Have you heard of the YPNBLOG? You should…

This blog is the Yahoo! Publisher Network’s resource for publishers, by publishers. Here, you’ll find not only what you might expect from a product-focused industry blog—the latest on issues, new releases, hacks and tips—but also in-depth how-to’s, publisher interviews, industry trends, links to articles and other news and information you can use. You will also, we think, find a community that will help you to learn how to be a more successful and profitable publisher.

We recently contributed a guest blog post to the YPNBLOG (with more to follow in the future). As Right Media is now part of Yahoo!, it’s logical that we reach out to Yahoo’s wider base of publishers who use Yahoo! products.

The article we posted focuses on the concept of “the exchange”: what it is and what questions publishers should ask of ad companies that call themselves an “exchange”.

If you’re curious, click here for Jerri Gillean’s article–it’s a fascinating read.

Do you know this man?

This is Jon Young, our Inside Sales Executive for Direct Media Exchange; he will be walking the floor at the Affiliate Summit February 24-26, 2008 in warm Las Vegas, Nevada. If you have questions like “what’s an ad exchange?” or “what’s DMX”, this is the man to talk to.

Look for his face; he’s a great resource around here for publishers who are curious about Direct Media Exchange.

See you there!

It’s always fun trying to get people to ‘get’ what we’ve got going on for them here with Direct Media Exchange.

After all, we’re not selling plungers; we’re giving everyone an opportunity to help them manage the advertising on their websites and increase their revenue. We’re a free hosted ad server, but we also embrace things like openness, transparency, and the efficiency of an auction. Rather than look over each other’s backs, our members–advertisers and publishers alike—collaborate.

And I really like metaphors, so here’s one that describes DMX: it’s more like a waterfall. I might sound like I am trying to be cute, but I am dead serious… (more…)

DMX just passed a milestone: 300 million.

Yes. We’re now consistently posting 300 million impressions per day in traffic from within Direct Media Exchange .

Part of it is just because DMX “works for the pub”–the small to medium sized publisher to be exact. But this 300 million milestone is big for us. Here’s some more of what it looks like from our vantage point here at our Eugene offices:

• In Q4 2007, compared to Q4 2006, total ad traffic for DMX (measured in impressions) : 151% growth rate
• In Q4 2007, compared to Q4 2006, we saw a near 950% growth in revenue payouts to DMX publisher members. WOW!

We’re about empowering publishers and helping them grow their revenue. If you’ve got a website, take a moment and consider if you’d like to see some new growth in your business. We may have a solution for you.

The Holidays are a great time to give, but wouldn’t it be nice to receive a little this year? You can and it might be easier than you think.

The holiday season means big money for ad budgets and a lot of revenue left on the table if you aren’t allowing advertisers to target to your inventory types. If you have inventory that is mis-categorized or labeled as “Unknown,” chances are the right ads are not reaching their intended audience. Even worse, a lot of advertisers exclude their campaigns from running on unknown inventory because running on unknown is a bit like driving blind: you just might get there, but there could be a lot of accidents along the way.

So what can you do to reap the benefits of holiday ad budgets this year? Look into your account setup and make sure all of your inventory is categorized as something related to its content rather than Unknown. A good rule of thumb when labeling inventory types is to mark off every channel that is relevant to your site or site section without going overboard or “stretching” your inventory into categories it really doesn’t belong in. On the rare occasion that your inventory truly doesn’t have a label that works, then leaving it as Unknown is the best idea.

The more on target you are with your classifications, the more relevant the ads will be that serve on your site, giving you greater access to that coveted demand you KNOW you want. So go ahead, set up your channels correctly and give yourself a present this year. You deserve it.

Happy Holidays!