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Friday Photos: Happy 4th of July!

Michelle — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:30:15 +0000

Can you believe it's already that time of year again? Summer is in full swing, and the 4th of July is almost here. Independence Day means long weekends, picnics and barbecues, pools and beaches, and best of all, fireworks!

Here are some of Flickr's best fireworks photos. I don't know if I should be more impressed with the photographers or the fireworks creators, but these are pretty amazing.

"Happy 4th of July!" by Flickr user Bob Jagendorf

"4th of July" by Flickr user RKHawaii

"Pismo Fireworks 4th of July 2009 - Pismo Beach, CA" by Flickr user puliarf

"4th of July Fireworks 2008" by Flickr user Jeffery

Hope you have a great holiday weekend! If you take any cool fireworks photos this weekend, post them on our Facebook page! We would love to see them!

Friday Photos: iPhone 4

Michelle — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:41:42 +0000

Several ISMers got the iPhone 4 this week, while the rest of us have spent our time gazing admiringly over our desks at these lucky few.

One feature they've all been gushing about is the new and improved camera. The iPhone 3 had a three megapixel camera with no flash, but the new iPhone actually has two cameras - a VGA camera on the front for video chatting and a five megapixel camera on the back with LED flash and 5x digital zoom. According to Engadget's review of the iPhone 4, the camera also has better photon-collecting capabilities, which lets in more light, resulting in better photos.

Engadget posted some photos they took with the iPhone, and they all came out beautiful. Two of the photos below are Engadget's iPhone 4 photos, and one is from a Nikon Coolpix digital camera. Can you guess which is which?

Ok, Engadget's watermarks makes it pretty easy to pick out the iPhone photos, but without those marks, it would be a tough call. The clarity of all three photos is very similar.

Do you have the iPhone4? Take some photos and post them on our Facebook page so we can see them!

Publisher of the Week: Daily Fun Pic

Samantha — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:41:22 +0000

Here at Image Space Media we love images, so what's better than a website that has awesome pictures!? Check out Daily Fun Pic, simply a website that has a cool, interesting, and/or humorous pictures posted daily.

Click here to follow Daily Fun Pic on twitter!

Friday Photos!

Joy — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:29:12 +0000

At Image Space Media HQ we're busy getting ready for South by Southwest!

The office has been buzzing with excitement for our launch and show stopping (in-my-humble-opinion) trade show booth. If you are attending, don't be a stranger! Say hi, grab some grub (hot dogs and veggie frito pies, anyone?) and some Shiner Bock beer. If that's not enough to tempt you, we will also have a photobooth with funky costumes on the premise!

Check out our awesome staffers get ready for SXSW Interactive!

One of our fantastic interns!

Marketing team preparing for SXSW. w00t!

A few of us love collecting analog cameras. (Left: Brownie Hawkeye, Right: Holga)

Our Publisher Manager reviewing new sites for approval

This time next week we will be in sunny Austin and live blogging from SXSW Interactive! Stay tuned for more updates!

First Edition of Friday Photos!

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 22:54:47 +0000

At Image Space Media we're all about the power of a good image. We're in the business of engaging people in images, after all.

We figured, however, that it was time to back up our words with evidence. Thus, Friday Photos was born. Every Friday we'll be featuring photos from our team, for many reasons. First, to showcase some photographic talent. Secondly, to show you how awesome the Image Space Media team is.

Our first edition of Friday Photos will probably be the most exotic. Our CEO/resident adventurer Jesse Chenard just returned from a 10-day trip, fulfilling his childhood goal of hiking Mount Kilimanjaro! AWESOME. Let's see the world through Jesse's eyes:

Jesse at Africa's Highest Point!!

Don't you wish this was the view out your window?

Sigh.

A Tanzanian butterfly

MEANWHILE, back in dreary New York, we had our own fun that involved no hiking, beautiful vistas, or exercise. But we have fun, nonetheless! Take a little peek into ISM Headquarters:

Snowy New York. Beautiful in theory, slushy in practice.

Our lucky cat and his USB companion.

Founders either hard at work or playing D&D.

Jealous? Looking to join our team of dedicated, ground breaking, inspiring individuals? We're hiring!

Stay tuned to this blog for next week's exciting roster of blog posts as we get ready for SXSW! We'll be featuring more photos, interviews with ISM Management, and, as always, we'll keep you updated on what's happening around the web.

WIN THIS CANON POWERSHOT!

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:34:57 +0000

IMAGE SPACE MEDIA CONTEST

WIN THIS CAMERA!

Fill out the short survey and give us your best suggestions for tagging images and you could win this Canon PowerShot! Just fill out this quick survey.

Image Space Media Newsletter: December 2009

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:19:54 +0000

IMAGE SPACE MEDIA
News for December 2009

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:

when can I expect my paycheck?

publisher survey

image tagging tips

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.

Publisher of the Week: Dwell Blog

admin — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:25:05 +0000

This week, Image Space Media would like to recognize Dwell Blog as Publisher of the Week. Dwell Blog's website is sleek and clean; each post only contains a title and photos of stunning modern homes and fixtures. These photos show the inside and outside of apartments, condos, single-family homes, and cool gadgets to add to your decor.

Click here to experience Dwell Blog - "Cool Modern Living | Get Inspired"

Click here to follow the Dwell Blog on twitter

Publisher of the Week: The Design Mag

admin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:36:12 +0000

This week, Image Space Media would like to recognize The Design Mag as Publisher of the Week. The Design Mag is perfect for all skill levels of web, graphic designers, and/or people interested in learning more about new design trends and techniques to the design community.

The site is updated several times per week, with helpful articles dealing with all different subjects in the web and design world. Archived posts are organized under the following subjects: CSS, Design, Featured Articles, Fonts, Freebies, Icons, Inspiration, Showcases, Tools, Tutorials, Typography, and Wordpress.

Click here to visit The Design Mag's website & here to follow them on twitter!

*Author and founder of The Design Mag, Thomson Chemmanoor, wrote an article on, "21 New and Fabulous Retro Style Photoshop Tutorials." Within this article was the topic, "Creating an Awesome Retro Collage", and the photo below was the finished collage.

Image Space Media Newsletter: November 2009

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:01:20 +0000

Welcome to Image Space Media's newsletter for November 2009.

As usual, we want to provide news about our services and answers to some frequently asked questions.

We genuinely appreciate your participation in 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:

why the name change?

what's a taxonomy engine?

better ads and higher payouts

publishers of the week

giving thanks

why the name change?

You may remember that until last month, we were Picad Media. The idea was to combine the words "pictures" and "advertising" to convey the idea of in-picture advertising. But too many Star Trek fans were disappointed to realize that we had nothing to do with Captain Picard!

Actually we feel that Image Space Media is much more clearly descriptive of what we do. As the innovators and pioneers of ads in the online image space, we felt this was our chance to begin to lay claim to the space and shape the conversation. Our new name better describes with the essence of our services: giving publishers an opportunity to monetize the image space on their own sites.

what's a taxonomy engine?

Taxonomy is the organization and classification of sets of information arranged in a hierarchical structure. In informational taxonomies, items can fit into several taxonomic categories. For example, the word Jupiter could mean the Roman king of the gods, the planet, several towns, vehicles, quite a few songs, a symphony by Mozart, musical instruments, several companies, even a character in Sailor Moon. Wow!

better ads and higher payouts

When our system reads your image metadata tags, our Taxonomy Engine matches your terms with our categories and finds the best matches with the terms that are coming in from our advertiser feeds. This way we can find the most relevant ad available and bring you higher click-through rates and higher payouts. We're still teaching the engine about the world of words and testing it with a multitude of new ad sources.

To see how the testing is going, check out: http://www.allbestwallpapers.com. We'll be rolling this out to your site as early as mid-December. In the meantime, don't forget to tag your images with good, descriptive terms so you will be able to take advantage of our technology.

If you need any help in understanding how to use alt tags or tagging your images through our Image Manager, please contact us at: info@imagespacemedia.com. But one final reminder, you'll find better search engine optimization results if you use your alt tags to clearly describe all of your images.

publishers of the week

WE LOVE OUR PUBLISHERS!!

This month, our publishers of the week were:

Kathika Travel: a fun site to get tips and deals on travel. Kathika has gorgeous photos updated daily. This particular beauty of Cancun was taken by Kyle Simourd.

A couple of fun sports sites for all you sports fans:

Sunday Picks: the blog bible for all NFL fans.

Tic Tac Toe Hockey: the hockey fan's mecca.

And a fun interactive blog that literally allows its audience to post pictures of their food. Post Your Food: you can post your own pictures and vote and comment on everyone else's pictures. Yummy!

We're always on the lookout for more of our fabulous publishers to feature. If you are interested in seeing your site featured, please contact us at: marketing@imagespacemedia.com

giving thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We encourage all of you to check the Image Space Media blog regularly for news about the online advertising industry, updates about Image Space Media, and spotlights on our Publishers of the Week.