The MediaWhiz Blog

AuctionAds Publishers,

we are aware that there is an issue with the click data that we are displaying in your report admin section. Please note that all clicks are being recorded at the eBay level we are just having problems getting accurate numbers back to your reporting area. We are working on a fix and will update you soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding. We are committed to improving AuctionAds and in addition to this fix have some great new features in the pipeline.

AuctionAds Publishers,

AuctionAds Publishers, Scott Bird wrote a great post on how you can optimize your AuctionAds! Check out the post here.

Search Engine Journal did a cool case study on how Ken Savage of Battle Diabetes Blog is earning $40k with his blog! Ken is making money while spreading the word on a topic dear to his heart. We are happy to see that AuctionAds is responsible for 40% of his blog’s monthly income! You will notice Ken put the AuctionAds in a great position high up in the right margin which definitely can improve the earning potential. Congrats Ken!

AuctionAds Publishers, we have some exciting new features coming down the pipeline in the coming weeks including:

- A new design for the AuctionAds site.

- New ad designs to choose from.

- Exciting things I can’t mention today
Thanks for all your support and we look forward to constantly improving AuctionAds for you. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve please leave those in the comments below. Thx!

NEW YORK, NY, August 1, 2007 – MediaWhiz Holdings., Inc. today announced the acquisition of AuctionAds (www.auctionads.com). MediaWhiz launched AuctionAds in partnership with Shoemoney Media in March, and within four months registered over 20,000 participating publishers. The AuctionAds affiliate program combines unique keyword targeting technology with a rapidly expanding publisher network, to drive increased traffic and revenue to eBay. Earlier this year, eBay acknowledged the power of the pioneering AuctionAds platform and awarded the company the 2007 eBay Star Developer Award for innovation.

“We are excited to welcome AuctionAds into the MediaWhiz suite of online marketing solutions. Shoemoney media co-founders Jeremy Schoemaker and David Dellanave have done an outstanding job creating an innovative affiliate marketing platform, and we are looking forward to building upon the AuctionAds technology to drive continued growth,” stated Patrick Gavin, President of MediaWhiz’s display advertising division.

AuctionAds will extend the MediaWhiz suite of online performance marketing solutions and make it possible for MediaWhiz’s growing affiliate network of over 25,000 publishers to earn more for their valuable online advertising inventory.

About AuctionAds
AuctionAds (www.auctionads.com), a division of MediaWhiz Holdings Inc., enables publishers to monetize their website by displaying live eBay auctions that are keyword targeted to a sites content. The AuctionAds proprietary technology is unique in its ability to dynamically deliver contextually relevant links to eBay auctions. The targeted affiliate program drives higher conversions resulting in increased traffic and revenue to eBay and higher payouts for both AuctionAds and its publishing partners.

About MediaWhiz
MediaWhiz is a leading online performance marketing company. MediaWhiz leverages its comprehensive suite of marketing services to achieve superior results for advertisers and publishers. Services include affiliate marketing, lead generation, email marketing, list management, display advertising, text link advertising and search marketing. MediaWhiz delivers more than 3 million monthly leads to over 3,000 advertisers through its database of more than 100 million consumer email addresses and relationships with over 25,000 publishers. Private equity firm Lake Capital first invested in MediaWhiz in August 2005. Through acquisitions and organic growth, MediaWhiz has established its position as a leading provider of online performance marketing solutions. More information on MediaWhiz is available at www.mediawhiz.com.

Readers, I am happy to announce ReviewMe’s parent company, MediaWhiz, has purchased AuctionAds! I have been working with Dave Dellanave (left) and Jeremy Schoemaker (middle) on this project since day one and it’s a great success story. MediaWhiz started off as a minority share holder in AuctionAds and as it continued to grow and grow we knew we wanted the whole thing! In just four short months we have grown to over 20,000 publishers.Jeremy and Dave couldn’t have been better partners. Jeremy is a brilliant marketer and Dave is a genius programmer. They will be missed at AuctionAds. Thanks for all your work guys!

We welcome AuctionAds into the MediaWhiz family and look forward to continuing to grow and improve the product. More coverage at: Shoe’s blog and at TechCrunch.

Readers, if you or anyone you know is interested in working in downtown NYC with the TLA team please let me know!  (see map and picture of office)  We are currently looking to hire two web developers and also a publisher specialist.  We are looking for on site full time workers only, no remote work.  Details on the jobs below.  If interested please follow instructions below, thx!

TLA Web Developer

Text Link Ads is seeking a Web Developer with strong web design & software development skills to join our growing team and help improve and expand the company’s offerings including our text-based advertising network.  We are seeking a seasoned professional who is capable of consistent production of quality software in a fast-paced but relaxed environment - be ready to work hard, but enjoy yourself in the process.

The ideal candidate will have 3+ years of full-time development experience with PHP, and a working knowledge of (X)HTML, CSS and Javascript. An understanding of the Web 2.0 development standards, database architecture and clean, maintainable code will be crucial to success on this. PHP Development experience must include usage of version 5.x, and it’s object oriented features.  Serious experience on MySQL is required; candidates must know how to both write, maintain  and optimize queries with multi-table joins.

Because of the nature of our business, strong communication skills are an absolute requirement.  You will be working closely with our business and development team to complete tasks: the ability to understand and make yourself understood in both written and spoken mediums is crucial to this position.  Additionally, you should be comfortable with a fast paced, small team environment - the ability to take ownership of and pride in your work is crucial for success.

The following core skills are sought:

* PHP
* MySQL
* AJAX / JSON
* Object Oriented programming concepts & their application in PHP 5+
* Web 2.0 concepts
* Version Control knowledge (CVS & Subversion)

The following skills qualify an ‘exceptional’ candidate:
* Linux (Red Hat Enterprise/Debian)
* Perl, Python or Ruby Programming (System/Web level)
* Systems tuning - Apache, PHP & MySQL
* Experience with Agile methodologies such as SCRUM

This position is on-site in New York City (Downtown/Financial District).  Unfortunately, we are not able to accommodate telecommuting/relocation at this time, so please don’t ask.  Direct candidates only; no recruiter contacts please.

Salary is DOE but highly competitive; we provide an excellent company paid Health, Vision and Dental benefit, as well as a matched 401k.

Please be prepared to demonstrate your knowledge.

Send a resume and cover letter to techjobs@text-link-ads.com

TLA Systems Administrator

Text Link Ads is seeking a Systems Administrator with a strong Linux background, and familiarity with system-level and web-based programming to join our growing team.  We have an immediate requirement for a talented professional who is capable of maintaining, improving and expanding our production servers, and helping us bring our capacity and system performance to the next level.

The ideal candidate will have 2+ years of full-time experience administering Linux servers, and should be familiar with the installation, configuration and tuning of PHP, MySQL and Apache.  Additionally, experience with the creation and maintenance of system packages, monitoring tools and Subversion administration will prove helpful.  Strong candidates will have experience automating system tasks using a scripting language such as Perl, Python or Ruby; experience with building web applications in PHP will mark an exceptional candidate.

Because of the nature of our business, strong communication skills are an absolute requirement.  You will be working closely with our business and development team to complete tasks: the ability to understand and make yourself understood in both written and spoken mediums is crucial to this position.  Additionally, you should be comfortable with a fast paced, small team environment - the ability to take ownership of and pride in your work is crucial for success.

The following core skills are sought:

* Linux (pref. RedHat Enterprise) [2+ years]
* MySQL (installation, monitoring & tuning) [2+ years]
* Apache web server (configuration, monitoring & tuning) [2+ years]
* Basic system programming (Perl/Python/Ruby) [1+ years]

Additionally, the following skills will qualify an ‘exceptional’ candidate:
* PHP (web applications)
* Subversion (administration)
* MySQL Database Administration (assisting developers in tuning queries)

This position is on-site in New York City (Downtown/Financial District).  Unfortunately, we are not able to accomodate telecommuting/relocation at this time, so please don’t ask.  Direct candidates only; no recruiter contacts please.

Salary is DOE but highly competitive; we provide an excellent company paid Health, Vision and Dental benefit, as well as a matched 401k.

Please be prepared to demonstrate your knowledge.

Please send a resume and cover letter to techjobs@text-link-ads.com

Publisher Earnings Specialist

The role of the Publisher Earnings Specialist would be to manage all earnings and payments made to all publishers and affiliates of TLA and its sister sites.  The role would include the processing of payments, and managing all inquiries regarding payment.  The position requires an acute attention to detail as well as to be able to handle multiple tasks during the course of a work day.  Please send resume and cover letter to resumes@text-link-ads.com

One of the unfortunate downsides to explosive growth is that you find yourself running into new and unexpected limitations. As a result, AuctionAds has experienced some unplanned downtime as we have grown past our most optimistic projections. We know that downtime is unacceptable, and we’re working hard to prevent any outages in the future.

In anticipation of some major changes, we are forced to set a scheduled maintenance window from 1am (CST) to 3am CST Tuesday July 10th. Ad serving during this time may be affected partially or completely. Rest assured we’ll be working as hard as we can to minimize the downtime, and maximize the effectiveness of this maintenance window. Thanks for your understanding during this amazing growth period.

Also a reminder about official AuctionAds support - if you have questions or require support please email support@auctionads.com or use the contact form on the site. Forums are a great place to discuss AuctionAds, but we just don’t have the staff to monitor every forum. This blog also should not be considered an official support vehicle, as we are unable to properly track support issues via blog comments.

Readers, I came across this site today and it definitely gave me a chuckle and I had to give it a link: JohnCow.com  It is a spoof off of the popular JohnChow.com domain and a great example of a way to get links and traffic by piggybacking off the success of another website. 

Now getting links to a parody site may not be a big money maker itself but once you have a popular parody site you have the option of diverting some of the link goodness off to some of your other sites.  I know there are many more examples of parody sites on the web but I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head, what about you?