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Sarah Novotny is a contributing editor at Adotas. Sarah grew up in San Jose, California. Her educational and professional career have taken her to both Los Angeles and New York City where she received a B.F.A. from NYU. As a writer, Sarah has free-lanced for various publications focusing primarily on traditional advertising and media reviews. When not writing and editing for Adotas, Sarah is continuing her acting career in various theatrical and film/television productions.

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Features

RevResponse: AdSense Ain’t All That

Written on
Jul 30, 2008 
Author
Sarah Novotny  |
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RevResponse: AdSense Ain’t All That

ADOTAS: Which aspects of RevResponse receive the most accolades, and which aspects are weakest or receive the most confused responses?

FORTINO: There are many…upon reviewing the competitive landscape prior to the assembly of the RevResponse product, we were able to indentify strategic focal points for success in the space. It was our goal from day one to execute against those focal points with the ultimate goal of leading the industry on each. Below are a few of the most popular features:

1. All Content – No Ads: Unlike typical ad networks that display links of questionable interest to visitors, or affiliate networks that pay publishers only when their referred users part with their hard-earned money, RevResponse helps publishers present FREE content that’s of genuine value to their site visitors… and then we pay the publisher when the audience takes advantage of it. Quite simply, we pay publishers to give their audience free professional empowering resources.

2. Guaranteed Minimums – Unlike other alternatives, we’ll guarantee publishers a $1.50 minimum on every qualified subscription/request their audience generates. It’s uncommon for a publisher to earn the bare minimum and can expect to earn substantially more. With that being said, at least they have confidence that their hard work will not go without reward. We currently have offers paying as much as $20 per lead generated.

3. 360 Degree Promotional Tools – Publishers aren’t locked it to promoting our offers in any one shape or form. They can be as creative as they’d like and can promote via every touch point they have with their audience; site, blog, rss, email, and so on.

4. PayPal (we eat the costs) – Unlike every other network out there, we opted to eat the PayPal costs the publisher typically incurs. It simply came down to what makes the most sense…why should our publisher be penalized for generating revenue for themselves? We obviously can pay partners via check if they prefer…it’s their choice.

5. Global Appeal – We global in two senses. We accept qualified publishers from anywhere in the world…we’re not one of those networks that will only accept publishers from North America. With regards to the actual offers we make available, many of those are global as well. The global availability of our offers is increasing every day.

6. Community – We didn’t set out to be like the other networks or programs in the market. It was fundamental to the release of the product that we provide industry leading support and response times. Every publisher has phone and email access to their dedicated account manager. We have an internal goal of responding to every inquiry within 24 hours of request. In addition to the Account Manager, publishers can also interact with the RevResponse team, or other publishers for that matter, on the RevResponse Forum or Blog. Any and all comments are welcome as they help drive the community as a whole.

7. Referral Program – Our referral program pays 20% of the earnings that a referral partner generates for the first six months of their partnership with us.
I could go on forever but you get the idea…

Perhaps our biggest weakness at this point is the speed to which we can meet our own internal expectations of the product. We have a substantial backlog of impressive features that will continue to push RevResponse forward as the leading B2B specific performance based network…we simply want to get those features out as quickly as possible.

ADOTAS: Let’s talk about the co-branded Web site option and TradePub. What is the value of this for publishers?

FORTINO: The co-branded site accomplishes two things:

1. Provides a seamless user experience for the publisher’s visitors. Instead of the normal scenario where the user clicks on an offer and goes to some foreign website, we alternatively keep the user within a comfortable experience. This comfortable experience for the user equates to higher conversions for the publisher and ultimately higher earnings for the publisher as well.

2. Incremental Revenue Stream – in addition to the revenue generated via our offers directly, the co-branded sites allow the publishers to completely leverage their site template, including Ad Tags, to further monetize the offers we provide. It’s not uncommon to see publishers earning great commissions from us while at the same time generating a lucrative revenue stream with CPM banners positioned around our content.

ADOTAS: You mention the comparison of RevResponse to Google AdSense quite a bit. How is RevResponse capable of creating the higher CPA results that it claims to? Where does AdSense falter where RevResponse flourishes?

FORTINO: We’re actually trying to break down the assumption that AdSense is the end-all, be-all, solution for monetizing a site. While AdSense certainly has its place, and an impressive one at that, there’s definitely hunger for alternatives. AdSense is phenomenal at monetizing IAB traditional spaces. While we’re strong there, we encourage our publishers to think outside of the IAB box. There is so much opportunity to monetize the traditionally un-monetized sections of a site…we help publishers recognize this and make it a reality.

ADOTAS: Which prominent B2B sites are taking part in RevResponse’s services and how has it changed their businesses?

FORTINO: There are many. We have relationships with Entrepreneur.com, AllBuisness.com, CodeProject.com and countless others. They all have one thing in common. They were looking to diversify their revenue streams while also adding value to the user experience. RevResponse allows publishers to recognize that one does not have to be mutually exclusive of the other. Why should it be accepted that the only way to generate revenue for your site is to bombard your audience with ads that they eventually ignore?

ADOTAS: What are the common problems B2B sites have to deal with that many publishers do not know how to solve?

FORTINO: The biggest issue for B2B sites is relevance. None of the major networks give them the attention that they deserve. We come at this issue head-on and focus our efforts exclusively on offering high-quality, contextually relevant, and professionally enriching offers that are most importantly free to the user to request.

ADOTAS: What are the next phases to watch for from RevResponse? Any specific partnerships or technical developments being worked on?

FORTINO: We’re just getting started. RevResponse has been live since March and has offered a major feature release every month…I don’t see that changing anytime soon. With regards to what’s going on behind the curtain, you’re just going to have watch and see.

Adotas also interviewed two of RevResponse’s clients for their take on the operation:

Deb Alloway of Toolbutton Inc. said, “Several years ago we partnered with NetLine/TradePub. It was an excellent decision. With assistance from their dedicated staff we have been able to provide the resources our site members are looking for. NetLine/TradePub has continually listened to our concerns and suggestions. Then an incredible thing happened – they acted on them! The launch of RevResponse was the result.

We think RevResponse is one of the best partner sites on the ’Net. Why? They provide a cut and paste environment to generate marketing content and successful campaigns, easy-to-access reporting and a community forum for partner feedback. Now, don’t get me wrong, RevResponse is not perfect, at least not yet. The site was launched at the end of October 2007 and staff are responding to and implementing partner suggestions daily. This is a great partner site and it will only get better.”

Jason Sprague, CEO of 7 Seconds Resources, Inc. had this to say: “We signed up for the new RevResponse program right when it was made public and have been very satisfied with the increased payouts and availability of free materials for our users. Vincent Charlione stays in regular contact alerting us to offers that have high payouts and match well with our target audience. He also puts together periodic mailings for us to send to our mailing list as well. We are completely satisfied with the RevResponse program and the service we get.”





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