Coming Soon!

Listeners of the World,

We here at OurTown have been developing a new site with a new ad system. Since local and national ads are how our local editors make money and connect with the local businesses we wanted to give some incite to the system. Now many of the things that I'm going to talk about are not finalized for the new ad system will be released about a month after the soft release of the site this month!

Now with the ad system right now there is a lot of pressure and work that needs to be done by the local editor to obtain local advertisements. Local editors are the only ones who can put in ads, update them, place them on the page, and take them down once expired. Also another big part that makes it a little tougher is that the local editors also determine all local ad prices. Now the home office does help with ad pricing if asked and we also post many tips and guides on the subject as well. Now from the current system we have had local editors obtain many local ads while we have had other local editors who could not obtain one local ad! We saw this as a huge problem and needed to make a change!

Now that everyone is up to date with the current ad system we want to give you a glimpse of what is to come! The first big change is the new "ad portal" which will be available to everyone who visits the site. This new ad portal will act as the gateway to our local advertising on the site. This is where local editors will put in ads for there site, but it is also where the local businesses can put in their own local ad and select the area or areas that they would like it to be shown. With this simple new change we have allowed local editors to focus more on updating their site instead of pitching local businesses. If you build your site up and get enough traffic the local businesses will notice your site without you even going to their store!

Another great feature is that the local editor no longer has to place the ads on their site! It will happen automatically based on what information the local business or local editor inputs while entering the ad onto our ad portal. This also means that the site will automatically take down the ad, update the ad based on what was entered in, and it will also renew the ad with simple OK from either the business or local editor.

Now comes the big part that we have been working on here at the home office..............AD PRICING! Many local editors have been stumped with pricing their own ads not knowing how much to charge and for how long. Well we have been working on a solution for a while now and with any luck from the formula we are working on OurTown.com will set the ad prices for each individual area! Now we know that some local editors like to set the prices and we are working so that the system will support both. Now in the beginning it might only support the OurTown prices, but we will have both eventually.

With the new ad system we are hoping that local editors will get to spend more time improving their sites and less time worrying about their ads. Because in the end if you site is good enough the advertisers will come to you!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris