Skyscraper Helps Bloggers Make More Money
Recently I had a chat with Paul Burger, co-founder and CEO of Skyscraper, a new web service that hopes to help bloggers make more money by streamlining the direct sales process for ads. Currently the service is still in beta and has a lot of work to be done in order to get it ready for primetime, however, I was given early access and so far I really like what I’ve seen and heard from the team.
Skyscraper wants to be the go-to service for publishers that don’t want to have to deal with the hassle of going out and finding advertisers and then having to handle the transaction. And honestly, that mindset encompasses most publishers, at least those who like to focus on quality content. To do that, Paul and his team are hard at work building a wonderful dashboard that makes it easy to create ad slots, price them, and implement them on your site. But they didn’t stop there, they also are working to give the ability for every publisher that signs up with Skyscraper to get their own media kit, which can be shown off to advertisers who are interested in your site.
Right now, you can create ad spaces for any standard IAB ad size, however, they are planning to offer the ability to create your own ad size as well. You can also have Skyscraper show your own house inventory, if you currently don’t have any purchased ad orders placed. So for example, if you want to promote your ebook or use your Google AdSense code with Skyscraper, you can do that too by implementing your ad code in house inventory section of the dashboard.
By providing an easy way to create/manage ad inventory, build a media kit, and accept payments, Skyscraper is essentially a one-stop shop for publishers both big and small.
So how much will Skyscraper cost?
Well, when I spoke to Paul, he told me that the service isn’t free like some of the other competitors out there which take a percentage of your ad revenue, instead it’ll cost publishers a monthly fee to use but they get to keep all the revenue. That being said, while Paul didn’t provide me with an exact number, I’m sure it’ll be a competitive price, and really, Skyscraper is offering a lot for publishers. Paul also mentioned that they are looking into building a marketplace that advertisers can search through to find new sites to work with. If an advertiser purchases ad space from your site through the marketplace Paul mentioned that he is currently considering having Skyscraper take a percentage of the revenue for helping to facilitate the sale. I think that’s fair.
We’ll have a complete Skyscraper review once the product is ready for launch, so definitely keep your eye out for that.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that today Skyscraper launched its brand new home page, which provides a lot more information on the service, so be sure to check it out.