It’s exciting for us to see the many publishers who have started out with Kontera on just one site, growing their web presence by launching new sites.   As networks grow, we get many questions about how to properly manage multiple sites within Kontera accounts.

We’d like to take the opportunity and mention that the Kontera ContentLink tag is unique per site, not per publisher. If you are already a Kontera Publisher and would like to add ContentLink ads to more of your sites, we will generate a specific, unique tag for each one of your sites. This is important for two main reasons:

1. Relevancy- by generating a unique tag for each site in your network, we are able to optimize each tag according to a site’s niche.  This means you get better, more relevant ads for each site in your network. It is especially important if you have sites on a variety of topics.
2. Tracking- each tag represents the performance of one individual site in your network.  This way you can have accurate knowledge of each site, its performance and earnings.  This helps us as we look at your network and try to determine where and how to optimize.

To take tracking another level deeper, use the Kontera Channels.  This feature enables you to create individual reporting for particular pages or sections of one specific website.  To have detailed knowledge of a site’s metrics, you can compare the performance of one page or section to that of another.

Requesting to add sites to your Kontera network is a simple process and only requires a quick e-mail request to the Support team.  The best way to do this is by logging into your account in the Publisher Center and clicking on the help tab.  If you choose to write us from your mailbox, be sure to mention your Kontera login email.

Implementing Flash units is common practice in contemporary web design. Flash presents objects in a continuous movie format, and often includes sound as well as a high interactivity level, providing your users with a rich and more engaging experience.

We mention this since we’ve been getting an increase of questions from publishers regarding Flash and ContentLink ads. Will ContentLink ads be affected by flash units featured on a webpage?

ContentLink Ads are usually unaffected by Flash units. Still, as there are multiple parameters incorporated in each flash code, if you feel that they’re causing any irregularity in your ads’ appearance you can follow these steps:

Use transparent mode when loading the Flash unit to your HTML code. Transparent mode allows the background color or image of the HTML page that contains the Flash unit to show through.

This can be achieved by making the following adjustments to your Flash unit’s code:

1. For the <OBJECT> tag, add the following parameter: <param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”>
2. For the <EMBED> tag, add the following parameter: wmode=”transparent”

The web provides ample resources for anyone interested in learning more about creating and using Flash, but be sure to stop by Flashkit.com, a great site that Kontera’s  very own Flash developers recommend.

By Mika Tal

Information- the more we have of it, the better? Sure, so long as we know how to use it.

This is the simple conclusion I came to in one of my ventures through Google Analytics.  With so much information around to explore, one has to know how to ask a question accurately.  Needless to say, narrowing down the mounds of information to a set of central parameters is an important step in learning how to utilize such an advanced tool to one’s benefit.

Today I’d like to suggest a few Google Analytics parameters that can aid you in optimizing the performance of your Kontera pay-per-click ads .  If you’re new to Google analytics, you may find this information especially useful. I’ve narrowed it down to 4:

• New vs. Returning visits- Returning visitors tend to generate a higher CTR for ContentLink® ads.  The reason for this is that visitors who return to your site are already familiar with the information you serve, and with the advantages of Kontera ads.  They are more trusting of ContentLinks and they tend to click the ads more often. For advice on how to get more of your site’s visitors to become returning visitors, consult this great post on entrepreneurs-journey.com

To find out your site’s ratio for New/ Returning Visitors- on your Analytics account, go to Visitors and then click New vs. Returning.

• Top Content Pages – To get the best results, it is recommended that you place your ContentLink tag on all your website’s pages.  However, if you choose to place ContentLinks on a few pages rather than all, make sure the pages you choose are ones that generate traffic.  I’m sure there’s no need to explain why traffic is important for making the most out of your ContentLink ads.

To find Top Content Pages on your Analytics account, go to Content then click Top Content.

• Top Search Engine Keywords- we have published a series of posts on how to maximize your ad earnings by optimizing your site’s content. Knowing which keywords bring the most search engine traffic to your site is important because these are likely to be the more popular keywords, often sought after by advertisers.  These keywords have better monetary potential.

Go to Traffic Sources and then click Search Engines.  Select a search engine and make sure you see the first option on the dimension field: “keyword”.  Google analytics enables you to see all keywords typed into any search engine for your selected date.

• Map Overlay – where are your users coming from?
  Kontera’s top earners are publishers whose sites  get over 55% US traffic.  The reason for this is that online advertisers invest much of their resources on traffic from the US.  While Kontera has partnerships with advertisers all over the world, the highest CPCs generated by your site originate from your US visitors.  An increase in US traffic has an immediate effect on earnings.

Use Analytics Map overlay to see exactly where on the globe your traffic is coming from.
Click Visitors then go to Map Overlay.

I hope you will find this information useful in making the most out of Kontera ContentLink ads  on your site!  If there’s anything I left out, or any additional tips you’d like to share please drop us a comment below.

Multiple factors contribute to a successful site search engine optimization effort. It is an ever changing endeavor as the web and search engine crawlers constantly evolve. With that said, every online marketer will agree that extensive keyword research is crucial to your success.

Content optimization for your targeted keywords is also an important factor in maximizing your results with the various pay per click advertising methods employed on your website or blog. It’s safe to assume that the popular keywords in your niche are also in high demand by advertisers targeting your niche’s users. When creating new content, are you making sure that your content is keyword rich and in line with current search trends of your target audience?

Word cloud was created with Wordle

Kontera’s contextual advertising technology analyzes your content and determines what it’s all about. During the analysis process, keywords are chosen according to relevancy, click-through rates, and revenue potential. We then utilize all these parameters to match your keywords with the most targeted, highest paying ads for your site. Guess you see the connection, right?

There are countless articles about successful keyword research and the various tools you can utilize for this, but we wanted to remind you of two great keyword related tools that Kontera offers publishers:

Keyword Report – This report, available through the Publisher Center “Reports” tab, enables you to identify your site’s top performing Keywords during the last week.  This is a current list of the most clickable keywords on your pages; by adding these keywords to new content you create, you should positively influence your site’s performance.

“Kontera’s Top Clicked Keywords” posts series – While your account’s keyword report provides you with an accurate depiction of your site’s top performers, in this series of posts we provide a glimpse into the larger picture. Every few weeks we share Kontera’s top clicked keywords in a variety of content categories – be sure to follow this as the next post may include your niche and grant you with valuable inside information you can use.

It’s time for our top clicked keyword report again:

“iphone” is always a top-clicked keyword in the Consumer Electronics category, but as the holiday shopping proved, “Nintendo wii” is a strong contender for first place in this particular niche.

“The Pussycat Dolls” are going on a European tour with Lady Gaga, if clicks are any indication tickets are probably sold out. It’s twin girls for “Rebecca Romijn” and husband Jerry O’Connell, and this happy news generated many clicks for the “Ugly Betty” actress. It’s the award season so it’s hardly surprising that “red carpet” and “Golden Globe Award” are topping the clickable keyword list in the Entertainment category.

A new year is always filled with promise and hopes and apparently it’s a season that attracts good business for astrologers… The Society & Culture category is dominated by astrology related keywords with many users interested in a prediction of how 2009 will unfold.

Against the backdrop of Facebook’s “breast feeding” controversy, we’ve witnessed a rise in this keyword’s popularity within the Health category. But can you speculate what sparked the sudden popularity of “face lift” in January?

The “Top Clicked Keywords” post series is aimed at providing you additional information about the top performing keywords in our network.  For previous posts visit our Top Clicked Keywords Category.

Taking a look at top clicked keywords is lots of fun, trying to figure out what exactly made one term turn popular over night sometimes feels like playing detective. So, with no further ado, here are some of Kontera’s top clicked keywords over the last week.

In Sports, “boxing” and “Oscar De La Hoya” get a lot of attention following the latter’s recent loss to Manny Pacquiao. Other popular keywords in this category are “college football” and “cricket.” With regards to “cricket” it’s interesting to note that it now correlates with a top clicked term from the News category, “Mumbai.”  This happens as England’s Cricket Team is preparing to return to India for the Test Series, and its players have announced they’ll donate half their match fees to the victims of the Mumbai terror attack.

In the Entertainment category several celebrities are getting a lot of click-love. “Michael Caine” recently revealed the real ending of The Italian Job on the eve of the film’s 40th anniversary. Guess that playing Alfred in The Dark Knight, adds more interest in light of the upcoming Academy Awards. “Jennifer Aniston” now promotes her soon to be released new film, and her personal life always draws a lot of attention.

The implications of the economic situation are also reflected, as Keywords relating to the “Employment” category are getting more clicks than before. On a happier note, Christmas spirit is already here, with most top clicked Keywords in the Holidays & Special Occasions category directly related to the most wonderful time of the year (we’ll tell you more about this in a special Christmas report).

Where will you be spending your Christmas vacation?
Well, if Travel category keywords are any indication, many of us are thinking about a “ski vacation…”

The “Top Clicked Keywords” post series is aimed at providing you additional information about the top performing keywords in our network.  For previous posts visit our Top Clicked Keywords Category.

Knowledge is power;)  This is what makes tools like Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools so useful and so popular. The general idea is that the more you know about your site’s user-behavior and visitor interests, the higher your chances of meeting the needs of those visitors.  In this sense, the information you are able to accumulate will serve your monetization efforts and contribute to your overall success.

Gaining a better understanding of your site’s metrics is a key factor in making the most out of Kontera’s PPC advertising. Kontera publishers already benefit from several useful reporting options such as the URL and Keyword reports. Today we’re excited to introduce the latest addition to the Kontera Publisher Center – the Reporting Channels.

What Are Channels and How Can I Use them?

The Channels feature offers a deeper level of analysis than that provided by overall reports. This new feature enables you to create individual reporting for a combination of pages or sections of your website and track and compare performance to that of other sections. By creating and employing Channels you’ll get comprehensive reporting for each section of your website and gain a better understanding of where your clicks are coming from.

How Do I Create Channels?

A few simple steps to follow:

1. Contact us via the “Help Tab” in the Kontera Publisher Center and request to enable “Channels.” You’ll be notified via email that the feature has been activated on your account.
2. Login to your account and select the “ContentLink Setup” tab. Follow the “Create Tag” link and then click on the “Create Channel” Button.



A new field will open. Fill in the Channel name and click on the “Submit Channel” button.



3. The system will now create your modified tag to include an additional line of code specifying its channel ID.



4. Copy and paste this new tag on all the pages you’d like associated with this particular channel.
   Be sure to replace your current Kontera tag with the modified tag on all the channel’s pages.

That’s it! Your Channels have been set.

To view all the channels you’ve created, select the “ContentLink Setup” tab and follow the “Channel” Link.

Now after all this, you’re probably interested in viewing your Channels reports…Simply select the “Reports” tab and click on the “Channel Detailed Report” link.

We hope you’ll find the Channels features useful and look forward to receiving your feedback.

Become a Kontera Publisher

Read Garry Conn’s post about the new Kontera Channels

Kontera’s WP plugin for version 2.6 has been updated and is ready for your download.  Updates for WP 2.7 will soon begin as well

Read about the plugin’s features and capabilities here.
Here’s how you set it up:

1. Unzip the plugin file to your local hard drive.
2. Copy the Kontera folder to your blog’s WordPress content/plugins directory.
3. On your WordPress administration pages, navigate to Plugins
4. Click Activate next to the Kontera ContentLink plugin entry.
5. Navigate to the Options page and choose the newly created submenu Kontera Settings.

In the top field, enter your publisher ID number. This is your personal ID which appears on your ContentLink tag:

Make your selections- try the different capabilities the Kontera-WordPress plugin offers and see what works best for your blog.

Download Kontera- WordPress Plugin for WP 2.6

To be a successful marketer, one must know how to move with the trend, change with the current fashion. A quick look at the most clicked keywords of any week reveals all sorts of interesting facts on what’s popular these days and where public attention is turned.

As promised, we are delivering the next in a keyword report series:

Not surprisingly, matters of finance and politics are now winning more clicks than at any other time in the past year (though we cannot show the actual number of clicks, we can definitely show rank).
On another note, Beyonce just turned into an ultra popular keyword and a quick look in Google reveals (to those of us who aren’t so MTV savvy) that her new singles are freshly released.  And of course, “Halloween” is climbing its way to the top, no tricks

As we well know, some keywords never get old.  For example, in apparel beauty, keyword “hairstyle” always remains at the top.  “Free downloads”, of course, always wins a place at top of computing category.

The “Top Clicked Keywords” post series is aimed at providing you additional information about the top performing keywords in our network.  For previous posts visit our Top Clicked Keywords Category.

In a previous post we’ve defined Link Density as “the concentration of ContentLink ads within a publisher’s content; the higher a site’s link density, the more ContentLinks are presented per page.”

Now we’d like to answer the question: What determines a site’s link density?

Generally, it has to do with the amount of text a site has.  ContentLinks, being in-text ads, are a perfect fit for text rich sites.  So the more textual content you have on your site, the more ContentLinks will appear.  Another factor has to do with the topic of a site.  Let’s face it, not all site topics were created equal.  Popularity of topics is interchangeable and may also vary throughout the year, as does the advertisers’ demand of a particular keyword.

To define link density through a more mathematical approach we’ll say the following:  a link density of 10 would mean a maximum of 10 keywords out of 100 words will be highlighted on a page.

Link density can be changed by Kontera’s optimization team.  To change the link density on your site, login to kontera’s Publisher Center and click on the help tab to contact support with your request.