Crenk

For a while now I have been running Adphilia and we are only a small site representation company that is slowly growing. We have spent a lot of time trying to source the right Advertising server to meet our needs, but we still haven’t been able to find the right one in my mind. We have toyed with using free ad servers like OpenX or Google, as well as corporate ad servers like Right Media or Doubleclick. This is a post which just outlines what we have found within the company.

Free Ad Servers:

Open X - OpenX is an amazing piece of software that allows medium and large website to control their inventory. It is cost effective because the software is free, however you need to think about the implications advertising will have on your hosting servers, because huge amounts of ad serving can mean very large bandwidth costs. I also find OpenX a little hard to understand when you are first using the serving, plus I’m sure the larger your sites are the more complicated it becomes.

Google Ad Manager - Google Ad manager is a great product but it is built specifically for small publishers. It has a great design and easy to use. The first issue is that you can only use this ad server for small sites, because it is not compatible with any larger ad servers, and you have to put ad code straight into the header of your site. Additionally, I really don’t like the fact that when you deliver your first campaign you have to set it all up the day before it is allowed to be start. Small but bloody annoying.

Corporate Ad Servers:

Zedo - Zedo is very professional company with some great customer service. However, with them we got caught on the first hurdle, cause they were very expensive compared to all the other companies. Possibly, this is due to the great customer service and the results they can bring your sites. However, if you don’t have a great sales team to match what they can offer, there isnt too much point.

DoubleClick - This company just amazes me. Doubleclick seems to be a mish mash of several individual sections of software that has been mashed into one tool. Instead of Trafficking, reporting, billing and account details all in one sections, they seem to have segmented them, thus making it very untidy. However, they are the worlds best ad serving tool and the most used.

Atlas - Atlas, I tried to contact 5 times and they have never even responded to the messages I left. So I didn’t even get past the pricing stage let alone using their service. Typical Microsoft!

After all of these experiments it didn’t really bring me to finding the ad server solution that I was after. Im wanting a piece of software that is easy to understand and us, which doesn’t cost the earth, preferably free and web based. Does anyone know of a solution that I should try?

By: Luis Sandoval

Blog Catalog is a blogger friendly cataloging site. What does this mean? Avoid the spam, avoid the distractions, and focus on marketing your blog and connecting with other bloggers in one of the most well put together communities I’ve seen for bloggers.

Becoming a member is easy, if you actually have a blog, and not an agenda to market your spam across the net. There is an actual waiting process from your submission because your site is viewed by a real human being who determines whether your site is legit or not. This cuts down on the “net trash” that tends to propagate across sites like these. It took a day for mine to be accepted, but the return email was a warm and caring invite welcoming me to the community and sharing with me the possibilities of being a part of their community.

Once you’ve been accepted you’re able to access all of Blog Catalog’s features including the discussion forums, joining neighborhoods, adding individual users to your friend list and exploring other sites.

I was amazed at how quickly this community grew, and while I’m new to the site (about 2 months) I’ve experienced great relationship building in the forums, and have seen increased traffic to my own site due to the camaraderie you are encouraged to build through Blog Catalog.

What makes this site a treat as well is the ease of navigation. There is little confusion on this site, and you get what you need when you need it.

A new addition to Blog Catalog’s services is an area where you can focus your discussion on Politics. Blogs, ideas, and people related to politics are gathered in this new forum to hopefully have a voice that drives change. This social experiment is a step in the right direction, and hopefully other topic dedicated areas open for the greater good of the community.

I actually live in the same city where Blog Catalog is headquartered and I am amazed at how open and friendly they are. Already I have seen one of the founders actively engaged in the community by doing guest speaking engagements and being a part of the Meetup.com experience. A company like Blog Catalog definitely understand what it means to be social, and looks towards the community to help pave it’s future.

Overall Blog Catalog is worth joining, and definitely worth building a community of followers on. Like anything else, it’s only as useful as the user makes it.

I cant believe how fast this year has already gone, now the end of April has reached us. This is a wrapup of the happenings around Crenk and the rest of the blogosphere.

Sponsors and Partners:

RouteNote: Music licensing and distribution

Forbes.com: Crenk is a new member of their soon to launch Business and Finance blog network

CypherHackz: The Malaysian technology blog worth reading

Logo Samurai: Some of the best design work at affordable prices!

Bloggin-Ads: Reviewing blogs everywhere

Adify: One of the best advertising networks I have ever worked with.

Rackspace: Reliable and Personal Hosting!

April on Crenk:

Buzznet raises $25 million

AT&T and Microsoft Surface reveal new customer experience

Pitchfork TV Launches

Farecast has been acquired by Microsoft

Dogpile - Why are there no search ads?

Other Crenk News:

At Crenk we have made a lot of the changes this month, such as a new contributor and a new hosting company. Ades will be contributing to Crenk and will become our expert on reviewing startups. Rackspace is our new hosting partner, they have been so professional and helpful. Make sure you look out for a completely new design to Crenk coming out in the next couple of days.

As we are coming to the end of March I would like to thank all of our partners and sponsors and recap on whats been happening on Crenk and around the blogosphere.

Sponsors and Partners:

RouteNote: Music licensing and distribution

Forbes.com: Crenk is a new member of their soon to launch Business and Finance blog network

Xfep: eXtra For Every Publisher

CypherHackz: The Malaysian technology blog worth reading

Logo Samurai: Some of the best design work at afforable prices!

Bloggin-Ads: Reviewing blogs everywhere

Our Advertising Partner:

Adphilia: The individual advertising network, that is actually hands on!

Currently, we still have limited space available for April and May, to learn more contact Adphilia.

March on Crenk:

Fastcompany TV Launches

Compete is Acquired by TNS

Webware 100 Challenge

Crenk on Alltop

Bebo is Acquired!!

News from Around the Blogosphere:

Steven interviewed on Xfep

Technorati To Launch Advertising Network

6 Ways to Filter Your RSS Feeds

Alibaba Wants A Buyer for Yahoo Stake

Federated Media Weight Up Options

Crenk Looking for CEOs and Executives to Contribute:

Here at Crenk we are slowly try to move our articles and style of writing into a different direction. We are looking for CEOs and Executives to contribute to Crenk in return for some possible promotion. On Crenk we dont just want to report the news, we want to provide insights. Insights into either product analysis, reviews, conferences, people and more.

If you are interested, please get in touch and we will make your voice heard, not just on our site, but also with our partners such as Reuters, Nielsen, Forbes, Google News, Alltop and more.

I havent actually posted one of these weekly reviews in the past few weeks, sorry about that. However, I have promised myself that i will get back into the habit. Here is whats been happening on Crenk this week and also around the place on the web.

• Getty Images Is Looking For A Buyer, By The End Of The Month!
• Bidvertiser Likely To Make Impact on RSS Advertising In The Blogosphere
• Kindo Hits China and Asia

Our competition:

• Entrecard Competition for 500 Credits!! and a FREE Link Back To Your Site Just For Entering

News from around the web:

• Will the Digg algorithm change stop gaming? No
• ShareThis reaches 26 million users in 2 months
• Is the blogosphere being gamed
• Scoble Sells Out
• Battelle Turns Down $100 million Offer for FM Publishin. Decides to Shop Around for a Higher Price

On the old Crenk website we profile Lending Club and now it seems that they have been able to secure some funding. Lending Club has closed a round of $10.26 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Canaan Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.

Lending Club provides a peer lending service for Facebook users and now hopefully with this funding it will be able to expand. The site needs to be taken beyond Facebook and expanded on its website and possibly other social networks. The peer-lending and micro-lending market is experiencing quite a boom right now, with companies like GlobalFunder also getting investment for their services as well.

20minutenap.com is a place to head if you are in need of some rest. They want to spread the power and benefit of the 20 minute nap across the globe. The site itself is a music player in which plays soothing music for exactly 20 minutes. Now personally, Im not too sure why someone would come online just to have a nap. Im not totally sure about the full concept but if you have a take on it make sure you let me know!