

Ask HN: Any idea's on how to implement this? - aitoehigie

Hi,
I am developing an text-to-web advertising platform and I am stuck at a point.
Short description of how it works: Any one can text a 140 character message to a short code, and have it displayed on any website that is on the network of the advertising platform.
My Problem: How do I display the text ad on the websites that are on the platform? Iframes? Flash?<p>If you have ever implemented something like this, I would really like to have some tips from you.
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asnyder
It's really up to you. If the websites on your network agree to add a
component to their website you can technically implement this with an IFRAME
or any component with JavaScript that references some JavaScript file of
yours. You can even do it with an image URL, but the image URL won't cycle
without the aid of a script. However, it's likely that your thinking of a page
based solution, and not a dynamic solution for single page AJAX like websites.

All the above will work, now it's up to you which you prefer.

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d4ft
I would be interested to hear more about how you plan to monetize this.
Assuming you are using Twilio or something similar, there is some outlay on
your part. Will people who want to advertise have their own account or will it
just be a 1 dollar charge to their number or some such?

Cool idea, look forward to hearing more.

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aitoehigie
Thank you for your response. Actually advertisers would not need an account,
once they browse to any website that is on the ad network, they simply text
their ad to a short code, since most people in my country here are prepaid
mobile users, their account is debited and the revenue is shared between the
mobile operator, the ad platform and the website owner.

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hga
This is a very interesting idea.

Look at item 3 at the end of this posting
[http://aitoehigie.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/building-a-
world-...](http://aitoehigie.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/building-a-world-class-
startup-the-nigerian-story/) from the author's blog for one good application
area.

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aitoehigie
I would still like to have some tips on how I can embed the text ads on 3rd
party sites when I do not access to the code of the 3rd party site. Thanks
guys

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adamtmca
I think there are lots of cool things that can be done with SMS but I don't
think I get this. Why would an advertiser want to text in their ads instead of
just typing them up in adwords or another advertising platform?

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aitoehigie
This are my reasons for creating this platform. 1\. This is made with the
local market in mind (Nigeria, West Africa), I doubt if this would be a hit in
the first world. 2\. Due to lack of a reliable payment gateway for local users
here in Nigeria, I decided to use premium sms (short code). Once an advertiser
texts his ad to the shortcode, his prepaid credit is debited, his ad appears
on the target website of his choice and the revenue is shared between the ad
platform, the shortcode provider and the website owner. 3\. Google adsense or
adwords isnt too attractive here in Nigeria because of the hassles of getting
paid by google. Recurring online payment gateway issues.

