Happy Thanksgiving from the Kontera Team!

On November 27, we will be available on a slightly smaller scale… as some of us will be busy giving thanks and undoing what was achieved in several months of calorie watch.

Just kidding… We will be available to answer all your questions through Kontera support, just as in any regular week.

Enjoy the Holidays!

Kontera recently partnered with Pluck On Demand enabling its publishers access to contextually relevant, professionally-created, content and social media tools to increase publisher page views and user engagement. Kontera ContentLink will automatically populate within the Pluck on Demand content widget generating additional revenue for publishers.

What exactly is Pluck On Demand?

Pluck On Demand is a series of widgets that grow your site with contextually relevant content and social media tools.  The widgets read your site and offer links to relevant content from a library of millions of articles and videos. All content is consumed within your pages with your site’s look and feel and is pre-packaged with advertising.  This means incremental page views and revenue for your site.

How does it work?

Pluck On Demand’s free self-serve widget-based product can be added in minutes using an easy step-by-step implementation wizard.  Once in place, Pluck On Demand automatically reads content on a page and provides links to related articles and videos sourced from various high-quality content providers. The full article or video content is viewed within the publisher’s site, driving traffic and engagement.  Pluck On Demand also comes with social media features such as comments, ratings, recommendations, and user profiles, making it possible for publishers to instantly build vibrant community on their sites.
Check out the video to learn more http://ondemand.pluck.com/kontera

How do I sign-up?

Visit ondemand.pluck.com/kontera and add Pluck on Demand to your site today!

Sociologists must find these to be fascinating times to live in.  History is being made while the world we live in is rapidly turning into a digitally connected environment. It is a wonder to see the impact web 2.0 has on events that determine the course of our lives.

Provided you’ve been hooked on your RSS feed properly over the past few weeks, you’ve seen the latest accounts on the effects of social networking and blogs on the US Presidential Election Campaign:

In an interesting article in PCWorld.com author Cyndy Aleo-Carreira points out that President-elect Obama’s campaign “reach across social networking was enormous in scope, with a presence on every conceivable social network, from Twitter to Facebook, and MySpace to LinkedIn.” She then concludes her analysis by stating that “the era of the Internet campaign has begun.”  ZDNet quotes interesting elections related FaceBook figures supporting this conclusion:

• President-elect Obama is the most popular page on Facebook, with 2.5 million supporters. Michael Phelps is second with 1.6 million.
• Overall activity on the site on Election Day was up 20 percent.
• More than 5.44 million people clicked the “I voted” button on Facebook to tell their friends they voted.

Presiden-elect Obama didn’t abandon the internet after the campaign’s victorious outcome but rather, he now brings the web into his administration. The Obama administration decided to broadcast the weekly presidential addresses to YouTube and has already began to post videos on Obama’s transition Web site, Change.gov.

The Washington Post reveals that in addition to regularly videotaping the address, officials at the transition office say the Obama White House will also conduct online Q&As and video interviews. The goal, officials say, is to put a face on government.
Being somewhat addicted to social media ourselves, it’s exciting to discover and re-discover how influential online interaction has become.

- Check out our YouTube channel
- Follow me on Twitter

We’ve decided to aggregate some of the questions we receive regarding payment terms & methods. The extended versions of the answers below can be found in the Kontera knowledgeBase.
If you’re left with any payment questions after reading this post and the knowledgeBase, let us know, and we’ll gladly expand our guides to include more information.

When do I get paid?

Kontera’s payment terms are Net 30, first week of the month, when balance meets or exceeds US$100.  In plain English it means that payment is issued 30 days after the month in which the revenue was earned, when an account balance reaches $100. For example, if your account balance reaches $100 in October, we’ll send the payment to you in the first week of December.

What if my account balance is less than $100?

If your account balance is less than US$100 at the end of the month, earnings over US$5 (for all your sites combined) is rolled forward to the following month, until the payment threshold is reached.
You can view your account status at any moment by logging into your Publisher Center account and clicking on the reports tab.  Reports date back up to 180 days and any data prior to this time frame can be sent to you upon request.

Can I set a higher limit of when payments are released to me?

Sure.  Some of our partners prefer a payout amount which is higher than $100.  If this is the case for you, simply change the settings by logging into the Publisher Center and selecting the “My Account” Tab. Follow the ‘Payment Method’ link and enter the amount of your choice in the appropriate field.

What are the available payment methods?

Kontera’s available payment methods are as follows:

US Publishers
•    Check
•    EFT
•    Paypal

Publishers from Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland,  and the United Kingdom
•    Check
•    International ACH
•    Paypal

All Other International Publishers
•    Check
•    Wire
•    Paypal

And how do I change my payment method?

To change your payment method, login to your account and go to “My Account” tab, then click “Payment Method” to select your preferred option.  Click to find out more about changing your payment method to PayPal.

Hello Everyone,

The Halloween party at Kontera was a lot of fun. With a mish mash of games, candy, contests and theme costumes, this year was defenitely a memorable one… We’ve brought some pics to share.

Hope your Halloween was terriffic