As the 4^th of July draws near, we find ourselves preparing yet again for a day of exciting, somewhat wholesome, good American fun. You might be planning a picnic or a barbeque, or getting out of town, or waiting to be invited to a party, or planning a nice night in with the family. Here in Eugene we have great firework shows at the local baseball stadium, we’re stocking up on PBR (not only is it delicious but the cans are red, white and blue) and some of us are making the pilgrimage north to the great state of Washington where a seedy store called Blackjack’s sells fireworks that aren’t legal in Oregon.

Beyond all the festivities, though, there is one major topic that I know each one of us really reflects on this time of year: Frequency Capping.

Here are some tips from the Direct Media Exchange team:

Cam says: “Make sure to cap! It helps increase your fill rate from outside third-party networks. It stops sending them the impressions that they would normally send to default. And don’t forget to stick a feather in your frequency cap!”

Joe says: “Find out when your impressions are defaulting and set them appropriately— don’t just put caps on arbitrarily. Adjust your frequency caps and see how your fill rate is affected. For example, if your cap is set at 3 per 24 hours, and you’re still getting defaults, you should adjust the cap to 2 per 24 hours. If you’re getting no defaults, you should raise the daily number.”

Chuck says: “Use the reporting tools in your 3rd party accounts to determine several pricing points based on frequency, then use DMX frequency capping to create multiple placements at those price points. For example: rather than 1 placement capped at 5 per user per day set at $.20 eCPM, you might have a placement at 1 per user per day at $.60 eCPM, another at $.20 eCPM at 2 per user per day, and a third at $.10 at 2 per user per day to more accurately reflect the pricing at your third party.”

I say: “This might take some practice, because frequency capping is an art, not a science. The DMX forum is a great place to go for community support, and remember that the DMX team is always here for you too.”

Direct Media Exchange recently came under the leadership of Cam McNeeley.  Cam has been with DMX since its birth in July 2006, and has seen it through every stage of growth.  He’s the perfect candidate for the job and his vision for the solution is fantastic:

“In an increasingly competitive market for self-service ad management systems, DMX is in a position to differentiate itself as the most powerful free tool on the market to optimize and maximize revenue from multiple networks.  The combination of free, hosted ad management, built-in monetization, and most importantly, DMX’s direct connection to the Right Media Exchange networks, is what sets us apart in this industry.”

DMX Mission:

• Provide a reliable tool for medium to small publishers to effectively monetize their inventory by fostering competition among all of their networks
• Offer fast, high quality support to all clients and high-touch, personalized business advice to strategic Client Services-supported publishers
• Serve the long tail and large remnant publishers

Aside from professional goals and strategies, you should also know some other stuff about Cam.  For instance, sometimes he likes to use computer-related terms to describe human interactions.  I might ask you to ‘tell me about that.’ Cam would ask you to ‘download that information to me.’ But only if you have the ‘bandwidth.’ Or ‘brainwidth.’  It’s not as cool as it sounds.

Some fun Cam facts:

• Favorite movies: True Romance, The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona
• Favorite TV show: Six Feet Under
• Highest Bowling Score: 279
• Favorite quote: “The whistles go WOOOO!” –Bubb Rubb
• Favorite music: acoustic folk guitar, gangster rap
• Favorite drink: “El Cameron Especial,” which contains Jim Beam Black, gingerale, and a lime
• Pet facts: Cam once had a cat named Bruce Dickinson that accidentally climbed into his neighbor’s moving truck and went to Florida.  Now he has an awesome yellow lab named Samba
• Cam loves bacon and breakfast burritos way more than the average person

Any questions?

You are reading my first official blog for the exchange. I’m excited to take this role on and also a little nervous to be filling the shoes of the legendary Vince Panero. Until now my focus has been on account approvals—an entertaining and sometimes shocking job.

I was sifting through some of Vince’s old blog drafts that were never posted, and found one summing up an interview he did with me about the approvals process. I thought it might be a good choice for my first entry.

“So imagine that you’ve just created a smoking hot website. The next thing you could do is submit your new website to different advertising partners to be part of their programs. Then you can generate some revenue from your hard-earned, organically grown traffic.

But then the reality of the approval process sets in. Sometimes you’re accepted. Sometimes you wait forever–and then get accepted. And sometimes you’re just outright denied. How do you make it easier on yourself (and the approvers)?

Well, I don’t know everyone’s rules and regulations regarding approvals, but I do know the head ‘approval’ person here for DMX. Kelly K. is her name and approvals (and denials) is her game. Let’s see if we can get the skinny on this whole sticky subject of approvals…

Vince Panero (VP): You do approvals, right?

Kelly K.: Yep, I’m doing approvals.

VP: You know it’s a tricky subject; people like to think they’ll always be approved by the partner they’re applying to, but there’s always ‘content guidelines’…

Kelly K.: I go by the guidelines for approvals. It pretty much covers everything to my knowledge.

VP: What are some of the things that keep potential DMX ‘pubs’ from getting your stamp of approval?

Kelly K.: Well, the most common reason that I deny a site that could otherwise be OK is ‘adult content.’ It’s so common because just ONE inappropriate picture makes their whole site deniable. Another one is that the publisher ‘contact and sign-up’ information doesn’t pan out—there’s something fishy or odd about their site/sign-up info, so I email them and never hear back.

VP: What else?

Kelly K.: Copyright violations—usually with music and movie download sites. Another is poorly-designed sites with too many ads, no original content, etc. That’s a big DMX guideline: ‘Be clean and professional in design with quality content.’

VP: So, for publishers, what can they do to fast track their approval process?

Kelly K.: They can start by referring to our content guidelines to make sure they make the cut. Another thing off the top of my head is that they can register with an email address from their website domain.

Here’s an example: if I see ‘joeschmoe@xyzmail.com’ registering with a great website that isn’t ‘www.xyzmail.com’, I often have to go through the process of emailing them to verify that he/she owns their sites.

Now, if they register with joeschmoe@greatwebsite.com, (the same domain that they are registering) then I don’t have to take that extra step (most of the time). It saves me work, but it also just gets them on board a lot faster.

VP: Well, Kelly, we collectively appreciate your efforts over here. It’s tough to cycle through so many publishers.

Kelly K.: Hey, thanks. But it’s fun to see all the cool people coming to join our exchange. It rocks.

VP: Thanks K!

Kelly K.: Don’t mention it V.
…and if you’re ready to get your site approved for Direct Media Exchange, click here.”

Phonezoo.com is our new featured publisher for Direct Media Exchange.

“…extremely easy to use, saves me several hours a week and generates substantial incremental revenue for Phonezoo. It makes business better and that makes life better.” - Jim Mansfield, Phonezoo’s VP of Marketing

Can you think of anything cooler than creating your own ringtones on the fly, then having a service help you download them to your cell phone? This is the essence of Phonezoo–a cornucopia of sounds, graphics and more to make your cell phones sing…literally. Jim Mansfield, Phonezoo’s VP of Marketing, answered our interview questions. (more…)

We’ve all gotten past another Winter–more or less–and Spring Equinox and the Easter holiday is already over. Like the seasons, change is a constant in the world of online advertising–so it’s smart to be open to it. With that, here are some quick changes you can make to “Spring Clean” your Direct Media Exchange account:

1) Update those 3rd party placements! The eCPMs of your ad partners change from day to day, but we give you the option to control them. Compare your ad partners eCPMs and the current bids you’ve set for them in the ‘Manage’ tab, then reset them to the eCPMs you see in your ad partner’s accounts. Also, feel free to read more about other strategies like Frequency Capping and Geotargetting in our Direct Media Exchange support center (account needed).

2) Review your Media Guard settings. If you originally throttled back on the types of creatives you allow on your site, re-examine these. Remember that the more creatives that are available, the more opportunity you have to have other’s ad campaigns run on your sites–which brings more opportunity to generate revenue. For more information on this, check out the DMX ‘Community’ Tab, where you’ll see forums and FAQs on Media Guard and ad filtering strategies.

3) Link! Hey, did you know that from time to time we add new ad networks to our family of DMX internal networks? Your inventory may be just the right fit for them! Visit the ‘Link’ tab in DMX and see who’s new on the block; read their descriptions and try out a new network or two.

Here’s to your revenue blooming in 2008, on Direct Media Exchange.