FM's advertising platform now accepts accounts from virtually every international port of call, a feature many of you asked for in the early stages of our beta. Thanks for the feedback!

Chas writes up Dice's new campaign, which lets the audience write the ad copy in real time. A really cool idea.

With SEO content site. Hell, if you know someone, FM wants help with this too. Maybe Duct Tape Marketing and FM can hook up, and we all win!

If you want to hear my stream of conscious thinking about FM and more, here's a podcast for ya....

It's Author Services guru Bill Brazell's birthday - woooohoooo! Happy Birthday Bill!

We've got a number of positions open - several sales positions at various levels (our search for NY Director is ongoing), and at least two engineering positions.

The engineering positions, as spec'd by Andre, lay out thusly:

Location: Sausalito, CA (some flexibility available)
URL: http://www.federatedmedia.net/
We're looking for a PHP developer with heavy PHP4 experience; working with PHP classes, performance tuning, and most of all developing secure, public facing web apps. Someone who can get around Linux, configure Apache, is familiar with Smarty, getting data out of MySQL, work with Subversion, has little to no Ajax experience (I kid), can create simple JavaScript functions, and can help design databases would be ideal. Experience with phpAdsNew and ad serving technology a plus, but not required.

The sales positions depend on experience, we're looking for high integrity folks with online experience, and we pay market rates.

The best of working here, is well, being here, and working on a great product with amazing authors and a great team. Let us know if you know anyone who might be interested...

Apply:
Send a resume to jobs@fmpub.net

iMedia Connection: The new online ad toolkit offers categorized and demographically relevant search and instant purchasing.

AdAge: A key part of the platform is a new do-it-yourself planning tool that will allow companies, especially small ones, to plan, create and execute ad campaigns across Federated's blogs. Referencing Wired editor Chris Anderson, he said, "You're not going to market in the 'long tail' if you have to find every site that's a part of it. We act as a filter for that."

Glenn Fleishman: The FM system lets an advertiser target sites in the FM network by demographics, or just browse available inventories. GigaOm, Fark, BoingBoing, and almost four dozen other sites that have the same author-driven or editorial-driven focus as Wi-Fi Networking News are also available.
I’ve already bought my first banner on another site for my book-comparison service, isbn.nu. If you’ve been looking for short or long ad runs on Wi-Fi Network News, check out FM’s new system.

Business2.0: Rather than launch 50 blogs that may or may not be interesting and sell advertising across them, Batelle is trying a different tack with FM Publishing. He's collected about 50 high-quality blogs and Websites like BoingBoing, Digg, GigaOm, TechCrunch, and Techdirt to be part of his network. They focus on producing great content, and FM Publishing focuses on bringing great advertisers to them. It's a distributed, er, federated, business model that positions FM Publishing at the crucial nexus betweeen its network of bloggers and its network of advertisers.

Marketwatch: It's an easy-to-use service for advertisers who want to select a demographic and a particular type of ad to place on one of Battelle's 50-plus blogs. Battelle's service then recommends sites based on relevance and makes suggestions to the advertiser.

AdRants: We took a test drive and found the planning tool very easy to use providing easy selection of blogs based on segmented audience profiles and demographics gleaned from readership surveys. Individual sites, groups of sites or all sites can be included in the buy, flight dates can be set and IAB standard creative units can be selected. Federated media claims its collection of blogs can deliver 70 million monthly page views.

MediaPost: Like a dating site--and unlike many online ad networks that currently exist--FM Publishing's automated platform requires consent from both parties, as bloggers can turn down offers from interested advertisers.

BoingBoing: You can browse ad inventory on BB, Fark, Digg, and dozens of other blogs in the FM network, check out demographics, come up with an ad plan, and then hit the buy button right then and there.

WebProNews: Big-name brands have tested the platform during its private beta. FM listed Apple, General Motors, Microsoft, and Sony among many others. At the beta site for the ad planning tool, FM offers a 35 percent discount for all campaigns booked through the platform during the beta phase.

Adotas: With 70 million page views per month on parenting, technology, and community blogs, FM’s network will offer a new ad platform that will target the web’s most engaged audiences. The online ad tool will also offer instant purchasing as well as categorized and demographically-targeted searches.

Marketing Pilgrim: FM already has an impressive list of advertisers including Sony, Apple, Intel, Lenovo and Microsoft. FM's author network consists of more than 50 top-tier bloggers and publishers.

Thomas Hawk: So far my experience with FM has been great. I went from losing money every month on my blog (due to traffic increasing I needed a more expensive and more robust broadband hosting package) to actually making money on it.

Fred Wilson: Now anyone who wants to run banners or text ads on my blog can simply go to the FM ad network, drum up an ad, decide how much you want to spend, and submit. Your ads will start running on the upper right sidebar.

Wow, a top item on tech.memeorandum!

ClickZ: The company's roster reads like a who's who of tech, business, lifestyle and culture weblogs.

CNNMoney.com: In a further sign that blogs are coming of age, Federated Media, a blog network created by former Industry Standard publisher and Business 2.0 magazine columnist John Battelle, yesterday launched a new web-based, self-serve advertising tool.

Searchviews: Unlike many ad networks, FM's gives individual sites the right to refuse ad campaigns they don't want to carry. But FM's sites can afford the luxury, due to sheer popularity (not to mention the loyalty of their readers) - and those factors are also undoubtedly major selling points.

Cnet: John Battelle, founder of print publications Wired and The Standard, is ramping up a new online publishing network of blogs. Late Wednesday, his venture, called Federated Media or FM, launched a test version of an automated advertising tool for buyers who want to appear across a network of blogs, including the well-known blog Boing Boing and humor site Fark.com.

The beta of FM's advertising platform is now live!

As I just wrote to the authors who have made all this possible:

Nearly two years ago, while researching my book, I came up with an idea about online media, based on an author-driven world where publishers acted more like partners, and less like bosses, and where talent - that'd be our authors - might find a way to be supported in their valuable work. That idea turned into FM. I sketched on a napkin to Chas Edwards, who left Cnet to join me, and I sketched it on the wall for Andre Torrez, who quit his job in LA and moved up here to build it. Ten more followed, then nearly 50 authors, and now....

I'm very excited to announce FM's public facing ad platform is live!

This has been a lot of fun to work on, and I'm very proud of the work the FM team - and all of of our wonderful authors - have put into making this happen.

I've attached our press release below. And if/when folks cover our launch, I'll add links here. I hope you all bang on it, help us learn, and find it useful. We're off to a great start, and there's even more news to report soon about more wonderful authors joining our ranks.

Whooooeeeee!

--------------------

For release 9 pm PST May 3

For More Information Contact:
Jennifer Charette
jcharrette@fmpub.net
Federated Media
323 Pine St., Sausalito CA 94965
(415)332-6955 Office
(415)785-1191 fax

Federated Media Launches Advertiser Planning Tool

By enabling online advertisers to directly create, manage and run campaigns on selected high-quality weblogs, Federated Media helps connect authors, advertisers and audiences in a robust conversation. FM’s network is now serving more than 70 million pageviews a month and growing.

Sausalito, CA May 3, 2006 – Federated Media Inc (FM), the Internet’s leading author-driven publishing services firm, announced today a new platform for advertisers looking to reach the Internet’s most engaged audiences. FM’s platform empowers advertisers to reach more than 70 million monthly pageviews on the leading technology, parenting and community-driven weblogs. Offering categorized and demographically relevant search and instant purchasing, Federated Media’s new online advertiser toolkit makes designing and launching cost-effective campaigns simple.

Included among FM’s growing network of nearly 50 high quality authors and publishers are Boing Boing (perennially ranked #1 by blog-tracking service Technorati), Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch, the wildly popular Digg.com and Fark.com, and Dooce, which focuses on parenting. FM’s platform offers detailed demographics and significant reach into highly desired reader markets such as technology, business, parenting, entertainment, and community-driven content. The online campaign creation and management platform is a unique tool for everyone looking to advertise on high quality Internet sites; from agencies to independent businesses.

“FM’s new platform lets advertisers tune their campaigns to some of the best audiences on the web,” said Chas Edwards, VP of Sales and Marketing at Federated Media. “The platform includes detailed reader demographic information, site profiles, and inventory forecasting. Marketers input their campaign targets, and FM’s search engine returns sites that are best positioned to deliver on that campaign's objectives.”

At the core of this new technology lies FM’s commitment to authors and their audiences. “What brings advertisers to FM is the incredible conversations between authors and their readers,” said John Battelle, Chairman and Publisher. “Our platform makes it simple for advertisers to participate in these conversations - to join the authors and audience in a meaningful way.”

Marketers as varied as Absolut, Adobe, Apple, Budget Rental Car, Citibank, Dreamworks, General Motors, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, Sony and scores of others have already tested FM’s system. "The best blogs are conversations among members of a passionate, highly engaged community,” said Sarah Fay, President of Isobar US, a major advertising agency. “By locating and bringing together tier-one blogs, FM affords marketers an opportunity to join the most important of those conversations. I'm looking forward to the next wave of 'federations'!"

To try Federated Media’s new on-line advertiser tool-kit point your browser to:

http://advertisers.federatedmedia.net/

About Federated Media
At FM, we believe great voices attract great audiences. We're in the business of supporting those voices, by connecting them to great marketers, as well as providing a suite of services that let authors focus on what they do best: make compelling media. In doing so, we are creating federations of respected voices that prosper on their own terms. More information can be found at:

http://federatedmedia.net/


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