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.”

So imagine that you’ve got a smoking hot web idea. You create your website…then users show. Once you’ve got a healthy amount of traffic to your site, 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.

People like to think they’ll always be approved by the partner they’re applying to, but there’s always ‘content guidelines’. 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 best approaches for getting your Direct Media Exchange account approved quickly.

Why People Get Denied

The most common reasons that our approval team denies a site that would otherwise be OK is: (more…)

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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