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FAQs for Advertisers
See all answers
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What are blogads good for?
Blogs are ideal for promoting everything from books, gigs, candidates, software, EBay auctions, and legal services to movies, clothing, household items, and vacation packages-- goods and services that require a strong intellectual or emotional engagement with an audience. Most of all, Blogads are good for new products and services that require word of mouth to really catch fire.
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Word of mouth? What do blogads have to do with "word of mouth?"
Most purchases are made in a social context. Only 1 in 10,000 people buy something really new; most of us wait until two or three or ten friends or peers try something. (Were you the first person in the Western Hemisphere to get a tattoo?) So marketers are obsessed with "word of mouth." But you can't rely on demographic slicing to get good word of mouth... unless you've got thermonuclear ad budget. You've got to think in a new dimension, and advertise to groups of influential people who know each other, respect each other, talk to each other. Blogs make the networks of peers reachable. Now you don't have to hit 500,000 eyeballs to stir up some word of mouth... it's far better to talk to 500 people who know and respect each other, right?
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So is this peer to peer?
Yep. For a while at least. While software, books, music and magazines are sold by big companies, obviously they are usually created by individuals or small groups. Blogads pricing and scale should mesh well with the individual creators' needs and wallets.
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Why do blogads run continuously for a set period?
The advertiser gets more branding. This also allows the reader to come back tomorrow and easily find and click the ad if they've decided they're interested, rather than the reader having to wait until the ad gets regurgitated again from some mammoth database queue of ads.
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What kind of clickthru can I expect?
Some advertisers get 5% clickthrus, some get 0.01% on the same blog. The key thing is to keep your ad fresh. You've got a great chance to really dig into the minds of a key network of decision makers, to drive word of mouth. Tweaking your ad every couple of days or completely revamping it is a great way to get into a dialogue with these people.
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How can I ensure that my ad is prominently displayed on a page?
While click thrus on even the biggest adstrips are competitive with industry averages, advertisers who want prominent placements can order "premium" ads on some bigger blogs.These ads are generally priced at 2 to 4 times ads in standard slots and can be backlogged.
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What are the limits when paying for ads with Worldpay (credit card) and PayPal?
The limits for Worldpay (credit card) transactions are a minimum of $76 and a maximum of $20,000 or up to the individual card holders personal card limit. The limits for PayPal transactions are a minimum of $10 to your individual PayPal limit. If your order is higher than this, please contact us at blogads-sales@blogads.com or (919)-636-4551. A Blogads staffer will then contact you to help you get this transaction done.
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I don't have a userid, how do I get one?
You do not need to get a userid in advance. Once you have selected the blogs you are interested in and uploaded the ad, the system will prompt you to either log in or create a new account. Your user id will need to be an e-mail address you have access to.
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Can I include hyperlinks inside the text portion of my ad?
Yes - you can add HTML links into your ad's text portion. Be sure to use the full HTML codes for http or mailto. This format is perfect for magazines who want to post links to different articles as well as to their subscription form. Likewise, a company pushing multiple services can link to each individual service. An added benefit: this format makes the ad look like more like a blog post.
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I am buying on a bunch of blogs. Can I add a separate tracking URL for each?
Yes. When you are on the Create Ad page, click on the "Advanced Details" button at the bottom. You will see a column called "Clickthru URL," this is where you are able to add in your individual blog tracking urls. You will need to do this for each blog- enter each Clickthru URL into the appropriate corresponding box. By doing this, you will be able to see on your end how many clicks each blog generates.
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Can my ad be animated?
Yes, although some bloggers reject ads that loop infinitely. Best to stop your ad after three or four rotations. Also remember that although you may design your ad as a joke (a + b = c!?) the reader may see the punch line first and never see the set-up line.
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Can I add multiple creatives to my ad?
Yes, you can add multiple creatives to your ad. This can either be done after an ad is live or after saving the ad in your shopping cart.
To add multiple creatives to a live ad go to your "Active Ads" page and click on the "Versions" link to the right of your ads' name. To add a new creative to your ad click on the orange "Add new version" link. Then upload your new version's nickname/image/text/url and preview the ad. To schedule the run days for a specific ad version, click on the days you would like the ad version to run in the Ad Scheduler that appears immediately above that version (please note each day begins at midnight Eastern Time). Save your changes! By default, ad version weights are distributed equally between ad versions assigned to run on each campaign day. To assign custom ad version weights, click on a specific day in the Campaign Day Calendar in the page frame on the left. Then edit the "Weight" field for the ad version weights that you would like to change. Save changes.
To add multiple creatives in your shopping cart, go to your shopping cart and click on the "Versions" link. To add a new creative to your ad, click on the "Add new version" link. Then upload your nickname/image/text/url and preview the ad. To schedule the run days for a specific ad version, click on the days you would like the ad version to run in the Ad Scheduler that appears immediately under that version (please note each day begins at midnight Eastern Time). Save your changes! By default, ad version weights are distributed equally between ad versions assigned to run on each campaign day. To assign custom ad version weights, click on a specific day in the Campaign Day Calendar in the page frame on the left. Then edit the "Weight" field for the ad version weights that you would like to change. Save changes.
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Can flash ads contain sound?
Yes flash ads can contain sound, but it must be user-initiated - the sound can not begin automatically. Please be aware that ads with sound are likely to anger readers and be rejected.
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Can I add HTML to my ad?
You can add bold, underline and italics, but centering and text color won't work (bloggers determine how ads appear on their sites in terms of the coloring, font, alignment, etc. so those elements will vary from blog to blog). You're also able to place direct hyperlinks within the text portion of the ad.
Bold= <b>your text</b>
Italics= <i>your text</i>
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On the Checkout page I only see PayPal. How can I pay by credit card?
We offer credit card payment for purchases above $75. If your order does not exceed this amount, you will not see the WorldPay credit card button displayed on the payment page. You can still use your credit card via PayPal. However, if you pay via PayPal but do not have funds in your PayPal account, payment will take 3-4 business days to clear. We will be able to run your ad only once payment has arrived.
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I know my ad was just approved but I cannot see it on the blog. What's up?
It can take up to 30 minutes for your ad to appear on the blog once it has been approved. If you have been waiting longer than 30 minutes and still don't see your ad, this could be due to your browsers cache. To refresh your browsers cache in Internet Explorer hold down your 'Ctrl' key and click the 'refresh' button with your mouse. In Firefox hold down the 'Shift' key and click the refresh button with your mouse. You should now be able to see your ad on the blog once the page reloads.
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Can I revise an ad?
Yes, please do. This will help keep the audience engaged with your ad. Please keep your new ad in the spirit of the original, so the blogger gets what s/he bargained for.
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How do I revise my ad?
When logged in and on the Active Ads page, click on the "version" link in the row of the ad you want to revise. Now click on the "Edit" link in the column of the ad version you'd like to edit. (Edit allows you to make minor changes to the current ad version. Clone allows you to create a new ad version, using materials from the current ad version.
Add new version allows you to create a completely new ad version starting from scratch.) After making edits to the ad, click the "Save Version" button at the bottom of the page to preview your ad version. If you agree with your changes, click the "Add Version" button, which will take you back to your main versions page. For more details on adding multiple creatives to your ad please click here
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Where in the adstrip will my ad appear once accepted?
By default, the ads are reshuffled each time a viewer downloads the blog: each ad appears each time, but their order is randomly determined. Bloggers, however, can override this random order and specify positions for each ad within the adstrip.
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What is the Shopping Cart?
The Shopping Cart is a place to put all the ads that you've not yet made a payment for, or want to save for later. To place an ad in the Shopping Cart, click the "Save to shopping cart" button on the "Preview" page of the ad creation process. Once the ad is in the Shopping Cart, you'll be able to either select "Buy now," "Save for later," or "Delete." You're also able to edit the ad creative in the Shopping Cart by clicking the "Edit" or "Versions" link in the row of the ad. It is also possible to remove blogs from your ad buy when it's saved in the shopping cart by using the edit function. You will see a button called 'Remove blogs' that will allow you to do this. Use the "Proceed" button to confirm your selection. If you have multiple ads in your shopping cart, you can pay for them all at once by selecting "Buy now" next to each ad and then clicking "Proceed" at the bottom of the page.
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The blogger has rejected my ad. When do I get a refund?
The money has been credited to your account for use in a future purchase. If you want to request a full or partial refund, please log into your account, click on the Accounting link in your navigation bar and specify at the bottom of the page how much you would like to withdraw. We will credit the money to your Paypal or credit card within 10 business days.
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What type of statistics does blogads offer?
You can track the impressions and clicks for your ads during and after the campaign. Besides the total, we provide statistics broken out per blog, per day as well as per creative execution for each ad. Click on any number under the "Clicks-Views-CTR" column in the row of the ad to see these numbers.
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What's the difference between renew and replicate?
The renew ad feature is used when you want to continue running one of your current ads that is about to expire. This allows the ad to continue running without interruption.
The replicate ad feature is used when you want to run one of your past ads (expired ads) again. This saves you time with the ad creation process as you do not need to add in the image and text again.
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My results are unbelievable. How can I renew my ad?
You can renew active ads by clicking on the renew link in the row of the ad. You'll be able to specify whether you want to renew on all blogs in the original run, or only a few of them. When renewing an ad you cannot specify a "run after" date: it will begin running immediately after its current term expires. If you'd like to renew an expired ad, click on the "Expired ads" link in the left navigation bar, then click the "replicate ad" link that corresponds with the ad you'd like to replicate. Select which version of the ad you prefer, and click "Replicate selected ad."
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I cannot see the URL or Versions link on the Active Ads page. What is wrong?
If you are running Norton Security, or other similar software, make sure you either have Adblocking turned off or whitelist Blogads pages. Once you've done this, you will likely see the "Versions" link. Also you will not see the "Versions" link if you've purchased a classie ad- as no edits can be made to those.
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