For some time now we’ve wanted to publish a post with marketing and writing tips for bloggers. We thought: who’s better to do it than Kontera’s Sr. Marketing Manager, Jennifer McHugh. With broad marketing and communications experience that spans from online publishing to non-profit work, Jennifer’s advice is a must read for every blogger.

Here are Jennifer’s blogging tips:

1. Pick a Topic and Stick to It- People come to your blog for a reason, they want to hear your opinion in an area of interest you’re passionate about. Whether you’re blogging about cooking, travel or shopping you need to focus on one subject and related topics to keep your readers coming back for more. As soon as you start losing focus, you’ll lose readers.
2. Keep it Simple - Your blog isn’t a place to show off your vocabulary or grammar skills. If you can, choose simple words and keep the word count down to a few hundred words. The more complicated you make it the less you’ll sound like an expert.
3. Post Frequently – Imagine if you rushed home early to watch your favorite show only to find out that it’s not on. When people visit your blog, they expect to see new content. Don’t disappoint them with infrequent postings. Pick a schedule and stick to it!
4. Link, Link, Link – There is no better way to build your reputation within your own niche than to link to other relevant blogs. Chances are they will link back to you which will help increase your traffic, improve your rank in search engines, and drive even more traffic to your website.
5. Make it a Dialogue not a Monologue - In today’s Web 2.0 world readers expect to connect and share information. Add a section to your blog for comments so your readers can participate or provide feedback to keep the dialogue going.
6. Have Fun – This isn’t just my advice for your blog, but for life in general. You should love what you’re blogging about and have fun doing it.
7. Kontera Advertising Solutions – Last but certainly not least, monetize your blog with Kontera ContentLink™ and earn revenues where your users are already engaged, within your page content. Integration is fast and simple. Once you place Kontera’s code on your page, we take care of everything else. http://www.kontera.com/ads-for-site/become-a-kontera-publisher
   

   This is part of our blog series “Kontera’s Backstage Pass”.
   Read more:

   • An Interview with Lori Xeller, Kontera’s Director of Advertising Sales
   • An Interview with Gabi Peles, Kontera’s Senior Product Manager

Nothing’s better for bonding than a bit of that old fashioned bowling time.

Two Kontera branches, one evening, bowling away… and we’ve brought back pics to share.

In the spirit of Kontera’s BackStage Pass, we invite you for a visit to our San Francisco office. 

Working in Kontera is an amusing experience…this we all agree on.  A few weeks back we came up with the idea to document and share something of this experience with our partners and friends.  And so a bunch of us decided to make a video depicting a day in the life of Kontera.  We meet you online daily, now is our chance to say hello to you live…

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.

By Mika Tal

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.

Success is a long and draining process

It takes much hard work and imagination…

We are going to help you speed this up.

In the online world, the keyword is Exposure, Exposure, Exposure, and that’s exactly what we want to bring to your site.

So we are proud to present… Kontera’s Video Testimonial Contest

We get many wonderful emails from partners telling us how using ContentLinks has brought them great results in terms of their site’s revenue and exposure. We love these emails and want to take it to another level by seeing the face behind the blog
How to join: send us a short video telling of the benefits Kontera ContentLink has brought to your site/blog

The Prizes

By exposure we mean- your site advertised on other sites throughout our network. Kontera’s network includes thousands of publishers, and growing daily. Our ads are contextually targeted and so your ad campaign will appear in sites that display content relating to your category/niche. Read more on Kontera’s Advertising Solutions.

And here’s what you can win:

1. First prize: $1000 worth of free advertising for your site/ blog + Exposure for your site on Kontera website and on The Official Kontera Blog.
2. Second prize: $500 worth of free advertising for your site/blog
3. Third prize: $100 worth of free advertising for your site/blog

Testimonials can also be animated or flash-based- we also accept short stories in the form of comics.
Feel free to be as original and creative as you like, and did we mention fun?

Here’s how to enter:

STEP 1:

What you should include:

• Length of video/animated flash: up to 3 minutes
• Tell of how and when you started using Kontera
• What sort of impact and benefit ContentLink made for your site/blog
• Your name and website/company name
• Whatever other biographical details you want to include

STEP 2:

Upload your video to YouTube
Tag it: kontera, contentlink, In-Text, contextual, advertising, ad
Send the URL to video@kontera.com

Contest Rules

1. To enter the contest you must be a current Kontera publisher or advertiser.
2. By entering this Contest, you explicitly grant Kontera the right to use and publish the biographical information that you provide in the video. This does not include any other information Kontera has (such as email, street address, telephone number).
3. Submitted videos must not include any profanity or indecent images. Kontera does not work with adult content and gaming advertisers or publishers.
4. Submitted videos must comply with Kontera Terms and Conditions and YouTube Terms and Conditions.
5. Contest begins Dec 1, 2007 and ends March 1, 2008.

By Mika Tal

Whenever a publisher speaks, we do our best to listen and absorb. Over time we found out that it’s the best way to learn about things that work well, things that are not working well, and additional capabilities and features that could add value. We’ve received some excellent responses from bloggers who share their Kontera experiences with their readers. We liked them so much that we’ve decided to present them here:

Jim Karter: “Last month was one of my great months where I crossed $4,000 for the first time with them. I was very happy that I was earning quite good. But this month is ever better. This is just half month gone and I have already crossed $2,800, so I am expecting to make around $5,000 for the month. I have added 4 more new sites which are quite small right now and I am working hard for them to make them big. So more hopeful for the next month (November).”
Visit Jim Karter’s Post

chalacuna: “ContentLink™ Ads Kontera uses a new form of “passive advertising”. I really like these ads because they target key words in your website content and places a link(you determine the content) where it relates to the advertiser. For example, if you have a page about ’search engines’, Kontera’s script will add a link to your text with simple on-screen pop-up advertising that blends into your website. No nasty popup windows, pop-under windows, exit windows, and so on. This clean text link placement is ideal for article directories, blogs, and other content heavy websites.”
Visit Homebizniz’s Post

Enkay: “Kontera has been performing better ever since I changed the link color from being the same as a regular link on the blog. It has grown tremendously since the link color change. You should try it out!”

Happy 6 months birthday Enkay!

Visit Enkay’s Post

We are still catching our breaths after an adventurous company day.  Nothing like a day in nature to get some action going. 

Only slides will tell…