Aug/090
August Technology Update
Hey everyone,
So we haven’t posted in a week or so, and it’s not because we’ve been away. Quite the contrary! The team has been doing extensive work on updating some “under the hood” type stuff regarding our overlay technology. In the last couple of months, we’ve been taking in feedback from our publisher clients and we’ve been going down that punch list the entire month of August. The result is a revamped javascript library that fixes or increases functionality or usability.
We are happy that we have such an active publisher base and appreciate the patience and participation of each and every one of you!
Here are a few significant updates that are worth mentioning.
“X” marks the spot – There were a few requests asking for the ability to close an ad in case the user did not want to see it every time on rollover. We understand that ads are not for everyone, so we built in the ability to close an ad. If a user initiates this close, he will not see an ad on that image again on that pageview.
Top Down Overlay – Some publishers noted that large images with the bottom of the image “below the fold” were not maximized. If the bottom of the image was off the screen, users would not notice it. So we also updated our positioning algorithm to take this into account. That is why you may have noticed the overlay rolling from the top down in certain instances. This is by design.
Dynamic Alignment – A small subset of publishers were affected by alignment issues with our ad overlay. That was mainly because other non-image space javascript augmented certain properties on the page after our overlay was initially created. To resolve this, we dynamically calculate positioning on every mouseover so our algorithm is always using the most current page and image properties.
Under the hood – There were other technical changes. Namely, we rewrote the entire javascript library to be more flexible and more secure. We won’t bore you with the details, but rest assured we continue to take in feedback and love to hear from you guys!
In the coming weeks, we’ll be working on and releasing additional updates with the javascript, as well as some tweaks for our publisher panel and how we match categories. All the updates are focused on helping the publisher get better and more valuable ads, and help advertisers purchase more logically.
Stay tuned!
The Image Space Media team
Aug/090
Some Travel Inspiration From Image Space’s Publishers
Image Space Media would like to introduce a few of our registered publishers that all share a passion for travels.
Travels In Paradise
- Wonderful site with travel pics, deals and articles
Insta Travel
- The latest information on Adventure Travel, Air travel, business travel and luxury travel.
Aug/090
Publisher Of The Week: Gossip Gamers
Image Space Media's Publisher of the Week is the awesome gaming site, Gossip Gamers. The site is a large gaming community where fans and users can interact and discuss all subjects related to online games. If you are into Xbox, Nintendo, Playstation and similar games you should check out this resourceful site immediately. The site implement Picad Media In-Picture Advertising technology very well, and offers some really cool images to their reviews, gossip news and articles.
Check it out here
Gossip Gamers
Aug/090
Publisher Of The Week: Scene 360
This week Image Space Media would like you to direct your eyes to Scene 360, on of Image Space's registered publishers. Scene 360 is an inspiring and resourceful online film and arts magazine. The publication presents an eclectic combination of various art forms, showcasing artists, photographers, web designers, filmmakers, musicians, and poets with a focus on their career and analysis of the driving forces behind their work.
Read the latest issue of this entertaining magazine here
Scene 360
http://scene360.com/
Aug/090
Image Space Media’s CTR
CTR by Ad Unit Size
Here's an interesting fact: Image Space's click through rate is higher and we use only text based ads with minimal real estate. Above is the industry standard banner ad CTR according to a MarketingSherpa study conducted last year.
Aug/090
What Publishers Are Saying
Since Image Space Media is still in its beta phase, we encourage feedback from our publishers so that we can find out what is working well and how we can continue to improve our technology. Below is our favorite recent testimonial by Glenton Samuels, one of our valued publishers, who uses in-picture advertising on his website, Hip Hop Music Dot Com.
"Image Space Media wins at everything that BritePic fails at, implementation is very simple just add the website(s) you would like to serve ads on then get the embed code, place it on your website or blog and 
shortly after that ads will start appearing on all the images on your site [...] The ad engine is very fast. As soon as your page loads the ads are available for display though I’m not sure how they will perform with billion impressions happening daily across the web [...] Something like this would be great for sites with a thousand images or more, photo sharing sites like photobucket, imageshack and tinypic would make a killing from this. Just think about displaying targeted ads over a hundred thousand images being viewed by millions of visitors. Blogs that post images almost everyday would do great with a service like this as well." Read the full article.
Aug/090
Online Tips for Small Newspapers
Chicago Tribune Twitter Tree
With the list of disappearing newspapers growing longer, it has become clear that the digital age has forever transformed the newspaper business. Industry leaders such as the New York Times and Chicago Tribune have embraced the new media wave, but many smaller newspapers have lagged behind. Here are Image Space’s quick tips for survival:
- Connect with your audience on Twitter. Create a tree of accounts that covers specific news sections, such as Business, Entertainment, and Sports. The Chicago Tribune does a great job at this.
- Tweet a live headline feed from your Twitter account linking back to your homepage. This simple action will increase traffic (and consequently ad revenue).
- Create online events to attract readers, like a live streaming video of a breaking news story or downloadable mp3s.
- Don’t underestimate the power of blogging. This gives readers further incentive to visit your site, increasing traffic and ad clicks.
While the move to online may seem intimidating, keep in mind that the convenience and low costs of the Web allow newspapers to focus more on the quality of their content. And, as always, our in-picture advertising technology is a great solution for small newspapers and other publications that want to generate untapped revenue on their website. With its simple implementation and easy-to-use Image Manager, why not give it a try? Beta registration now available publicly.
Aug/090
Publisher Of The Week: Hairpedia
Image Space Media's Publisher of the Week is the stylist site, HairPedia. HairPedia is a great resource for everyone interested in getting the coolest, most up-to-date hair cuts and hair styling. The website is dedicated to all hair styles and offer great photos of popular celebrity hair styles together with some fresh fashion news. A cool feature of the site is that you can create a profile and upload photos of yourself and try on 1000 hair styles from HairPedia's library.
To check out how they put Image Space Media Ad Technology into action together with some stylish hair-dos go to: http://www.hairpedia.com/
Aug/090
When Do I Get Paid?
If you have any more payment questions after reading this post, please contact us and we will happily add more answers below!
When do I get paid?
Our payment is only based on a pay per click model. Currently, as we are in the Beta phase of our technology, we intend to pay within 45-60 days after each month. In addition, we require the publisher to generate a minimum of $50.00 in earnings before we send payment. We will improve this amount and timing as we move out of our Beta phase.
How can I view the number of impressions, clicks, and earnings on my domains?
You can view all of these details within our publisher control panel. Using the Image Manager, you can add additional keywords to increase the relevancy of the ads on a particular image or turn the ads on specific images or off.
What payment methods are available?
You can choose to get paid through PayPal or by check via physical mail.
Aug/090
What an In-Picture Advertisement Looks Like
The image to the left is an example of Image Space Media's technology at work. Ads are placed on relevant images that fit a unique set of parameters. Ads are not placed on logos, ad banners, or small buttons and icons. The in-picture ad appears when a visitor rolls his or her mouse over the image. It doesn't alter any image properties or conflict with copyright laws -- the technology is strictly an overlay. To try out more images using in-picture advertising, please visit our demo page.