Image Space Media Blog Connect to the billions of images on the Internet!

Welcome to Image Space Media's newsletter for December 2009. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EDITION!!

WIN THIS CAMERA!

As usual, a big thank you to our publishers using Image Space Media's technology in beta, and for your feedback. Your input helps us identify what areas we need to improve upon. With your help and feedback we've been steadily working to improve our technology. If you have any comments or questions please send them to info@imagespacemedia.com.

in this issue:

1. when can I expect my paycheck?
2. publisher survey
3. image tagging tips
4. WIN A CAMERA!

when can I expect my paycheck?

One of the (many) great things about Image Space Media's service is that we run a different payout schedule than other ad networks. Where publishers might expect to receive a check in the mail from a different service every 90 days, at Image Space Media we pay out to our publishers the first of every month with a minimum payout of $25. And, you have the option to use PayPal, checks sent in the mail, or wire service. To our publishers using PayPal, remember to make sure your information is up to date. We want our publishers to earn their revenue as quickly and easily as possible!

publisher survey

At Image Space Media we're always interested in hearing your feedback, but in this issue we have a special question for our publishers. Would you be interested in a "Share This" tool that links to networking and bookmarking sites like Delicious, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.? The positive is that sharing features drive more traffic to your images. Where would you like this option to appear? As a part of the Image Space ad? Above the ad? In the corner of your image? We're in the early stages of development on a sharing feature so your feedback is invaluable. Send us your thoughts here

image tagging tips

In last month's newsletter we explained our innovative taxonomy engine that matches relevant ads to your images, providing higher CTR and CPC rates. To take advantage of our technology, we recommend tagging your images with good, descriptive terms. So... what exactly are good and descriptive tags? Great question!

When you're writing a post for your website and you post an image, you have the option to tag that image through our Image Manager or through the "alt" tags in your html code. Check out an example of "alt" tags used in a recent blog post of ours (highlighted). These tags are words or terms, separated by commas, that match our image of a working mother with one of our ads. To see how that works in matching ads to images, check out the finished blog post here. In general, the tags are meant to create the most relevancy between ads and images.

Here's another example: If I'm creating a post about the most picturesque places to take pictures in New York City, a great way to tag the images that accompany my post would be to include "photography," "new york," the location of the image, the type of camera if I mention it in the post, and other words that really get to the heart of the image. This may mean that I would get ads on my images for both photography paraphernalia and travel savings -- two relevant categories that have good CPC and CTR rates.

Some general tips:

• Don't try to guess what types of ads will apply to your image. Just try to represent the essence of your image.
• Check your spelling! It may sound silly, but "camara" when you mean "camera" won't get the job done.
• Remember that tagging your images can lead to more traffic and better search engine optimization! (Read more about metadata and SEO here).
• The more tags the better!
  

If you need help with the technical side of adding tags, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@imagespacemedia.com.

our very first publisher contest

GIVE US YOUR BEST IMAGE TAGGING TIPS!

All this exciting talk of images leads us to our first publisher contest! We hope you're as excited as we are. As you can tell from our discussion above, the art of tagging images is not a precise one. So - what special tricks do you use? What's your best tagging strategy? Send us your time-tested technique for getting the most relevant ads for your images here, and we'll publish the best advice at our blog. Even better, we'll send the publisher with the best advice their very own Canon PowerShot SX120IS 10MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Images Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD! So. Exciting. Don't forget to send us your tagging tips!

Again, thank you to all of our publishers for using Image Space Media. As the exclusive provider of in-picture advertisements, we are happy to partner with you to bring incremental revenue to the image space on your site. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any of your comments or questions. With your help and feedback we've been steadily working to improve our technology.