Ad.ly Blog

Learning as we grow

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:49:00 -0400

We at Ad.ly set out to create an in-stream advertising network that would help advertisers reach their goals while rewarding Influencers for the quality content they produce and the following they have attracted.

And for the most part, that is exactly what happened. Our Influencer Network business has very quickly evolved into a scalable micro-endorsement platform.

But like everyone in the rapidly growing “Stream” economy, we are learning in real time what works, and what does not.

That’s why – as we approach Ad.ly’s one-year anniversary – we are making some important changes that will help us provide a better service for everyone.

(“Everyone” includes advertisers, influencers, and our newest constituents – the developers who build Twitter applications and publisher websites – plus Ad.ly.)

WHAT’S CHANGING:

1. The Ad.ly Referral Program is now closed.

We want to thank everyone who helped spread the word about Ad.ly in the early days, which helped us grow our network of top Influencers. But going forward, we are discontinuing our referral program.

Of course, we will honor our existing commitments to referrers of active Ad.ly Influencers as of the close of business today. But thereafter, no new referral fees will be paid.

2. The Ad.ly Influencer Network requires that you have at least 5,000 followers on Twitter or 5,000 friends on MySpace.

As of today, you must have at least 5,000 followers on Twitter or 5,000 friends on MySpace in order to have an active Ad.ly Influencer Network account (meaning you are “in-market” and available for advertising opportunities).

These minimums are designed to set realistic expectations for Ad.ly Influencers, some of whom have expressed frustration with waiting for an advertising opportunity to come into their Ad.ly account.

They are based on the rapidly evolving dynamics of the micro-endorsement market. Advertisers are opting to reach out via a small number of influencers with large followings, as opposed to using a large number of influencers with smaller followings.

1. If you are an Ad.ly Influencer with 5,000 followers or friends, or more, nothing will change for you as a result of this new policy.

2. If you are an Ad.ly Influencer with fewer than 5,000 followers or friends, and you have a balance due from us, here’s what to expect:

We will keep your account active (in-market) until you reach our $50.00 minimum pay-point. At that time, we will issue you a W-9 to initiate payment via check or PayPal (your choice).
We will then take your account out-of-market until such time as you reach the 5,000 follower of friend count.
Once you hit one of those minimums, we will email you to make it easy to bring your account back in-market.

3. If you are an Ad.ly Influencer with fewer than 5,000 followers or friends, and no balance due, your account will be taken out-of-market effective at the close of business today. Once you hit one of these minimums, we will email you to make it easy to bring your account back in-market.

4. If you would like to be an Ad.ly Influencer, but do not yet have 5,000 followers or friends, you can still create an account with Ad.ly at any time. As soon as you hit one of our minimums, we will email you to make it easy to bring your account in-market.

We apologize for the inconvenience some of you may have experienced while waiting for an ad to come in.

Once you hit one of our new minimums, we hope you will give Ad.ly another try – to get rewarded for the quality content you create and the following you attract. Here are some ideas on how to increase your engagement and grow your following on Twitter.

As always, please feel free to email us with questions at Help@Ad.ly

MySpace Partners with Ad.ly

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:31:00 -0400

Today we announced a partnership with MySpace to help their most influential users monetize their audiences on MySpace. As of today, MySpace’s top users can participate in Ad.ly’s Influencer Network, where they can make money for promoting the brands they love to their friends. To get started with Ad.ly, sign up or login here and add your MySpace account.

We’re excited about this launch because it extends the reach of our Influencer Network beyond the 45M users we currently reach on Twitter into the 70M users MySpace reaches. This makes Ad.ly even more compelling for advertisers looking to participate at scale in the broader stream ecosystem.
Ad.ly for MySpace provides a great avenue for MySpace to keep their most influential users invested in using MySpace as a platform for connecting with their friends and fans.

Advertisers are now able to choose to have their ads sent through Twitter accounts into the Twitter stream, through MySpace accounts into the MySpace stream or through both accounts into the broader stream, depending on their campaign goals. If you are an advertiser and would like more details on this new program please contact our sales team at sales@ad.ly.

Business As Usual

Tue, 25 May 2010 14:17:00 -0400

Thank you to all our publishers, advertisers, and friends who have reached out to us expressing their love and support the last 24 hours.

As you probably heard, Twitter announced some revisions to their TOS yesterday with regards to advertising in the stream. We just want to take a moment to clarify how this affects Ad.ly’s business.

Ad.ly supports Twitter’s movement to create standards around in-stream advertising. Twitter’s changes are aimed at discouraging members of the ecosystem who do not maintain the proper balance of user experience and monetization and who are not invested in building long term value on the platform.

Since inception, Ad.ly has, and still is operating under Twitter’s approved guidelines and terms of service for advertising on its platform, so it’s business as usual for us. We look forward to continuing to create long term value for our advertisers and publishers, both of whom are key constituents in the stream ecosystem.

Arnie Gullov-Singh
CEO, Ad.ly

Introducing Ad.ly Analytics

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:42:00 -0500

After months of hard work, with the help of the PeopleBrowsr team, we’re proud to announce the launch of Ad.ly Analytics.

Ad.ly Analytics allows you to better understand your followers and content on Twitter. You can learn things like:

How many engaged followers you have (real people, not bots, that are actually viewing your tweets)
Audience gender
Audience location
The times you tweets and the times you get mentioned or retweeted.

Our goal with Ad.ly Analytics is to provide publishers with the tools they need to become better content creators and advertisers with a deeper understanding of a publisher’s audience.

Video: Ad.ly Launch Party September 22nd, 2009. Special guest...

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:25:05 -0400

Video: Ad.ly Launch Party September 22nd, 2009. Special guest appearance by Pee Wee Herman who honored us by sending his first Tweet from our party. Also in attendance was Tony Hawk, LeVar Burton, Chamillionaire, Dr Drew, Guy Kawasaki, and many many other wonderful guests and friends.

We’re very thankful, humbled, and literally blown away by the support that so many of you have given us. Thank you!

Hello World, We've Hatched...

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:08:00 -0400

Hello world! We’re excited to finally hatch Ad.ly out of its shell. It’s been an amazing ride so far. We’re humbled. We’re happy. We’re exhausted (it’s launch night). If there’s typos in this post you’ll know why.

For all of you who aren’t in Southern California, we wish you could join us at the Skirball Cultural Center tomorrow night for our official launch party. This is our one night to celebrate the many hours, days, weeks and months spent laboring in obscurity. We realize a massive sacrifice was made not only by ourselves but also by our families and friends. We never, ever could have done this without you. Please consider the empty pizza boxes, late nights and missed cell phone calls acts of love.

Ad.ly has been a labor of love for the entire team for, what feels like, forever. First, we first want to thank our wonderful charter publishers. It’s the publishers that invariably make Ad.ly possible. Greg Grunberg, Jeremy Schoemaker, Brooke Burke, the Kardashian family, all of you have been instrumental in helping us evolve Ad.ly from an idea to a company. We remember many of the phone calls, meetings and emails that shaped the vision you see today. Thank you.

It’s also been a tremendous privilege to build this company with the guidance and feedback of our world class advertising partners. Special thanks to OMD (TBWA Chiat Day), Ignited, Universal McCann, Initiative and Sony. All of you have taught us more than we could have imagined. Thank you.

Lastly, we consider it an honor to have the opportunity to build on the Twitter platform. Without open APIs and a fundamentally transparent approach to communication Ad.ly would not exist. Certainly, there will be many ups and downs but tomorrow, Tuesday September 22, will start the next leg of this maginificent journey.