RateItAll (rateitall.com) is a consumer-rating site that allows visitors to find and share opinions about virtually everything – from dog food brands to members of the British Royal Family. Site members can contribute their opinions on existing categories, and can also create their own rating categories. Revenue is shared with content contributors, and all of the site's content is available for export via RSS feeds, widgets, and social networking applications.
Members are central to RateItAll’s success. “We’re extremely conscious of the fact that RateItAll is sustained by its members,” explains Lawrence Coburn, co-founder and president of RateItAll. “They create the lists, generate the reviews, keep the lists updated, and create the profiles. They are RateItAll, and they should share in the revenue.”
Lawrence wanted people who participate on RateItAll to start earning income almost immediately. He knew he needed a contextual advertising solution that would attract advertisers across a diverse set of topics and ensure that relevant ads appeared on the right pages. Lawrence also knew he didn’t want to handle payments to members. “The last thing I wanted was to be cutting thousands of checks each month,” he recalls.
In 2006, Lawrence began searching for a contextual advertising solution that he could implement on the site – one that would offer easy revenue sharing with members. He approached several companies. “Two said they had nothing to offer, but Google told me to stay tuned,” he says.
As part of Google AdSense, a program that enables online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to their sites, Google developed the AdSense API. “It was just what we’d been looking for. With the AdSense API, we could integrate Google AdSense directly into the site, and members could share in the ad revenue from the content they contribute.”
Since implementing the AdSense API, user engagement, revenue sharing, and overall revenue have grown at significant rates. ”With the latest version of the AdSense API, revenue sharing is more transparent and easier for members than ever,” says Lawrence. “Furthermore, our daily sign-up rates for AdSense have grown 500 percent and our site's rating engagement grew 20 fold from February to August 2008.”
Just as important, the AdSense API has helped RateItAll put its money where its mouth is. “Users are very appreciative of the gesture of sharing revenue,” says Lawrence. “We think it’s a huge part of treating members the right way, and it goes a long way toward building trust.”
Sharing revenues through AdSense supports RateItAll’s business model in other ways as well. It has garnered the company positive press coverage and a number of inbound leads. It sends a strong marketing message to users who have the choice of contributing reviews to sites that don’t share revenues, or to RateItAll, which does. Lawrence is also pleased with the quality and relevance of AdSense ads appearing on the site. “And it’s easy to use, for us and for our members,” Lawrence notes. “I don’t have to worry about cutting checks.”
Currently AdSense accounts for about 70 percent of RateItAll’s revenues. “We are seeing a new category of users who are very conscious of creating new rating categories, but focusing on those that are monetizable,” says Lawrence. “With members actively trying to maximize their earnings, we maximize our earnings, so everyone wins. AdSense is now fundamental to our business model.”
Lawrence believes that AdSense and the AdSense API also boost member retention. “Once folks are engaged and tracking their earnings, we’re far less likely to lose them.”
“We believe that long term, our use of the AdSense API will increase the overall size of the revenue pie associated with the site, more than making up for the revenue that is passed on to site contributors,” concludes Lawrence. “Treating your users fairly is not only the right thing to do – it’s also good for business.”
Google AdSense is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to their site. Through AdSense, website publishers can also provide their visitors with site search and Google web search, earning revenue through Google ads on the search results pages. AdSense publishers are a part of the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos. For more information, visit https://www.google.com/adsense/.
The AdSense API is a free beta service that enables people to integrate Google AdSense into their website offerings. Using the AdSense API, website publishers can allow users to perform a variety of AdSense functions: create or manage their AdSense accounts, modify their AdSense ads and view ad performance and earnings reports. The AdSense API is ideal for developers whose users create their own web content through web hosting, web publishing, blogging, and social networking applications. For more information, visit http://code.google.com/apis/adsense/.
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