularity of the web site. However, Page Rank is just one of the ways to evaluate where you stand as a webmaster. Another measure to consider is Website value. Though there is no accurate measure of how much a website is worthy of, there are some online tools which provide a vague idea through its own calculations.

The calculations may be based on the Google PR, website backlinks, Alexa ranking, Compete rankings, Quantcast rankings, URLs submitted to social networking sites etc. Some of the most popular websites to check your website worth are given below.

  1. MyWebsiteWorth is a free tool which will analyze your site, and let you know how well it’s being monetized, and what value you could sell it for. The calculation is based on Alexa ranking, Compete rank, Google PR, estimated number of visitors to the site and People rank.
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  1. Cubestat is a free tool for website value calculation, estimations and information. It can estimate the website worth, daily pageviews and daily ads revenue of the present domain.
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  1. Stimator is a new resource that is out in public beta and they take into consideration aspects such as TLD strength and motivation factors within the buying market. For its part, web factors and comparisons with other sites on the database are also fully accounted for.
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  1. U2WS. Among many options, you will be also able to get the page rank, the traffic details, etc. Finally, if you are interested in getting to know in what part of the world the website is located, you can also do that. You get detailed information about websites, like traffic details, web statistics, website estimated value and daily income, rankings, related links, host ip address and much more.
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  1. WorthBot collects data about the target webiste including visits, traffic, ad views and more. Code then manipulates that data using a secret internal calculation in order to provide a rough site worth estimation.
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How objective the information is? You see a huge gap in value estimates by different services. So, use the obtained results for your reference only. 

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