New features
March 12th, 2008 by Philip KaplanWe’re putting together a to-do list for Spottt and want to hear from you. What features should we add?
To get started, here are a few nice features that have been requested already:
- Make a directory of all the Spottt sites, so everyone can see who’s participating
- Give you the ability to control what kinds of ads appear on your site
- Increase everyone’s traffic by encouraging people to visit other members’ sites. For example, you get free credits when you click someone else’s Spottt ad to visit their site. That way you can “Spottt hop” around the network, check out new sites, and simultaneously help your own site (by getting free credits)
- Allow multiple versions of your Spottt ad
- Change the pink to some other color ;)
- ???
Any more ideas?
March 12th, 2008 at 9:33 am
As you can see there are some bugs in the promotion code… as my account I used adbrite Promote code, and nothing did on my account….. SAD my id lsk926@gmail.com…
Hope you could follow up..
one suggestion..
Referral Program should be a great idea, since I have no motivative reason to get my friend into it.
March 12th, 2008 at 10:27 am
As mentioned in a previous post, I would love to see some kind of indication as to what the banner ad actually points to. This could be:
1. An ALT tag for the image (giving a standard tooltip in most browsers)
2. Fancy mouse over tooltip in JavaScript (eats more bandwidth)
3. Small text field beneath the image stating the target URL
At least show the target URL, but maybe even a small custom text as well… that also would have to be verified before put online - just like the images are today.
It could also be a list of tags to identify what category a site belongs to, like: computing, gaming, animals, health, fun, toy, flowers - etc. etc. :)
In short - let us know what we’re clicking at…
Best regards
Nicolai,
Developer at Guildage.com
March 12th, 2008 at 10:32 am
This information could even be part of the URL.
So instead of pointing to:
http://click.spottt.com/sp_click_306hwxs1y6yooko8.php
It could point to:
http://click.spottt.com/sp_click_306hwxs1y6yooko8.php&site=http://example.com
But that would not be visible to all users I’m afraid…
March 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
1. An ALT tag for the image (giving a standard tooltip in most browsers)
…and a TITLE attribute for those using Firefox.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:44 am
The most important thing for me is location settings. I want to make sure my UK targeted site gets shown on other UK sites. Showing it on sites outside the UK is pointless to me and equally many of the adverts that get shown on my site aren’t any use to my visitors as they’re mostly targeting people in the US
March 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Agree with Stephen on the importance location settings, but would even take it a step farther to allows network controls much like an ad network. This would allow publishers to control what kind of ad content gets shown. I know you have that on your list already, but I think that should be the number one priority. All in all - a good list. Hope the new features are available soon!
March 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Maybe adding a marquee under the ad, so you can try to add good amount of text without making it too cluttered and being able to update it so you can offer the freshes news. Its hard to say what you want on quite a small ad. Targeting local traffic would be great too (I guess this would rely on where users are located and are using the service. Also would have to work on a more sophisticated system). I appreciate the whole spottt service and am having a great experience so far.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
How about a summary list of sites where our spott ads appeared???
March 12th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Showing the user something about the location the image is going to take them to is very important - even having something SnapShots could grab hold of would do.
And more checking that the people taking part in Spott are living up to the rules, I’ve been taken to sites which don’t have a link at all, never mind being above the fold.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
The Spottt system should purge orphans leftover from incomplete signup processes. Users can be stuck not being able to signup for the service due to not receiving the confirmation email. The user is unable to signup again using the same email address (”email address already in use” is the error presented). I am one such user (yes, I checked spam filters of which I do not have any for the account in question).
If a user hasn’t completed the email verification inside of X hours/days then it’s safe to say that record is now orphaned in the Spottt system and the user likely won’t be completing the process. If you purge that orphan record then users such as myself can re-attempt and become active users of the service. If a user get inadvertently purged and still attempts to signup, they will simply have to start over. With such an easy signup process I don’t see too much of an issue with that.
Certainly not a common problem to deal with but as an individual wanting to use this service I’m left in a frustrating position of having the Spottt support folks telling me to check my spam folder (3 times) and assuming the problem is on my end. Regardless of where the problem is I’d just like to try again. In 5 days I can’t seem to get the Spottt staff to just clear my orphan and allow me to signup again.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I wish we could set up affiliate networks. Example:
You pay your affiliates to put your ads on thier sites. You could set that up. You could designate a site as an affiliate, your site would be the only one shown on that spottt block.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:16 am
Simple information about CTR for our banner, for a time period (I know, I could simply divide the number of clicks by the number of pageviews, but I’m lazy and you should do it! :D)
March 13th, 2008 at 7:19 am
i think it would be great if you add “fansites” in spottt website category
March 13th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I have noticed a few issues that should be resolved:
A.) Get the traffic algorithm a tweak. Quality of site. In otherwords, if a site has quality content, give it a better ranking than some simplistic “picture” and “comment” website.
B.) Good traffic VS bad traffic. If a site sends you 1 US user, how about we get 1 US user back and not 10 Indonesian users.
C.) Location Location Location - Geo Targeting Options ( auto: based on traffic sent to other spott users … OR selection: in user interface we select up to 5 countries to display spott ads.
March 13th, 2008 at 7:44 am
ability to whitelist or blacklist a site.
a forum
ya, the #3 is an awesome feature.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I like the pink. It’s cheery looking and pretty much the reason I came here for a look.
I’d like a feature to encourage clicks. The points is something that seems to be working on Entrecard and was done on Blog Explosion (not sure I remember the name right).
March 13th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Please make the ad code valid xHTML, else everything is fine
Regards,
Mohit Aneja
Sharing Best Practices!!
http://www.mohitaneja.com/
March 14th, 2008 at 9:42 am
It is great improvement and i really appreciate that you are hearing us. I would like to suggest one feature that should be added is more size, not only 125×125 for choice. Thanks
March 14th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
I agree I have a large banner space 468×60 pixels at the top of the page which is nearly empty with one small Spottt ad. I used AdBrite before, I recently joined and replaced the old ad. For this reason, ad space on my site is under-utilized. Since only one Spottt ad is allowed per page. I can give excellent exposure and center placement to a large banner ad. I just don’t see any point in using AdBrite since it generates only a dime per month on my site.
March 15th, 2008 at 2:30 am
It would be nice to be able to select categories where you want your ad to appear and type of ad that gets displayed. This would help get more targeted traffic to my site.
Or maybe this can be made automatic. If someone comes to your page through a spottt ad, then the next page checks how long the visitor stays on that page. If the visitor leaves right away, the “relationship score” between the site and the site the user came from is “low”. And if the visitor actually stays and browses a lot, the score is “high”.
Over a long period of time, the network automatically adjusts to group/link the most related sites together based on browsing behavior without any maintenance. It makes site owners happy - they get traffic they want. It makes visitors happy, they see ads they are actually interested in.
Another idea is how about credits for traffic quality measured by things like how the visiting user is navigating the site (clicking a lot? clicking almost nothing?) and how long the visitor stays on the page and how unique is the visitor and where the visitor came from (subscriber, search engine, spottt itself, other common referral sites). This would help give the best sites/blogs more credits earned by having content that visitors enjoy. And it’s incentive for the site to improve their content, rather than just flood it with impressions.
That’s all I got for now. I’m sure I can think of many others later!
March 15th, 2008 at 3:13 am
The only thing that is lacking for me is seeing who has had a spottt shown on my site, and which spottt`s were actually clicked on. Could help me redesign my own spottt if needed
March 15th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Hi,
1- More categories and sub categories.
2- Credits marketplace among users and the payment via PayPal.
3- Different sizes for banners.
4- Text ads as in the AdBrite.
5- Full Page ads.
Thanks in advanced.
March 15th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Maybe we can see a list of websites listed on our publisher dashboard, then we’ll see what ads have been shown, and from there we can approve and disapprove ads. - this also helps when we click to see the ads’ website. xD
March 17th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
My main concern is being able to control which other sites and graphics show up on my site. I don’t want to promote certain websites.
Another cool feature would be to have a spottt maker tool that let spottt users create spottt graphics right from the admin panel instead of having to upload an image they create themselves in another program. That would also make it easier for less tech savvy people to participate.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
If we can check out the page rank and the alexa rank also the location
March 17th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I think you should be able to modify your logo, and by that, I mean be able to upload a different one if your current one isn’t garnering any clicks. That’s my case. ;)
March 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
CannedReviews:
I believe you can alter your image from the ‘Edit’ page.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Help us target readers. I would like to be advertised on similar sites. Like a marketing related site being advertised on a celebrity site doesn’t help reach targeted readers. Also ability to restrict location to India would be great.
Also help us restrict certain types of advertising on our site.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Hi,
1- Allow multiple images for one Spottt.
Something else: I think all others want to see the final & to-do list
Thanks
March 20th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I’m so sad I missed the 2000 point bonus. Joined too late. Thanks for the 1000 points for twitter users.
March 21st, 2008 at 7:27 am
You can have multiple ads running - just only one per site you have.
And you can definitely change your logo - it just requires to be re-approved.
March 21st, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Thanks everyone. Keep em coming. I’ll post an updated to-do list shortly.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Why only 10 Spottts allowed in total?
I realise that 10 is not a problem for the casual
Social network or blog user. But if you want more
commercial ,professional or informational sites than 10 is a low number.
Either allow a List of more than 10 .
Or allow to have more than 10 pre-approved
and be able to freely select those
10 currently being shown.
Geo-targeting is also needed as mentioned, but selectable by client
not by location of website owner.
I live in Australia ,but most of my intended clients are in Europe and USA.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Think mostly said above but would like to perhaps put our site ad on similar sites. Also, could we gain credits if we forward word about this service to our friends?
April 17th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
YES, Allow us to change what color it is! The pink doesn’t match my website…