As Community Education Manager for Direct Media Exchange, I am always honored to show off some of the great people who make up our community: we do this by selecting a monthly ‘’Featured Publisher’’ from our Direct Media Exchange membership, then share their story with you. For the month of October, we’ve selected publisher Steve Jenkins (Cheatcodes.com).

Steve Jenkins is the President of Cheatcodes.com, a website whose niche has focused on video-game enthusiasts and programmers alike, providing them with resources to help facilitate a better understanding of the actual play and the technical underpinnings of all genres of video games. Steve was one of the first publishers to join DMX as a beta user.

Vince Panero (VP): How did you get interested in web publishing? What were those early days like for you?

Steve Jenkins: It started as a hobby while I was in college in 1994. I started a Windows shareware and networking site called “Windows95.com” (and later named it “WinFiles.com” to keep up with the changes in operating system names). The early days of $30 CPMs were great!

VP: Can you tell us about your website?

Steve Jenkins: CheatCodes.com is the #1 online resource for video game help. We offer cheats, tips, FAQs, walk-throughs, and more for all the major console and PC gaming platforms. It was co-founded by myself, a close friend Steve Cook, and my brother Harlyn.

VP: Did you get into this with the idea that you would make ad dollars from your site? How did you initially monetize your site? What problems did you encounter utilizing this method?

Steve Jenkins: Absolutely. Having run content sites before, we knew we would be mostly advertising driven. We initially monetized our site trying to juggle a few different ad networks, but it was way too difficult to manage. So we opted on just one. We knew we were missing out on available revenue, but the convenience of only having to manage one relationship (and one set of ad tags) forced us to do it.

VP: Why did you start using DMX?

Steve Jenkins: We decided a while ago to start using more than one advertising network again, so we added the Right Media Ad Network. Then you guys contacted us and said “hey - we’d like you to try the beta of our new system, DMX.” We’re always up for an experiment, so we gave it a go.

VP: What statistical changes have you seen since you started using it? For example, have your eCPM and revenue increased?

Steve Jenkins: We’ve doubled our eCPM and revenue within a month. It was drastic. We are kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner.

VP: When you tested your primary networks in DMX, how did you do that?

Steve Jenkins: We added them to our Manage Tab and artificially inflated their CPMs for a week to see how they could do. Then we set their CPMs at their actual levels, and then we adjust them every week.

VP: What do you like most about DMX? Are there helpful parts of it that other ad management interfaces simply don’t offer?

Steve Jenkins: We love EVERYTHING about it. Mostly that it’s easy and effective. We also love the community element. We hope that survives the beta period. It’s great to be able to learn and share information with other web publishing professionals.

VP: If they aren’t ‘confidential’, do you have any tips or tricks that you think others using the DMX might find useful?

Steve Jenkins: Nothing confidential. Just add as many networks as you can manage, and let them fight it out. We’ve received a few phone calls from some of our ad partners complaining that the impressions we send them are much lower than before. We tell them that they are being outbid, and the simple answer to get more inventory is to pay us more money. They are usually at a loss for words.

VP: Do you have any final thoughts on this “exchange concept” (network transparency and competition, the fun of having just one login, the analysis piece, etc.)?

Steve Jenkins: It rocks. Hard. Like 80s hair-band hard. THAT hard.

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We thank Steve for participating in our ‘’Featured Publisher'’ article. We appreciate all of our DMX members–the power of community is real.

If you’re curious to check out DMX –our solution for small to medium sized publishers– check it out here.

And for more information, check out the video interview/case study we conducted with Steve.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 3:40 am and is filed under Direct Media Exchange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.