Tired of browsing through streaming video sites just to hear the latest hit songs or an obscure beat?  Often music searches on the web end in a tragic stream of low quality, choppy, disastrous renditions of your favorite jams.  The music search is over as Kontera is glad to present our May Publisher of the Month: musicremedy.com.

MusicRemedy is an extensive source of information completely music-centric, of course.  The site includes everything a music lover could look for including news, songs, pictures, videos, a forum and much more.  MusicRemedy.com allows users to listen to full songs, watch full videos, and have other multi-media experiences completely free of charge.  This is a fantastic way to help potential music buyers decide what they like the best or just get introduced to tracks they wouldn’t otherwise hear.

One thing that MusicRemedy.com has done to set itself apart from other music sites is include a section dedicated to contests.  This section features opportunities for users to win great prizes by answering music trivia questions.  Some of the questions take some major digging in order to find answers, but are proven well worth the search as prizes like music memorabilia, autographed CD’s, and gift sets are given away regularly.

As part of Kontera’s Publisher of the Month series, we had a chance to interview Jermy Leeuwis MSc of MusicRemedy.com to gather insight on this truly “note-worthy” online music destination.

What inspired you to start Musicremedy.com?

My passion for music, to keep it short. Like most people, I too have been listening to music for all my life. I am not a great singer nor dancer but I enjoy listening to (new) music. Listening, watching, reading and writing about music became my passion. Combine music and some computer-skills, you have a music website titled “MusicRemedy”.

Dedicated music fans are sometimes known to be vocal and opinionated, and with the idea of Web 2.0 at full reign, what have you done to provide an outlet for user-input on Musicremedy.com?

There are different kinds of being ‘dedicated’ to music. The dedicated music fans, MusicRemedy targets at, want to be info- and entertained without being too ‘Mr. Know-It-All’. This means that they want to have fun through reading, commenting, listening and watching their favorite music.

What strategies do you employ to create such a great balance of content ranging from well-known artists as well as independent and non-label-affiliated musicians?

It is quite simple: “Let your visitors be the judge.” This means that MusicRemedy features new music everyday whether it is independent or famous. Naturally, a selection has been made of the finest so visitors will listen to the latest and the best. This way the visitor does not have to search hours for new songs but uses his time wisely to listen to great music on MusicRemedy.

Musicremedy.com covers a wide range of music content, based on your users’ feedback, who are the current top five artists?  What do they have in common if anything?

Naturally, Hip-Hop and R&B are doing very well the last few years but rock is still rocking . Anyway, here goes: Eminem, Keyshia Cole, Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, Elliott Yamin.
All five have in common that the music genres ‘Hip-Hop’ and ‘R&B’ have become popular. These songs can be categorized as Hip-Hop or R&B but also as pop songs. I know there are quite a few people who will disagree but the facts show otherwise.

When did you start monetizing Musicremedy.com and what role does In-Text advertising play in your overall monetization strategy?

Musicremedy started over ten years ago and grew over the years to a loveable music site. About nine years a few companies were interested in advertising, while we were trying to make the site bigger and better. At some point the site’s development and maintenance requires some costs and so the site had to make a few bucks.

After a few years new sorts of advertisements appeared on the internet (ie., in-text, video, etc…). In all business activities you need to stay focus and innovate. So we did. In-Text has been around a few years but not as heavily targeted as nowadays. I assume this is because a lot of blogs use them.

The main advantage of Kontera In-Text is that it is not annoying like popups and visitors can choose whether to view and/or click. This combined with quality content, will give you better earnings without lowering other earnings.

In what direction do you see your site moving in the coming year?  Are there specific sections of your site that you are working to develop further?

There are quite a lot of movements coming up. First, a fresh new design we have been working on for over a year. Afterwards very interesting functions will be added for even more information about artists and naturally, more interaction for our visitors. Sorry but I can not tell you more because it is highly classified .

Ok ok, if you insist. Our latest section “Upcoming Songs” is one of these new developments which is becoming more popular every minute. In the upcoming months this section will get more user-input. This section, and upcoming ones, are also available as RSS-feeds making it interesting for visitors to use on their blogs or personal sites.

The Kontera Publisher of the Month series kicked off in January of 2009. A publisher is selected from Kontera’s network each month and provides an insider’s perspective on what it takes to manage a successful site. To learn more visit the Publisher of the Month Category.

A bad hair day is bound to ruin anyone’s mood. One way to avoid this is to frequently visit Hairpedia.com.

Hairpedia.com has been chosen as Kontera’s April Publisher of the Month for being the ultimate source for all things hair. The site contains multiple strands of advice including celebrity styles, do’s for every occasion, an updated fashion news section, and a bountiful selection of beauty tips.  And the good news is ContentLink ads complement all hair types!

We had a lot of fun playing around with the hair games and found the virtual hairstylist page which allows you to get a preview of your hair-to-come, to be a fun resource. You wouldn’t believe it, but some of our programmers looked really good with Gwen Stefani’s platinum blonde up-do .

We’re pleased to have had a chance to sit down with site owners, Aaron and Jason, the people behind this great site, to talk more about hairpedia.com.

What inspired you to start Hairpedia.com?

Aaron’s wife is a hairstylist, and about 3 years back while working on her website we decided to start a Hairstyle/Fashion website of our own that would improve upon other websites we saw out there.  Plus, we saw how profitable the internet could be from a friend who was doing well online.  With the 10+ years of computer and internet experience we thought it would be a great time to start a web business to complement our computer networking business.

The fashion/beauty industry is extremely dynamic, and we all know that designers are constantly changing their looks, what is the best way to keep up with these ever-changing trends?

We keep up with fashion and hairstyles primarily by watching celebrity trends and going to fashion and hair shows whenever possible. Since Aaron’s wife is a hairstylist she is constantly aware and updating us on new styles. We also have other family and friends in the hair industry so it helps us stay up to date on the latest trends.

Hairpedia.com covers a highly popular niche.  With that said, are there any specific times periods in the year where hair and fashion connoisseurs research at a note-worthy rate?

We always see a lot of traffic around prom and homecoming and during the spring and summer we receive the highest traffic of the year.

As the web springs up with hundreds of new beauty/hair sites every day, can you provide us insight on how you’ve successfully developed hairpedia.com as a leading site in this niche?

We recently redesigned our site to better align with web 2.0 and we continue to expand our site with new features and fun information to stay ahead of the competition.

When did you start monetizing Hairpedia and what role does In-Text advertising play in your overall monetization strategy?

We started monetizing the site as soon as it was created and loved Kontera’s In-text advertising as it complements our profits without adding clutter to the site. Using ContentLink is a great way to add profits and give our visitors more options for products and services.

What sort of responses have you been getting from Hairpedia users with regards to the various types of advertising you employ?

We have not received much response to our advertising, so I guess you can say it’s good since we haven’t had complaints!

With the recent addition of fun hair games to your site, what else can users expect to see in the future when surfing Hairpedia.com?

We hope our visitors keep our site bookmarked and keep coming back because we are developing and adding more features very soon.  One is a user social networking type user area where people can save their favorite styles to review later, or share with other users, and add their own style to allow other people to give them tips and even ask our experts for tips.  We also will have contests for best prom hair, and contests for other events.  Also more weekly celebrity hairstyles and our picks for the best celebrity hairstyle of the week…

The Kontera Publisher of the Month series kicked off in January of 2009. A publisher is selected from Kontera’s network each month and provides an insider’s perspective on what it takes to manage a successful site. To learn more visit the Publisher of the Month Category.

We’re excited to present Kontera’s March Publisher of the Month: lockergnome.com, a blogging network for people who are curious about the world around them.

lockergnome.com is a place for bloggers to learn and share everything about blogging.  Beginners as well as expert bloggers can find interesting, fun information and useful guidelines.

The amazing thing is that you can join lockergnome’s community site geeks.pirillo.com and open your very own blog within minutes. Pay a visit to see the extended network, with forums, groups and videos.

Kontera’s ContentLink ads are proudly featured on lockergnome.com.  We’re pleased to have Chris Pirillo interview on our blog to answer a few important questions.

We’re interested in learning more about Lockergnome. How did it get started, and where did the idea spark from?

Lockergnome got its start because I really didn’t want to finish my Master’s Degree. I knew that the Internet was going to become increasingly important and pervasive in people’s lives. I already shared tips and tricks with people, so I decided to do so in an “official” capacity, by using my own Website. I still share tips and tricks, but I do so in a variety of ways: through Lockergnome, through email, through Geeks, and many other avenues.

What do you typically look for in a blogger that gets featured on lockergnome.com?

Right now, we don’t even accept applications for the most part. For instance, people cannot bother to write well in their application, so why would we accept them to blog for us? I’ve said it before a million times, and I’ll say it again: you have to be able to write well to blog with us on Lockergnome! We’re looking for someone with a good voice, who is full of passion and understanding of the subject they are wanting to cover. Also, you have to be consistent. You need to be able to blog regularly.

Thousands of bloggers set on their online path daily.  What’s the most important tip you can give?

There are so many things you need to pay attention to on a daily basis. You can read everything online, and you’ll never get anything done. The chances of you publishing a blog and having it well-read are not incredibly strong. The reason I’ve opened my doors for Lockergnome is because I know I can get you more attention than you would get on your own. We have excellent marketing benefits that we’ve built over the years. We have a lot of promotional vehicles for content that is well-written. If you’re trying to separate yourself from the other noise out there, make people aware of who you are. Visit others, and leave comments for them. How else will people find you?

When you start to monetize Lockergnome, what role does in-text advertising play?

Kontera came to me in the beginning, and I hesitated. Then I started thinking, and realized that people hate seeing ads everywhere. The Kontera underlined words go over so much better than any other type of ads I’ve ever used. People respond well to them. Kontera is a large part of the monetization system. It’s not all of it, since I refuse to rely on any one type of monetization. However, Kontera works very, very well.

What sort of responses have you been getting from Lockergnome users regarding to the types of advertising you employ?

They’re asking for a larger portion of the splits! However, we do have expenses we have to pay to keep the site operational. They’re looking for more options, of course. I am always looking for new ways to implement money-making opportunities to them. The more customizations I can offer them, the better off they will be. I’m excited to see what the future will bring as far as advertising is concerned.

What wise word of monetization advice you have for bloggers?

Optimize! I realize that’s a general term. I’ve helped a lot of people make a lot of money, without receiving anything in return. I don’t really do that anymore. If you want to pay me to help you, then great! Shoot me an email. But for now, I’ll just be general, and tell you to optimize to the maximum.

We’re very excited to have a blogging expert on the Kontera Blog. Do you have any words of wisdom for us?

Don’t keep pounding on the table! Seriously, stay true to yourself.  If you have a blog that’s all about your company, that’s cool… but it gets long in the tooth. Share interesting and/or personal stories maybe about people that work for the company. If you don’t do that, all people are reading is a series of press releases. That gets pretty boring. As a matter of fact, I doubt many people will read this post, or watch this video in its entirety. If you do, please leave a comment, and use the word pancake somewhere in your comment. I’m serious! Do it! I just want to see out of curiosity how many of you get this far. This is what I mean about adding things outside the normal realm. Talk about something I can’t find anywhere else.

Where do you see Lockergnome going in the future?

As I’ve already said, I want to open it up more. I want to allow more people to participate, turning it into a network of Geeks. People will be able to take advantage of groups and forums, as well. Lockergnome will also continue to grow via the co-brands: Coupons, our Help forums, and a download area is just around the corner!

The Kontera Publisher of the Month series kicked off in January of 2009. A publisher is selected from Kontera’s network each month and provides an insider’s perspective on what it takes to manage a successful site. To learn more visit the Publisher of the Month Category.

Smartcarofamerica is America’s largest Smart Car based internet community. Smartcarofamerica incorporates an extensive knowledge base about Smart Cars with discussion between perspective buyers, owners, and Smart Car fanatics from near and far.

Smart Car enthusiasts can get together in Smartcarofamerica forums in order to exchange ideas, learn about new models, discuss, share pictures, gossip, and everything in between.

SmartcarofAmerica provides extensive information that will help a prospective buyer transform their dreams of Smart Car ownership into an environmentally friendly, ultra-trendy, and gas saving reality.

We’re glad that ContentLink ads are “parked” within the words of Smartcarofamerica.com, and are pleased to introduce it as Kontera’s February Publisher of the Month. It was our pleasure to meet with Ryan Porter, Director of Marketing of Smart cars of America, for a short interview and we’re glad to share his answers with you here.

What was the impetus for starting Smartcarofamerica?

In 2000 we had one of the first smart cars to grace the shores of the U.S. and actually launched SmartCarofAmerica.com after this funny looking little car made such an impression on everyone we introduced it to, including us. We sensed this mode of transportation was exactly what our economy and our planet needed. A unique and fun car that everyone would love to drive and love to be seen in, a car that offered unbeatable gas mileage, could fit into a parking space reserved for a motorcycle and a car that helps to keep our planet healthy.

Smartcarofamerica has an active forum where members can share opinions and find useful tips. Are there any topics that seem to be the hottest of discussion?

As North America’s leading “independent” source for unbiased and timely information and news concerning these great cars we consider all topics of discussion important, as I’m sure the SCOA forum enthusiasts do as well, and because of the lack of dependable news and unbiased information (for many years) any and all dialogue is imperative.

Smartcarofamerica has a very informative FAQ section, but as a Smart Car enthusiast we wanted to ask you about the ability to park it virtually anywhere. What’s the most obscure space you’ve seen a Smart Car occupy?

That’s a good question. Honestly, I would have to choose two diverse places. I really love the new RV’s that completely conceal the fortwo, but for entertainment purposes I have to say the British chap who attached 2 Smart cars, one on top of each other takes the prize!

Thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs start their own websites/forums daily. What advice do you have for those focusing their sites on automobile related products?

Spotlight a unique vehicle or niche market automotive product and take advantage of the emptiness within that niche market and by all means supply readers with information, content and real news. Be candid!

When did you start monetizing Smartcarofamerica and what role does In-Text advertising play in your overall monetization strategy?

SmartCarofAmerica.com was launched in 2001; however we only began our monetization strategy in 2007. In-Text advertising with Kontera has been a crucial component for the overall revenue success for our company.

What sort of responses have you been getting from Smartcarofamerica users with regards to the various types of advertising you employ?

As with any type of advertising you use, some readers are OK with it. We’ve found that our Kontera ads in conjunction with Google are a great source of revenue and in most cases our readers are pleased.

In what direction do you see your Smartcarofamerica progressing in the future?

Like the car itself, Smart Cars of America is unique. We want to keep all our wheels turning by getting the word out about all innovative and intelligent vehicles. Most importantly we want to gain the entire clever car community’s confidence, with grass roots participation.

Visit SmartcarofAmerica.com

The Kontera Publisher of the Month series kicked off in January of 2009. A publisher is selected from Kontera’s network each month and provides an insider’s perspective on what it takes to manage a successful site. To learn more visit the Publisher of the Month Category.

2009 has only just begun and we’re kicking it off with a brand new post series -”The Kontera Publisher of the Month”.

Through this post series, each month we’ll introduce you to one of the most interesting and unique sites from amongst Kontera’s network of publishers. Ask-Leo.com, the first Kontera Publisher of the Month for 2009, is a perfect example of a website that truly deserves your bookmarks.

Ask-Leo is a website that offers answers to hundreds of tech questions in a variety of categories.  The site is easy to use, and provides thorough and informative advice that anyone from a tech newbie to an experienced programmer or webmaster will find useful.  Leo A. Notenboom, the man behind Ask-Leo, is a former software engineer for Microsoft who has decided to share his wealth of knowledge in the personal computer and software industry with Internet users worldwide.

As the owner of the January Kontera Publisher of the Month, Leo has agreed to answer a few questions for us; we hope you’ll enjoy this interview.

It’s widely known that you were a Microsoft employee for over a decade prior to starting ask-leo!; what was the impetus for starting your own business?

I didn’t actually set out to start a business. After 18 years at Microsoft I “retired”. The problem, if you want to call it that, is that my job was also my hobby, so I couldn’t really stop playing with computers and technology. I have some friends who are also internet entrepreneurs, and I started to dabble in a world outside of Microsoft.  As you might expect family and friends were always asking me questions, so I started to write up the answers to questions I was getting asked most often. Those entrepreneur friends gave me guidance on things like web site construction, search engines and the like, and they also pointed out that this might well be a revenue opportunity. That was in 2003, and the rest, as they say, is history.

How many questions were submitted to Ask-Leo during 2008? What were the most common types of questions?

I don’t have an exact count, but on average I get between 50 and 100 questions and blog comments (which are often also questions) per day. So I’d put it in the 25,000 range.

Most common, by far, are questions relating to password recovery, email account theft, and loss of email account access. After that it starts to vary widely into areas like Windows quirks, suspected hardware failures, specific software problems as well as issues around viruses and spyware.

What was the strangest question you have received?

There are so many to choose from, I don’t think I could. But I certainly do collect the odd and off-beat questions, and each year on the anniversary of Ask Leo! (August 10th), I post a “best of” collection on my personal blog. You can see last year’s collection, and links to the prior years, here: http://ask-leo.com/d-bestof5. I will say this: I’m somewhat surprised, and a little concerned, at the frequency I get asked for relationship advice – I am a computer geek, after all.

Thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs start their own website/blogs daily with the hopes of building a profitable, internet-based business.   What “words of wisdom” do you have for these fledgling entrepreneurs?

There are no shortcuts, but well focused and well directed hard work can be both rewarded and rewarding.

Getting Ask Leo! up and running was a fair amount of work, and it took a goodly amount of time before it truly started to look like a business. It was probably two years before it was generating a reasonable amount of revenue. During that time I was carefully learning about what it means to write authentic content for the web, what it means to be search engine friendly, and what it takes to manage a resource of this magnitude.

Even then that’s not enough. I’m actually a fairly small player in what happens to be an extremely large segment (on-line tech support). It’s a great segment for me, because in many ways answering people’s questions is what I was doing anyway. Formalizing that, and doing it myself in a public venue like Ask Leo! not only capitalizes on my experience and interests, but also allows me to differentiate myself from other players by simply being myself. Every Ask Leo! article (save one, I believe) was written by me, and I plan to keep it that way. In all honesty, that’s part of what keeps it fun for me.

Another point of common wisdom is the adage “find a problem and solve it”. I don’t have to find problems, they come to me. I can’t solve them all, but when I can, everyone walks away happy, myself included.

When did you start to monetize Ask-Leo and what role does In-Text advertising play in your overall monetization strategy?

It actually started out as a for-pay service. For $27 I would answer your question or give you your money back. That lasted only a couple of months. Google’s AdSense program was picking up steam, and of course I signed up. That’s when the power of advertising in general became readily apparent to me.

In-text advertising such as Kontera’s came along later, of course, but has become an important source of not just revenue, but security. I say there’s a natural concern about building businesses or websites around a single advertising relationship. Kontera’s participation in Ask Leo!’s profitability turned out to be significant, and definitely helps mitigate the risk of perhaps otherwise having all my eggs in one basket.

What also became readily apparent, is that contextual targeting is key. With a problem/solution site such as Ask Leo!, it’s not that uncommon for one of the ads to actually be the solution that my reader is looking for. It doesn’t get much better than that when it happens.

What sort of responses have you been getting from Ask-Leo users with regards to the various types of advertising you employ?

I get amazingly little feedback on the ads. Occasionally someone will confuse an Adsense ad as being some kind of recommendation from me, but I’ve not heard of that happening with Kontera ads. I do get occasional complaints, either for advertising in general or for the in-text ads, but that might be once every other month or so. Given that I’m running 1.3 million visitors a month right now, I consider “one in two million” an acceptable rate. (And I do make available and answer that includes instructions for people who would like to turn off the in-text ads.)

What’s in store for Ask-Leo users as we look to 2009?

Honestly, mostly more of same.

As we talk, I’m actually in the process of kicking off a major editorial review of the entire site, bringing the content up to more consistent level of quality, as quality is so key to continued success on the web. But that’s almost administrative in nature.

More visible will simply be my reacting to those 50-100 questions I get every day, and see where they take me. One of the reasons I so enjoy my career/hobby is that there’s something new every day; something to learn, to research or to play with. The fact that I can do so in a way that also helps people overcome some of the problems and frustrations they have with their computers is just fantastic.

The Kontera Publisher of the Month series kicked off in January of 2009. A publisher is selected from Kontera’s network each month and provides an insider’s perspective on what it takes to manage a successful site. To learn more visit the Publisher of the Month Category.