In order to keep this post concise, we had to narrow it down to 8 top products and services launched by Kontera that were focused on existing and prospective publisher base, so without further ado , here are the chronologically ordered top Kontera launches of 2008:

1. KnowledgeBase- Launched January 21- The KnowledgeBase surrounds a wide range of information about Kontera optimization, publisher payments, and technical issues. The KnowledgeBase was another move in our push to give Kontera publishers greater independence through accessibility to information. The knowledgebase proves very helpful and accommodates an impressive amount of publishers daily.
2. Publisher Center- Launched January 31- the Publisher Center offers Kontera partners a range of high end capabilities and control over ContentLink ads on their sites and their accounts. What’s even more exciting is the fact that the Publisher Center is continuously undergoing upgrades and updates since its initial launch. It will continue to improve in order to give Kontera publishers a greater control and more possibilities over their In-Text ads.
3. The Kontera Hybrid- Launched March 25- Kontera’s newest advertising solution, a completely customizable, In-Text media layer that simultaneously displays relevant content alongside advertisements. The Hybrid layer enhances a webpage by presenting links to related content, videos, and images alongside advertisements in one cohesive unit. The Kontera Hybrid is currently only available to select publishers.
4. Invite a Friend Program – Launched March 31- Through this program, publishers can send their friends an invite to join Kontera. For each friend who becomes an active member, you receive a $25 bonus award. The Invite a Friend program has been very successful in expanding the Kontera family and it will continue with us well into 2009.
5. New Plugins for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal – Launched throughout May – These plugins are an important milestone in our efforts to simplify ContentLink implementation for use on various platforms. The plugins allow the setup of ContentLink ads, without the complications of modifying your site’s code. Have a look at our WordPress plugin video tutorial.
6. Blogger Widget- Launched June 10- Much like the plugins mentioned above but even simpler, the Blogger widget allows you to implement ContentLink on Blogger blogs with just one click. Login to your Kontera account, click on the “Kontera It” button and the Kontera tag will be automatically added to your pages. Monetizing your blog has never been easier.
7. Kontera on Pluck-On-Demand partnership- Launched November 20- Through the partnership with Pluck, Kontera ContentLink ads are automatically generated within the Pluck-on- Demand content widget creating an additional revenue stream for publishers. Publishers get the whole package: free and relevant content populated with targeted ads.
8. Holiday ’09 Cash Bonus – Launched December 18- Our latest promotion, recently advertised and still going strong. If you are not yet a publisher, there’s no better time to join. Sign up with Kontera by Jan 15, 2009 and as soon as you reach $75 in earnings, we’ll round your balance up to $100. That’s an extra $25 on us!

Happy 2009!

We are excited to present our new blog face, refreshed and uplifted.

The Kontera blog has been up and running since June 22, 2007.  It hasn’t always been easy… but with much care and fun, we have proudly made it to POST 99!

And on this festive blog occasion, we’d like to remind you of posts that have gained more attention, and other posts that we really like… and you may have missed:

• Why Google Adsense and Kontera ContentLinks are a Perfect Combination

• 5 Things Kontera’s Top Earners Have In Common

• 3 Reasons Why Your SEO Efforts and ContentLink Optimization Go Hand in Hand

• The Comprehensive Kontera Guide for Payment Info

• Creating In-Text Relevance

• Video Tutorial- Setting Up the Kontera WordPress Plugin
  

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. You can read more about IAB and its mission here.

Kontera also meets the IAB guidelines for the most common current in-stream ad formats.

What does that mean, exactly?

Our relevancy engine is built to determine the true context of any webpage and to match it with the most relevant ads. This technology will now be utilized to serve contextually relevant information from Microsoft in ad units appearing on “LinkedIn Answers”.
LinkedIn users will be able to follow a related Microsoft ad in order to expand their search for answers on technology related questions.

How does it work?

Kontera’s engine analyzes LinkedIn answers page in real-time while matching it with related topics from Microsoft TechNet. Following, these topics are displayed on an ad unit, enabling users to find additional answers and information.

To see Kontera’s Microsoft implementation on LinkedIn, login to your LinkedIn account and click on the “Answers” tab. Within “Answers”, click on the ‘Technology’ link and then on the ‘Information Technology’ link.

Visit our website and find out more about the Kontera -Microsoft-LinkedIn collaboration and about Kontera’s Contextual Advertising Technology

What is the Kontera Hybrid?
Kontera Hybrid is a publisher tool designed to increase user involvement, engaging users where they are the most active – within the content. The Kontera Hybrid is a completely customizable, In-Text media layer that simultaneously displays relevant content alongside advertisements. The Hybrid layer enhances a webpage by presenting links to related content, videos, and images alongside advertisements in one cohesive unit. The Hybrid layer is launched upon a user mouse-over on a highlighted keyword within a webpage, thus increasing user engagement and site interaction.

How does the Kontera Hybrid Work?
Kontera´s patent-pending technology and proprietary algorithms thoroughly analyze each webpage to determine its topic, extract relevant Keywords, and determine which other pages within the website are thematically related to it. This real-time analysis determines which Keywords within a page’s content will be highlighted and, upon user mouse-over, will launch the Hybrid layer. The system also simultaneously selects and adds links to related content to be featured within the Hybrid’s layer.

The Kontera Hybrid enables publishers to select the source of the articles displayed within the layer, either by re-directing users to other sections within the website or by providing links to related articles from other online sources. In other words, the Kontera Hybrid helps you direct traffic where you want it to go.

The Kontera Hybrid’s advanced capabilities and multi-faceted layer encourage greater user engagement rates with publishers’ ads and content, resulting in a 20% increase in page views among publishers benefitting from the Hybrid.

Publisher Benefits of the Kontera Hybrid:
• Enhanced user engagement
• Related articles and videos
• Increased page views per user
• A means to move traffic within your site/network
• Additional premium advertising inventory

When and where can I see the Kontera Hybrid in action?
The Kontera Hybrid was launched on Monday, March 17, 2008. To see the Hybrid in action please visit Men’s Fitness at www.mensfitness.com/fitness/ab_exercises/136

The Hybrid is currently available to select publishers, to be considered for the Hybrid, please email us at publishers@kontera.com

To learn more please visit our website Kontera Hybrid

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.

We are excited to tell you about the Publisher Center, with a brand new interface, turning ContentLink™ integration and tracking into a richer experience than before.

As we see it, it’s all a matter of flexibility and control. We aim to make ContentLinks flexible to your needs while granting you greater control over your preferences. The Publisher Center is a first step as we have many more new plans and developments in store.

The new Publisher Center, designed to make your ContentLink experience more accommodating than ever, includes enhanced reporting capabilities, graphic revenue displays, KnowledgeBase (FAQs), and much more.

From now on, you will be able to:

- View Performance Reports- run customized click and revenue reports, including graphs.

- Easily update your basic contact and your Account Information.

- Perform ContentLink Color Customization – You’ll be able to select the color of your Kontera link and test to see which color yields the highest revenues.

- Access Kontera’s knowledge Base- read expert advice on a variety of issues, such as optimizing Kontera’s code for different blogging/site management platforms, and more.

The Kontera Publisher Center is still in beta. As soon as testing is completed you will be able to access the new Publisher Center using your existing User Name and Password.

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome!

Welcome to the first in a series of interviews exposing Kontera from behind the scenes. 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.

Kontera’s Product UI

Gabi Peles is in charge of the overall management of products and services that define the meeting point between publishers and Kontera. Whether in the office or outside, Gabi loves a good challenge. In his spare time you’ll often find him engaged in a favorite hobby, kite surfing; we get worried so he usually doesn’t tell us beforehand

An interview with him reveals some exciting upcoming developments in Kontera’s products and publisher services:

1. What is Kontera’s guiding principle in terms of developing a new product/service?
   We put the user experience at the center. This means that we base any product development with the aim to meet the needs of the publisher.
   This has to do with the central part of our development methods. When we plan and think a product, we make every effort to see from a user’s point of view. I believe this is the strength of ContentLinks™ and where it is crucial for us to stress our added value as a network.
2. How do you obtain information on publisher needs?
   Kontera’s network of publishers includes publishers of all sizes, from established websites to popular blogs and forums. The wide range of segmentation allows us to familiarize ourselves with different environments and subsequently to develop solutions for various publisher needs. It’s a stage for dynamic interaction with a variety of fields and the challenge is in meeting diverse needs.
3. What would you say was this year’s greatest accomplishment in terms of ContentLinks™ development?
   This year was big on relevancy- we reached new milestones regarding our capabilities of matching content with ads. I’m glad to point that our patent pending algorithm has brought ContentLinks™ to a new level of achievement. This is very exciting news since relevant ads and information are ContentLinks™’ core value.
4. What are some new plans and offerings for publishers?
   We are working to enable publishers more flexibility and greater control over their personal accounts. This will be expressed through added features and options of our ad layer. In the near future, publishers will be able to control many aspects of the product. The next stage will be to allow publishers additional features in multiple areas such as reporting, product visual features, ads, and information. This is a thrilling development that we are looking forward to set in motion.
5. What do you have to say about Kontera as we look towards 2008?
   2008 will be an exciting year. We are always aiming to refine and advance ContentLinks™, and with so many new things planned, it will surely be an interesting and creative time.

As part of an ever growing attempt to fit Kontera ContentLinks™ for different systems, we are releasing new plugins for all Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla! operated sites.

These plugins do the job of spreading ContentLinks™ tag to all pages of your site. This saves you the trouble of having to manually edit your site’s template or php code.

In the spirit of open source, we encourage the further development of the new Wordpress, Drupal and Joomla! plugins by anyone interested in advancing them with us. If you are not a developer but still have suggestions and ideas you want to add to your Kontera ad implementation, please contact us. We are keen to hear them!

New Kontera Wordpress Plugin
New Kontera Joomla! Plugin
New Kontera Drupal Plugin

Find out more about the technology behind Kontera’s contextual advertising.
Read more about Kontera’s pay per click advertising Solutions

We’ll also share some of the other good things going on here at Kontera and give you some insight on what it’s like to work in a place that is changing the internet, and making it fun to do so. This may occasionally include the results of company bowling nights, scavenger hunts, or any of the other activities we partake in to ensure a healthy work-life balance.

Overall, the Kontera blog will be informative and fun, and we hope that you not only find it enjoyable to read, but that it enhances your experience with our technology. We welcome your thoughts and feedback to blog@kontera.com, and you can subscribe to get automatic notifications when this blog is updated.

Read more about In-Text Advertising>>
Read about Kontera Pay Per Click Advertising>>