Syntagma Digital is opening up its network magazines to the outside world. This means that blogs that fit into the Allusionz network magazine for instance, will be able to apply for inclusion.
The move will allow external sites inclusion in our rolling feeds, plus graphic representation on the portal and participation in the Editor’s Pick of the Posts. In addition, they will become recipients of any magazine-wide advertising deals we negotiate. Involvement will not change the ownership, hosting arrangements or running of non-Syntagma Digital sites in any way.
Syntagma going ad network, eh? They sure have got a 50+ stock of sites already to put ads on, and now they want to get bigger to get better deals. I pinged John Evans of Syntagma about this.
How will you split the revenue with participating sites?
We’re currently looking at a 70/30 split in favor of the client. That beats what’s on offer elsewhere, at least to my knowledge. It also has added advantages in terms of traffic.
What’s your goal with adding more sites to the various network magazines? Are there any milestones you want to reach, and where will it lead eventually?
The goal is to use increased page views to secure better advertising. It makes sense to maximize the use of the content platforms we’re creating in a way that benefits everyone involved. As for milestones, the system is totally expansible with no limits that I can see.
An interesting move indeed. Syntagma caused quite a bit of snickers in the blogosphere last year with their talk about network magazines, as opposed to blog networks, but since the successful launch of the magazines (and the redesign of the network) the ideas of Evans & Co. seams a whole lot more thought through.
I’ll not say that this next step is a logical one, but since Syntagma already is working with so many sites, adding more to further power up the network magazines (and the ad packages I’m sure they represent) might be a good idea. It will be interesting to follow the development of this concept.
Disclosure: I was hired for designing both the network magazines and the new Syntagma templates.
Originally posted on March 2, 2007 @ 5:21 am
What external sites and blogs will get is exposure on our content platforms, traffic back, and 70% of advertising revenue generated from the site. Owners pay nothing, and virtually do nothing for all that. It’s got to be one of the best deals around.
Thanks for the nice write up, Thord.
Hmm, interesting move. Nobody really knows what the average Syntagma site earns, so it’s hard to know exactly what’s in this for outside sites, but it certainly makes sense.
Kudos John :)
We’re talking to advertising people about new ad deals for magazine-wide inventory, Jeremy, so previous earnings are not really relevant.
We’ve yet to monetize the magazine infrastructure as it’s so new. Now we begin. ;-)
A good move John, but needs a lot of work to be done.
We at Instablogs are also working on a similar thing. Having your own ad server not only helps you in cutting down the commission you split with third party people but also help you increase your ad inventory by allowing more outside blogs to enjoy the benefits.
True, Ankit, but we’ve always operated on a need basis. We’re dealing with the publishing side right now, and we’ll look at the technology (not our strongest point) when we absolutely need to. :-)
John, it sounds like you’re saying you don’t have your own ad server…
Jeremy, I believe most of the blog networks don
‘t have an ad server of their own. And most of the time we work with third party vendors.
We also haven`t fully developed an ad server solution till now, but had used simple php calls/functions to display ads on various blogs. But now with increase in advertisers/clients asking for a direct interface so that they can buy inventory, change campaigns, and do other things without pinging us everytime, we have decided to build our own ad solutions.
I was thinking we few of blog networks can collabrate so that a single solution can be used, we could offer more inventory, and help fuel our growth in more positive way.. .
Just a passing thought.
Ankit, that’s an interesting proposal. Drop me an email with your ideas.
We have a number of ongoing discussions with folk offering technology solutions. We’ll know the right answer when we see it. ;-)
The idea is very simple, most of the blog networks face similar challenges. So a solution which can cater to few participating blog networks can exist at a single place.
We use TLA, Blogads, Adbrite, Pheedo etc. But can’t be single ad server app be constructed which has capabilities to display Rich Media Ads, CPM based banners, flat rate text link ads etc to all the blogs participating?
FM and Glam are already doing it, but their gates are not open to new blogs, or blogs with not so large traffic. I still believe if blog networks can work collabratively they can be a massive force. Instead of going after big blogs, its best to build niche channels consisting of few dozen blogs and aggregating them in a single place to showcase the best content. This can server big to small advertisers and publishers in best possible way.
That’s exactly what our network magazines are designed to do and are doing for our owned webtitles. We plan to add many more selected sites by arrangement with the owners.
The single ad server solution has many benefits, but whether it can cross networks as well as other participating sites is quite a question. Jeremy will probably tell you all is possible, but I think most networks would prefer to stay in charge of their own inventory.
We would certainly be interested in discussing the idea, although the solution may be very complicated.
Further thoughts on Ankit’s proposal : I certainly think a small number of networks could share a dedicated ad server, each with their own account. It would cut costs and save wasting capacity. They could also pool technical expertise — or lack of it.
That might be a worthwhile proposition to consider.
That’s funny, because we’ve offered to open up our infrastructure to both your companies several times and have been told you’d rather go it alone.
The offer still stands. Distinct ad server implementations for each of you, only pay for what you use, no setup cost. It’s not an enterprise class app like we’re about to move to, but it’s decent enough.
We’ve always offered technical and other resources to other networks (such as helping improve Instablogs monetization, putting KnowMoreMedia in touch with new advertisers and sharing legal docs with half a dozen networks).
Best way to get this done, though, is for you guys to pop down to SXSW for BlogNetworkCamp. Any shared resources the blog network industry can work up will be largely decided upon there.
Jeremy, I don’t recall that offer, except for a brief discussion on server space some time ago.
Could you let me have some details in private on the ad server deal? I’m already in discussion with some advertisers so this might kick off sooner than I expected.
As for SXSW, I’ve replied on Ensight. :-)
John, at this point I’m flat out for SXSW, and our tech team’s either coming with me or is also flat out.
Probably best to wait until after SXSW. We can have you up in 48 hours, though, so yeah. Don’t necessarily wait for us, but by the time SXSW is done there might be something more compelling that comes out of the whole community.
I think it’s interesting that we had this model first (adding in additional sites run by independent authors) and were basically laughed at saying our strategy would never work because we didn’t own the content. Now, traditional blog networks like b5media and Syntagma are heading down our route. Interesting, interesting ;)
I don`t think Mike, John like to call Syntagma a traditional blog network.
Don`t take it in a wrong way, but I still don`t think 9rules has a definite business plan, other than adding paid features to 9rules portal. I would be very happy if it work out for you guys.
What I am suggesting is most of the blog networks have pretty good traffic in niche channels (adding traffic on individual blogs in a particular niche area). If we can expand this niche channel by pooling channels of various networks, we can have a large inventory to sell.
>> John: but I think most networks would prefer to stay in charge of their own inventory.
Everyone can stay in charge of their own inventory, as blog network owners will decide what part of total inventory should be thrown in the pool.
The biggest benefit we all can get is to allow advertisers to choose through various form of ads from Text link, RSS Feeds, CPM based, CPC based through an easy interface. By pooling our inventory, we will pooling our current advertisers too.
We can further hire a sales exec to help the program. Anyways our programmers would be completing the code in couple of weeks. We will be implementing it for Instablogs very soon. If someone want too see a demo or like send me an email in couple of weeks.
>> Jeremy: We’ve always offered technical and other resources to other networks (such as helping improve Instablogs monetization,
I for the one have believed that Jeremy you are always there to help other networks. This is something which is actually missing from all us. We should think ourselves as a community, and device new ways in which we can collaborate together.
Heads up for the BlogNetworkCamp at SXSW organized by Jeremy. I wish I could attend it.
Mike, Syntagma’s opening up of our niche-based network magazines to outside inventory involves more than just aggregating content to four portals. It also offers the serving of ads straight to participating sites for which the owners get paid a 70% cut calculated by page view input to the inventory.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think 9rules offers anything like that.
Ankit: we already have our own portal backends in our network magazine structure. These are prototype aggregation systems which are being built out into a complete ad network for participating sites. It’s a bit of FM, but with a traffic generator added. Not at all like 9rules, except that in place of the famous leaf logo, we’ll serve our magazine logo.
I don’t think our system will easily slot into the engine you’re suggesting, which I think involves merging individual blog networks into one jumbo-sized, planet-wide, digital wonder of the world.
It’s a great dea, and when we first started, I’d have seriously considered it. Now, we’re too far down another road.
You guys totally aren’t communicating ;-)
Let me see if I can make a few observations that’ll hopefully allow everyone to see where everyone else is coming from.
John: Ankit’s suggesting sharing resources. Hiring central resources and then letting each network remain autonomous. You wouldn’t have to take any ad deals, but if deals came along that made sense you’d have access to them. One of my suggestions at SXSW will be similar, but structured differently.
No merging. No jumbo sized anything. Reach without loss of independence.
Mike: To think that 9rules invented the “bring in exterior sites to form a network” idea is laughable at best, and insincere at worst. You guys have done lots of great thing, but inventing community / a network of like-minded folk / a network of sites / a portal of like-minded sites / etc isn’t one of them.
Ankit: John’s always going to be leery of giving up any control. It’s kind of like Americans and the ICC. They want all the benefits without any of the cost or loss of autonomy. And, no, John, I don’t mean that in any derogatory way. It might sound conflicting, but it’s really just a reflection of your priorities.
Ankit: What’s keeping you from coming out? If it’s cost, b5’s happy to lend you guys the money (and that goes for everyone).
John: For the conversation to continue forward, it’s probably best if you drop the idea that what you’re doing is totally new. We’ve accepted external sites (as have most networks) for longer than Syntagma’s existed. And, as you know, our split was 80/20. And we created the “channels” concept for blog networks. And we were the first to sell them as a “magazine”. You’re doing a great job, but nothing in your ad split or technology makes it impossible for you to collaborate :) It’s always better to focus on what’s similar when trying to collaborate than on what’s different!
Anyways, I understand if you guys can’t wait until post SXSW to discuss collaboration. After all, everyone’s busy. Likewise, I totally understand if folk can’t make it (since we floated the idea 1.5 weeks before the event).
But, this’ll be a central point of the discussions there. After all, no matter our differences, we all have ad servers, web servers, database servers, software issues, support issues, community issues and dozens of other similarities. Even if you’re not a “blog network” (like 9rules and Syntagma), most of these issues are still common to all of us. Maybe we should just call it the “blog media industry” so that nobody gets their feathers ruffled, eh? ;)
End of the day, collaboration saves everyone money. In every major industry, collaboration is a key to growth. Movie industry, music industry, airline industry, banking industry, car industry…
They all share resources, rely on common standards and brainstorm collectively in order to grow the industry. They then return to HQ and innovate the hell out of other areas of their business so they can kick their competition’s in the butt.
There’s no reason our industry can’t be any different: collaborate on what’s common, and differentiate on what matters.
Americans and the ICC, Jeremy. Hell! I agree with them. At least they protect their soldiers, unlike Tony blair who lets them hang out to dry. So, shrewd remark, but not totally accurate. ;-)
I’m quite prepared to lose control to people who have greater expertise than I do — I call this Superdemocracy — but only where it works with our trajectory. It’s up to you guys to convince me.
I do like the sound of your SXSW propositions though. I’ll wait to hear what they are in detail.
As for not communicating — we are an American, an Indian, an Englishman and a Canadian. We each have different words for the same things. How are we supposed to communicate. ;-)
“As for not communicating — we are an American, an Indian, an Englishman and a Canadian. We each have different words for the same things. How are we supposed to communicate. ”
In French! ;)
> Jeremy: What’s keeping you from coming out? If it’s cost, b5’s happy to lend you guys the money.
Money is not a problem. I can`t get VISA for US in just a week. I need at least a month or more to prepare the documents. If you could have planned it few weeks before, nothing could have stopped me from coming.
I would have love to discuss more about blog networks with your guys. I have always vouched for all of us to work together, but it seem everyone is busy telling how great their network is instead of thinking of way in which everyone can collaborate.
And hats off to your Jeremy for being the first guy to think and actually plan something which could be beneficial for the whole industry.
Jeremy I want you to keep on the discussions open not only at the camp but even after it on your blog.