We have a booth in the Long Tail Pavilion at Web 2.0 Expo this week in San Francisco. Come by the table and learn a bit more about Right Media or just say hello.
We’ll have Ed Kozek and Kees Schouten from our Product team, and Pat McCarthy and Jerri Gillean from our RMX Direct team.
I belong to a team of creators. Innovators.
When we can’t get to sleep at night, we grab a pencil and sketch out the UI for a brand new product idea. Or draw out a flowchart for an easier process for this-or-that. Or bang out a rough draft of a blog post or a new educational initiative on our laptop. Or we do a system upgrade at 3AM.
And we love our work.
So, sometimes, we all just need a way for all that creativity to just ooze and overflow down our hallways. Who knows what great application, widget or idea might result from it?
That way is the “Direct Media Exchange’s Hack Day 2007″: April “Friday the 13th”, 2007.
We’ve been evenly divided into teams, each with business development persons and developers. And we’re rapidly rapid-prototyping out things with ‘wow’ by 4:30 PM PST. The winner will be the group that comes up and/or develops the “best” idea that is
Now wait a second: we’re not taking the day off. No. We’re still checking the phones and taking care of issues that might arise, including your support tickets.
Just the brainstorm sessions alone in my group has given me pause: I see some cool new features coming down the pipe for you all. I can’t wait to see what all the other groups have on their drawing boards. We’re even saving all the ‘rejected’ ideas, because they’re great too.
So, stay tuned to see who finally wins…and see what cool things we add to Direct Media Exchange.
Khayam Iftikhar is the CEO of FreeOnlineGames. Online game sites are a truly fertile area for online advertising . Users come back daily and are dedicated. And when the games are free, that’s even more of a reason to play… and get clicks.
Vince Panero (VP): How did you get interested in web publishing originally? What were those early days like for you?
Khayam Iftikhar: GeoCities! I just opened my email account with Yahoo when I got an invitation to build my own homepage. A few drag and drops later, I was the most famous kid in my college. In those early days it was all about experimentation, being cool, etc. until one of my sites took off and became one of the top 5 sites in UK for free sms .
VP: Can you tell us about your websites? How would you describe your focus/business model? And are there any particular issues exclusive to your site that you had to overcome to make the advertising model work?
Khayam Iftikhar: My main focus at the moment is on FreeOnlineGames.com. I am from the old school, we like to keep it simple, and by that I mean content is king.
VP: Did you get into this with the idea that you would make ad dollars from this site? How did you initially monetize your site? What problems did you encounter utilizing these early methods?
Khayam Iftikhar: We were serious about making money from day one, hence a substantial investment to acquire the right domain name was necessary. In those early days our ad inventory was not 100% sold and if it was sold, it was not getting sold at the price.
VP: Why did you start using Direct Media Exchange as your ad management platform of choice?
Khayam Iftikhar: We originally signed up due to the concept RMX was offering: in the way the platform automatically searches for the best price and sells at the highest possible cpm. It is just common sense for us…and we have been waiting for something like this a for long time.
VP: What statistical changes have you seen since you started using it? For example, have your eCPM and revenue increased?
Khayam Iftikhar: For the inventory DMX has been able to sell, our ecpm’s have doubled …and I mean at least doubled.
VP: What do you like most about Direct Media Exchange? Are there helpful parts of it that other ad management interfaces simply don’t offer? And how does it address the specific needs of your website’s unique niche?
Khayam Iftikhar: The in-depth geo-analysis. This enables us to know what we are earning in each country: I do not know of any other platform that offers this. As far as DMX fulfilling the specific needs of FreeOnlineGames.com and the fact that we are such a large site, I would not go as far to say that we have solved all of our advertising concerns, no. However, Direct Media Exchange has opened us up to allot to more advertisers, and that has enabled us to monetize a segment of our inventory that was previously undersold.
VP: Do you have any tips or tricks that you think others using the exchange might find useful?
Khayam Iftikhar: Use the Manage tab feature and bring your existing networks on board, making it easier to manage from one interface.
VP: Do you have any final thoughts on this “exchange concept” (network transparency and competition, the utility of having just one login, etc.)?
Khayam Iftikhar: Invite more ad networks to come onboard. Consolidate the payments. Allow publishers to view each advertiser/campaign.
VP: Khayam, thanks for being one of our Direct Media Exchange members.
Leland Prickett is our Direct Media Exchange numbers guy; he broadcasts a daily report to our team about movement within the Direct Media Exchange platform. It can be complex, but he simplifies it for tired eyes at 5:00 PM.
Vince Panero (VP):Leland, how long have you been with the company?
Leland Prickett: I have been with Right Media a little over two months, specifically focusing on the Direct Media Exchange product. My main duty is (more…)
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