The BigDoor Blog | October, 2009

Ever notice that when you are insanely passionate about something it tends to occupy every space in your brain, including your dreams?  I’m certainly in that position right now as we are working like crazy to improve upon the BigDoor beta and continue to scale and add more partners.  So it’s no surprise that our product is playing a starring role in my dreams as well, and last night’s was particularly entertaining.

In my dream I was standing on the edge of a windblown cliff, staring across a massive chasm that seemed to have no bottom.  The wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to hear a thing and there was a distinct chill in the air, apparently because there was no sun above – just angry clouds.  Across the chasm was another cliff edge that was equally as hard and sharp, but then beyond that were meadows with green grass, gentle rolling hills, plenty of sunshine and I believe even a bunny rabbit or two.  Any casual observer of my dream would have instantly understood the meaning of the chasm, and apparently the goal of getting a customer or two to get across this thing is deeply rooted in my subconscious.

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Security guards disallowed us from entering our data center because of an invoice dispute, which resulted in a geek-strewn, network-cable-tied, flying-hard-drive embroiled bloodbath. I only survived because I happened to have my trusty flask of high-potency 151 rum with me, which I used to cauterize my wounds and calm my nerves.
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Today Eric Eldon from VentureBeat posted a presentation given by Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Fran.

We’ve all known that Zynga is on a rocket ship, but it is cool to see their growth mapped on a chart. Fueled by well integrated virtual currency and offer platforms, their growth is nothing short of phenomenal.

What virtual currency, quality games and Facebook have done for Zynga.

View the full Zynga presentation here.

Since the launch of our public beta last Wednesday, we’ve been working with a wide variety of publishers and content types. We enjoy challenging ourselves to quickly adapt our platform after hearing stories about how publishers are having trouble monetizing their content or applications. Our launch declaration stirred up some goodness – quickly we’re getting plenty of proof that there is tons of compelling content out there that isn’t being served adequately by the typical programs.

That said, I’d like to reiterate the primary driver that will equate to success when you partner with BigDoor: compelling content or services. Publishers who look to get eyeballs by simply aggregating redundant content from around the web and trying to beat the search engine algorithms won’t find our solutions too helpful, mostly because they don’t address their visitors’ needs. That kind of publisher lives by the impression- and click- based reward systems – their visitors are fleeting and will soon look somewhere else.

We are really looking for publishers who believe in what they have to share, but just can’t find the right way to solve their online marketing challenges. If you are one of these publishers, you are decent at getting users thanks to the niche you fill, but standard ads just don’t cut it because your users are in focused consumption mode. They don’t notice your display ads or they don’t click on your CPC links because they actually like your content and want to stay! It’s these users who are going to be more open to rewarding you for your hard work by taking a moment to reciprocate. And by figuring out how best to adjust that relationship so that the give and take is obvious and fair, you will be able to make more money by interrupting them less.

A good example of this is our beta publisher postcard.fm. With a unique service that allows users to create and send audio postcards, postcard.fm uses BigDoor to keep their service free. They see much better results than trying to force a micropayment transaction or simple pageview monetization. “Impressive conversion rates so far! Way better than AdSense it seems,” raves postcard.fm owner David Hoffman.

Sound like something you’d like to try? Sign up today and tell us about your site – we’d love to take a shot at finding a solution that works for you.

TechCrunch: BigDoor Opens Doors to Public Beta

Bellevue, WA – October 14, 2009

BigDoor Media today announced the launch of its public beta program for online publishers.

“It is time for publishers to get access to the necessary monetization tools that will create real and sustainable business models,” says BigDoor CEO Keith Smith. “With better monetization tools for online publishers, online consumers can continue to have amazing content, entertaining games, cool iPhone apps, and great social networks.”

BigDoor Media’s private beta began in September, but quickly grew to support a variety of publishers and delivery methods, advancing to the point where BigDoor CTO Jeff Malek encouraged opening the beta program to more publishers.

“We’ve been able to quickly adjust the platform to meet the needs of some really diverse businesses. I’m looking forward to getting more beta customers and scaling our systems,” says Malek.

The company’s Offer Platform is a completely customized private label solution that publishers can integrate with an existing site or application with just a single line of code. Publishers determine how their users interact with the offers, and control the look and feel of the experience to complement their site. In the private beta, publishers consistently received better revenue results for their traffic than the typical display and search advertising programs previously utilized on the sites.

Publishers who wish to join the public beta should visit http://publisher.bigdoor.com/signup or contact publishers@bigdoor.com.

About BigDoor Media
BigDoor Media’s mission is to provide online monetization that doesn’t suck. In other words, BigDoor wants to make it easier to make money online by providing unique offer-based solutions for web and Apple iPhone publishers. Based in Bellevue, WA, BigDoor Media is powered by a small team with extensive experience in online advertising and monetization technologies, and lots of coffee. Please see www.bigdoor.com for more info.

Contact Information
206.769.3536
info@bigdoor.com

It was October of 1517 when a man named Martin Luther steeled his courage and defiantly marched up the walkway to the Castle Church and nailed his 95 theses of reformation to a large, imposing, red door. No matter your political or religious views, one must admit that this act took guts. Luther was fighting a battle against an entrenched way of life and a well established line of thinking, and he was declaring independence from the establishment. He believed that there was a better and more efficient way to do things and he was determined to get the word out. While I fully recognize that launching a public beta of an Internet technology platform pales in comparison to the actions of Luther that changed the very course of western civilization, I tend to relish in the imagery and I draw inspiration from bold actions. So it is in that spirit that I write this inaugural post for our BigDoor blog and declare our independence from the established way of thinking in the online media world.
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