Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hulett: WidgetBucks' RPC Jumps More Than 20 Percent

Matt Hulett, CEO of Mpire (the company who has created WidgetBucks), participated in the first of what we anticipate will be many podcasts to give publishers some key product and business insights. The call (also accessible through the icon to the left) focused on recent updates and changes within the WidgetBucks ecosystem, specifically an update on Revenue-Per-Click (RPC) -- which has seen at least a 20 percent jump -- earnings policies and a sneak peek at new things ahead. Below are highlights of the podcast with Matt:

WidgetBucks growth since launching October 2 has been phenomenal. Last month we served 200 million ad impressions and are on track to more than double that in November. As with any kind of hyper growth, it's important to maintain your network quality. Over the last week or so, the WidgetBucks team has implemented several policies to boost RPCs, including international click filtering and focusing on suspending publishers who are not following our terms of service, specifically click fraud, pornography, non-English language sites, ad-only sites, and non-valid or false domains.

The result has been a strong jump in RPC numbers, up by 20 percent, and even higher in some categories. Reporting figures have now been updated and should reflect levels of a few weeks ago. Long term, Matt discussed looking at supporting/crediting traffic from users outside the U.S. and Canada.

Matt also mentioned that over the next couple of weeks, publishers will be seeing 9 new widget styles that feature a new “look and feel” and search functionality from inside the widgets. WidgetBucks will also be introducing new brand sponsorship pre-roll advertising. The goal is to enable CPM-style brand advertising into the WidgetBucks network to continue to keep RPCs high.

The holidays are ahead of us and implementing WidgetBucks shopping-oriented advertising is a great way to see higher CTRs and overall monetization. Matt shared some highlights of a recent Maritz Research Group poll found that on "Cyber Monday" -- the first Monday after U.S. Thanksgiving when most people in the U.S. go back to work -- nearly 9 in 10 made purchases from the office on that day compared to the standard 6 in 10 who shop online while in the workplace. Last year, Cyber Monday sales totaled $687 million, up from $484 million in 2005. As you know, all online ads generate higher conversions this time of year and WidgetBucks can be a great source of revenue for you.

Matt concluded by wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving and reiterating our long-term commitment to helping publishers earn revenue from their sites and pages. We know that we have to earn your trust on every page load. And that we continue to look for your input and feedback.

28 comments:

Daniel Larsson said...

Looking better! Now all you have left is to include either a function with alternate ads (Neverblue, CJ etc) so that international hits can earn revenue

AND

Include the U.K to start with in the traffic. It cant be that hard to deal with Amazon.co.uk can it?

rja said...

"WidgetBucks growth since launching October 2 has been phenomenal. Last month we served 200 million ad impressions"

please please...remember part of the grough was made with all the international publisher you banned weeks later...

I would like to see how many impressions you were doing if not counting the international publishers....

Dean Jutilla said...

Hi, from Matt. We're working on implementing an international solution in the next several weeks. This wont be pay-per-click links to global merchants rather a solution to serve higher CPM ads within the Widget. This will help publishers with blended traffic from both the US and International geographies.

Just to be clear on non-US and Canada publishers, the majority of those suspensions were from non-English language sites which are not allowed under our terms of service.

Also, I've talked to a bunch of international publishers with great sites that were impacted by our policy to not pay on international clicks. We're working on a solution for those folks and we really want to build a great solution for those publishers and global advertisers.

Vip said...

he please dont disable the accts of sites which used wigetbucks on porno site.... cuz u should only disable ad showing from sites.. dont disable there whole accnt.it helps everyone out here

Ankil Sanghvi said...

Matt, I have mailed many letters regarding the suspension of my account ankil19@hotmail.com & have also posted many times in this forum but of no use.I get the same reply from you that we have contacted you but in reality I havent got single letter regarding this account suspension.I hope to get a sensible reply from you this time

Unknown said...

Ankil,
Change the record. None of us are interested in the fact your account has been banned.
Are you sure the emails from WidgetBucks haven't been caught in the hotmail spam filter?

Having said I was going to give WBs the benefit of the doubt I am slightly pissed off to find my referral earnings, which appeared steady all last week, have suddenly dropped by about 20% yesterday. You should be filtering my referrals' bad clicks BEFORE my share is displayed in my account. Likewise, once my share appears in black (eg. 'confirmed') you should not be altering that.

Don't let me down again.

admin said...

my widgetbuck is still suspend, in many my blog ?? Impression walk away but earn's not run. Without comfirmation from tim widget for my email ??

I want to remove widgetbuck from our blog. Widgetbuck is like a SCAM.

champs1uk said...

Hey CB,

I also have seen that there was a %20 drop in my revenue that had already finished pending.

Can anyone explain why this has happened?

Dean Jutilla said...

Matt here. There are a couple of publishers on this thread that have questions around account suspensions. When a suspension is initiated, the reason for the suspension is in the email. If you haven't received an email concerning your account then email help@widgetbucks.com. Feel free to contact me directly at matt@mpire.com, too. I've seen some a couple of cases where we've turned on accounts. Again, the focus is to keep enforce the terms of service.

cb has some good feedback here. We appreciate that and if you can send me your account details, I'll look into it.

Lastly, the "scam" claims are perplexing. If we have made an error in account suspensions then you know how to get in touch with us. I've seen a bunch of posts around the Net and have found that many of those publishers have violated our terms of service (upon my own research). Its the benefit to everyone that we keep our advertisers happy. We all appreciate the support and feedback from all of you.

Webster said...

I am tired of seeing camera ads on my widgets. I have chosen adsense for weeks, yet I still get cameras. What gives?

Unknown said...

Plz plz give option to publishers so they can add alternative links from other text-ads networks like GoogleAdsense, Adbrie, etc. right into widget's settings so for international user, it shows those third-party ads while for US/Canada it shows widgetbucks ads.
Hope you consider this. It'll help a lot of publishers.
Thanks

Ankil Sanghvi said...

cb,
I am too not interested in discussing personal in this public blog.I am made to post here as I havent got any reply of my mails from WB team I have been regularly checking spam filters.It has been more than 15 days I have written to them but now its nice that ceo has given email to contact him

Raihan Fairuz Najib said...

My Account Email : panca_media@yahoo.co.id can u check .. my account ... my account has been suspended due to the fraud click ( which i have never did) only once it happened that i click accidently.

mark stein said...

@team widgetbucks:
it' not fair to say "the reason for the suspension is in the email"
The are seven different reasons in the mail. You suspend by arbitrage when you do not like the account, say this...
you have too many rights, no duties.

Instead of suspending, calculate valid clicks from US and Canada.
Is becoming very hard to mantain an account, really hilarious.

Rui MCB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rui MCB said...

You are only interested in US and Canada?!

I've an account and only one of my blogs is 100% in english (I've three). In the remaing of my blogs 95% of the posts are in PORTUGUESE.
I guess I'll have my accont suspended. Please don't take to long to decide.
My account is running for more than one month and I confess I didn't saw the "non-English language sites" restriction properly highlighted when I subscribed.
I guess international the buzz was of your interest at the time.
I'm sorry the realize that.

Daniel Larsson said...

I think 1st prio should be getting those alternate ads for non-us clicks implemented.

As for 200 million impressions. My guesstimate is that between 80-80% is gone due to the non-us/ca click policy!

Mike said...

My Pending Amount Was $85
But in Last Few Days Its Decreased to 72$
Can Anyone Tell Me How Can The Amount That I Have Earned From Last 2 months be decreased ?
any reason ?

Anonymous said...

Never though this would go this far. Thanks Widgetbucks team!

http://barkingbucks.blogspot.com/

Blog web said...

1. Your business model relies on two distinct groups of people... advertisers and publishers. You're making advertisers not just a priority, but your only concern lately, while pissing off the publishing community - frankly, they're the ones with the power to kill the company and model; advertisers won't pay you squat if no one with a quality site it willing to publish your ads.

2. You run a CPC model, but are penalizing publishers b/c advertisers want the benefits of a PPA model instead. Hmmm... perhaps you're in the wrong business. Google f'd up the conversions issue big time ages ago (neglecting the fact that poor ad copy, poor landing pages, etc. have as much, if not more, to do with poor conversions than the traffic itself - much of which is certainly targeted). If advertisers only want to pay on high-converting traffic, you need to adjust how they're paying you, and how you're paying publishers. For the record, then you wouldn't have to worry about the whole international issue.

3. By accusing non-scammers of fraud because your model doesn't work quite as well as advertisers would hope borders on libel. Good job.

How about a bit of forethought before you screw up even more like all the others. If you can't live up to the hype, you'll die trying.

Unknown said...

I totally agree with "blog web" comments above.

Dean Jutilla said...

@blogweb: thanks for your comments. know that we as a network need to balance both advertiser and publisher relationships -- and both need to work. while recently we made the policy adjustment to no longer credit international clicks, last week we also made adjustments to increase publishers' RPCs, and later this week look for more news on how we'll be helping publishers monetize their international clicks.

To reiterate the input of Matt, our CEO, regarding non-US and Canada publishers, the majority of those suspensions were from non-English language sites which are not allowed under our terms of service. Also, all emails sent to suspended accounts gave clear reason within the subject line and email.

If you have additional comments, feel free to shoot me an email at dean@mpire.com.

Federica said...

To WB:
My main concern right now is that the ads slow down the sites.. You probably know this, it's kind of getting stuck for a few seconds.
Will there be a solution to this?

Thanks

Kasi Viswanathan said...

Hi


I would like to see news on widgetbucks payments and news feature on people who have made money.

As I have joined widgetbucks, i would like to know about widgetbucks payment credentials

Thanks and i am proud be part of widgetbucks.

Kasi Viswanathan

Cynthia Blue said...

Growth is great. Now if I could only get an answer to my ticket... some of the ads on the widget on my site, if they come up pet related, go to a page not found error.

Dean Jutilla said...

addressing the question of payment credentials and news of payments, mpire is the company behind widgetbucks. mpire has been around since 2005 is a real company, with real investors. our first payment schedule is upcoming - dec. 15 -- however it appears we'll be October sending payments next week.

Dean Jutilla said...

@cynthia blue: please send me an email directly at dean@mpire.com and provide me with the link to your site so we can try to identify and correct the issue. thanks.

Unknown said...

Dear WB Team,

My email: teddy.hariadi@gmail.com

My Revenue has also decrease about 38% last week, I've found that the RPC have reduced. Whay does it happen? can you chack & give me back my revenue?

tks,
Teddy