The recent announcement that YouTube will share advertising revenues with members who contribute their work to YouTube is yet another marker is the steady march towards dissembling the structure and dynamics of the traditional broadcast media industry.

The other service cited in the article has been sharing revenue for a while, but is not the Web 2.0 darling status acquired by YouTube based on it's acquisition by  Google.

Qumana's business model has since the beginning been based on sharing advertising revenue with users who use the Q-Ads service to attach relevant advertising to their social media content.

The bulk of social media sharing (the 'social' in the term social media, tho' there's more to it than that) still happens on and in blogging networks, and IMO this is unlikely to change in the near future.

As advertising gets more and more relevant to niche markets, and gets easier to identify, pull and place into or alongside media-born work created by personal publishers, we believe that Qumana's value proposition will get stronger and stronger.

Via the Globe and Mail ...

Today's YouTube addict, tomorrow's Web tycoon?
SIMON AVERY

Joe Eigo, a martial arts expert in Toronto, used to pay hundreds of dollars a month for computer and hosting services to distribute his own acrobatic and martial arts videos on the Web, in the hope of raising his profile in the TV and film industry.

Today, not only is he able to distribute his content to millions of people at no cost using a popular online video-sharing site, he has also been paid nearly $26,000 (U.S.) by the site owner.

Welcome to the new world of user-generated content on the Internet. What some people consider quirky material at best, companies are increasingly starting to view as a valuable asset. So valuable, in fact, they're willing to pay for it.

Metacafe, a private firm based in Palo Alto, Calif., and Tel Aviv, has been paying thousands of dollars to participants for over a year.

Every video on Metacafe that is watched more than 20,000 times, and is rated 3 out of 5 or higher by viewers, starts earning the producer $5 for each subsequent 1,000 visitors.

Metacafe rates Mr. Eigo as its top earner. One of his clips has been viewed more than five million times and has helped him attract the attention of several producers and film companies, he said.

“It's an amazing opportunity for anyone who wants to produce their own material now. The Internet has become more popular than television,” he said.

Tags: Qumana, YouTube, Metacafe, online advertising, revenue sharing

Powered by Qumana

January 16, 2007 – Vancouver, B.C.:   Qumana Software Inc. (Qumana) is pleased to announce it has released a version of the Q-Ads tool for IE 7, Microsoft’s newest version of its flagship browser.  The new Q-Ads tool for IE 7 can be downloaded at the Qumana web site (http://www.qumana.com/qads)

The Q-Ads tool for IE 7 helps users who have upgraded to MS IE 7 choose and place text-based advertising into content that they have created.  It provides an easy-to-use and innovative way to add advertising to the content people are creating for the Web.

Q-Ads for IE 7 complements the existing versions of the Q-Ads tool, which work with IE 6 and with Firefox 1.0 and 2.0.  The Q-Ads program is designed for personal publishers who want to add advertising to content they create, and for social media and web properties who want to offer their users ways to create and share advertising-based revenue.

Qumana also offers the Q-Ads tool for MS LiveWriter and the leading Qumana offline blogging editor Qumana 3.0, designed specifically for bloggers and others who assemble and remix content from the Web.

Content attracts attention ... attention drives advertising.  Use Qumana’s Q-Ads to place effective text-based advertising directly into your content … like online direct mail advertising meeting your readers’ attention.

About Qumana

Qumana Software Inc. is an advertising and web services company that provides web properties and personal publishers with market-leading methods for delivering and adding advertising to online content. Qumana’s mission is to make blogging easier and more profitable for bloggers globally. Qumana is run by Internet industry veterans, hardcore bloggers, software purists, and world-class designers committed to keeping things simple.  For more information, visit http://www.qumana.com/

For more Info:   Fred Fabro - CEO and President, Qumana Software Inc.

Email: fred@qumana.com       Tel: 604.837.0400 

Powered by Qumana

Thanks to John Battelle's Searchblog (which in turn thanks Ross Stapleton-Gray) for highlighting this, an academic grant from the National Science Foundation aimed at improving the ways click fraud is dealt with.

Detecting click fraud collaboratively and in real time should be quite a feat.  I suppose it would mean much less relative arbitrary auditing, and probably much more transparency about why any given click would be approved or not.

 If it succeeds, it should make quite a difference.

Govt Study Funds Click Fraud Detection

Just in case the Googles of the world ain't paying attention:

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will provide a commercial solution to click fraud identification and prevention. The current existing solutions can not detect the so-called software click. This STTR project proposes a real time collaborative click fraud detection and prevention system to detect these software clicks. The approach draws on data mining techniques for fraud identification using detailed user activities. An accurate and efficient classification method based on association rule mining and data stream mining will be formulated to identify the click frauds.

The system will protect Pay-Per-Click advertisers from click fraud and improve their return on investment. The new data mining techniques discovered during the course of this research will be applied in multiple fields related to online business marketing, user analysis and other fraud identification processes.

Tags: click fraud, online advertising, Q-Ads, Federated Media, National Science Foundation, John Battelle, Ross Stapleton-Gray

Powered by Qumana

Another sign o' the times, via the NY Times ...  this news nicely reinforces the trend we reported on last month in our post No Surprise ...

Help speed up the changes to the publishing and news and advertising industries .. sign up for a Q-Ads account, download the free ad insertion tool, and help accelerate the changes that are underway. 

Help make it easier for the little guy or gal to advertise post by post, right where your readers are paying attention.

176 Newspapers to Form a Partnership With Yahoo

MIGUEL HELFT and STEVE LOHR
November 20, 2006

A consortium of seven newspaper chains representing 176 daily papers across the country is announcing a broad partnership with Yahoo to share content, advertising and technology, another sign that the wary newspaper business is increasingly willing to shake hands with the technology companies they once saw as a threat.

In the first phase of the deal, the newspaper companies will begin posting their employment classified ads on Yahoo’s classified jobs site, HotJobs, and start using HotJobs technology to run their own online career ads.

But the long-term goal of the alliance with Yahoo, according to one senior executive at a participating newspaper company, is to be able to have the content of these newspapers tagged and optimized for searching and indexing by Yahoo.

In that way, local news — one of the pillars of the newspaper business — would become part of a large information network that would increase usefulness for readers and value to advertisers.

“Now the industry has religion about the Internet, based on what has happened to the business in recent years,” said the executive, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak for his company. “So there is a lot more genuine enthusiasm today.”

Powered by Qumana

We recently switched advertising suppliers and upgraded the technical capabilities for delivering and placing ads.

This is good news for current Q-Ads users, who should see a noticeable difference in the service, and for potential Q-Ads users who are seeking an effective and viable alternative that will help them connect with readers through advertising that can be placed within blog post content.

At the same time, we have been creating a suite of easy-to-use, one-or-two-click applications that will help personal publishers everywhere expand their advertising options.  Look for these services to improve as we plug in additional inventory categories and integrate functionality even further.

Q-Ads tool suite

With the end goal being to make the process of inserting ads as easy as possible, Qumana has created two core tools to allow users to insert Q-Ads ads into their Internet properties.

1. Qumana editor

The flagship tool is the Qumana editor, the leading off-line blog editor in the Blogosphere.  Qumana allows bloggers to create media-rich blog posts in a familiar WYSIWYG interface and with simple button clicks insert the keyword-based ads, Technorati tags, and multimedia (e.g. YouTube videos) through the innovative Insert HTML button.

The insert ad interface is designed to allow users to enter the keyword of their choice and then customize the size and colour of the ad before inserting it into their post.

2. Q-Ads Tool for Firefox and IE6

Understanding that some bloggers prefer working within the familiar web-based environment of their blogging platform, Qumana developed the Q-Ads Tool.  The Q-Ads Tool takes two of the best features of the Qumana editor, Inserting Ads and Inserting Video, at put them into a browser plugin.

When creating a blog post, users need only to click the Q button on their browser’s toolbar and choose either the Insert Ad or Insert Video tabs.  The Insert Ad tab goes beyond the capabilities of Qumana by suggesting common and high-paying keywords grouped by category in addition to a user’s own custom keywords.  Ads can still be customized with the Q-Ads Tool and frequently used settings saved for fast and easy reuse.

The Insert Video tab makes putting a YouTube video (and others like Kaneva or Google Video) into a blog post as easy and copy, paste, click.  Users can copy the code provided by YouTube, paste it into the entry box on the Insert Video tab and click okay to have the video embedded into the post.  Frequent YouTube contributors can use the combination of Q-Ads and this Insert Video capability to monetize their video work.

The Q-Ads tool works with Firefox 1.5.x and IE6.x and is supported on the Typepad, MoveableType, Angelfire, Tripod, self-installed Wordpress, Blogger, and Blogware blogging platforms.

3. Q-Ads Tool for Live Writer

Microsoft’s Live Writer blog editing tool has validated blogging as a publishing phenomenon that is here to stay.  As with many Microsoft products, Live Writer allows developers to add onto and augment the product through a published API.  Qumana has developed a plugin for Live Writer that allows Live Writer users to use Q-Ads as well as Qumana editor and Q-Ads Tool users.

Leveraging the ability of Live Writer users, like Qumana users, who prefer to edit and post through a client application, the Q-Ads for Live Writer plugin uses the same interface and codeset as the Q-Ads Tools for browsers.  Same interface, same flexibilty, same ease of use.

Powered by Qumana

Here's a brief and interesting white paper titled "Making the Case for a Social Media Strategy".  It clearly lays out and reinforces that it's the end user - the personal publisher sharing their voice, ideas, or opinions - who is exerting more and more choice and control over the ways the media - including advertising - is being created and distributed.

This is an important element of Q-Ads' value to end-users ... the ability to exercise more choice and control over what advertising they use and where they place it alongside or within the content of a blog post.

Social media – online sites like blogs and discussion boards where consumers create and share information and opinions directly with each other -- are beginning to affect brands. Examples like the Kryptonite lock crisis and Intuit’s continued success have convinced marketers to incorporate social media into their plans. In many companies, marketers must convince their senior management executives who don’t understand the influence the social aspects of the Web experience is exerting on their brands.

Here’s the elevator pitch to give to a busy executive:

The influence traditional media and marketing have over consumer perception is waning as people use the plethora of digital technologies to circumvent traditional sources to obtain information and entertainment from each other. But these social media outlets are more than another channel through which to deliver messages to the marketplace. Companies like GM, Microsoft, Intuit and New Line Cinema are successfully using social marketing strategies to understand and engage their audiences more deeply – with demonstrable business results.

...

Read the rest of a white paper from Cymfony titled "Making the Case for a Social Media Strategy"

Powered by Qumana

Everybody knows by now that Google has just acquired YouTube (Globe and Mail), adding the major play in online video clips to its arsenal of services where content meets advertising.

The deal is by far Google's most expensive in its eight-year history. The lofty price underscores how important Google expects on-line video to become as more viewers and advertisers migrate from television to the Internet.

While it has been able to extend its lead in the lucrative search market, Google hasn't been able to become a major player in on-line video.

“This gives Google the video play they have been looking for and gives them a great opportunity to redefine how advertising is done,” said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li.

Regular readers of the Qumana blog will know that Qumana makes inserting YouTube clips into blog posts a two or three click operation ... copy the html from YouTube, paste it into Qumana's "Insert HTML" function and hit "Post".

Then, click on "Insert Ad", type a keyword related to the blog post content or the video clip, and click once more ... voila, a relevant ad is inserted into the blog post alongside, above or below the video clip ... wherever you placed the cursor.

Advertising meets blog post and video clip content. Qumana gives bloggers "choice and control", and functionality that is very closely aligned with Google's overall strategy.

Go try it out ...

Powered by Qumana

Many of have been wondering how and when this would first happen.  The eventual decision will have significant ramifications.

YouTube sued over copyright infringement


A journalist and well-known helicopter pilot in Los Angeles has filed suit against video-sharing site YouTube, claiming that it encouraged users to violate copyright law.

Robert Tur says video he shot of the beating of trucker Reginald Denny during the 1992 Los Angeles riots was posted at YouTube without his permission and viewed more than 1,000 times. Tur says in his lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, that YouTube is profiting from his work while hurting his ability to license his video.

"Mr. Tur's lawsuit is without merit," YouTube said in a statement. "YouTube is a service provider that complies with all the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and therefore is entitled to the full protections of the safe harbor provisions of the Act."

Passed in 1998 to protect copyright holders from technology that facilitated piracy, the DMCA also offered protection to Web service providers by limiting their liability in cases where their customers were found guilty of copyright violation.

Tags: YouTube, copyright, copyright infringment, DMCA

Powered by Qumana

Via a Globe and Mail update ...

eBay Canada offer member blogs


eBay Canada has introduced eBay Member Blogs to build up an eBay community. The blogs add to the company's member forums, about me pages and eBay reviews and guides.

With the Member Blogs feature, eBay users can create and publish journal-like entries within their own dedicated space and share personal experiences or discuss their categories.

Tags: eBay, blogging, social advertising, network effect

Powered by Qumana

... to recognize that social software is used to communicate and build information between people ... even people at work.

Via ZDNet ...

RSS: The new intranet protocol?


In a story he headlined Web 2.0 sews grassroots collaboration, CNET News.com's Martin LaMonica wrote:

Like others, Seely Brown expects to see a wide range of techniques common on consumer Web applications–including blogs, collaborative Web page editing through wikis, tagging and RSS (Really Simple Syndication)-based subscriptions–to bleed into mainstream business applications….new Web standard products could push people to stop using e-mail to share documents and instead collaborate through shared workspaces like wikis….The onus is back on the incumbent providers, especially IBM and Microsoft, to (react). This stuff is beyond good enough, and it's easy to work with," [said Burton Group analyst Peter O'Kelly].

LaMonica's story goes on to say that Microsoft is responding by building wiki functionality into a forthcoming version of its Sharepoint collaboration technology. LaMonica also picked up on this zinger:

"This way of capturing collaborative wisdom, collective knowledge is a different take on knowledge management, which was fundamentally flawed" [said IBM Lotus Division general manager Michael Rhodin].

Tags: collaboration, building knowledge, social software, knowledge management

Powered by Qumana

Just noticed whilst browsing .... dragged and dropped it, fixed a  link, chose a few categories, added some tags and hit "Publish Post".

Google Testing Ad Supported Premium Video
Google is running a test offering about 2,000 premium videos available for free streaming viewing, inserting a persistent banner-type ad at the top of the screen and showing an additional post-roll video ad once the premium content has finished streaming.

The test is expected to last about a week, according to Peter Chane, group business product manager, Google Video.

Tags: Google, video advertising

    Powered by Qumana

Stowe picks up on a new cut at advertising for *social media platforms* from the global advertising giant JWT (click through to their news section to see the major emphasis it is bringing to this experimentation).

Here's the JWT press release announcing what they are calling an "exclusive partnership" with The Huffington Post.

JWT: Social Advertising

JWT has developed a bunch of what they are calling Social Ads over that The Huffington Post. Basically these ads feel like YouTube videos, kind of grudgy but artsy. The social element is the handy buttons that allow you to send them (via email or AOL IM) to a friend

This builds on the notion outlined in a recent post of ways to spread the word that are taking a tangential direction from online advertising's fascination with search engine marketing.

See JWT's video example over at Stowe's blog post.

Tags: Stwoe Boyd, social advertising, horizontal word of mouth

Powered by Qumana

It seems almost like one of those press releases from two high-tech companies announcing a partnership that willl be taken to their respective markets.

Here's the first part:

Microsoft enables Creative Commons licensing in Office

Digg This!

Kudos to Microsoft for making it possible for users of their Office suite (now numbering 400 million) to easily apply a Creative Commons license to the work they author using the applications in that productivity suite. In a press release issued yesterday, Microsoft announced that a new add-in will allow the full range of Creative Commons licenses to be attached to documents created with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to make the reuse or republication rights to an original work clear. It's a welcome acknowledgement of the plain-English approach to intellectual property championed by the Creative Commons organization.

... followed by the obligatory one-or-two sentence "why this is great for us and everybody else" statement from the key people in the respective organizations.

“We’re delighted to work with Creative Commons to bring fresh and collaborative thinking on copyright licensing to authors and artists of all kinds,” said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft.

[Snip ... ]

Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of Creative Commons ... “We’re incredibly excited to work with Microsoft to make that ability easily available to the hundreds of millions of users of Microsoft Office.”

My sense is that this is one of the final nails confirming that various  Creative Commons licenses will be attached to creative work of all sorts  (a blog post, an article, an essay, a review).  All that is left now are all the court cases that will shape and heft to what is meant by the Creative Commons licenses that come to be commonly used.

Tags: Creative Commons, Microsoft, content syndication, legal precedents

Powered by Qumana

Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 has a new article up, titled "Increasing Advertising’s Low Return on Consumer Attention".

On the face of it, the value proposition of search advertising makes perfect sense — ads are chosen based on key word relevance — a consumer is searching for something, and search advertising delivers ads with produce/service offerings related to that search.

But despite this huge innovation, search advertising still provides a relatively low return on consumer attention — in ad brokering systems like Google AdWords, which are based on auctions, relevance is often in conflict with revenue per click. AdWords must balance the likelihood of a click — and its correlation with relevance — against the amount of revenue Google receives for that click. And advertisers who win the key word game can direct consumers to sites that may not be fully relevant to the actual intent of their searches.

Let’s look at a specific example ...

He then takes us through an example using his own searching-and-shopping behaviour, and points to a problem that is likely to endure until there are ways found to pull the reader ... the person who clicks on the advertising ... into the value equation.

But here’s the bigger problem: In my search for the video camera that I will ultimately purchase, money will change hands between advertisers and intermediaries as my attention — and my intention to buy — is “monetized.” But not a dime of that ad money will make it into my pocket.

It’s MY attention, MY intention, and MY purchase — Google and other intermediaries will make all the money, and I won’t see a dime.

In driving towards a conclusion, Scott uses the example of Jellyfish ( a service he previously highlighted which promises to "change the way you shop online, creating a more transparent and valuable shopping environment that benefits both online shoppers and successful retailers alike.").

It looks like Jellyfish launched this past weekend.

Scott's conclusion ?  He mentions the ongoing work of the Attention Trust with respect to "return on attention", and then states:

What we need to really change the attention game — and to dramatically increase advertising’s return on consumer attention — is a way for AVERAGE PEOPLE to increase their skin in the game “seamlessly and without you even thinking about it.”

We've been thinking about the same thing for a while ... here are a couple of previous posts on the issue we've called  "The New Attention-Driven Advertising".

Tags: attention, intention, paying readers, online advertising, increasing click-throughs

Powered by Qumana

Just noticed ... thanks again to Mathew Ingram.

Now comes word from Robert Scoble — the now ex-Microsoft blogger — that Amanda and Rocketboom are making about $85,000 a week in advertising revenue, or about $4.4-million a year (and that figure is likely growing rather than shrinking). That’s an incredible figure for something that is still a relatively small operation, and less than two years old, as is the 300,000 viewer figure.

Do you think any traditional TV industry types are interested in those numbers at all? You better believe it. For what it’s worth, Markus Frind of Plentyoffish.com — who says he makes almost $500,000 a month from AdSense on his dating website — doesn’t believe the talk about Rocketboom’s revenue.

Tags: online advertising, traffic, page views, eyeballs, rocketboom, Plentyoffish

Powered by Qumana