In the past, we discussed several optimization tips for websites running Kontera In-Text ads – from link color and its affect on CTR, controlling the way ads appear on your pages, opening ads in a new window, adding sites, and more.

Another popular tool you could use to maximize Kontera results on your website sits comfortably right in your Publisher Center. Yes, we’re talking about the Keyword Report and URL Report found under the “Reports” tab in your Admin console. When was the last time you used them?

With these two reports you can gain more granular visibility and better insight into how your content is performing with Kontera In-Text ads.

• The Keyword Report displays the top keyword phrases that our In-Text Engine selected to highlight on your pages – and the percentage of clicks that these keywords received.
• The URL Report shows which pages from within your site are generating the most clicks.

By examining these two reports, you can figure out which topics of interest and keywords are working best for you on the Kontera network. Best of all, this high-performing content is around topics that:

1. You already enjoy writing about
2. Your readers already enjoy reading, and interacting with the In-Text ads displayed within this content.

You can use this insight to decide which topics to expand on in the future – balancing content guidelines and end-users preferences with site monetization.

The Key is Balance. So Don’t Forget:

1. Our algorithm is always evolving- “learning” your content, and highlighting new keyword phrases to match your users’ intent with the current ad inventory and advertisers preferences. So don’t get too “stuck up” on a certain topic or overuse a certain keyword. We wouldn’t want to bore your readers…
2. And Keep Writing, Writing, Writing… In a time when the internet can deliver every bell and whistle imaginable, there’s still nothing more important than providing quality content.  That’s the only way to attract new visitors and retain them.

Search engines put a high premium on sites that can consistently deliver new content, making it essential for Publishers who want to be successful to constantly update their sites. Additionally, Kontera In-Text technology requires Content-rich sites for us to analyze and display ads on. So the more pages you have with quality text, the more places you’ll have Kontera ads on – so that your revenue grows as you become a more prolific writer!

Joel Comm, a New York Times Best Seller & Social Media Expert, has shared the latest release of his e-book titled Kontera Secrets with us.

Joel includes some valuable information that helps publishers through the process of monetizing their site’s textual content with Kontera in-text ads and includes tips and secrets for leveraging earnings.

Some of the tips you’ll learn:

• Understand how Kontera works and why.
• Detailed information about targeting and making the most of ads displayed on your website.
• Valuable optimization tips focusing on the way the ads appear on your pages as well as the placement.
• How to benefit from Kontera alongside Google Adsense and other ad providers – to maximize your site’s earnings.

We are pretty sure that whether you’re a new publisher or a veteran in the business, you’ll learn some great things about Kontera in-text ads and how you can increase your earnings with Joel’s strategies, tips and secret techniques.

Download the complimentary e-book today to get a hands-on strategy guide for maximizing your revenues with Kontera.

You want to make money from your website without the risk of driving your traffic away.  Kontera has the In-Text advertising solution that pledges to:

• Not clutter your pages.
• Not trash your text.
• Bring your readers the relevancy that they deserve.
• Showcase brands that mean business.
• Keep the network clean in order to welcome big brands-meaning unique high paying advertisements.
• Maintain tight integration between your content and your users’ intent delivering record high CTR.
• Provide value to users and publishers.
• Serve fewer links per page while delivering strong campaign performance. (Also check out mediapost.com)
• Offer you a sustainable revenue stream that you can bank on.
• Bring you the premier In-Text Advertising experience.

Our unbeatable contextual technology delivers results without compromising on quality and your users.

You may already know that the year you were born is considered the year of the rat, ox, or horse according to the ancient Chinese zodiac.  What you probably didn’t know yet, is that at Kontera, we’ve proclaimed 2010 as the year of relevancy.

What does this mean for our partners?  Well, it’s pretty simple, higher relevancy means that:

• Publishers don’t sell out their users to irrelevant ad exposure and are not hurting their users’ experience. Happy users mean increased traffic, time on site, and loyalty.
• Higher CTR – as you get paid by the click, more clicks means more money for your website
• Advertisers don’t have ads served to users who aren’t interested, thus getting high conversion on their campaign

Essentially everyone profits!

Relevancy is a mark at Kontera that we take very seriously.  Our relevancy efforts start at the “story-level” targeting where we interpret the meaning of the page then matching it with contextual ads that are the most relevant ones.

One measure of relevancy is in the form of a metric called CTR.  CTR or click through rate is a frequency ratio between the number of times an ad is viewed and the number of times it gets clicked on.  Experts agree that as the net becomes increasingly more built up, advertising campaigns that were formerly effective may not hold effectiveness.   In fact, recent statistics indicate that classic banner ads carry a mere .07% CTR rate bringing further understanding to the rise in the phrase “banner blindness”.  In contrast, ads on the Kontera network are characterized by starting click through rates that exceed 10% with some campaigns reaching upwards of 14% (!).

CTR is just one measure of a publisher’s ad performance, but is one of the most honest ways to gauge user satisfaction and interest.  Many publishers  find that after testing with other In-Text ad networks, their user experience suffers and many users desert their site due to the low relevancy threshold so be sure not to compromise when it comes to relevancy.

The next time you read your zodiac sign at your local Chinese restaurant, be sure to remember 2010 as not only the year of the tiger but also as Kontera’s commitment to relevancy.

Today, we stray away from the usual talk of optimizing your Kontera In-Text ads, behind the scenes interviews, and publisher promotions to bring it “back to basics”.  We wanted to include our design experts in an effort to provide some words of wisdom about basic design elements that contribute to good site layout.  We hope you’ll enjoy the tips, and find them useful in your own site design efforts.

1)  Navigation, navigation, navigation - Menu buttons should be one of the most visible parts of any page—anyone that surfs the web knows that there’s nothing worse than a site with no “home link” or access to move on in their browsing.  After all, surfing the web should be a natural experience with smooth transitions.

2)  Functional Focal Points - Be aware of placement of the elements of each page that initially catch your readers’ eyes.  These elements; photos, videos, ads, and other elements that stand out are affectionately known as focal points.

3)  Follow Suit - Consistency is key when deciding on a design.  The best sites have “template” formats which mean that they have the same basic design elements carrying over to every page.

4)  Include Winning Text - Text can be considered just as an important “design” element as any, because it is generally what your users actually came for.  They are looking for fresh, informative, and accurate content, plus it goes without saying that Kontera pay per click ads work best on text-rich pages.

5)  Know Your Audience- A page is only as readable as the type of audience it’s geared towards.   Our creative team recommends thinking this through carefully so that you don’t lose visitors right away just because of a tasteless layout or difficult navigation.

We hope that these tips come in handy and will bring you continued web publishing success