Content Ads Guide

Online shopping service Mpire today introduced WidgetBucks, a new e-commerce advertising network that helps publishers, affiliates and bloggers earn three to four times more money compared to traditional ad networks.

WidgetBucks serves Web publishers who are looking for better performing online ads and ways to make money from the exploding widget market. In August 2007, 239 million widgets were used by Internet users in the U.S., where it is estimated that nearly half the online population — over 87 million people — use widgets, according to comScore.

Using patent-pending technology called MerchSense, WidgetBucks displays contextual shopping widgets in publishers’ advertising space. Additionally, WidgetBucks is the first ad network to support general Web publishers, as well as be offered as an ad unit within popular social networking sites, such as Facebook.

Over 2,000 publishers and partners, including InfoSpace, RockYou, SixApart, Whateverlife, BuddyTV, WidgetBox and ePage, as well as content partners eBay and Shopping.com, have tested WidgetBucks during the recent private beta period.

News Facts about WidgetBucks

• Automated, scalable ad units complement other networks such as Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network
• Product offers from 30,000 merchants, including top brands such as Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, NewEgg, Macy’s and Gap
• Publishers and bloggers earn money every time consumers click WidgetBucks ad content on their sites and are linked to a merchant’s offer
• MerchSense automatically matches products with editorial content, meaning consumers receive more engaging, meaningful and relevant ads
• Flash-based widgets, presented in part as top 10 lists, cover 100 different categories, 300+ configurations and buying trends of 100 million online shoppers
• Constant monitoring auto-optimizes widget rotation based on success rate
• For a limited time, publishers and bloggers receive a $25 sign-up bonus

About Mpire
Seattle-based Mpire is an award-winning meta-shopping service that brings together thousands of online stores and marketplaces, such as eBay, Amazon, Shopping.com, Target, WalMart and Gap. Mpire’s universal shopping experience combines proprietary pricing analysis for both new and used items, coupons and reviews, as well as distributed shopping features such as the Mpire Plug-in, shopping-trend widgets and Web service APIs. Founded in 2005, Mpire is backed by Ignition Partners and former eBay executive Richard Rock.

A month ago I anounced PubMatic. Today I can annouce the global launch of PubMatic beta. As you know, PubMatic has been running in alpha mode since August 16th. Since the launch of that version, over 400 publishers have implemented PubMatic and are using it to serve millions of ads per day. Publishers have seen revenue increases of up to 106%. PubMatic maintained 99.9% up time during this period. Based on these successes, PubMatic is now available globally to any publisher as a beta service.

Now that PubMatic is in beta, you can expect increased functionality. They have recently added support for BlueLithium ad network, and PubMatic now supports 3 of the 5 largest ad networks in the US. They improved both our auction and color optimization algorithms in order to drive even better revenue increases for their publishers. They also focused focused on strengthening the infrastructure to serve thousands of additional publishers. Of course, PubMatic continues to remain a free service while in beta.

They also published a sucess story, which is driving 90% revenue increase for Sportsvite (www.sportsvite.com). You can read more about how PubMatic and Sportsvite did this here: PubMatic sucess stories

The Associates program announced yesterday the worldwide launch of Amazon Widgets! These new widgets are small, visually dynamic, easily configurable widgets and allow you to feature products from Amazon on blogs, websites and social networking pages. In as little as one minute, you can populate a widget with your favorite Amazon products, your comments about those products, and select from a set of color and layout themes to match both your mood and website. From the music you are listening to, movies you’re watching, clothes you’re wearing, and even the food you are eating, with earth’s biggest selection of products Amazon widgets provide you unlimited options for voicing your tastes. The simple-to-use web interface for building and implementing a widget is at http://widgets.amazon.com, and can also be found through Associates Central.

You have the option to make money with our widgets by joining the Amazon Associates program. Just as with our existing tools, when a visitor to your site clicks on a product in your Amazon Widget and makes a purchase, you can earn up to 10 percent in referral fees from Amazon. With the exception of the Amazon Unbox Video Previewer all of the widgets can also be used without joining the Associates program.

You can see some examples of these widgets on Associate’s blog.

As an AuctionAds publisher, I’m excited to announce some changes on AuctionAds.com website and ad blocks! They worked hard to improve their system’s performance and to add some new features and improvements, which are: