

We launched a free ad network to help publishers sell more Quality Ads - drivingsouth
http://www.influads.com/blog/introducing-influads-2-0-a-free-ad-network-for-publishers-borderline-obsessive-about-quality.html

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ScottWhigham
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
second language, yes. Thanks for the feedback.

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bogdans
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
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 :)

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shortformblog
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
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
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 ;)

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drivingsouth
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
Link to the main site: <http://influads.com>

~~~
newsign
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

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dudus
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
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.

