We launched a free ad network to help publishers sell more Quality Ads

We launched a free ad network to help publishers sell more Quality Ads(influads.com)

23 points by drivingsouth 13 years ago | 12 comments

There's so much about this that I just don't understand. I'm wondering, OP, is English a second/third language for your team? Or was this written in a weekend sprint/hurry-up mode/contest? There's just a lot on the home page alone that doesn't make sense.

"SELL QUALITY ADS & SPONSORSHIPS FOR FREE" - why would I sell "for free"? Maybe you mean "commission free" or "without fees"? It's ambiguous. Oh sure, if I spend the time to think about it, I get it. But what percentage of your customers will spend that time? I'd say it's in the single digits...

"We are 100% FREE" - you aren't 100% free if I ever, in any circumstance during our relationship, pay you. It's either dishonest or misleading to say that you are 100% free and then, later in the ad copy, to say that there is a 6% fee.

"Our publishers own 100% of their quality, audience and value since we remove stuff that previously cannibalized their earnings." Your average visitor who spends 5 seconds on your page reads that and says to themselves, "What does that even mean?" Oh sure, if they think about it for 10-15 seconds, they'll understand your meaning but again: how many people will give you that time?

"DIRECT SALES ARE FREE. Sell and invoice on your own" - Ambiguous wording again. The average person thinks, "My direct sales are and have always been "free". I sold it directly, thus I made 100% of the profit."

"We introduced 100% optional pay-per-performance services: we only get paid when providing that extra value." - What does "100% optional" mean? Do I opt to pay 100%? Or is it a tipping system - it's optional that I pay you and at my discretion as to how much?

"Are you and Advertiser? Signup here!" - Just low rent and crappy to let your home page have a typo so blatant in your action text. Very poor show.

All in all, this is not a company I would do business with. Poor copy, no editing, ambiguous wording, and more unanswered questions than I can list all comes to mean that I'm closing the browser tab. Good luck to you - you have a lot to fix, I think, to make it "work". I hope it works out though - the world always needs new ideas and new executions on old ideas.

drivingsouth 13 years ago | |

second language, yes. Thanks for the feedback.

bogdans 13 years ago |

I don't want to be that guy but I used your network for two months and I was really disappointed. I quit your service in March and I hope you solved these issues by now. I was annoyed about the fact that the stats stopped to be shown to me after a month. I was just receiving money without knowing what clicks or impressions I had for the banners placed on my sites. Another thing that I disliked was that in the last month of partnership, there was only one advertiser in my banner cycle which meant that the variety of banners was low, leading to a decreasing number of clicks. I surely hope that by now you contacted more advertisers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying these things to give you bad publicity, instead I'm hoping that you solved/are solving these problems so that me along with other publishers will use your service again. For the moment, I'm using Adsense and I'm receiving more money than from influAds.

rahul_rstudio 13 years ago | |

I've been using influads for 3 months now and haven't faced any of those problems. I can see my daily stats, and have a variety of ads served by them. And even though I didn't had a high traffic blog, still they accepted me, that means something to me.

Also, adsense may be a good chocie for you, but I'll perhaps never use it. I like to have a single tiny add on my website, which is atleast somewhat related to what I write. Besides, having larger ads, or too many ads, just spoils the reading experience. For me, providing a good reading experience to my readers is as important as making money from it.

Glad to know that adsense works great for you. It would never work for me. Just my 2 cents :)

shortformblog 13 years ago |

The thing that's interesting about this format is that it seems to be an update to one of the more interesting ad platforms out there: The Deck.

(It's the ad platform Gruber and LaughingSquid, among others, use.)

The Deck is neat because it focuses less on the type of content and more on the quality of the publishers in the network. But the problem is, it's invite only. While there are other ad platforms that do similar things, what's nice about this is that it appears to treat the publisher as nice as the advertiser.

We need more networks where individual traffic is less important than the quality of the publisher and audience. This is a really good start on that front.

ScottWhigham 13 years ago | |

It's hard to manage "Quality" on any scale though. If 1000 "advertisers" signed up tomorrow, how would this company handle the quality control in a timely fashion? That's where the invite-only comes into play, I guess. You, the ad network, control how many and when advertisers enter your network.

drivingsouth 13 years ago | | |

good point Scott. I guess we'll see. We're trying to consumerize the experience a bit (eg: http://influads.com/andrewHyde) and giving more power to the publisher's hands.

By default we'll be 20%-40% better than others since we're offering 20-40% less fees ;)

drivingsouth 13 years ago |

Hi Guys Anibal, Founder and CEO of InfluAds here.

We think that advertising is a bit evil by charging marketplace fees to Quality Publishers. Since are obsessed about Quality Ads and hate clutter a bit, we decided to make a FREE ad network for those that care about Quality.

Publishers can sell any kind of digital ads & sponsorships in our marketplace including Web, RSS and Email Ads, Video, Podcasts and Syndicated&Promoted Content sponsorships.

Any thoughts?

drivingsouth 13 years ago | |

Link to the main site: http://influads.com

newsign 13 years ago | | |

your website is way too confusing .... I'm sorry but you need to add a video about 'how it works' and include how you're different than other networks and where is the savings coming from and for whom (publisher or advertisers or both)....

also is it free for publishers or is it free for advertisers??? ... do u mean u dont charge fees or commission that other network charge to advertisers???

btw, if your basic service is free then there is no need to tell people that u charge for adding value because the subconscious mind doesnt accept that well .... so just create a comparison chart to show how your service is FREE compared to others and in 3rd column you add your value added service which in fact should be really something that others are not offering or its too expensive ....

Good Luck

dudus 13 years ago |

WE GET PAID ONLY WHEN ADDING VALUE: Our pay-per-performance model incentivizes us to help you since we only get paid when adding that extra help that you need.

Dude it's not free if you charge for it.

drivingsouth 13 years ago | |

hey dudus Actually, people can use us for free for ever without conditions. They only pay when asking for extra services. We have a few publishers that won't pay as a cent.