Comments on: First Look at OutLoud – Subscription Based AdWords for Dummies http://www.meydad.com/2009/11/10/first-look-at-outloud-subscription-based-adwords-for-dummies/ Thoughts on social applications, usability, search, mobile, music and sports Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:01:22 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: hemorrhoids remedies http://www.meydad.com/2009/11/10/first-look-at-outloud-subscription-based-adwords-for-dummies/comment-page-1/#comment-20974 hemorrhoids remedies Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:03:14 +0000 http://www.meydad.com/?p=1317#comment-20974 i didn't hear about Outloud until reading the article but the fresh perspective of a new player, although small, is always welcomed. as you already mentioned adwords has become a burden to do business with. they're like specifically telling us, we don't want your money. :) <br><br>so a new player with an unique concept can certainly carve itself a niche in the giant pie that is internet advertising :) i didn't hear about Outloud until reading the article but the fresh perspective of a new player, although small, is always welcomed. as you already mentioned adwords has become a burden to do business with. they're like specifically telling us, we don't want your money. :)

so a new player with an unique concept can certainly carve itself a niche in the giant pie that is internet advertising :)

]]> By: Amit Elisha http://www.meydad.com/2009/11/10/first-look-at-outloud-subscription-based-adwords-for-dummies/comment-page-1/#comment-20967 Amit Elisha Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:23:03 +0000 http://www.meydad.com/?p=1317#comment-20967 Hi Jay!<br><br>Thanks again for sharing your thoughts, always appreciated. I just wanted to touch 2 points:<br><br>- OpenID: The OpenID authentication is just not secure enough (at least by our standards) to handle financial transactions. What we are planing to do, is simplifying the process of converting a person from being an "OpenID" user to an "Outbrain" user. Having to contact us is far from ideal. <br><br>- Logo: Yaron has covered the "why not 5-stars"...I wanted to cover "why mii?".<br>We wanted to have an icon that represents us, even if Outbrain is not spelled out.<br>The "Brainiak" is not gender specific, represents a friendly face (as we our widgets are friendly to our readers) and someone smart. Anyway, I hope that in the long run, you will change your mind about it :) <br><br>Thanks again! Hi Jay!

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts, always appreciated. I just wanted to touch 2 points:

- OpenID: The OpenID authentication is just not secure enough (at least by our standards) to handle financial transactions. What we are planing to do, is simplifying the process of converting a person from being an “OpenID” user to an “Outbrain” user. Having to contact us is far from ideal.

- Logo: Yaron has covered the “why not 5-stars”…I wanted to cover “why mii?”.
We wanted to have an icon that represents us, even if Outbrain is not spelled out.
The “Brainiak” is not gender specific, represents a friendly face (as we our widgets are friendly to our readers) and someone smart. Anyway, I hope that in the long run, you will change your mind about it :)

Thanks again!

]]> By: Yaron Galai http://www.meydad.com/2009/11/10/first-look-at-outloud-subscription-based-adwords-for-dummies/comment-page-1/#comment-20966 Yaron Galai Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:54:57 +0000 http://www.meydad.com/?p=1317#comment-20966 We are working on a monthly email notice with a performance report which will probably be released next month. Thanks for all the tips! We are working on a monthly email notice with a performance report which will probably be released next month. Thanks for all the tips!

]]> By: jaymeydad http://www.meydad.com/2009/11/10/first-look-at-outloud-subscription-based-adwords-for-dummies/comment-page-1/#comment-20965 jaymeydad Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:30:26 +0000 http://www.meydad.com/?p=1317#comment-20965 Great feedback on how OutLoud works (btw, is it Outloud or OutLoud?).<br><br>As for the gym subscription point - it would be really nice to get an email once a month, right before renewal date, summarizing the campaign's performance. Google AdWords just added this (hard to believe it took them so long). Great feedback on how OutLoud works (btw, is it Outloud or OutLoud?).

As for the gym subscription point – it would be really nice to get an email once a month, right before renewal date, summarizing the campaign's performance. Google AdWords just added this (hard to believe it took them so long).

]]> By: Facebook User http://www.meydad.com/2009/11/10/first-look-at-outloud-subscription-based-adwords-for-dummies/comment-page-1/#comment-20964 Facebook User Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:54:18 +0000 http://www.meydad.com/?p=1317#comment-20964 Jay - thanks for the thoughtful post about Outloud! Here are a few answers to questions you've raised:<br>- The idea of the $10/month subscription model is to overcome one of the biggest issues of the CPC model - When managing a CPC budget, AdSense/Yahoo/etc are pushed to fulfill a $$ budget by showing the highest *yielding* ads even if they are not very relevant or interesting. And on the flip side - the best ads which are actually useful and interesting get a lot of clicks, deplete their budgets and vanish. <br>So while AdSense/Yahoo may be squeezing more $$'s from their clients, their link quality actually sucks twice - in needing to fulfill clicks, and in the best ads vanishing. <br>Outbrain has always been about providing *readers* with the most relevant and interesting links to other stories. The subscription model we're introducing here favors the readers and the bloggers instead of favoring the ad network. <br><br>- Keeping it simple - thanks for the compliments - we plan to keep it simple so that you don't need a PhD to submit links to Outbrain. <br><br>- Regarding the black-box and impression guarantee issues - Again - Outbrain always favors showing the reader the most interesting links. By asking for a very low flat monthly fee, we want to be able to show readers the most interesting links without being held hostage to budget fulfillment requirements. <br>My hope is that Jay-the-reader-and-blogger will appreciate this even if Jay-the-advertiser has mixed feelings about it. <br>One point to keep in mind - Even though we don't guarantee you any clicks or impressions, you should know that those who did click through to your story were really interested in it and not just randomly targeted with click fulfillment in mind. <br><br>- Regarding the gym subscription point - You can choose the subscription policy of your choice for each story you run. You can have auto-renewal on (gym mode) or off (your preferred mode). <br>We absolutely only want customers to keep using Outloud because they like the value! <br><br><br>- Logo - We are actually transitioning to the new logo/mii.... It will take another month or two, but it will happen. The stars are still an important part of what we do, but there are now quite a few bigger publishers who use us only for the recommended links and not with the 5-stars, so we decided to drop them from our logo. Like you, I'm a big fan of our classic logo - I think it's great. But our product manager is the boss when it comes to making product and design decisions... ;-)<br><br>Thanks again for the post. Looking forward to having your wife's links in Outloud! Jay – thanks for the thoughtful post about Outloud! Here are a few answers to questions you've raised:
- The idea of the $10/month subscription model is to overcome one of the biggest issues of the CPC model – When managing a CPC budget, AdSense/Yahoo/etc are pushed to fulfill a $$ budget by showing the highest *yielding* ads even if they are not very relevant or interesting. And on the flip side – the best ads which are actually useful and interesting get a lot of clicks, deplete their budgets and vanish.
So while AdSense/Yahoo may be squeezing more $$'s from their clients, their link quality actually sucks twice – in needing to fulfill clicks, and in the best ads vanishing.
Outbrain has always been about providing *readers* with the most relevant and interesting links to other stories. The subscription model we're introducing here favors the readers and the bloggers instead of favoring the ad network.

- Keeping it simple – thanks for the compliments – we plan to keep it simple so that you don't need a PhD to submit links to Outbrain.

- Regarding the black-box and impression guarantee issues – Again – Outbrain always favors showing the reader the most interesting links. By asking for a very low flat monthly fee, we want to be able to show readers the most interesting links without being held hostage to budget fulfillment requirements.
My hope is that Jay-the-reader-and-blogger will appreciate this even if Jay-the-advertiser has mixed feelings about it.
One point to keep in mind – Even though we don't guarantee you any clicks or impressions, you should know that those who did click through to your story were really interested in it and not just randomly targeted with click fulfillment in mind.

- Regarding the gym subscription point – You can choose the subscription policy of your choice for each story you run. You can have auto-renewal on (gym mode) or off (your preferred mode).
We absolutely only want customers to keep using Outloud because they like the value!

- Logo – We are actually transitioning to the new logo/mii…. It will take another month or two, but it will happen. The stars are still an important part of what we do, but there are now quite a few bigger publishers who use us only for the recommended links and not with the 5-stars, so we decided to drop them from our logo. Like you, I'm a big fan of our classic logo – I think it's great. But our product manager is the boss when it comes to making product and design decisions… ;-)

Thanks again for the post. Looking forward to having your wife's links in Outloud!

]]>