DISQUS

Chris,

Here is an example of what happens. A user goes to Google and searches of iPhone. You probably have written something at one time or another about iPhone that got reasonably high page rank and you appear on page 1 of Google results.

Lets say that post is Hey - iPhone Users, etc..

Reader clicks that result on Google page and comes to your blog and reads the post. Most likely next thing he will do is click the back button and you lose him.

With Lijit and Re-search enabled, the Re-search box opens up automatically when the page loads and shows "Five Things to Do at a Social Network". In some percent of the 30% the readers will read this post also because presumable it mentions iphone.

This creates a discovery behaviour that glues readers to your blog longer. You reader probably never would have found the second post because it never received page rank high enough to get onto page one of Google results.

I think that what you mean by naturally and that is what happens, the entire things is automatic based on coming from a search engine where that sight set the q= parameter.

I really suggest moving the box (it works much better after the post, or at the top of the page).. You can see an example on my blog..

Goto google and search for "Comcast DVR POS". Click the False Precision" link in google results and you will see my placement at the top of the page..

Thanks again Chris, this is a great thread...

-t

Hey Chris,
Not to beat the dead horse here but I wanted to recap the research box and what its intent is.
On average about 30% of page views on a typical publication come as a result of traffic from search. In the past months search engines like Google have been aggressively mining the second click (the click after the search on these sites). You may have noticed the way Google is placing a search box under the Amazon search results to keep the reader engaged with Google rather than having them link off to Amazon. Bottom line is it’s getting more important everyday to capture a reader that comes to your publication in the ‘drive by’ scenarios. We have a few post on our blog about second-click.
http://www.lijit.com/blog/2008/01/30/publishers...
The research box is intended to put your content in front of these one-time readers in order to raise your chance of grabbing them as a true subscriber. Our collected data suggests that a couple percent of these page views results in content clicks in the research box and those are ‘found’ reader engagements that likely would not have happened. You can see the number of ‘re-search engagements’ in your stats page under the “readers tab”. As Micah says you can move the placement of this box anywhere you like or easily turn the feature off if it’s not something you are interested in. On larger publisher sites however this functionality drives thousands of page views that would not have happened otherwise.
As a side note, we have had some publishers ask for a persistent version of the re-search feature that would raise page views even more but we don’t know how to offer that yet simply because re-search requires ‘reader intent’ to be effective and we only really know that based on their first-click or entering something actively in the search box. In other words the ‘box’ could be there all the time but if there is no intent there is not value, hence the reason that feature is only visible when intent exists.
Lijit’s mission is to use search as an application to deliver value to publishers. Whenever we deliver value to publishers and/or subscribers we feel it’s fair to receive revenue for that value in the form of ad placement. For the past couple months we have been experimenting with Ad placements and Ad networks to see what kind of click through rates and eCPM we can achieve in different locations. This data is being used to set parameters on our new Self Serve Ad Network offering that allows publishers like you to broker their own ad inventory of keyword advertising (if they want to). Ad’s up to this point have largely been experimental and for reference we generated revenue during this time of less than 1% of what we spent innovating and delivering the service. When we release the beta ad platform shortly Ad revenue will be split with the publishers that join the ad network. We think this is a fair model as we should not make money if our publishers are not receiving value as well.
Chris you have been a great advocate of the value Lijit brings by engaging readers and putting intelligence in the hands of publishers. I thought you deserved a thoughtful and full reply to your post. Please contact me directly and we will help you out in any way we can!

Todd Vernon / CEO Lijit Networks

Great nerdy post Mike. Got to have lots of virtual servers for lots of real publishers!

Howard, Thanks for the mention.

Gordon Rocks. In one episode he tells the restaurant owner if he isn't going to "try", then he will just call "fucking Jamie Oliver" to come help him. Awesome. Give TopGear on BBC America a try also.

Another great post Micah. Like everything in the realm of starting and growing companies, there is a fine balance of being frugal and buying the office a Wii (i just did that last week :-) Generally speaking (which is dangerous) I 'notice' startups that fail on the two ends of the spectrum the most... Starved startups (either culturally or through operations) and PHAT startups that spend way ahead of any success.. I don't think it a predictor, but rather a flare after the fact that everyone notices.

Great post Micah. There are lot of ways to look at angel investing. I mostly invest in people, specifically people I know. I raised the majority of the Lijit first round from people I know, and at least for me it made me work harder then if the money would have been more distant. At the end of the day, most startups I know end up being something different then what they were thought to be going in. (hopefully better). If I make any investments in people I don't know really well its usually because someone I do know really well is investing also. I have only done one investment where I didn't really know the founder, and I regret it.

not quite as scary as you...

I have been using Intense Debate for a while on my blog. My assessment is that they are all better then what comes with the various platforms.

Now thats funny.