Everyone knows that top clicked Keywords and the current search trends usually go hand in hand. It’s always interesting to see which words get all the attention in a given week. That’s why we’ve decided to publish a series of posts about Kontera’s most clickable keywords.

Of course, the most generic keywords like computer, car, mobile phone, news -are always under the limelight- this is nothing new. But every now and then, we run into some surprises.

Take the Sports niche for example: the word “Basketball” always attracts a massive amount of clicks. However, during the last week it seems like the Beijing Olympic Games and Phelps’ astounding performance have turned the spotlight from the court to the pool. The word “Swimming” has surpassed “Basketball”, but even Phelps can’t beat “Football.”

Check out the table below for some of last week’s top performers. We’ve collected the most interesting categories and maybe you’ll find some tips here…Stay tuned for the next posts in this series.

By Emily Wallace, Business Development Manager

So you have decided to try a new revenue-generator for your site or blog.  But Kontera ContentLinks seem a little too good to be true—they don’t use up any of your space, they bring completely additive revenue and they only require one-time implementation.  Decidedly skeptical, you drag your feet; you never get around to putting the ads up, or you only install the Kontera code on a few pages to test it out.  Maybe your Kontera rep even lets you know that you can start small if you prefer.  It is your website, and of course we want you to feel comfortable.

However, if you are looking to earn some real money, this is what you should do:  the moment you receive your Kontera code, install it across your entire site.
Then watch.

For the first one to two weeks, the algorithms behind Kontera ContentLinks are going through an automatic optimization process to “learn” all of your existing content.  Every time the algorithms encounter new content (your latest blog post or article), they analyze it in real time and perpetually ensure Kontera is serving the best ads possible.
After the first couple of weeks, your metrics will hit their stride; in the second half of your first month, you will see the true revenue opportunity with ContentLinks.  If you had started the month by only implementing ContentLinks on a small portion of your site, then the metrics wouldn’t be as meaningful.  With more coverage (ideally 100% of the pages) on your site, you will see the clearest revenue picture for long term monetization.

One of Kontera’s top publisher partners, Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com, shared some sound advice, “It’s really important for those who are testing ad products to look at the big picture.  If possible, have [ContentLinks] run site wide for at least a month . . . If you are testing just a small part of a website, be sure to extrapolate the revenue out to all pages of the website.  Finally, understand that different pages of a website might make far more revenue than other pages.”

Because certain areas of your site may perform stronger than other areas, site-wide data will be the most accurate. Whether you have just received your Kontera code or implementation has long been on your to-do list, I encourage you to immediately begin maximizing the revenue your site or blog is capable of earning.  If you have been wading in the Kontera pool, I encourage you to swim with us and soak up the revenue you deserve.  And if you haven’t signed up for a Kontera account yet—what are you waiting for? Become a Kontera Publisher.

Some combinations just work- Lucy and Ricky, peas and carrots… Google and Kontera ads.

These days, more and more website owners are seeing the benefits in diversifying their ad offering in order to accommodate a wider audience. The market has much to offer in terms of ad types, and the trick is to make the selection that will monetize best while serving your users well. A website’s ad diversity has to go hand in hand with an uncluttered display, allowing users to find the information they seek and to conveniently and easily explore your page.

Many publishers find the combination of Kontera ContentLinks alongside Google Adsense to be most beneficial. In fact, our latest publisher survey showed that an amazing 95% of our top earners and over 70% of our bloggers use Kontera and AdSense in order to maximize their site’s revenues. Further research has confirmed that ContentLink ads have no negative impact on Adsense earnings, but rather increase a site’s overall revenue.

Better still, Kontera ContentLinks don’t take up additional ad space. The ad units are “compact”, hidden behind a relevant keyword until a user actively requests to see them. So in addition to the monetary advantages of a Adsense/Kontera combination, ContentLinks can run next to Adsense ads without the need for additional web space and without competing for user interaction. Since the ads completely differ in format, there’s no issue preventing them from appearing on the same page.

Alan Baltes of actinginfo, one of our favorite bloggers and a valued partner has this to say:

“Kontera has proven to be a fantastic addition to the Adsense ads on my blog. It has increased my overall revenue without having any adverse effect on my Adsense statistics. Best of all, I have received very positive feedback from my blog’s visitors!”

Roger Clark from rogers-resume-help-center.com, a very useful resume and career resource site says:

“Adsense has always been the main source of revenue for my website and I was reluctant to place any other advertising as I feared a drop in my Adsense revenue. I decided to give Kontera ads a try because they did not take up any additional space on my web pages. Within a few weeks the Kontera revenues started to grow and best of all there was no drop off in my Adsense. My Kontera results have exceeded my expectations, and now provide a significant complementary income stream.”

So what are you waiting for? Give the combination a try.

Indulging our uncontrollable urge to try out any and all web gadgets out there, we thought why not give Quibblo a shot? So we’ve put together a fun ContentLink trivia quiz.

Our ContentLinks are customizable, feature-rich, In-Text ad units. They’re great for generating your ad revenue, but how much do you really know about them?

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Read more about Kontera’s contextual advertising technology.

If you come by this blog often, you’ve already heard of the new WordPress and Drupal plugins we released recently.

We thought, why should WordPress and Drupal users have all the fun? And on that note, we’re pleased to introduce a module that will make life easier for Joomla users. Everyone should have a chance to easily make money from ads on their sites.

The Joomla module allows a simple integration of ContentLink™ ads.
Here are the features it enables:

* Adding the ContentLink tag to all your pages in one click

* Blocking ContentLink ads from appearing on particular pages

* Displaying ads only to non-registered users

* Changing ContentLinks’ color

Download Module for Joomla 1.5

Download Module for Joomla 1.0

Installation:

1. Download and unzip the plugin.
2. On your Joomla administrator, select “Installers” and then “Modules.”

   

3. Browse to find the unzipped “kontera-joomla” file and then click the “Upload and Install” button.
4. From the dropdown menu select “Modules” and then “Site Modules.”

   

   From the list of modules on your site select the newly created “Kontera-ContentLink” module.

   

5. Now you can set your ContentLink preferences.

• Within the “Kontera Settings” page, add your Kontera Publisher ID in the appropriate field. This is your personal ID which appears on your ContentLink tag:

  

• In the “Position” field select the lowest position on your site’s template, to set the code’s placement on your pages. The default lowest position is “Debug”
• Use the “Access Level” field to determine which users will see ContentLinks on your pages.
• Use the “Menu Item Link(s)” window to select the pages on which ContentLinks will appear.
• You can easily change ContentLink’s color by filling out the appropriate field.Download Module for Joomla 1.5
  Download Module for Joomla 1.0

Feel free to send any question by comment or email. Any feedback is most welcome.

There are many small yet essential decisions in life: paper or plastic, what color kitchen set to buy, where to place ContentLinks on your website’s page…

Well we can’t help with all the above but when it comes to ContentLink ads, we can make a few useful recommendations.

Since ContentLink ads work best on rich text sites, the more textual content your site contains the better. The best area for ContentLinks is where the most relevant content is concentrated. In most sites, this is the top of the page. Remember to make sure that this area is not controlled by Zone or Filter tags, these are used to block ContentLinks from appearing on certain areas of the page.

In some cases, such as forums, the most recent entries are at the bottom of the page. To assure highest relevancy for your forum site, make sure ContentLinks appear in the bottom part of the page.

At least we got one thing off your mind

We said before that when our partners talk we listen. We love getting your feedback and find it to be a great resource in helping us improve our products and services. That’s why creating and maintaining communication channels with you are particularly high on Kontera’s priority list.

This blog, the Publisher Center and our newly added KnowledgeBase are all meant to be exactly that – a two way communication channel.

Take the Knowledgebase as an example. The feedback provided by the thousands of Kontera publishers who visited it, has helped us identify the frequent questions encountered while employing ContentLinks™ and managing your account. The result on our end is a constant update of the Knowledgebase with new information.

One of the most frequently accessed Knowledgebase articles is “How do I add a new site to my existing Kontera Account?” and so we thought to answer it here as well. Adding another site to your Kontera account is easy. In fact it’s a process that can be summed up in three words send - receive - add. And here’s how:

Use the help tab in your account in Kontera’s Publisher Center and send us an email listing the site domains you want added to your network. We will review each site and create up to 5 new sets of tags for you at a time. Upon receiving the new tags, you can immediately add them onto your site’s template directly before the closing body tag </body> of your source code.

Have you visited the Knowledgebase? Have a question that wasn’t included in it? Let us know and we’ll gladly add it.

Send it to blog@kontera.com

You don’t have to take our word for it, simply watch what a senior Britannica.com executive  has to say about Kontera ContentLink™ Ads.  See more of our BlogWorld adventures.

By Mika Tal

I’m no search engine expert but there are a few basic things anyone who’s ever launched a site knows about increasing its popularity. Golden rule number 1: on the web- your presence largely depends on the level of attention search engines decide to invest in you. We also know well there’s much that can be done to encourage search engines to notice your site. For Kontera publishers, the good news is that while improving your search engine rankings, you improve your ContentLink results- and not only for the simple reason of traffic increase.
Here are a few ways in which your SEO efforts improve your ContentLink results.

1. Search engines love text rich sites. In fact, the ultimate search engine friendly web-page contains 250-500 words.
   This is great news for ContentLink ads. The ideal environment for ContentLink ads is a text rich site. Think of a text rich site as fertile ground for In-Text ads to thrive on. Part of the reason being that the more text a site has, the greater the selection and the number of ads that our relevancy engines can display. Optimizing your website for search engines increases your ranking while enhancing your ContentLink results.
2. Including within your content keywords that are relevant to your users. You are more likely to be noticed by search engines when your webpage contains contextually related keywords. Contextually related keywords give search engines the idea of what your site is all about. So for example, if you use words such as herbs, plants, flowers and fertilizer, you’re probably writing about gardening. Similarly, when a publisher signs up with Kontera, we determine the site’s category in order to target ads which are most relevant according to our contextual advertising technology.
   Relevant keywords are the pillar stone of your SEO efforts. Search engines look for those words that are most relevant for your users. By targeting keywords, you can direct your readers to the most relevant pages on your site, forum or blog. Highly targeted content leads to higher conversions and better visitor experiences.
   Similarly, Kontera’s ContentLinks searches for relevant keywords within your content in order to match it with the most relevant ad. Our engine analyzes the text on your site in order to figure what your content is all about. Within seconds, keywords are selected according to relevancy, click-through rates and revenue potential. These parameters are set to bring the most targeted, highest paying ad to your site. Considering this, optimizing your content for search engine purposes simultaneously optimizes your site for Kontera’s relevancy engine.
3. So what’s the number-one tip for search engine ranking? Fresh Content. Search engines like websites that are frequently updated with fresh, unsullied, content. This is part of the dynamic search engine- webpage relation. Luckily, Kontera’s ContentLink are dynamic ads that bring the most relevant results at real-time. It does not matter how often you update your site’s content, Kontera’s engine analyzes and matches ads to your site each time a visitor enters.

A few weeks back we gave you a sneak peek at our new Publisher Center.

Well, peeking is no longer necessary.

The Publisher Center is live and you can now login using your existing user and password.

Check out the graphic revenue displays, experiment with the Keyword Report, test the URL report, customize ContentLink Color, and look into our Knowledgebase for detailed information about using ContentLinks™.

What is really exciting is that all this is just the first stage in the improved Publisher Center. We are already working on additional features, all designed to give you better service, greater control and means to increase your contextual ad revenues.
So let us know what you think so far and which other features will help you.

We can’t wait to hear your feedback.