Whether you watched it or not, the 2010 Oscars came and left and needless to say, they did so in style.  We wanted to take a minute to share the top clicked keywords relating to entertainment on the Kontera network – with our very own red carpet spin.

Fashion-forward phrases like gowns, haircuts, red carpets, glamor, and celebrity styles were hot on the network, as publishers were busy critiquing and posting about how the celebs were clothed and made up in preparation for the big event.

Some favorite actresses like Scarlett Johansson and Mischa Barton generated the most amount of interest on our network, and movie keywords such as anime and comedy have been extremely popular film genres among users.  Movie wise; oldies still prevail as Speed and Titanic are still amongst the favorites (and Sandra Bullock even went home with a statue!), alongside the more recent critically acclaimed “The Hurt Locker” and Cameron’s Avatar hype.

Lastly, in preparation for the Academy Awards, publishers were writing and readers were catching up on 3D movies (specifically UP by Disney-Pixar which took the Oscar for best animated film), home theatre systems, decorating tips, and quick and easy appetizers in preparation for their Oscar viewing get togethers. Be sure to stay tuned to our Top Clicked Keywords Posts to keep up with what’s hot and clickable on our network.

In regards to advertising on a page, some say less is more, while others say taking it to the max is the only way to go.  The one thing that everyone agrees on is that you should diversify your monetization methods in an effort to maximize your website’s return.

Since every site’s build is different in design, content, length/number of pages, employed monetization strategies, as well as in user feedback, finding the proper ratios of page content to ad real-estate is unique to each site.   We wanted to take the opportunity to remind you of ways to groom your site for making the most of Kontera In-Text.

If you’re employing multiple advertising methods on your pages, it is important to make sure that advertising is evenly distributed throughout the entirety of the page. Kontera offers tools to specify areas of a page where ContentLink ads should or shouldn’t be placed by telling our Java Script which text is eligible for generating links.

For example, if you have a dominant series of banner ads next to a brief section of text, you may want to avoid generating ContentLinks in that section by using Filter Tags.  Similarly if you have a text–based menu bar on the top of your page, and a large section of text below, you definitely want to use a Zone Tag to instruct Kontera to only scan in article.  As you probably know, Adsense and Kontera are a great combination, but be sure to maximize the effect of both, by spreading the ads throughout your pages.

Furthermore, upon publisher’s request, our Support Team will gladly make adjustments to link density which is essentially the number of links per 1000 words on a page.  Test to discover the optimal number of ads for your pages, once you do you’ll be sure improve both your users’ experience and your ads performance.

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 Terms:

• 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 Advertising 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.  Find out more about Kontera advertising terms 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.