Forum Moderators: open
Sprinks Content ads will appear on MSNBC, although MSN has rather tight relations with Overture.
Though Sprinks has been running their content targeted program for longer, perhaps Microsoft wants to have a benchmark also to be able to guage the effectiveness of one partner compared to another?
Sprinks' Podell expects about $50 million to $80 million in revenue for the entire industry. ... The click- through rates for content-targeted advertising is half a percentage point, said Podell. The average price per click for a term is roughly 57 cents, he said.
And yes, as you know, Sprinks has been perfecting PPC contextual ads for the past three years. We began listing topical listings on About.com and within the past year have developed relationships with AOL Web Properties, CBS MarketWatch, Forbes.com and now MSNBC.com.
Unlike Overture and Google, we allow advertisers to buy actual topics. These topics are then mapped to specific relevant editorial pages on our partners' sites.
Re:
Unlike Overture and Google, we allow advertisers to buy actual topics. These topics are then mapped to specific relevant editorial pages on our partners' sites.
Does Sprinks need a human being to categorize partners' sites, or is it done "automagically"? (Or both?)
Unlike Overture and Google, we allow advertisers to buy actual topics. These topics are then mapped to specific relevant editorial pages on our partners' sites.
Like the "Apartments in Barcelona" Sprinks on About.com's Gofrance travel site?
Yes, Sprinks manually maps our ContentSprinks topics to our partner's editorial pages. We have staff dedicated to each of our partners. By working with our partners diligently before we actually roll Sprinks listings out onto their pages, we can achieve the type of contextual targeting advertisers (and partners) are looking for.
Has your company ever done anything about the fraud problem. I was never able to get customer service even though I was a good spender. If they have implemented and kind of fraud protection I can always use more traffic.
We have a significant anti-fraud program in effect that combines system side protection as well as continuous monitoring of our partners traffic. Due to advertiser concern, we have recently beefed up our efforts and have been receiving positive on our keyword traffic of late.
As for your own account, did you send your fraud complaint to abuse@sprinks.com? If that didn't work, email me and I'll have someone investigate your problem asap.
We don't have a set pageview minimum, but a property will need at least several million PAGEVIEWS of high quality editorial content pages to be considered a potential partner for our ContentSprinks program.
Needless to say I'm one of those unhappy ex-sprinks partner. All you Sprinks/About really care is click-through. I offered a proper ethical solution at that time and you Sprinks/About did was pass me around to different reps. I have to email the VP at that time but by then it was gd too late, you guys dump me preferring instead a junk site that was just happy to provide you with garbage traffic.
In fact this so called Sprink/About partner is advertising on another PPC targetting low bids keywords and turn around those visitors(from the other PPC) and feed them the high paying keywords of Sprinks/About and you call that...
-----------------
high quality editorial content pages....?
-----------------
Where's that junk site now?
But, I'm glad that our partnership was dissolved though we didn't go through the whole term, it was actually a blessing in disguise.
BTW, after that messy affair, your VP at that time upon realizing that your company have dumped a valuable property, tried to win us back with promises of XML feed and better relation.
That's all you guys are good for....promises
------------------
My advice to people looking to advertise with Sprink. Don't take my word about how I feel about them because that was a long time ago when they were offering partnership with content sites.
But do search about Sprinks PPC and read what others have to say about them.
Hopefully, they have changed their ways, as for me, I'll never have a dealing, 'ever', with them again.
------------------
Just giving a balance view to what Sprinks_Rep seems to spin about which I understand he/she is just doing his/her job.
That's all you guys are good for....promises
Does anyone here remember the Luna Network, a predecessor to Sprinks that also was owned by About.com? I was offered a Luna partnership with a "guaranteed sellout" of ad space and a $500 signing bonus. I signed the contract and mailed it in. Instead of getting a countersigned contract and a check, I then received a new contract with lousier terms and no signing bonus. I was also asked to send a letter to MediaMetrix authorizing them to include my independent site's traffic in About.com's. (And no, I didn't sign the new contract--I just turned my back on the Luna Network.)
