Looks cool. The only thing that bugs me is a mention of "usage tokens". That sounds like something that will be for sale. What's that about?
Oh, and that demo blog's theme looks awfully familiar.
serge
· 2 years ago
so I paid $30 via pay pal for some kind of link to my site. I don't make money on my site, its a pretty lame site anyway. So, what now, when/where do I see my ad appear? Just wondering?
Simon
· 2 years ago
Usage tokens - I should really qualify the statement, because no one at this stage is using them. Usage Tokens will be a secondary revenue stream, connected to the marketplace and jobs board areas of the site.
The rest of the site (including the groups section) doesn't use tokens at all, although I'm intending to add in an in-house ad widget, which will be powered by advertiser tokens, and publishers will then be paid in tokens, and exchanged into cash. The plugin itself is only the tip of the iceberg, if you like.
It works by using up one token everytime you have a job request sent to your blog, or someone makes a BULK purchase through the marketplace. The system is setup to communicate with your blog directly, and send the required data back and forth. Until there is a good size userbase on board (enough to attract advertisers), no one is going to need any tokens.
I guess it could sound like you have to buy tokens to use the plugin. You don't, and you never need to. Its just that I've developed some more advanced services that can turn your blog into an extended part of OIO. And those are the kind of things I need to put a small fee on (its $0.50 per token).
You get some free tokens when you first enter enter your API key too.
serge
· 2 years ago
so I paid $30 via pay pal for some kind of link to my site from yours. I don't make money on my site, its a pretty lame site anyway. There isn't even any advertising to capture the 50 or so people who stop by daily. So, what now, when/where do I see my ad appear? Just wondering?
John Cow
· 2 years ago
uhm Serge..your link has been in the sidebar under Pasteurized Sites ever since you bought it. Ihatedumbwebsites.com right ?
Simon
· 2 years ago
* updated plugin with clearer statement on the point of usage token
bloggernoob
· 2 years ago
it would be better to have the plugin available for free. 37 bucks is kinda pricy for a plugin. i understand that you save money cause you don't have to pay a middleman. but you could make your own plugin for under 100 bucks and give it out to others for free. kind of a bad deal in my modest opinion
John Cow
· 2 years ago
Bloggernoob, where could you get an extensive plugin as this, with a marketplace etc made for just $100 or less?
Mike Huang
· 2 years ago
It'll be a matter of time until a programmer takes the code from this and sell it for less or maybe free :)
-Mike
John Cow
· 2 years ago
We're simply amazed of how many people only want stuff for free. Are groceries for free? A developer has to eat too you know, otherwise he'll die and won't be able to make cool plugins.
Simon
· 2 years ago
*Read the whole comment, as I'm going to finish up by talking about the possibility of a Christmas (free?) deal*
In my opinion $37 is a fair price. Some people tell me it is under-priced, others say it should be free. It really depends on the blogger I suppose.
It also largely depends on whether you look at it as a "plugin" or something more. Even if someone copied all the code, and gave it away for free (as I have done for the past few months lol), it wouldn't matter because they wouldn't have the infrastructure built around it to make the most use of it.
I haven't seen anyone comment on anything beyond the plugin, which tells me 2 things. First, my documentation sucks (working on that at the moment, with a virtual tour). Second, that users who have looked at the site have failed to look beyond the fact that there is a plugin that offers direct ad sales.
Direct ad sales are one part of the equation sure, but believe it or not I'm thinking about the little guy more than you realise. One of my early 2008 projects is to build an ad network module, that actually scans the plugin for open ad slots, and fills them for you automatically.
So you see, replicating the plugin would do no good in the long run, because the "little guy" will not make much from direct sales much of the time. But they could make some nice revenue from a "filler" ad-network, to compliment direct sales.
I could tell you a lot more about what OIOpublisher really does that you haven't spotted yet, but instead I urge you all to wait until I have the virtual walkthrough completed - it will lay out everything step by step.
And finally, relating to what I said earlier, I do want to have some kind of Christmas offer going, maybe in conjunction with JC, maybe with other bloggers (depends on who makes the offer). I might even swing it so you can grab a free copy for a limited time.
Hopefully you'll be in agreement there. :)
Martin
· 2 years ago
I agree with what has been said above, about this being a good way to substitute for direct ad sales. If you can't find any advertisers directly this is probably the way to go, but as for taking on other networks I don't think that it does. A $37 price is reasonable, but what might work better is a graduated price.
LittlePiggyBank
· 2 years ago
LOL @ Cows comment!
Yeah Simon has clearly put a lot of time and effort into this plugin you can see that , i bought it yesterday and hes already got out an updated version so hes working on it day in day out.
Im still trying to install this bad boy 100% though Simon, i tried sending you a message via your personal blog contact form, don't know if you replied and it went into my spam filter because i just deleted over 700 emails from there which someone kindly spammed me with today :grin:
Could i get an email to get in touch with you or speak over an instant messenger or anything?!
Thanks Jord
Simon
· 2 years ago
Hehe you probably deleted me. You can email me at the following address, and I'll do my best to help out where I can::
admin[at]oiopublisher[dot]com
LittlePiggyBank
· 2 years ago
lol i love that your time schedule is as bad as mine! makes my life so much easier!
Sending you an email now mate
Lincoln
· 2 years ago
Simon's a good guy and has always been timely in his responses to help me troubleshoot the plugin so the cron jobs can work with WordPress 2.0 (I still use the 2.0.X version).
He's building a great plugin and a promising new marketplace and I wish him lots of success with it. I certainly hope 2008 will be a banner year for him (and for those of us who use the plugin too.) :mrgreen:
Lincoln
· 2 years ago
BTW, I'm also testing Openads too, and have it working in conjunction with OIOPublisher by using the "custom" services option. Theoretically, whenever someone wants to purchase a banner ad, it's purchased through OIOPublisher, and then the ad (or ad code) itself is serviced by Openads. This gives the advertiser the benefit of receiving advanced statistics and tracking data to see how well their banner ads perform, while OIOPublisher keeps them informed on when campaigns expire and if they wish to renew, and helps manage payments as well.
Personally, this allows me to set premium (higher than average) prices for ad space because I'm offering a lot more than just ad placement, but also significant editorial control over how campaigns are run on the site. In addition, I have OIOPublisher manage the 125x125 ads and offer these spaces at discount (lower than average) prices since it offers less statistics and editorial control. There's literally something for everyone here. :grin:
I really enjoy this solution because the combination of Openads and OIOPublisher allows me to test and try out all kinds of advertising networks and determine which marketplaces will prove to be the most lucrative for me (and therefore worth my time.)
Now, if I can just bring more traffic to my site dammit to hell, then I might actually be able to quit my job someday. :razz:
Simon
· 2 years ago
That's a nice solution you've got there. :)
JC actually asked me today if OIO could do stats tracking, and the author of dailyblogtips has said that he'd like to see this kind of functionality in OIO, before he would consider using it. Maybe you should write a post on how you integrated the two, they might like to see it!
I'll actually be starting tomorrow on a tracker module (I was going to do full-blown analytics, but ad stats is more important initially) to emulate at least some of the openads functionality, without having to install openads. Then we can start throwing in advertiser stats reports to people.
I think that the combo idea is still a good one, since I'm pretty sure OpenAds will provide more functionality than I could in the short-term. Feel free to pitch in with any ideas you have for a native OIO stats tracker module though (level of detail etc)!
Lincoln
· 2 years ago
That's an idea, but there's really not much to it when you want to use Openads in conjunction with OIO (even the plugin Adsense Deluxe is controlled by Openads). If I get an order, I can simply take the ad code provided and then place it in the appropriate ad zone in Openads, then set the campaign so that its expiration date is synchronized with the expiration date set by OIOPublisher. You have to to back and forth a little, but there's enough automation going on between the two that it only requires a few minutes to manage ad requests and subscriptions.
The functionality in Openads though is INSANE and took me days to learn! It was obviously designed for massively high traffic por---uhh, umm... "adult oriented" sites. :mrgreen: In large part many of its features are simply overkill for blogs, though they are fun to use, and its versatility does make advertising space on a blog far more valuable (there's something to be said for giving an advertiser the ability to dump 100 ads in your advertising zone and have them all rotated proportionately with just a few clicks).
I would be careful not to bite off more than you can chew right now, and maybe focus instead on developing stats for ads Openads can't track, such as link and RSS ads. :grin:
Lincoln
· 2 years ago
BTW, I'll go back and see what steps I took to set it all up and if it's worth writing a tutorial about, I'll see if I can do one later this week and send you an email when it's done. :cool:
Simon
· 2 years ago
The process for tracking links and banner ads (from my point of view) is almost identical, so if I do one, I'd be doing the other at the same time.
The trouble with openads is that it is overkill for most people, as you pointed out. For very high traffic blogs (higher than this one for example) it may be worth it, or for those who want huge flexibility in terms of ad zones (OIO only has one banner ad zone for now), but for the rest, not worth it.
I've also seen people give up on openads because its started to not play nice with their server, so shared hosts may be a problem.
DotDriven
· 2 years ago
Looks pretty interesting. lol, so much for wordpress being a free publishing format...seems everywhere you turn around there is a new cool plugin or theme that would be silly not to have. But I guess you have to spend to make right? lol.
Lincoln
· 2 years ago
The flexibility in how ad zones are run is the main reason why I use Openads, which right now can't be beat. The support for it is AWFUL though (you know, just like the support for WordPress), but its partly because the 2.4 versions had some ridiculous bugs that let SQL databases bloat to enormous sizes. :shock: The 2.0 versions was reportedly much more stable.
Steve
· 2 years ago
Not a bad idea. Won't be using it though. :neutral:
2xKnight
· 2 years ago
Thanks for explaining about those tokens Simon. It makes sense if you're going to offer extras.
I was only wondering about those because the price of the plugin seemed so cheap. I was afraid that the low price of the plugin + the tokens = pay per use. In a situation like that I'd rather see a commission per ad.
Ethan Christ
· 1 year ago
I can't get the plugin to work on my blog... All I get is a bunch of error messages saying that things don't exist and problems with the coding... What did you guys do to get it to work?
All Comments
Oh, and that demo blog's theme looks awfully familiar.
The rest of the site (including the groups section) doesn't use tokens at all, although I'm intending to add in an in-house ad widget, which will be powered by advertiser tokens, and publishers will then be paid in tokens, and exchanged into cash. The plugin itself is only the tip of the iceberg, if you like.
It works by using up one token everytime you have a job request sent to your blog, or someone makes a BULK purchase through the marketplace. The system is setup to communicate with your blog directly, and send the required data back and forth. Until there is a good size userbase on board (enough to attract advertisers), no one is going to need any tokens.
I guess it could sound like you have to buy tokens to use the plugin. You don't, and you never need to. Its just that I've developed some more advanced services that can turn your blog into an extended part of OIO. And those are the kind of things I need to put a small fee on (its $0.50 per token).
You get some free tokens when you first enter enter your API key too.
-Mike
In my opinion $37 is a fair price. Some people tell me it is under-priced, others say it should be free. It really depends on the blogger I suppose.
It also largely depends on whether you look at it as a "plugin" or something more. Even if someone copied all the code, and gave it away for free (as I have done for the past few months lol), it wouldn't matter because they wouldn't have the infrastructure built around it to make the most use of it.
I haven't seen anyone comment on anything beyond the plugin, which tells me 2 things. First, my documentation sucks (working on that at the moment, with a virtual tour). Second, that users who have looked at the site have failed to look beyond the fact that there is a plugin that offers direct ad sales.
Direct ad sales are one part of the equation sure, but believe it or not I'm thinking about the little guy more than you realise. One of my early 2008 projects is to build an ad network module, that actually scans the plugin for open ad slots, and fills them for you automatically.
So you see, replicating the plugin would do no good in the long run, because the "little guy" will not make much from direct sales much of the time. But they could make some nice revenue from a "filler" ad-network, to compliment direct sales.
I could tell you a lot more about what OIOpublisher really does that you haven't spotted yet, but instead I urge you all to wait until I have the virtual walkthrough completed - it will lay out everything step by step.
And finally, relating to what I said earlier, I do want to have some kind of Christmas offer going, maybe in conjunction with JC, maybe with other bloggers (depends on who makes the offer). I might even swing it so you can grab a free copy for a limited time.
Hopefully you'll be in agreement there. :)
Yeah Simon has clearly put a lot of time and effort into this plugin you can see that , i bought it yesterday and hes already got out an updated version so hes working on it day in day out.
Im still trying to install this bad boy 100% though Simon, i tried sending you a message via your personal blog contact form, don't know if you replied and it went into my spam filter because i just deleted over 700 emails from there which someone kindly spammed me with today :grin:
Could i get an email to get in touch with you or speak over an instant messenger or anything?!
Thanks
Jord
admin[at]oiopublisher[dot]com
Sending you an email now mate
He's building a great plugin and a promising new marketplace and I wish him lots of success with it. I certainly hope 2008 will be a banner year for him (and for those of us who use the plugin too.) :mrgreen:
Personally, this allows me to set premium (higher than average) prices for ad space because I'm offering a lot more than just ad placement, but also significant editorial control over how campaigns are run on the site. In addition, I have OIOPublisher manage the 125x125 ads and offer these spaces at discount (lower than average) prices since it offers less statistics and editorial control. There's literally something for everyone here. :grin:
I really enjoy this solution because the combination of Openads and OIOPublisher allows me to test and try out all kinds of advertising networks and determine which marketplaces will prove to be the most lucrative for me (and therefore worth my time.)
Now, if I can just bring more traffic to my site dammit to hell, then I might actually be able to quit my job someday. :razz:
JC actually asked me today if OIO could do stats tracking, and the author of dailyblogtips has said that he'd like to see this kind of functionality in OIO, before he would consider using it. Maybe you should write a post on how you integrated the two, they might like to see it!
I'll actually be starting tomorrow on a tracker module (I was going to do full-blown analytics, but ad stats is more important initially) to emulate at least some of the openads functionality, without having to install openads. Then we can start throwing in advertiser stats reports to people.
I think that the combo idea is still a good one, since I'm pretty sure OpenAds will provide more functionality than I could in the short-term. Feel free to pitch in with any ideas you have for a native OIO stats tracker module though (level of detail etc)!
The functionality in Openads though is INSANE and took me days to learn! It was obviously designed for massively high traffic por---uhh, umm... "adult oriented" sites. :mrgreen: In large part many of its features are simply overkill for blogs, though they are fun to use, and its versatility does make advertising space on a blog far more valuable (there's something to be said for giving an advertiser the ability to dump 100 ads in your advertising zone and have them all rotated proportionately with just a few clicks).
I would be careful not to bite off more than you can chew right now, and maybe focus instead on developing stats for ads Openads can't track, such as link and RSS ads. :grin:
The trouble with openads is that it is overkill for most people, as you pointed out. For very high traffic blogs (higher than this one for example) it may be worth it, or for those who want huge flexibility in terms of ad zones (OIO only has one banner ad zone for now), but for the rest, not worth it.
I've also seen people give up on openads because its started to not play nice with their server, so shared hosts may be a problem.
I was only wondering about those because the price of the plugin seemed so cheap. I was afraid that the low price of the plugin + the tokens = pay per use. In a situation like that I'd rather see a commission per ad.