Featured Publisher #16: Startaid.com
November 5th, 2007
Kurtis Harper started his website out of necessity; he wanted a place to post his bookmarks online. This idea gave birth to StartAid.com, his AJAX social bookmarking website. And by using Direct Media Exchange, he is pushing the revenue generation for this site to new heights.
Kurtis Harper (StartAid.com) is our new Featured Publisher.
I love the clean layout of Direct Media Exchange. After a couple of minutes of using Direct Media Exchange I was able to navigate easily and have the ad codes running on my website.-Kurtis Harper
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Kurtis Harper: First, I would like to take a moment to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. 
Vince Panero (VP): Thank you, Kurtis. It’s our pleasure to have you as our new Featured Publisher. How did you get interested in web publishing originally? What were those early days like for you?
Kurtis Harper: I started off in web publishing like many others–as a hobby with small, ‘Hello World’ types of home pages. From there, I made some game related websites for communities that I was a part of.
The early days were fun, frustrating and rewarding at the same time. Fun since I was doing something I enjoyed. Frustrating because someone always had a better website than myself . Lastly, the early days were rewarding because there is always a sense of gratification when you create something that other people find useful.
VP: Can you tell us about your website? 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?
Kurtis Harper: My website is StartAid.com and it is a social bookmark manager. As most people know, there are dozens of these types of websites, and some big players that have a strong following. So, we tried to do something a little different. We concentrated on a clean design, an AJAX interface, and thumbnail images of the pages bookmarked. One of our favourite features is our Firefox add-on that integrates online bookmarks into your browser.
A good business model is why most of us become publishers, and this part of our design was tricky to decide upon. We did not want to over burden our users with advertisements, but at the same time we did not want to charge any money for our service. What we decided upon was displaying ads in the “community areas” such as the comment sections of each bookmarked website. By taking this approach we lose impressions as we do not have advertisements on the main user pages, but at the same time it keeps our membership happy.
We had one big issue that snuck up on us, and that is the double edge sword of AJAX. Since StartAid has a lot of AJAX to allow for easy bookmark management, it actually becomes a problem when you want to advertise on the website. For those that are not aware, AJAX will update a page without a page reload. So this means a user comes to StartAid and they can go to 50 different places and his/her browser will not reload again. This would cause only one banner impression even though a user saw many pages. I suggest that those who plan to use AJAX keep this in mind .
VP: Being primarily book marking/socially focused, did you employ any special strategies along the way to get off the ground? For example: unique partnerships, combinations of services that are usually separate?
Kurtis Harper: Surprisingly we did not employ any radical start-up strategies. We started a couple of years ago and we didn’t know anyone to partner with. We actually did what we now do for others, and that was buy advertising space. In the beginning we were on the advertising side, buying ads from dozens of different places. This advertising helped us get traffic started and then, eventually, we hit a critical mass where we had organic growth and could sell ad space to others.
VP: What was the biggest challenge you faced creating or growing your company? For example, did you have to abandon an earlier idea because you couldn’t find a way to make it work? Explain.
Kurtis Harper: The biggest challenge we had was the user interface. There is a fine line between making things easier for a user and making something function as expected. For example, when we started originally, we had no AJAX anywhere on our site and all moving and editing of bookmarks was done with drop down menus. This is easy to understand as most websites have drop down menus, but in the big picture this is not an efficient way to do things. So we designed the AJAX interface to allow dragging and dropping of a bookmark, but many users do not understand this at first because it is not something they expect to be able to do in a web page. I suggest that sometimes it is better to take baby steps as it will confuse less people.
VP: What was the inspiration for the name of your website, “StartAid”.
Kurtis Harper: StartAid came to existence as a simple memorable way to explain what we’re trying to do for people. We are trying to help (aid) people find the webpage they want when they first open (start) their web browser. So we went with the name StartAid.
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?
Kurtis Harper: As much as we all want to make millions of dollars, I actually started StartAid as a personal page. What I did a few years ago was create myself a simple static HTML web page with 12 thumbnail URL links. This simple page was set as my default homepage and contained the links I used for work and my commonly used websites. Every time I opened my browser I would look for the image of the website I wanted to visit and then click on the image, then I was taken to that website. I thought to myself, what if I automate this personal homepage, have the server generate the image automatically and give it a database back end? I could then let others create a page of their own.
Then at this point, money came into my mind. I started thinking of ways to make money off this service and pay for overhead. I actually made a huge blunder with the first version and spent thousands of dollars to create an elaborate back end where people could buy ad space. This back end allowed advertisers to buy a “bookmark” in each user’s account and then tracked all clicks, impressions and other related statistics on this ad slot. I really liked the final advertising model as it fit into the page nicely, but it was missing one very important thing… the advertisers. Since we were a brand new service, why would anyone buy ad space off of us directly? I realized a little too late that a website needs to concentrate on good service and content. Then, if the site takes off, become a publisher with a company such as Direct Media Exchange since they already have an inventory of advertisers eager to buy your impressions.
VP: Why did you start using Direct Media Exchange as your ad management platform of choice?
Kurtis Harper: I tried many different networks and one thing became apparent very quickly: some of them pay well for traffic in one part of the world, but may pay next to nothing for traffic outside their preferred traffic area. Since StartAid is a multilingual bookmark manager, we have traffic from all around the world and I wanted to make the best of that traffic. With Direct Media Exchange not every network wanted US-only impressions, but the networks actually bid on all my traffic and this means that even though one network may pay well for US traffic, another network may pay better for my Spanish traffic. Direct Media Exchange links my traffic to those networks that want to pay the most for each impression. It is a win-win situation as the Advertisers, Publishers and Networks all come out on top. I am glad to be a part of Direct Media Exchange and look forward to its continual growth.
VP: What statistical changes have you seen since you started using it? For example, have your eCPM and revenue increased?
Kurtis Harper: Back in the month of September, I had about a 15% CTR and a $1.05 eCPM. I am quite pleased with these numbers and this number has grown since I first started with Direct Media Exchange . The first month with Direct Media Exchange I had an 8% CTR and a $0.69 eCPM, and then I decided to try a couple of things. What helped bring up my eCPM was a simple matter of enabling CPC and CPA ads on all my networks. I figured if users are clicking on the ads I may as well benefit from those clicks. I suggest to others that they try enabling CPC and CPA; from here you should watch your numbers for a week to see if there are any improvements.
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?
Kurtis Harper: I love the clean layout of Direct Media Exchange. After a couple of minutes of using Direct Media Exchange, I was able to navigate easily and have the ad codes running on my website. While on the topic of ad codes, I have to say I really appreciate the ‘combo’ ad codes which allow different size ads to be displayed depending on which one pays more. This is a nice touch and fits nicely on our pages.
I know you asked about the “one most liked” feature, but I would like to mention another. This feature is your ‘Manage’ section, where I can traffic-in other 3rd party networks into the Direct Media Exchange system. This allows me to set the eCPM and GEO target other networks as I see fit. This is a nice addition as now I have full control over all aspects of my impressions.
Can I mention Media Guard as well? I could discuss how great it is to be able to select the exact type of ads that are placed on my website, and how dedicated Direct Media Exchange is to screening those ads into the proper category… but I will not mention that as I am only supposed to pick the one thing I liked the most .
VP: Do you have any comments on ad placement technique: what works and what doesn’t? Is there a particular type of ad that you favor over others in regards to your site? What are your thoughts around this?
Kurtis Harper: This area, as many people know, is very subjective to your own website. That being said I do have one hot spot that works extremely well for me. A 336×280 ad block in the top left of my page (under the header) performs amazingly for both eCPM and CTR. I have tried many combinations, sizes and locations and this is my sweet spot. I recommend others give this a try and see if it performs well for them.
VP: Do you have any final thoughts on this “exchange concept” (network transparency and competition, the utility of having just one login, etc.)?
Kurtis Harper: I have to say that it should have always been like this, but I am glad Right Media created this wonderful exchange. Now as a publisher, I do not have to jump between different networks looking for the “best for me today”. I can now go to one place where the networks will be the “best for me everyday” . I cannot see me going back to a ‘non-exchange’ anytime soon.
VP: Do you have any other tips or tricks that you think others using the exchange might find useful? What advice would you give to a newbie user of Direct Media Exchange ?
Kurtis Harper: I am still kind of a newbie to Direct Media Exchange , but I suggest that users keep experimenting with locations and size of their ads, and try the CPC and CPA options if they have a good CTR. Make sure the ads are visible (”above the fold“) because if the ads are clicked on, the networks will pay as much for ad blocks that are rarely used or seen.
VP: In your opinion, what is the biggest downside to display marketing. And for that matter, the online advertising space in general?
Kurtis Harper: I would have to say banner blindness. Advertisers want the ads bigger and flashier to catch peoples’ attention and this in turn sometimes make people ignore them even more. It starts to get to a point where as a publisher I want to make money from my website but I do not want to overwhelm my users with ads. So, in the end, you have the advertiser wanting ads as big and as cheap as possible and then you have the publishers wanting the ads as small and as expensive as possible. I guess it is the tug of war that I find to be the downside, but either way I am along for the ride and it will be an interesting one .
VP: Direct Media Exchange-Is it just another web app, or has it really made your life easier/better in some way? Explain.
Kurtis Harper: Direct Media Exchange has made things a lot easier for me. At one point I was using 4 different networks at the same time. I was trying to personally manage what networks paid the best in what parts of my website. Then you have the matter of tracking how much you made per hour on each individual network. Now I have everything I want in one place. Direct Media Exchange does what I tried to do manually, and does it very well.
VP: If there was a recipe for success that you’ve discovered…and you were able to go back in time and share that with yourself when you were younger, what would that ‘recipe’ be?
Kurtis Harper: Do not be scared to take chances. I know this may sound like a broken record, but unless you try you will never know what you are capable of doing. I had to invest a lot of time, money and effort into StartAid and if I was not willing to stick with it, it would not be where it is today.
VP: If there was one thing you could go back and do differently in regards to your business or website, what would that be?
Kurtis Harper: It would be to do it sooner. I put off the idea for a couple of years and because of this I lost out on being one of the trail blazers. I suggest if you have an idea, think about it and then act as if you believe it will be successful. I have to admit I–like many others–made mistakes in creating websites, but these mistakes are the things that we learn from. Do not be scared to make a mistake. Just make sure you remember it, learn from it and then move on.
VP: Kurtis, thanks for being a member of Direct Media Exchange!
