Building a site or a blog is no simple task but maintaining it is no child’s play either… Like in any other professional undertaking, this occupation requires you to learn a whole new language, a set of new definitions.  Unlike any other professional undertaking, the online world is the fastest growing fastest changing industry existing today.  And so to be in touch with it, one has to keep up with the lexicon.  If you’re a website owner/online marketer, you definitely know what I mean.

Taking this into account, we thought it would benefit our partners if we presented a short glossary of basic terms revolving around Kontera and online advertising in general.  We hope to make some aspects of Kontera more accessible through these definitions.

Kontera Online Advertising:

• Pay Per Click Advertising- an advertising model in which Kontera pays publishers according to a pre-determined amount each time a user clicks on an ad; the amount is determined by the advertiser and is known as CPC.

• Contextual Advertising- an advertising model in which advertisements on a site are targeted to users based on the site’s content.  Kontera’s contextual advertising is highly specific as it recognizes the meaning of a particular sentence and matches it to the highest paying ad of the same topic.

• In-Text Advertising- a form of contextual advertising in which ads are served within the content of a site through highlighted keywords.  Kontera’s algorithms analyze content and extract keywords in order to match them to ads.  The ads appear as the user hovers over a highlighted keyword with his mouse.

Revenue Model:

• Revenue Share- the percentage of a click’s revenue which is received by the publisher.

Kontera Metrics:

• Impressions- the number of times a website is loaded by internet users; this is calculated by totaling all loads of all pages within the specified site.

• Net Impressions- the number of times a website is loaded by internet users, calculating only those pages on which at least one ContentLink was present.

• CTR- (Click-Through Rate) the average rate at which a site’s users click on an ad; this is calculated by dividing the number of clicks by net impressions to yield a percentage.

• CPC- (Cost Per Click) the dollar amount that an advertiser offers for a click on a particular ad. CPC isn’t a fixed rate and varies from one advertising campaign to the next according to advertiser’s specifications.

• eCPM- (Effective Cost Per Thousand)- the revenue for each 1,000 net impressions that a publisher’s site generates; a key tool in estimating revenue projections based on impressions.

Kontera Optimization Terms:

• Optimization- the process in which a Kontera team analyzes a site to identify its ideal ContentLink settings for reaching optimal performance and revenue potential. Click to learn some optimization tips.

• Link Density- the concentration of ContentLink ads within a publisher’s content; the higher a site’s link density, the more ContentLinks are presented per page. (e.g., a link density of 10 would mean a maximum of 10 keywords out of 100 words will be highlighted on a page).  Link density is a scale that Kontera’s optimization team can easily control.  Contact support@kontera.com for more details.

• Zone Tags- publisher-initiated Javascript code that specifies which areas of a site Kontera’s algorithm should analyze to generate ContentLinks; not to be used with Filter Tags.

• Filter Tags- publisher-initiated Javascript code that specifies in which areas of a site Kontera’s algorithm should not generate ContentLinks; not to be used with Zone Tags.

• Metrics Fluctuations – Many factors may influence one or more of your metrics and be reflected in your site’s overall performance. Fluctuations may result from changes in your site’s settings, ContentLink attributes, your site’s traffic sources and visitor trends, available relevant campaigns and advertisers’ specifications and more. It’s therefore very important to remember that when you analyze performance you should keep track of all the values above as well as take a look at your site’s stats as reflected in Google Analytics or any other tracking application you may be using.

We hope this helped in gaining a better understanding of Kontera’s advertising and how to analyze your site’s metrics. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on better understanding Kontera through the use of Google analytics.

We wanted to sit down with Mike Glover, Kontera’s Director of Business Development, to talk about the last three and half years and the growth Kontera’s seen with its publisher network.

You’ve been with Kontera for a number of years now and have worked with 1000’s of publishers. What in your opinion separates Kontera’s In-Text solution from other offerings in the market?

I think first and foremost you have to realize that the founders of Kontera invented the idea of In-Text and, to a large degree, contextual advertising as a whole, back around the year 2000.  This was before AdSense if you can believe it.  The team of people that have been working here for that long have been the pioneers of the In-Text industry and everything that it encompasses for the three main players involved- advertisers, publishers and users.

Kontera focuses on delivering a technological solution that equally serves all the relevant players, so when we talk with publishers and introduce them to our philosophies around In-Text, it leaves them with an easy decision as to who to work with.  We strive to give publishers the means to generate revenue from the most popular portions of their sites while maintaining the balance of their bottom line with their readership.  If you can give the publisher the ability to maintain their advertiser integrity,  i.e. the most contextually relevant offering that their readers are interested in, while increasing their RPM by an average of 20%, it’s a win all the way around.

Where do you see In-Text going in the coming years?

Well, from where it started, giving advertisers the ability to buy search keywords within content, to where it is today, it’s almost impossible to figure out what’s coming next.  Kontera is continuing to offer new ideas and options for the publishers/advertisers/users as to how they interact with the In-Text unit.  We’ve given new meaning to the value of the click by going beyond just a new revenue opportunity.

Kontera offers related content, related videos, search capabilities and we’ll continue to listen to the publishers within each market to see how to tailor the In-Text unit to their needs.  Our newest product, the Kontera Hybrid, is almost 100% customizable to the publisher’s preference between revenue and user offerings.  I believe that just as you see AdSense within close to 85% of the sites out there, In-Text, in some form or another, will be utilized by as many publishers within the coming two years.

What would you say is the best part about working at Kontera?

Tough question.  No, just kidding.  Having worked at large companies like NBC and Bank of America, Kontera has the unique combination of ‘big’ company operations with the ’small’ company philosophy. It’s amazing in that at any time you can find the CEO sitting down with the Account Management Team just to get a feel for what’s happening with the publishers in the Food and Living category, for example, or you’ve got a team in San Francisco talking with a team in Israel over a video chat about what improvements we can make to the ad layer to help meet an advertiser’s requests.

It’s fast paced, it’s diverse and it’s rewarding.  You couple that with the lunches that are brought in from the neighboring restaurants and it’s a tough place to leave.

This interview 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

A moment before summer is out the door Kontera’s R&D and Product teams set out on a beach adventure. Nothing beats a day of Kayaking, volleyball and frisbee on the sunny beach.  It was a great opportunity to get to know eachother better while relaxing and enjoying the waves…

Bryan Everett, Kontera’s Senior VP Sales & Business Development, was interviewed on VatorNews last Tuesday. The interview, conducted by Bambi Francisco, reveals much about the In-Text advertising industry, and of course, much about Kontera.

We’re glad to present it here on the blog, so get ready to learn something new:

Do gigantic spreadsheets of stats creep you out? They do me. Kontera analysts on the other hand, love them.

Stats are useful for many reasons; my own favorite use is for the purpose of getting insightful information about Kontera partners. Today, we’ve asked our analysts to gather the information that would answer an essential question: what do Kontera’s top earners have in common?

Here’s what we came up with:

1. Over 55% U.S. Traffic – Online advertisers tend to allocate the majority of their resources to the U.S. market granting it the highest ad spending per internet user. This inclination explains why publishers who experience an increase in their U.S. traffic, will also benefit from increased revenues.
   
2. High percentage of Search Engine Traffic – Search engine traffic is characterized by being more targeted.   If much of the traffic that comes to your site arrives through search engines, chances are that you get focused, targeted users to come through the door.  These users visit a website with an intention to find specific information and are therefore more likely to click on the ContentLink ads you serve.
3. Returning Visitors – Another thing Kontera’s top earners have in common is a high percentage of returning visitors.  You may say, “big news flash! Returning visitors are valuable for my site, duh! didn’t know that…”  Well, there is a news flash regarding ContentLink ads and the visitors on your site.  Returning visitors are already familiar with the Kontera layout, the ads and the information served on your site.  Having experienced the advantages ContentLinks provide, these visitors tend to generate CTR which is higher than that of new visitors.
4. Cross-browser website compatibility –  There’s a variety of browser options available today and the market is always on the move.  With Google ‘s release of Chrome beta, there’s no telling where or how fast things are going… Why limit yourself to one browser?  Your site’s visitors use many.  If you want to maximize your site’s earning potential make sure your site is well supported in all browser and browser versions.

   

5. Content Rich Sites –The more textual content on your pages the better. Kontera top earners all have implemented the Kontera tag on pages that have ample textual content for our algorithm to analyze. However you should note that it’s not only the length of your content that comes into play, but also its quality (Are your pages keyword rich?Is your content fresh and original? Is it SE optimized?).

This is what we found so far through our stats.  Any questions? Suggestions? We’d love to see your comments.

Kontera US went to Napa, CA for a day of fun and excitement.  The team took a bus to three wineries:  Elizabeth Spencer, Signorello, and The Black Stallion.  There were definitely no dull moments starting with the bus breaking down on the way to Napa and stopping at In & Out on the way home
Everyone had a chance to get to know their fellow teammates from different departments and offices.  Overall, it was a great day to remember- and we’ve brought pictures back to tell!

September is at the doorstep, bringing with it a breath of cool autumn air… and, of course, some exciting fall events:

OMMA Global
Sept 18 -19 (NYC)

OMMA Global “Platform Wars” will focus on the countless Web sectors and the race to provide the next great platform on which consumer applications are built.
Hear from leaders in the interactive marketing revolution and discuss where the online media world is headed.

Kontera’s booth will be in the mini-trade show area. Stop by to meet us and learn more about Kontera.

MIXX Conference Awards

Sept 22 – 23 (MIXX Awards on Sept 23 – NYC)

The MIXX Conference and Expo, the Official Interactive Event of Advertising Week 2008, is the preeminent event for marketing and agency professionals and the publishers and technology firms who help drive their efforts. MIXX brings together the industry’s most prominent and influential speakers talking about the most pressing and innovative topics in interactive today. Further, the powerhouse list of marketers, agencies, publishers and industry professionals in attendance offers huge networking opportunities.

Meet Kontera! Stop by booth 102 to meet the team and learn more about Kontera.

We are thrilled to announce that Kontera has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the AO global 250 winners.  The AO Global 250 were selected from over hundreds of companies, nominated by a panel of industry experts in the online technology, media, entertainment, enterprise and greentech sectors from around the world.

From our press release page:

Kontera was specially selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and other industry experts spanning the globe, based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz. Kontera was also awarded the AlwaysOn Top 100 in 2007 for the company’s proprietary contextual technology. Keep Reading >>

Everyone knows that top clicked Keywords and the current search trends usually go hand in hand. It’s always interesting to see which words get all the attention in a given week. That’s why we’ve decided to publish a series of posts about Kontera’s most clickable keywords.

Of course, the most generic keywords like computer, car, mobile phone, news -are always under the limelight- this is nothing new. But every now and then, we run into some surprises.

Take the Sports niche for example: the word “Basketball” always attracts a massive amount of clicks. However, during the last week it seems like the Beijing Olympic Games and Phelps’ astounding performance have turned the spotlight from the court to the pool. The word “Swimming” has surpassed “Basketball”, but even Phelps can’t beat “Football.”

Check out the table below for some of last week’s top performers. We’ve collected the most interesting categories and maybe you’ll find some tips here…Stay tuned for the next posts in this series.

By Emily Wallace, Business Development Manager

So you have decided to try a new revenue-generator for your site or blog.  But Kontera ContentLinks seem a little too good to be true—they don’t use up any of your space, they bring completely additive revenue and they only require one-time implementation.  Decidedly skeptical, you drag your feet; you never get around to putting the ads up, or you only install the Kontera code on a few pages to test it out.  Maybe your Kontera rep even lets you know that you can start small if you prefer.  It is your website, and of course we want you to feel comfortable.

However, if you are looking to earn some real money, this is what you should do:  the moment you receive your Kontera code, install it across your entire site.
Then watch.

For the first one to two weeks, the algorithms behind Kontera ContentLinks are going through an automatic optimization process to “learn” all of your existing content.  Every time the algorithms encounter new content (your latest blog post or article), they analyze it in real time and perpetually ensure Kontera is serving the best ads possible.
After the first couple of weeks, your metrics will hit their stride; in the second half of your first month, you will see the true revenue opportunity with ContentLinks.  If you had started the month by only implementing ContentLinks on a small portion of your site, then the metrics wouldn’t be as meaningful.  With more coverage (ideally 100% of the pages) on your site, you will see the clearest revenue picture for long term monetization.

One of Kontera’s top publisher partners, Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com, shared some sound advice, “It’s really important for those who are testing ad products to look at the big picture.  If possible, have [ContentLinks] run site wide for at least a month . . . If you are testing just a small part of a website, be sure to extrapolate the revenue out to all pages of the website.  Finally, understand that different pages of a website might make far more revenue than other pages.”

Because certain areas of your site may perform stronger than other areas, site-wide data will be the most accurate. Whether you have just received your Kontera code or implementation has long been on your to-do list, I encourage you to immediately begin maximizing the revenue your site or blog is capable of earning.  If you have been wading in the Kontera pool, I encourage you to swim with us and soak up the revenue you deserve.  And if you haven’t signed up for a Kontera account yet—what are you waiting for? Become a Kontera Publisher.