We have some exciting plans for ’09 that I wanted to share with all of you. Here you go:
New User Interface / Information Architecture
Many changes are being made (small and large) to help simplify and improve the overall user experience. This includes a complete redesign. Some highlights:
- We have separated out Advertiser and Publisher specific account functions into their own navigation buttons and added drop-down menus for these sections.
- Under My Account – added a Settings link and cleaned up the Payment Preferences section.
- New “Transactions” section for both Advertisers and Publishers will now outline each and every transaction (i.e. not just payments, but cancellations, modifications, etc.).
- Integrated Support System – you may have noticed a better support process these past few weeks. We have integrated a support system that includes help articles and how-to’s.
- BIG changes to the “Buy Ads” section.
New Search Functionality / Buy Ads Section
As you can see, there are a lot of big changes in this release, but this one is the biggest and should have the most impact on the Advertiser’s overall experience with BSA. We also believe it will have a nice impact on our publishers bottom line as advertisers will be able to find them more easily. The search functionality has been greatly expanded upon and improved, the screen shot below should speak for itself (we hope!). When you click on a listing it will expand an intermediary screen within the current view showing you important details about the site (and allowing you to add stuff to your cart) without having to click through to its detail page. Filtering the results will be super easy with the slider controls and inline keyword filtering on the left. We’ll be adding more controls to help narrow down your search, but for launch there will be what you see below. Columns are now sortable, too (wooohooo!).
Automated Cashouts
Currently, in order to cashout you need to send us an email. This has been a great way of getting to know our publishers better, but it’s time to automate this for you. You will still need to request a cashout, but now you will be able to do this from within your account.
We are also lowering the minimum amount for wire transfers to $500 (previously $1,000); however, the fee does still remain at $35 per wire transfer. We were able to lower this minimum due to a new wire system we have setup. PayPal and Check cashout minimum’s will remain the same (no minimum for PayPal and $50 minimum for checks). It’s also important to note that when we cash you out via PayPal, you don’t actually get charged a fee from PayPal – we take care of that for you and you receive the exact amount that’s in your BSA account.
Stats / Conversion Tracking / Stats API
Both Advertisers and Publishers will now see stats for their ads/sites in their account. We are also integrating conversion tracking for advertisers who want a more detailed stats report in their BSA account. Most notably, however, is that you will have the option to get your BSA stats from our API! This feature is still in planning stages, but we plan to allow advertisers to pull their BSA stats from our API sometime in Q1.
A view of the main advertiser stats page:
And then the detail page for each ad:
Automatic updates for external stats
Previously for your site statistics you were required to login and manually refresh. Now your statistics will be updated automatically for you every 7 days! In addition to tracking Alexa, Compete, Delicious, Yahoo! Inbound Links, and Page Rank our update will be adding some new stats (see next item)…
New external stats
We’re going to be adding RSS subscribers and Twitter followers. These are very important metrics that help advertisers understand more about your reach, influence, and authority. You will need to specify your Feedburner URL and your Twitter handle, but once we have these details in your site settings we will automatically pull them into your BSA listing page.
Use funds from your account to purchase ads
Right now, one of our biggest pet peeves with our own app is that users cannot use their account funds to purchase ads in the network. Well, in the new version of BSA you can.
Re-Use Creative
Currently, advertisers need to upload creative for each ad in their cart. In the new version, you will have the option of selecting previous creatives you have uploaded vs. having to upload a new one each time. This should save you time in checking out and also when it comes time to edit multiple ads of the same size.
Embeddable advertise page for publishers
Pretty much every site in our network has an “Advertise” page on their website and/or they’re linking directly to their BSA listing page. We take pride in the fact that BuySellAds.com “doesn’t get in the way” like most networks do. So, to help take this one step further, we’ll have a JavaScript widget that will embed your BSA listing page directly into your site. All you will need to do is grab a couple lines of JavaScript, put it on your “Advertise” page and it will feed real time data and information about the advertising options for your site. The layout will be very simple and customizable to help blend in with your existing layout and design.
New ad units
We’re not going to get into too much detail on this one, but we’re going to have 2-3 interesting (and tasteful) new types of ad units coming out to help publishers make more money and to help advertisers reach users in new ways through BSA publishers… stay tuned.
Timing, etc.
You want it now, we want it now too… we’re in the same boat. It will be launched some time in the first quarter of this year (Q1). We’re very close, and things are looking pretty good, but we’re not in a hurry to launch. Despite the quirks here and there the current site works… advertisers are buying ads and publishers are selling ads (which is our #1 goal). So, we’re not going to pull the trigger until we’re 99% ready to go.
What can you do to help?
Help us spread the word about BSA and the new version:
- Tweet about it, please use this URL: http://ow.ly/7ni
- Write a post on your blog about it, you are free to use the screenshots from our Flickr account.
Todd founded BuySellAds and lives in Boston with his wife and chocolate lab Rusty. He's a front-end engineer by trade and believes in a less obtrusive future in online advertising. For more, follow him
Thanks Todd! Just ruined my Ad Tracking application app haha! :(
Awesome! Looking forward to these improvements!
Lachy, I’m sorry my friend… maybe there’s still something you could do with our API for advertisers and publishers?
Todd, You simply did a great job! best of luck…
Wow, I’m excited to see the stats! Thanks for working so hard on this and providing a great service!
Wow looks like some awesome updates Todd. Great work.
This is absolutely brilliant. I really cannot wait for these updates.
Awesome new features, especially the stats!
Nice to see that you’re working hard ;)
All of these features have been what I am looking for!
Awesome work!
The changes sound fantastic! Can’t wait. Great job.
Nice work, Toddo!
NICE! Really excited about the changes, you guys are awesome, keep up the good work!
Yay!
Thanks, you guys are doing a great job.
This is one of the most exciting things I’ve seen all week. Great work, can’t wait!
Thats very impressive improvement…When will buysellads be out of betta.?
As soon as Gmail comes out of beta ;)
Plus, we have to go from Private Beta to Public beta first, right? ;)
Hey great work, I’m sure once we sell a few spaces the stats will mean something ;)
indeed, I see you just signed up… sometimes it takes a little while to get your first ads sold. Keep publishing great content and building traffic.
Excellent News!
Been wondering when you would come out of BETA.
Glad to be apart of this!
I love BuySellAds!
It’s a feature festival!! WhooHoo, awesome guy’s! Can’t wait! :)
“Feature Festival”… I like that, will have to use that when we launch all this stuff… I can see it now “BuySellAds.com Feature Festival, come one come all”.
Haha. I can’t wait. :P
So excited about this. Great job!
Looks great!
I have noticed many other advertising systems allow for a secondary (backup advertisers) in those same ad slots for the times when no ad is purchased on buysellads.com. Is there a way to have it default to another ad campaign when the ad slot is empty??
ex. Run google adsense when no ad is purchased on buysellads.com
Hey Troy, yeah, some do some don’t. Luckily, we try not to get in the way with our ad code and it tends to play nice with other existing ad codes (wraps around it, in between, etc.) so typically what people do is continue to manage their own house ads as they always have by hard-coding into their site. So far this has worked really well. Who knows, we may change this in the future though – we’re just focused on getting the new version live right now.
I’d love for there to be a Javascript variable that is set that holds a count for how many ads are display in that ad block, that way I can script in support for default ads if no paid ads are being shown.
Should mean little work for you, and flexibility for the publisher.
Brilliant. Will do.
I received an e-mail but still they are not yet approving my application! Hehe.. Cool!
Our newsletter went to all people who have applied. The idea is that some people who were not accepted before could reapply if they have gained traffic. If you’d like us to reconsider feel free to drop us an email!
Great job on these updates. Buysellads is getting better every day!
Awesome. Can’t wait to try out the stats feature.
So excited. The screenshots look great!
Wow, those screenshots really look amazing. Nice!
Am I one step closer to my present now? :P
About time; this has been long overdue for quite some time now!
Looks great! Keep going and you will reach out for more advertisers and webmasters! :)
Been waiting forever to get approved as a publisher.. what’s up!
email support@buysellads.com with the email address you registered with and the site you’re looking to sell ads on.
Those features sound really good. As long as it works I am ok.
lol, indeed, the site working is a pre-requisite for launch ;)
Great new features. Keep up the good work.
The redesign was VERY NEEDED.
Good job!
waiting for ever to get in, who do I have to bribe to get in ;)
I’d love to talk bribes! Just kidding ;). Drop us an email with the sites your email and sites you’re looking to register.. support@buysellads.com.
Nice! It was about everything I’d ask for :)
Glad to see the long wait was worth!
Looks like a nice update Todd :)
Fantastic news!
All of the features I’ve been wanting and more. You guys are the best Ad Network on the web right now. Thanks for your hard work!
Todd, again you rock. Beta till it breaks baby! We’ve taken your suggestions over the last year (wow, has it been a year already) and are implementing post haste..
Brilliant support, sorry to see the automated “cash out please” tho, was nice to get personal. :-)
Best in 09′.
We’ll still be around to talk! :)
yes, I am feeling excited too how this will change real buy-sell-ads workflow – we’ll see – looks and sounds really promising!
The new features sound awesome sounds like a much more rounded system which is great for every one!.
Your really one of the best sevices out there, with great support!
I look forward to using your new version to sell some ads… and maybe buy some too. I like the idea of being able to use the funds that you earn as a publisher for advertising on other sites.
Looks awesome! Keep it up!!
Looking forward to these changes! espescailly the automated checkout!
It looks good to me. The current searching methods need improving and it looks like you’re on the way to having it sorted. Looking forward to seeing the changes, sooner than later i hope.
Love it! Really really like the look of these changes.
My main suggestion would be to have a featured ads section on the homepage, whereby it’s based not on impressions by on value for money (i.e.: impressions per dollar or something).
Loving the changes! Just need to get some more sports based advertisers involved and I’m away!!
Good job :)
Sam
We’d love to branch into sports and are working on diving into other niches.
Nice one!
I thought BSA is only provide CPM ads?
This is great news. Finally we are out of Beta. Will be going through the changes in detail. Thanks a lot Todd & Team.
nice. really impressive.
Thanks for new look. I have to try this for advertise my products…
Heya!!! Changes! Thank you, guys!!!
Great Features !!!