» January 28, 2008 in
Watch This Video At Youtube
ShowYourAdHere is a site that helps you manage and sell your ads. It's a free hosted ad server. ShowYourAdHere.com is something I have wish existed for publishers since the day I started publishing on the internet back in early 2005.
How will ShowYourAdHere.com Help You?
Once you place a small ad serving widget on your blog in a place you want to show an ad, you NEVER need to modify that template ad space again.
If you sell the ad space or if you want to change the banner you can do it all from the ShowYourAdHere.com interface.
You can manage multiple ad spots on one blog or multiple blogs, all from ONE place, that is ShowYourAdHere.com!
Also, showyouradhere will handle taking advertisers money on your behalf and pays you INSTANTLY when an ad is sold. Our ad server is free however we do pay 75% on each sale to the publishers (one of the best %'s in the industry). Plus the payment is instant. No more waiting on a check while someone earns interest on your money.
Why take a 25% cut?
Wouldn't it be great if everything in life were free? Unfortunately someone has to pay the cost of the server (ShowYourAdHere has it's very own dedicated server at liquidweb) and paypal fees and to build the software. We cover all that. That's why we take a fee, and we're publishers too, that's why we kept it fair.
You should seriously check it out.
Ok, so you aren't sure? 1. You might be crazy. But seriously, 2. You can use the showyouradhere.com code on your site and turn off the "showyouradhere" logo on each ad. You can strictly use it to show ads easily on your site and never pay us a dime.
It doesn't get any better than that! Oh yeah, besides making it real easy to move ads on and off your blog, ShowYourAdHere.com will also rotate ads in one spot for your (no more hacking php together to do it) and ShowYourAdHere.com does basic geotargeting (no more showing ads that only pay in US to people not living in the US and throwing your money away.)
Wow, it's almost perfect, but...
ShowYourAdHere.com is brand spankin new. We will grow and spend our development time wherever the majority of users think it should be spent.
If you have questions or suggestions i would love to hear them in the comments below, by emailing mark @ 45n5.com, or using the ShowYourAdHere.com help system.
Thank You
Thank you for checking out ShowYourAdHere.com. It's a project I've put a bunch of work into so far and will be working hard on for a long time to come implementing many more ideas I have for the site and feedback I get from many of you.
Feedback, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
(ps, if you read this in a feed reader and didn't watch the video, it's a good one, if you want to see some good dancing)
If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. You can also Subscribe to 45n5 by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.
Vlad says on January 28, 2008
Hey Mark,
Just signed up. How soon do you approve publishers and how soon can I place the adds on my site?
45n5 () says on January 28, 2008:
you can place ads on your site instantly! there is no approval process.if you are a stinky publisher your feedback and ratings will reflect that.
1. create your site
2. create an adzone
3. put adzone widget code on your blog
4. fill your adzone with ads
thanks for testing it vlad! any questions or suggestions you might have feel free to share ;)
Vlad says on January 28, 2008
I am going to give it a try on Go Beyond MLS site. I am not sure though where to put it. Any suggestions? Feel free to e-mail me.
45n5 () says on January 28, 2008:
@vlad - replace the 728x90 prweb banner with a 728x90 AdZone.then go to adzones->ads and put the prweb banner in there. you can also put more banners in there and have them rotate ;)
you can also turn the showyouradhere logo off and nothing will change except you never need to modify your template again in that spot, you can manage it from showyouradhere.com
Vlad says on January 28, 2008
Thanks Mark,
I was thinking along the same lines. I thin that zone might get some good click through.
I will probably set it up. As long as I keep Showyouradshere potential advertisers can still place their adds even though I will be showing the PRWeb banner?
45n5 () says on January 28, 2008:
yep, when they advertiser buys the ad then showyouradhere quits showing your ads and shows the advertiser ads.then when the time expires it will automatically start showing your ads again ;)
45n5 () says on January 28, 2008:
@vlad - it's also a real good way to split test ads. put the pr web and one other ad in the AdZone, they will rotate pretty evenly through the day. see which makes most money ;)michaelmartine () says on January 28, 2008:
Mark this is great. Months ago when you did that video about OpenAds I had the feeling you were going to do something like this. I can't believe nobody's done this yet, to be honest. It almost makes me want to put ads on my blog.Kiltak says on January 28, 2008
Great service, great dancing.
Stop blogging and become a professional dancer!
MUAHAHA ;) Loved the vid.
45n5 () says on January 28, 2008:
@Micheal - thanks for checking it outyou don't need to put "ads" on your blog per say, you could also use it just to rotate subscribe buttons or different footers and see which one does better, or just to offer your visitors variety ;)
either way I appreciate the comment and you checking it out.
@kiltak - thanks man, one fan of the dancing. Suprprised there aren't more yet, but one is enough encouragement to do more ;).. thanks for commenting.
Ruck says on January 28, 2008
Service looks cool Mark,
I mistaked you for a rocker, where in the world
did you get that music? ........Any of it.
45n5 () says on January 28, 2008:
@ruck - I've been stuck on the Korn and Death Metal channels at XM radio that past week. Great for getting some real work done.Dance music seem more fun for the video, I like it all though.
antonio () says on January 29, 2008:
Congratulations Mark. It looks pretty good!Sherry says on January 29, 2008
DANCE LIKE NO ONE'S WATCHING...YOU ROCK MARK!!
bdurfee says on January 29, 2008
Dude, I was so looking forward to some Death Metal dancing. Maybe for your next revolutionary site launch.
I'm looking forward to trying out showyouradhere - mainly for the split testing at this point - but to be clear, the split testing results can only be measured by an ad making money, right? Are there plans to show clicks at some point?
Cool in any case.
Matt Jones says on January 29, 2008
Great work Mark, and nice moves :D
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
@antonio - thanks@sherry - thanks for watching.
@matt - thanks for checking it out.
@bdurfee - you can split test whatever you want. To get the results you will need to check your affiliate earnings, or in the case of non affiliate stuff drop google goals on each landing page. that will tell you where the visitor cam e from, how long they stayed, browser info, everything.
click tracking isn't something showyouradhere does at the moment. I kept away because there are much better solutions for free already (google analytics) but I'll revisit it in the future.
thanks for the feedack.
Adnan says on January 29, 2008
Awesome stuff Mark - and congrats on releasing this site - I'm sure it's gonna do amazing.
I recently managed to obtain the OIOPublisher plugin for Wordpress blogs. What are the main differences between your product and OIOPublisher aside from the placement of code?
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
@adan - I'm not too familiar with oiopublisher but a quick glance shows
Keep 100% is misleading. Paypal obviously takes a cut.
They have no rating system like showyouradhere.
They don't help you geotarget ads.
They don't help you rotate ads.
They are on shared hosting with a few hundred other questionable sites. Not the worst thing but..
They appear shady "promote using a search engine secure marketplace" why does the marketplace need to be secure from search engines?
They don't manage hosting of the ads.
Plus ShowYourAdHere.com is cooler and helps you manage multiple adzones across multiple blogs all from one spot!
Just off the top of my head ;) They might be nice people and have a great solution, just not one for me.
Harry says on January 29, 2008
Cool but not so cool...many ppl are doing it already to their benefit.
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
@harry - Name one company that offers instant payments to the publisher and helps you manage the ads at the same time across multiple sites?Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Mark,
The code is up on Go Beyond MLS. Just a quick question. How is the business of "nofollow" handled? I notice that my current add does not have nofollow. While I see all of your ads are nofollowed.
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
@vlad - if we host the banner then we nofollow the link. If you upload code from an affilaite company or elsewhere we will not modify it so it's up to you to put a nofollow there if you want it ;)Either way the ads are 100% javascript so search bots "shouldn't" be reading the ads.
looks good on your site ;)
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Sorry for being a pain...
Can a publisher refuse the add?
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
no pain at all vlad.It's up to you to do what you want to do :) you have 100% control of what shows on your site at all times.
Set the advertiser expectations VERY clearly in your site description and you shouldn't need to refuse an ad. you can cancel an ad at any time however you might get bad feedback.
Also, you can click on "ad sales" from the publisher menu and talk to an advertiser. The best solutions in a wost case scenario is to temporarily change the add to something more acceptable and ask the advertiser for new creative.
If there is a good system for approval process I can make it. but it gets confusing when you want approval first.
For instance when someone shows interest in buying the ad we'd have to take the zone off the market until you approve or disapprove the ad so you don't oversell the space, not a good situation.
If anyone has ideas i'm all open.
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
also vlad, any add purchased through show your ad here must adhere to these guidelines:http://www.showyouradhere.com/docs/advertiserguidelines.php
ads that don't will automatically be pulled with no refunds for offenders.
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Mark,
As long as I have control and can cancel the add after it goes live fine with me. Hopefully there will not be the "worst case" scenarios. I am sure things will improve as you get more advertisers and publishers. I am off to create another zone or two and then give it a push on my blog. I probably will list other sites as well. Good job Mark! No, scratch that. Outstanding job!
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
thanks a bunch vlad. I'm real excited about it ;)I wouldn't cancel an ad, i would contact the advertiser and do everything I could to come to a compromise.
But you are 100% correct. You always have 100% editorial control over the adzone. You can modify an advertisers url or ad an any time or flat out hit "cancel ad".
It says "no refunds" directly under the "pay now" button. It's up to you to determine if you want to give a refund. Showyouradhere.com won't give refunds for their part though. 2way Paypal fees are incurred with each transaction that we have to pay regardless if the people get along.
All showyouradhere.com does is help handle serving the ads and making the transaction, plus providing a feedback mechanism and place to communicate about the ad. We don't get involved in issues between an advertiser and publisher.
Don't forget, you can "create an ad" multiple times for one adzone and then the widget will rotate the ads for you ;)
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Alright one more thing...
It would be good to have control (unless there is already but I can't find it) on how many ads can be purchased in one zone. Let say I have two zones and I would like to make one of them "exclusive" (one advertiser at a time- no rotation) and the other can rotate 100s of ads.
Just a suggestion for down the road.....
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
cool vlad, suggestion taken.the way it is set up currently:
you rotate as many ads as you want
when an advertiser buys the space your ads quit showing and their ad shows 100% of the time.
when their time is up your ads start showing again.
however there isn't the option to sell one spot to multiple advertisers yet.
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Mark I think I may miscommunicated.
From what I see as it set up now, there can be multiple advertisers share either of my ad zones. Let say I would like to have top zone just for one advertiser- no other ads rotating in that zone.
Let me ask you this. For your website the 125X125 ads are sold out, right? How can that be?
You better start learning ukrainian or russian lol
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Mark,
A suggestion regarding GEO targeting. Right now zones and ads can be set to be shown "everywhere" or in one specific country. I have a campaign where I would like my ad show everywhere except one specific country. Are you following me? I know you are probably bombarded with all sorts of suggestions but since you already offer the Geotargeting options, I would like to see more options in that regard.
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
note taken about the geotargetting options.also, I understand about what you meant about speaking ukrainian now. When an advertiser buys an ad it shows everywhere.
This might change in the future however I tried to keep things as simple as possible. i really don't want to introduce too much complexity into the thing.
but the notes are taken and we'll see if it gets requested more.
thanks vlad !
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Yes, Ukrainian ads is one thing, which i doubt would come any soon. But let say I advertise a Green Card lottery, there is no need for US citizens to see that add.
Yes the geotargeting can get pretty complicated but i gathering your system partially based off the Open Ads and you can do some powerful staff with it.
I think even as it is I can accomplish what I need now. But down the road I would like an option to exclude a country.
Thanks a bunch. You are a good sport. Now I am ready to give some shout outs and hopefully drive some advertisers our way.
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
@vlad - it's not based on openads ;) It's coded by me.I certainly don't want it to be like openads. You need a book to learn to use their system.
I've got your suggestion on the list though, whenever geotargetting gets revisited I'll see what I can do.
thanks again for checking it out
Vlad says on January 29, 2008
Oh and one more thing.... I dance better ;)
Just kidding. Great video. I meant to comment on it.
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
@vlad - well you've got the video camera, prove it!Jim Kukral says on January 29, 2008
Mark, maybe this was covered already not sure.
1. What's to stop somebody from running ads through this without paying you your cut?
2. What is your server information and what kind of uptime are you guaranteeing? If I'm selling ads based upon your server, I want to know that it's reliable and... that all of my ads are being tracked religiously and accurately.
Finally, again, please consider adding a subscribe to comments on your posts so I don't have to keep coming back all the time to see if you or someone responded. :)
45n5 () says on January 29, 2008:
"1. What's to stop somebody from running ads through this without paying you your cut? "Nothing. You are free to do that. With the next update of the marketplace I wont' even be showing sites in the marketplace that choose to hide the "show your ad here" logo on their ad.
2. "What is your server information and what kind of uptime are you guaranteeing?"
I have a dedicated box at liquid web that is fully managed and showyouradhere.com is the only site that will be hosted there. Not cheap but worth it ;)
I'm not gauranteeing any amount of uptime however liquidweb does gaurentee their customers 100% uptime if that's worth anything.
If I need to upgrade ram or ad a server the downtime would be less than 15 minutes, openly scheduled, probably on a sunday morning.
"all of my ads are being tracked religiously and accurately."
Showyouradhere doesn't do any tracking. It's an ad server but not a statistics program. Besides even the best on the market (like an openads) never match the statistics the affiliate companies give and usually way off making it worthless.
(it counts raw page loads/widget for internal health stats)
If you want stats google analytics is better than most of em or the affilaite companies stats are the only ones that matter ;)
thanks for checking it out.
Jim Kukral says on January 29, 2008
Thanks for answers Mark. I like it, don't get me wrong.
So it doesn't track impressions or even clicks?
45n5 says on January 29, 2008
I'm not getting you wrong jim. Ask away ;)
it tracks impressions internally for each adzone but not clicks.
If there is a huge demand for these stats they would be easy to add however what I consider a click and cj.com considers a click or an advertisers stats program considers a click (and not from a bot reading the page) will always vary greatly.
Even installing google analytics and a sitemeter on a single page will give different ideas of how many impressions.
Not saying I'll never go there but out of the gate just some basic ad serving is sorely needed in my opinion.
For instance, if I want to rotate 2 ads in one place on my blog now I'm hunting down coin flip php code to do it. Crazy really that even a basic problem like rotating an ad hasn't been solved and it's 2008. until now of course ;)
bdurfee says on February 4, 2008
Mark - thanks for the follow-up on all of these questions and for the tips specific to mine. I've signed up and for those of you who may be hesitating, it was beyond simple to set up. Just have a sample ad or graphic to plug in and you're gold.
Thanks again Mark.
Sapphire says on February 4, 2008
Mark, this looks pretty fabulous so far! I really like the feedback option and your Advertiser Guidelines. In the past I've always ended up ditching systems that did not allow me to approve ads before they went online, but I'm going to give this one a try.
I thought you were going to have text ad options too...? I was looking forward to that because I believe no-followed text links absolutely would sell (maybe for less than pr-passing ones, but still) and the problem in that market is the lack of a good marketplace (Alex Choo's WP-Text-Ads is a great attempt, but the market just isn't finding it). I have no idea (a) how hard it would be for you to add text ad options or (b) whether there's much of a market for it (I just assuming, because people bought links before Google existed). So, just some thoughts there.
Great work!
45n5 () says on February 4, 2008:
thanks bdurfree ;) glad you liked it. Just released a new widget to day the "recent visitors" so be sure to check it outthanks @sapphire.
approval first might be something in the works but not many people have mentioned it yet. It gets complicated to do it "correctly" because you can't take money from someone unless there ad is approved but then if they submit an ad you have to to put the adspot on hold so you don't oversell it, etc.
also note that you have 100% control over the ad, so if you don't like it you can change it any time and just leave feedback to the advertiser to send you new creative or whatever. the publisher is always in control of their inventory.
text links are not on the top of the list but a possibility in the future. Just not sure the logistics of building the widget yet and rolling out some others widgets first but I will keep it on the list, it's for sure a lacking part of the system.
thanks all for checking it out and I'd love to hear more feedback.
The 45n5.com Membership SiteTry MashupMoney.com, $1 for 7 day trial.
Start Your Own Membership SiteAmember rocks, free download and trial.
Create Your Own Mailing ListAweber is the best in the business, check them out.