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

Some combinations just work- Lucy and Ricky, peas and carrots… Google and Kontera ads.

These days, more and more website owners are seeing the benefits in diversifying their ad offering in order to accommodate a wider audience. The market has much to offer in terms of ad types, and the trick is to make the selection that will monetize best while serving your users well. A website’s ad diversity has to go hand in hand with an uncluttered display, allowing users to find the information they seek and to conveniently and easily explore your page.

Many publishers find the combination of Kontera ContentLinks alongside Google Adsense to be most beneficial. In fact, our latest publisher survey showed that an amazing 95% of our top earners and over 70% of our bloggers use Kontera and AdSense in order to maximize their site’s revenues. Further research has confirmed that ContentLink ads have no negative impact on Adsense earnings, but rather increase a site’s overall revenue.

Better still, Kontera ContentLinks don’t take up additional ad space. The ad units are “compact”, hidden behind a relevant keyword until a user actively requests to see them. So in addition to the monetary advantages of a Adsense/Kontera combination, ContentLinks can run next to Adsense ads without the need for additional web space and without competing for user interaction. Since the ads completely differ in format, there’s no issue preventing them from appearing on the same page.

Alan Baltes of actinginfo, one of our favorite bloggers and a valued partner has this to say:

“Kontera has proven to be a fantastic addition to the Adsense ads on my blog. It has increased my overall revenue without having any adverse effect on my Adsense statistics. Best of all, I have received very positive feedback from my blog’s visitors!”

Roger Clark from rogers-resume-help-center.com, a very useful resume and career resource site says:

“Adsense has always been the main source of revenue for my website and I was reluctant to place any other advertising as I feared a drop in my Adsense revenue. I decided to give Kontera ads a try because they did not take up any additional space on my web pages. Within a few weeks the Kontera revenues started to grow and best of all there was no drop off in my Adsense. My Kontera results have exceeded my expectations, and now provide a significant complementary income stream.”

So what are you waiting for? Give the combination a try.

July is a hot month, in more ways than one

Kontera is launching a scorching hot deal for new publishers:

Sign up* with Kontera during July 2008 and get 100% REV SHARE for the month!

This is a one month offer, so don’t waste any time!

The sooner you sign up*, the sooner you can start earning 100% of all revenue generated by your site! That’s twice the normal 50% terms.

Sign up* now and take advantage of this amazing limited-time offer!

*Offer is valid only for sign-ups through the promotional page.

Some of the publishers reading this post have had the chance to interact with Kontera’s support team. For once, we wanted to make a more formal introduction.

We make every effort to upgrade and advance Kontera’s support services, with the full knowledge that our relationships with partners require much care and maintenance. In the past few months Kontera’s support services have made a serious leap in that direction when we’ve added a Live Chat option. The chat, which is available through the “Help” tab in our Publisher Center, enables you to reach a Kontera representative live, and call for our immediate attention to any question or issue you encounter.

Kontera serves a network of thousands of publishers- that’s hundreds of email requests per day and we do our best to reply all your emails in due time. We thank you for your patience as we work hard to thoroughly review each case send out all responses.
In many other cases, you don’t have to wait! Kontera has a KnowledgeBase where you can find immediate answers to many inquiries. These are some of most commonly asked questions we receive:

How can I add site(s) to my account?

How do I invite a Friend to Kontera?

How do I change my payment details?

When do my tags go live?

How can I limit the number of links on my site?

We constantly update our knowledgeBase and any feedback or recommendation from you is most welcome.

Here’s a pic of a few members of Kontera’s support team . No, they don’t show up to work like that; this pic was taken during Kontera’s costume party- guess who took first prize

The best way to contact Kontera Support is through the Help tab in our Publisher Center. For the quickest service don’t forget to select topic from the drop down menu to help our Support Team to direct your request to the most appropriate channel.

We said before that when our partners talk we listen. We love getting your feedback and find it to be a great resource in helping us improve our products and services. That’s why creating and maintaining communication channels with you are particularly high on Kontera’s priority list.

This blog, the Publisher Center and our newly added KnowledgeBase are all meant to be exactly that – a two way communication channel.

Take the Knowledgebase as an example. The feedback provided by the thousands of Kontera publishers who visited it, has helped us identify the frequent questions encountered while employing ContentLinks™ and managing your account. The result on our end is a constant update of the Knowledgebase with new information.

One of the most frequently accessed Knowledgebase articles is “How do I add a new site to my existing Kontera Account?” and so we thought to answer it here as well. Adding another site to your Kontera account is easy. In fact it’s a process that can be summed up in three words send – receive – add. And here’s how:

Use the help tab in your account in Kontera’s Publisher Center and send us an email listing the site domains you want added to your network. We will review each site and create up to 5 new sets of tags for you at a time. Upon receiving the new tags, you can immediately add them onto your site’s template directly before the closing body tag </body> of your source code.

Have you visited the Knowledgebase? Have a question that wasn’t included in it? Let us know and we’ll gladly add it.

Send it to blog@kontera.com

More on our BlogWorld adventures- Assaf Henkin, Kontera’s VP Product and Co-Founder, introduces smart ways to monetize your blog. And of course, John Chow has something to say about his experience with Kontera…