A lot of things in the real world are not directly transferable to the web. Or they might not seem to be at first glance. Then, someone pulls off a successful mash-up and you invariably ask yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?!” Baris Sahin has successfully mashed the slightly antiquated concept of the paper doll and updated it, combining it with the web and a youth demographic; his website/s have been successfully humming along ever since. He also uses Direct Media Exchange to monetize his inventory.

Baris Sahin is this month’s Direct Media Exchange Featured Publisher.

“…it really helps you create an advertisement strategy. You can easily control your advertisers’ ads.”
-Baris Sahin

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

Baris Sahin: My real occupation was not web publishing initially. I was interested in the web, but didn’t start this job for a long time. In the early days, I had many problems like all beginners do. To become a good web publisher you have to have good projects and you have to work a lot.

VP: Can you tell us about your website/s? 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?

Baris Sahin: There are 4 web sites that we publish. These sites include games for young girls. It’s been important to us to make everything easy to reach as they’re looking for things on the site. I think our features are exclusive to our site, and different then most of the other sites out there. I think that’s what makes our sites successful.

VP: Being primarily youth focused, did you employ any special strategies along the way to get off the ground, for example: partnerships, combinations of services that are usually separate?

Baris Sahin: Yes, I did. In order to become a good web publisher, co-operation and working jointly with others is necessary. We did our research in that direction and we will continue to make use of those kinds of opportunities in the future.

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.

Baris Sahin: Of course—at times, we couldn’t realize projects and ideas. All of the stages of a project have to fit and work together in a dependable, systematic way–and success requires experience and time.

VP: What was the inspiration for the name of your company (Overtrade Inc.) and your main website, MyDressupgames.net?

Baris Sahin: While experimenting with the names, the most important thing to us was that they were simple, easily memorized, and easy to find and pronounce.

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?

Baris Sahin: All of us are aware of the large revenue one can earn in this sector. The important thing that we considered when we were starting this job was whether we’d be able to earn money from it . My opinion about financing the sites: if the project is good enough the site will finance itself. Because of this we didn’t have any problems with financing.

VP: Why did you start using Direct Media Exchange as your ad management platform of choice?

Baris Sahin: Actually I ran into Direct Media Exchange by chance, which I am very glad about, because DMX is beyond its competitors in features, advertiser quality and support. When using Direct Media Exchange, you don’t need to work with the companies one by one; this brings many advantages, because the companies in this pool are in dynamic competition with each other.

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

Baris Sahin: Of course, they have increased. By the way I would like to thank dear Eryn (Direct Media Exchange Client Services) for her support, and for my success.

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?

Baris Sahin: There are many advantages to using DMX. First of all, it has a very useful and logical interface and provides control for everything. This is a very important point; it really helps you create an advertisement strategy. You can easily control your advertisers’ ads.

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?

Baris Sahin: My ad placement technique is very easy and useful. For my sites, I mostly prefer 160×600, 728×90 and 120×600 banners. And the visual designs are built upon these banners.

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

Baris Sahin: I think the concept and the system works quite well. I believe in Direct Media Exchange one hundred percent, and this includes its transparency. The utility of having just one login is an important point as it regards security.

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?

Baris Sahin: I suggest that users adjust the banner sizes and that they realize that advertisements should be shown as a part of a whole content package. They should always place their ads by seeing the sites through their users’ eyes. Instead of adding more ads, I recommend that they choose the most clicked ones and remove the others. Of course they should work to increase the site performance and to always continue watching for what works.

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?

Baris Sahin: If I could, I would go back to the 90’s and be a web publisher.

VP: If there was one thing you could go back and do differently in regards to your business or website, what would that be?

Baris Sahin: I would like to have registered some old, impressive domains.

VP: DMX–is it just another web app, or has it really made your life easier or better in some way? Explain.

Baris Sahin: It is not just another web application for me. It is an independent, professional framework. As a web publisher I am very glad I use Direct Media Exchange.

VP: Thanks for being our one our Direct Media Exchange members, Baris!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Publishers, 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.