Drupal users will be happy to hear that there’s a new plugin in town. Kontera ContentLinks are now offered along with a range of new features to accommodate your Drupal site.

With the new Drupal plugin for ContentLinks ads, you’ll be able to:

• Add the ContentLink tag to all your pages in one click
• Block ContentLink ads from appearing on particular pages
• Display ads only to non-registered users
• Enable/Disable ads from polls, search results or forums
• Change ContentLinks’ color

Download plugin for Drupal 5.7
Download plugin for Drupal 6.1

Installation:

1. Download plugin and unzip the file.

2. Upload the unzipped folder to your ’sites/all/modules’ directory. If the “modules” subdirectory does not exist, then it should be created.

3. Login to your Drupal Account, and on the left side menu select “Administer” and then “Site building”.

4. Within the “Site Building” section select “Modules”. Scroll down the “Modules” page to find the newly created “Kontera ContentLink” module. Check the box on the left hand side and click on the “Save Configuration” button.

5. On the Drupal menu select “Site Configuration” and then “Kontera settings” to set your plugin preferences.

6. 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:

Now select your ContentLink™ preferences, click the “Save configuration” button and you’re good to go!

Download plugin for Drupal 5.7
Download plugin for Drupal 6.1

Read more on Kontera’s In-Text Advertising

As we mentioned in an earlier post, Kontera’s Video Testimonial Contest was sealed and the winners announced. We received some great testimonials and we want to share the videos of all three winners with you, one by one.

Pay a visit to Randy’s site grownupgeek.com

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

By Vered Avrahami

Introducing a taste of Kontera’s live advertising campaigns:

As of last night a Google search query for the term “advertising” yields some 1,010,000,000 results, if you’ll check it again now, the number will probably be higher. Advertising is everywhere, and can no longer be referred to as mere “sponsored messaging”; it has evolved and now offers consumers plenty of added-value.

The ads featured during the Super Bowl for example have their own devoted fans, and for a good reason. They are extremely creative skits, featuring A-list celebrities, and to say it out front – they’re fun. Ads introduced us to many memorable characters, my personal favorites being the Taco craving Chihuahua and the wireless company’s “can you hear me now?” guy. We all use witty ad slogans and catch phrases in everyday conversations – anyone forget the “Wazzup” beer campaign?

These are all examples of successful TV ad campaigns, but advertising online is where the future lies. Kontera’s In Text Ad Program presents a win-win situation for all members of online advertising ecosystem and we manage to do it, if to quote our very own slogan, by: Creating In Text Relevance.

Kontera lives up to the slogan’s 3 part promise. ContentLink ppc ad units guarantee maximum creative flexibility as they can include text, logos, video, audio, flash animations, and interactive forms. ContentLinks are placed where users’ attention is focused, within the text. And finally Kontera’s advanced technology ensures that the ads will be highly relevant to the content in which they’re featured, so ContentLinks simultaneously provide added user-value and a particularly well targeted advertising campaign. See for yourself.

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.

By Vered Avrahami

One of the many great things about the online industry is that every publisher, regardless of size, can generate revenues from his web site or blog. To be an online entrepreneur, you don’t need years of experience or academic degrees; you don’t have to be a marketing expert, a confident webmaster or an advertising wiz; the only thing you are required to do, is to explore the various PPC Ad formats and contextual Advertising methods out there, and sign with the ones that are best suited for your website’s content and overall design. Naturally, we all have our preferences.

As internet users, we are accustomed to the idea that the web’s speedy development, along with free access to reading material, necessitate that a page’s real-estate be divided between content and advertising. We have also learned that advertising could complement content, by providing additional information, tailored to fit whatever it was that we were reading about. As part of our everyday online experience, we have all clicked on an eye catching banner, or on a text advertisement, one of the forms of contextual ads. The newest kid in the PPC advertising block is In-Text Advertising. Kontera’s In-Text advertising preserves the advantages presented by other forms of advertising while introducing new benefits to publishers, advertisers and users.

Kontera’s ContentLinks™ change the rules. In the past when a publisher was interested in increasing his advertising revenues, he was required to allocate additional web page “real estate” for ad placement. This action could potentially impair his content and deter users. With Kontera In-Text, a publisher’s ad-inventory is as vast as his content, since every word could serve as an opportunity for advertisers to communicate with their audience.

With ContentLinks, publishers are granted control over the placement and number of PPC In-Text ads inserted in their content. Publishers are also able to customize the color of the double-underlined Keywords, in order to differentiate them from regular links, and assure that they match the website’s design. These characteristics of Kontera In-Text Advertising guarantee that the publisher remains the decision maker regarding his site’s attributes.

Our new Knowledge Base is now available!

The KnowledgeBase includes information about optimization, payment issues, account updates and even technical matters. The data is categorized to your convenience, making every question easily reachable. Give it a try now, find answers to your Kontera ContentLink™ questions at http://kb.kontera.com

We did our best to put together all the questions we’ve known our partners to ask. Still, we believe that the knowledgeBase will keep evolving along with the dynamic nature of our products and services as well as with the varying needs of our partners. And so, we are very interested in discovering any additional questions you have, anything we might have missed.

Ask a Question-

If you have a Kontera question that you think should be added to the KnowledgeBase, let us know! We promise to review it and deliver a response. When questions you send are added to the KnowledgeBase, we’ll mention them on this blog as well and give you credit

Send your questions to blog@kontera.com or add them as a comment to this post.

Welcome to another interview in our series Kontera’s Backstage Pass. In this series, we hope to achieve an inside look at Kontera’s services, products, and developments, from those who know it best, the people working day by day to push Kontera’s backstage happening.

Today we interview Neta Shaked, a Kontera Account Manager. Neta has a busy schedule but I managed to catch up with her long enough to get some interesting information on her daily interactions with Kontera’s publishers.

Please describe your work as a Kontera Account Manager.

As an account manager I monitor a publisher’s results as well as our ContentLinks™ integration on their websites. I am doing whatever possible to maximize a site’s revenue and to customize our product to the publisher’s needs.
We live in fast times, the online world is constantly advancing and websites keep developing and changing. Add to this, the fact that Kontera’s ContentLink is being upgraded at close intervals, with features added and relevancy increased.
So, as an account manager, I follow on all these changes and make sure our ContentLinks will match perfectly to a site’s needs.

What are two most frequently asked publisher questions?

One of the questions I get asked most is: “what can be done to optimize“?
I think this is one of ContentLinks greatest strengths. Unlike other In-Text ad services, Kontera’s ads are customizable. Optimization can be performed on several levels. We do much backstage work to maximize ad relevancy and configure the best ad density per page. There are also many changes publishers can perform on their own, such as changing the links color, defining the exact analysis area, and much more.

Other most common questions have to do with Kontera’s payment procedures. The answer is simple, publishers can get paid by checks, wire or Paypal. With the new Publisher Center which is coming out soon, publishers will be able to update the settings themselves and change their own payment methods with a few simple clicks.

Is there a message you would like to send out to site owners who are thinking of joining Kontera?

Yes. Don’t be afraid of In-Text. The increasing popularity of In-Text Advertising is indicating that there is a growing taste and need for it. A few years back, In-Text was very new and so, many sites felt unsure about trying it. These days we are seeing a great change as many users have grown accustomed to In-Text and view it as a helpful tool. As a result, I receive many responses from satisfied publishers who are seeing the power of In-Text as a way of making information more accessible, while serving as a valuable revenue source.

BlogWorld was an important (and fun!) event. As one the panelists, Kontera’s VP, Product and Co-Founder, Assaf Henkin, had some interesting facts to share about the online marketing world today, with a special focus on the smart ways to monetize your blog.

But the best part for us was in getting to meet many of our partners face to face. This doesn’t happen often enough in the high-speed digital world.

A well known online entrepreneur and Kontera publisher, Joel Comm, has a few words to say about his experiences with Kontera. Get ready for a short video interview:

By Vered Avrahami

Surfing the web with the aim of finding a standard definition for the term “Web 2.0” produces an abundance of information revolving around this issue. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that this is the “User Generated Content” era. Blogs have a devoted readership, Forums have become a trustworthy resource for necessary advice, and users often spend as much time interacting in their Online Communities as they do with their friends. People spend longer hours online and this time is utilized for consuming information of personal value and interest. Our Internet experience has become personalized.

Publishers devote a great deal of time and effort to meet this trend. A great deal of attention is invested in the various aspects of managing a successful web site or a blog. These aspects include constant production of interesting new content, creation and maintenance of eye-catching design, traffic building and more. All this time and effort should rightfully be translated into income and therefore publishers usually divide their web-page real-estate between content and advertising. All this considered, has online advertising evolved to suit the market demand of the web 2.0 era? We believe that ContnetLink™ has.

The online advertising ecosystem is comprised of advertisers, publishers and users and ContentLink™ has proven beneficial to them all. Our technology enables advertisers to maximize their ROI while ensuring a high level of relevancy between keywords, ads, content and the user’s frame of mind. ContentLink™ provides users with information that is relevant to what they were searching thus enriching their user-experience. ContentLinks™ unique attributes enable it to achieve all the above while preserving publishers’ complete control over their sites. ContentLink™ simultaneously addresses the needs of all the members of the online advertising ecosystem – isn’t that the very essence of a Web 2.0 ad platform?

Read More on ContentLinks™ from Behind the Scenes>>