As some of you may have seen last week during ad:tech San Francisco, Mpire Corporation -- the parent company of WidgetBucks -- launched a new branded service called AdXpose. To clear up any confusion, AdXpose is completely separate from WidgetBucks.
AdXpose helps give interactive advertisers more insight into how their brand campaigns are actually performing online, no matter where their display ads run, including multiple ad networks (even those outside of WidgetBucks), exchanges and/or direct publisher placements.
At first blush, this may seem very advertiser focused and of no interest to you, the publisher. But alas, AdXpose has significant implications for all publishers, whether in the head or Long Tail.
The bottom line is this: Publishers have the potential to earn more money because AdXpose provides verification information around ad placement and reach to agencies, networks and advertisers. In other words, advertisers and their agencies now have a system that tells them if and when ads ran in view on properly targeted sites or blog -- and this confirmation means the ad placement carries more value (i.e. you get a higher CPM, assuming a couple of things about your site -- see below).
Last week, Mpire's CEO Matt Hulett demonstrated AdXpose to a room full of publishers during the conference and the response was tremendous. Many publishers approached Matt after the panel wanting more information and asked lots of questions, both tactical and challenging.
So, as a publisher, what do you need to do to empower your site or blog business to reap the rewards of AdXpose technology? Publishers need to ask themselves two questions when it comes to addressing this shifting paradigm of online media:
1. Does my ad inventory strategy provide value to advertisers? That is, is there a blend of above and below the fold placements? Do they complement the content?
2. Does my site content appeal to advertisers who want to maximize their spend and/or that are hyper-protective of their brands?
AdXpose is currently in invite-only private beta for key partners, so WidgetBucks and non-WidgetBucks publishers likely won't see the impact of placements and targeting for a few weeks.
We'll provide updates along the way here on the WidgetBucks blog, as well as the AdXpose blog.
- Dean
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
What Does AdXpose Mean for Online Publishers and Bloggers?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Forbes: New automated tech firms reshaping digital media
Forbes.com posted an insightful piece today on the rise of an emerging set of ad technology companies that are helping brands conduct their media buying more efficiently and effectively as people increasingly spend their lives online.
Mpire Corporation, maker of both WidgetBucks and AdXpose, was among the private companies cited in this lengthy article. The other technology companies in the piece include Mpire partners OpenX, Rubicon Project and Pubmatic, as well as Google and Yahoo! [full article here]
Matt Hulett, Mpire's CEO, (pictured) was quoted in the article -- "We've seen half a billion dollars of venture capital poured into building optimization and planning companies." -- and Mpire's new service -- AdXpose -- was highlighted as well:
This week, Hulett's firm unveiled an application to help advertisers track on which Web sites networks place ads, where on the actual screen the ad appears and if Web surfers pause their cursor over the ad. The tool is intended to help marketers better figure out how much of their ad spending is essentially worthless.
For more information and background on AdXpose, check out last week's press coverage, press release, and demo on YouTube.
- Dean
Monday, April 13, 2009
It's Time to Vote! Seattle 2.0 Awards 2009
This may be considered a very "local thing" but every vote counts, no matter its location. The Seattle 2.0 Awards recognizes accomplishments and exceptional people of the best of over 300 Seattle area technology startups. Voting ends April 28.
WidgetBucks is honored to be a finalist in four categories:
- Best Startup CEO: Matt Hulett
- Best Startup Technologist: Greg Harrison
- Best Blog from/about Startups: Startup Whisperer by Matt Hulett
- Best Venture Capitalist: Bill Bryant, WidgetBucks board member and Venture Partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which led WidgetBucks' Series B funding in June 2008.
Here's a full list of categories -- Vote now!
- Best Startup
- Best Boot-strapped Startup
- Best Startup CEO
- Best Startup Technologist
- Best Venture Capitalist
- Best Angel Investor
- Best Startup Product Designer
- Best Service Provider to Startups
- Best Blog from/about Startup
- Best Social Event for Startups
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Beginner's Guide to Ad Optimization
WidgetBucks CEO Matt Hulett is a featured contributor in Monday's edition of Adotas, one of the interactive advertising's most targeted publications. Matt delves into the world of ad optimization, where he feels there is a lot of innovation happening today despite very little other good news coming from within the sector.
Matt discusses a group of optimization startups, including WidgetBucks, that are adding a tremendous layer of value between the supply and demand. These companies are still getting funding when other sectors have gone dry, and some have even been acquired recently.
The five areas of focus in what Matt calls the "ad optimization stack" include:
- Container Optimization. Companies such as SnapAds, Tumri, Clearspring, Gigya and WidgetBucks
- Targeting Optimization. Companies such as BlueKai, Exelate, Lookery and OthersOnline
- Yield Optimization. Companies such as Pubmatic, Rubicon Project, YieldBuild, YieldX and WidgetBucks
- Exchanges. Companies such as Right Media’s Publisher Media Exchange, Microsoft’s AdECN, DoubleClick
- Auction-based marketplaces. Companies such as ContextWeb's ADSDAQ, AdBite, Turn, Google AdSense, and Yahoo! Publisher Network
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Make Room for AdSpace - Special Discount Code Available
There is a new conference called the ADSPACE Contextual Advertising Conference + Expo on April 22, 2009, at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco. It is co-located and associated with the ad:tech conference that runs April 21-23.
There are two tracks, one focused on small to medium sized publishers and another focused on advertisers. WidgetBucks CEO Matt Hulett is participating on a panel, "10 Proven Methods to Increase Your eCPM and Generate More Revenue." Hats off to the folks who put this together -- it promises to be a very informative few days.
For those who might want to attend, here is an early bird code that is good thru this Friday: Promo Code: ADSPACEB. It will deduct 20% off the rate of $395. At times like this, every bit helps.
See you in San Francisco.
- Dean
Friday, March 6, 2009
Three Reasons Why Amazon Should Buy Twitter
 |
Eric Engleman of Seattle's TechFlash also wrote about this today as well.
Speaking of Twitter, check out this like-gold add-on that makes your Google searches real-time with Twitter.
Do you use Twitter? If so, start following WidgetBucks here.
- Dean
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Part II: Fast Company TV's Robert Scoble Inside WidgetBucks
 |
Part II of II (Watch Part I now)
Monday, March 2, 2009
Peek Inside WidgetBucks with Fast Company TV's Robert Scoble, Part I
 |
Robert also interviews WidgetBucks Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder Greg Harrison, who explains WidgetBucks' biggest challenge today, its stance on cloud computing and iframes, as well as how lack of Flash capability on mobile devices like iPhone limit the user experience, especially with ads.
Part I of II (Part II comes tomorrow)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
PaidContent: In A Widget Economy, Is Your Ad Smart Enough?
The notion of a "widget economy" was the focus of a post today by PaidContent writer Tameka Kee, who took a look back at recent investments in widget companies and asked, now a year later, if the opportunity is still viable. It's an interesting read, which includes WidgetBucks.
eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson provided this perspective in the article: "This is still a developing market, and most of the companies are spending their resources on making the widgets smarter, more intuitive and improving their tracking capabilities." Kee called out WidgetBucks and Gigya as those companies that have built in-depth analytics and other features into widgets.
If you are a WidgetBucks publisher, you know this means YieldSense, WidgetBucks' yield-optimization technology that makes publishers' ads super smart so they provide the best rate of return.
- Dean
Monday, February 9, 2009
WidgetBucks Profiled on Vator.tv
Earlier today, Vator.tv, the voice of the entrepreneur, posted a WidgetBucks profile on its site along with a video interview with CEO Matt Hulett. If you haven't looked into Vator.tv, you should. It's a social media company for businesses, leveraging community-generated content to connect investors, strategic partners and startups. The site's CEO and co-founder is Bambi Francisco, who started the site a little shy of two years ago. If you've followed the tech space for any length of time, Bambi's name probably rings a bell. She's written for Dow Jones MarketWatch and also produced at CNN's financial news network.
She did a nice job of capturing WidgetBucks in this piece. Check out the written piece here or the video below, and/or view WidgetBucks' profile on Vator.tv:
Monday, February 2, 2009
Former aQuantive CFO Michael Vernon Joins WidgetBucks Board
 |
For those of you who know about Michael, this is a real coup for us here at WidgetBucks. For those of you who don't, Michael was the former CFO at aQuantive (acquired by Microsoft in 2007 for $6B -- yes, with a B) so he knows online advertising technology, knows how to inject ‘big thinking’ into an emerging company like ours, and he's a fantastic complement to our existing experienced Board and management team. His background includes being responsible for financially guiding aQuantive to profitability and a multi-billion dollar market cap before the Microsoft acquisition.
He joins WidgetBucks' Board at an important time, as we hit our second full year of rapid growth after seeing ad impression volume grew by 150 percent over the course of 2008.
In Michael's words: “When it comes to core fundamentals within the online advertising space – monetization, expansion and targeting – WidgetBucks is well positioned to be a big ad play. What further attracted me to this appointment is the management team’s successful history, new proprietary optimization technology, including YieldSense, and their sound financial backing and infrastructure.”
We've added a lot of industry experience lately. Michael is the third industry veteran to join WidgetBucks’ management team and/or Board in the last several months: Chief Revenue Officer Kirby Winfield joined in August, while Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bergstrom came on board in October. Combined, the two chief officers represent over $3 billion in shareholder value from past acquisitions.
Welcome, Michael!
- Matt Hulett
CEO, WidgetBucks
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
WidgetBucks Publishers Earning More with YieldSense Without Lifting a Finger
 |
Well, we hear you. Today, WidgetBucks has launched a solution designed to help you out. It's called YieldSense, which is new ad technology that maximizes the rate of return on your WidgetBucks ad widgets. And what's even better news? You don't have to lift a finger.
Once you've signed up and created your widget with a self-selected product category (laptop computers, for example), YieldSense automatically tests (translation: you do nothing) your selection's performance against a whole variety of other product sets to determine the one that makes you the most money (highest eCPM). Essentially the top-earning earning products categories on your site get the highest rotation.
YieldSense has been beta tested for about three months with thousands of publishers across millions of impressions. The results have been nothing short of fantastic. On average, publishers have seen around 60 percent increase in their CPC eCPM and some have even seen 200-300 percent booms in their CPC eCPM. Across the board, four out of five publishers have seen improvement.
On particular publisher -- Techno4.us, a social networking site that serves 75 million ad impressions a month -- saw the eCPM of one particular WidgetBucks ad grow 156 percent to an amount nearly two and a half times the industry average eCPM for social networking sites.
Techno4.us owner Rigo Rojas: “WidgetBucks is my top earning network because their ad widgets don’t look like typical ads. They are different and catch the attention of the audience, making them more effective. Plus WidgetBucks is easy to deal with and treat me like a business partner."
So today, YieldSense analyzes shopping products. In the coming months, it will determine the highest yielding channels/content feeds (shopping, text, local, travel) and ad models (CPC, CPM, CPA) for your site or blog.
To find out more, view the YieldSense product overview or this demo.
- Dean
Thursday, January 22, 2009
WidgetBucks Wins OnMedia ‘Newcomer of the Year’ Award
Each year, the folks over at AlwaysOn hand out various honors and distinctions, some en masse (AlwaysOn 250, OnMedia 100), others in a more singular fashion. That’s the case for WidgetBucks, which has been awarded the prestigious OnMedia 100 Newcomer of the Year award by AlwaysOn.
WidgetBucks was selected from among all OnMedia 100 winners, which are emerging companies recognized by AlwaysOn’s editorial team as game-changing players that are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and publishing industries.
We'd also like to congratulate the team at The Rubicon Project for winning the OnMedia "Company of the Year" Award.
The AlwaysOn editorial team took note of WidgetBucks’ progress during 2008, but we couldn’t have done it without you, our publishers.
Over the course of 2008, WidgetBucks:
- grew 150 percent to 1.5 billion impressions per month, making it the fastest growing online ad network
- signed over 20,000 publishers and bloggers across its network
- broke into comScore’s Ad Net report, the first ad widget network to join the list
- secured $10 million in Series B financing, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson
- deployed YieldSense, proprietary yield-optimization technology that maximizes publishers’ rate of return on their ad space
- launched a “hybrid” CPC/CPM ad that creates two types of revenue from the same widget instance
- expanded beyond its flagship shopping channel through new feeds and partners and its CPC network into Western Europe
- added two chief officers – Chief Revenue Office Kirby Winfield and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bergstrom – who have generated over $3B in shareholder value through past acquisitions and mergers
- won two other awards -- AlwaysOn Global 250, Mashable Open Web Award
Thanks again, publishers and bloggers! Here's to a great 2009!
- Dean
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Affiliate Summit Report: Top 4 Observations
As recession and economic concerns continue to grip Wall Street (and my 401k), there are a group of business folks that couldn't be happier: affiliate marketers. And it's very evident here at Affiliate Summit in Vegas (and supposedly this doesn't have anything to do with the fact that plenty took in the "sights" of the Adult Entertainment Expo that's also happening at the same time here).
But bottom line, here's the naked truth: Affiliates of all kinds continue to see growth in their markets. Here are a few signs that online is still the place to be:
1. Huge turn-out. Affiliate Summit has had its largest show to date with over 3,000 people in attendance. Other conferences I've been to have been plagued recently with companies scaling back and speakers/panelists choosing to drop out at last minute. No sign of that here with crowds and booths filled all day long.
2. Bright future. There's continual talk and encouragement for bigger and better things to come. And I'm not talking about a cheerleader squad trying to lift the spirits of a 'Bama squad getting pummeled by the likes of Utah. It's people that are succeeding online and building huge businesses that continue to view vast opportunities. As Affiliate Summit keynote speaker Gary Vayrenchuk, host of Wine Library TV, a daily internet webcast on the subject of wine, said this morning: too many affiliate marketers are focusing on hitting singles rather than swinging for the fences. And he's a perfect example to show that there is not a textbook way to succeed in this space. Just find a passion and do it.
3. CPA net-o'-plenty. There are more CPA networks than ever before. And the truth is that they are all doing hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in payments each month. The only way this is possible is because every day another brand/company realizes they need to start an affiliate program.
4. Recession Does Not Equal Prohibition. Parties are just as numerous and liquor flowing as freely as in years past. While you have to work a little to find all the great parties, every night there has been plenty from which to choose. And even with the distractions of Vegas, affiliates are taking advantage not only to have fun, but to network and find ways to grow their businesses.
Overall Affiliate Summit is well on its way to another great conference. It continues to grow and mature, and of course, be an invaluable opportunity to the marketplace.
Check out Shawn Collins' Affiliate Tip blog for ongoing commentary and photos of the Summit.
Cheers and happy money making!
Gary Kamikawa
VP, Interactive Advertising
WidgetBucks
Friday, January 9, 2009
Top 5 Online Ad Predictions of 2009: Not All Doom & Gloom
No matter which way you look at it, 2008 ended on a down note for the online ad market. However, 2009 is not being viewed by all as doom and gloom. Even in a down market, online advertising will continue to evolve. We here at WidgetBucks think that 2009 will bring about some change, much of it positive, in the online advertising world, including:
- Exchanges will start to weed out arbitrage: Much like Google, exchanges will weed out those who thrive on inefficiencies. Much like Google, exchanges want to make more money and squeezing arbitrageurs is a logical next step once you’ve carved out share.
- Ad nets won't die. In fact, strong ones will gain influence: Vertical focus and inventory on sites that have high engagement will define success
- Social Media advertising and widget use will come of age: Audience targeting emerges to create viable CPC and CPM inventory where remnant ruled before and widgets will come into their own as long as they make money for publishers, create engagement for brands, and provide value for users
- Remnant display networks won’t die: Despite popular belief, networks representing remnant inventory will not go away but they will evolve. We think they will focus on performance based sales. Again it will all be about ROI.
- Targeting won't just be a media sales person’s byword any longer: Real integrated behavioral targeting/affinity/demo/channel targeting will bolster movement of offline ad dollars online.
- Kirby Winfield
Chief Revenue Officer
WidgetBucks
Friday, December 12, 2008
WidgetBucks Blog Survey: What Do You Want to Read About?
An interesting study from Forrester Research came out this week, examining how much people trust various online information resources. Not surprisingly, email from people they know tops the list at 77% (unless it's one of those chain emails that you have to forward in an hour or your laptop will explode). BusinessWeek also examined the trend.
What seemed to be most interesting, however, was what appeared on the bottom of the list: corporate blogs. Just 16% of people trust company blogs as a source of information. Most feel corporate blogs are just repackaged press releases, too promotional, or that they don't share unvarnished information. That's probably true in many cases -- and I think it's something that can really improve as blogging goes mainstream.
What's Ahead for the WidgetBucks Blog
In 2009, we are enhancing the WidgetBucks blog to include more writers and contributors, and expand the topics we cover - and to define those topics, we're asking for your help. Please vote for your most desired subjects that you would find most helpful to you as a publisher and we'll focus on including those subjects during the coming year:
In fact, you may have already read a few posts from some additional team members, including Gary Kamikawa, WidgetBucks' VP of Interactive Marketing, who oversees our publisher relations group, as well as Kirby Winfield, our Chief Revenue Officer. Given Kirby's sales focus, his posts will naturally have an advertiser lens over them -- which can be helpful as a publisher to understand what advertisers are seeking. CEO Matt Hulett will also continue to contribute as he did over our first year. You can also read Matt's musings at http://startupwhisperer.com and http://seattle20.com.
So thanks for voting or adding topics we don't have on the list.
- Dean Jutilla
Marketing Director
WidgetBucks
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Holiday Report: Just Another Manic Cyber Monday
By now, most people have heard of Cyber Monday, the day after the long Thanksgiving weekend (U.S.), which includes Black Friday. While Black Friday is brick-and-mortar stores' day in the sun, Cyber Monday has been hyped by the National Retail Federation as the day that online retailers see the spike in clicks and sales once people get out of the crowds and back to their laptop to shop, usually at work (and lots of other places, too). This year, about 72 million people are expected to shop online on Cyber Monday.
In preparation for Cyber Monday, a new poll from the NRF's digital division, Shop.org, shows a whopping eight in 10 are offering some kind of price promotion, up from 72% last year. Promos include specific deals (38.8%), email campaigns (32.7%) and one-day sales (24.5%). And 22.5% are offering free shipping on all purchases. InfoWorld profiles the report here.
With all this online retailer promotion in mind, ad placement becomes a key issue to taking advantage of this season. Yesterday's post here on the WidgetBucks blog highlighted some key aspects of placement:
- Think about the placement of your ads and the goal of each ad
- Marry the type of advertising with where it’s going to be most effective
- Avoid burying a CPC widget where the user is not likely to see it
- Place ads where the users' eyes are more drawn and possibly see a product that interests them
- Dean
Marketing Director
WidgetBucks
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Hulett: What's Ahead at WidgetBucks
It seems wherever you turn today, the economic news seems to be bad -- and justifiably so. Layoffs, bailouts, credit crunch, the list goes on and on. However, this is also a time of opportunity -- at least, that's how we're viewing it here at WidgetBucks.
To that end, I felt it was important to give you an update on some of our key initiatives and how we're attacking these uncertain times - but most importantly, how these key projects are relevant to you, our publishers.
New Holiday Creative: As we announced yesterday, we've rolled out some new shopping ad widget designs within WidgetBucks. One of my favorite parts of these three new designs is the Sensible Santa skin that works in all the different sized widgets. So check out Thumbnail Bonanza, Single Product Showcase and Triple Product Showcase to get your holiday-minded site visitors to do some clicking. E-commerce Guide highlighted these designs in a story today.
YieldSense: You'll be hearing more about this new yield management technology in the coming weeks, but I wanted to give you all an early line on this. We recognize that as your ad serving decisions become more complex, you will likely welcome an easier solution, one that is focused on managing and maximizing your yield yet still gives you flexibility and choice. Be on the look out for one such solution coming up shortly.
Advertiser Solutions: While we are aggressively rolling out new publisher-focused services, we're simultaneously developing solutions for our advertising partners. This includes providing better segment targeting for brand marketers across the WidgetBucks network, as well as expanded analysis around user engagement. While this may not seem to have direct impact on you as a publisher, it ultimately does. Providing stronger solutions to advertisers means deeper relationships with them, resulting in higher eCPMs. Like YieldSense, you'll be hearing more about this soon.
At a company level, this is a time we are very focused as a team on creating tools and services that maximize publishers' earnings. On a macro-economic level, like everyone else, we are certainly monitoring the signs, and then making prudent decisions around spending, hiring, and business terms.
When the dust settles, what form will this all take? That's obviously very difficult to say - the future is still uncharted amid a global economic crisis; however, I believe the Web 2.0 world as we know it will go through a transformation. Nonetheless, we are confident that WidgetBucks is well positioned to be one of the players standing and prospering when things settle out.
Thanks for your continued support and use of WidgetBucks!
- Matt Hulett
CEO, WidgetBucks
Friday, November 14, 2008
PubCon Report: Have You Analyzed Your Traffic Lately?
Earlier this week I attended Pubcon in Las Vegas. This conference was a great way to keep up with current industry trends and tips for publishers, connect/reconnect and learn from others, and of course, escape the heavy rain in Seattle.
While attendance seemed a bit lighter this year than in the past, the quality of presenters always remains top notch. All panels and speakers have a pretty singular goal: to help publishers/webmasters grow their sites and business whether through organic or inorganic (paid) methods.
At a time where we continue to read reports over the decline of CPM in certain site categories, one 
thing to help compensate for that potential lost revenue is to increase traffic to your site(s). All of us would do well to spend a few minutes analyzing how our traffic is doing and where we can grow our traffic. If you aren't already doing so, here are three great sites to get you started:
- SEOmoz.org (SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin has this helpful video on Implementing Keyword Research)
- seocopywriting.com
- seobook.com
- Google Keyword tools (these help find the 2-3 keyword terms to optimize your site)
In addition to sites like those listed above, I recently came across this article on Problogger that might be helpful, specifically for bloggers. It discusses using forums as a way to draw readers/traffic to your blog. Darren Rowse, aka Problogger, has a ton of other great tips on driving traffic.
For additional PubCon perspective, check out the blog of affiliate marketer and Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins, who was a speaker at PubCon.
That's it for now but remember that to make money online, it helps to have both high CPMs and high traffic.
- Gary Kamikawa
VP, Interactive Marketing
WidgetBucks
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Ad Network Island: A Survival Guide
Kirby Winfield, WidgetBucks' Chief Revenue Officer, is today's featured contributor on Adotas, a premier news publication focused on the Internet advertising and media industry.
In his exclusive post -- "Survivor: Ad Network Island" -- Kirby looks at key legs of the proverbial stool that can make or break an ad network in these uncertain times:
- Proprietary Technology
- Scale and Unique Reach
- Sales Team
Kirby's bottom line advise: As an ad network, take stock in what you ultimately control: your ad network. While that may sound over simplified, this is the time to focus on key initiatives, control spending.
If you want to learn more about ad networks, author and consultant Robert Moskowitz recently provided a nice piece that summaries the types of ad nets out there and a variety of tips on selecting the right ad network for your campaign.
- Dean
