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Six Apart Launch an Ad Network and New Services

SixapartTomorrow Six Apart will launch a new ad network, the acquisition of a social media agency and new ‘services’.

I’ve published the full press release below but tomorrow Six Apart are going public with some major developments.

The main components of the announcements today:

A New Ad Network – for ‘influential bloggers’ Six Apart will now offer a way to monetize their blogs. They’ve long been selling ads for their own services like Vox so it makes sense to extend this and do it for other ‘VIP’ blogs also. They’re doing so through a partnership with Adify on a revenue share basis with bloggers.

The cool thing is that there’s no need to be on one of Six Apart’s platforms to join.

New ‘Services’ – SA are also now offering to sell services to medium to large bloggers including the management of the back end of blogs, SEO, blog design and more. They are also offering consulting services for bloggers of all services. These ‘tune up’ services are available to TypePad bloggers.

Alongside these developments there are a few new business units being announced today by Six Apart to run them. Full details of it all in the following press Release.

Six Apart Press Release

Six Apart Launches New Services as Blogs and Social Media Go Mainstream

New advertising service, acquisition of social media agency, and opening of New York office respond to growing need from customers and advertisers

San Francisco, CA – April 21, 2008 – Six Apart, the world’s leading blogging software and services company, today announced that it is adding a host of social media services to its existing technology offering in response to the growth of blogging into a mainstream communications technology. The company will provide new advertising, design, implementation, development and site optimization services to bloggers and companies of all sizes.

“Our customers have asked us for complete solutions as their blogging and social media efforts grow,” said Chris Alden, CEO of Six Apart. “We’re expanding our business so that our customers can benefit from our years of experience in this space. We can provide them not just with the technology but with the expertise and services to help them succeed.”

To support this growth, Six Apart has acquired leading social media creative agency, Apperceptive, LLC., and established an office in New York City. Apperceptive has worked with Six Apart for the past two years providing cutting edge development and design to leading web properties that include Huffington Post, Washington Post, Gothamist, Serious Eats, Boing Boing, Major League Baseball, and more. The New York team, currently hiring, will play a significant role in the delivery of social media services to customers and advertisers.

Advertising and VIP Services
Six Apart now offers a premium advertising program for influential bloggers and social media web sites as a powerful alternative to current advertising options. Thousands of bloggers on hosted platforms like TypePad and self-hosted tools like Movable Type and WordPress.org have the opportunity to make money from their blogs by participating in advertising solutions created by Six Apart that bring together the best of social media, blogging, and advertising. This new program builds on Six Apart’s years of experience providing innovative, custom media solutions to major brands such as HP, MSN and Universal Studios.

Six Apart’s new advertising services combine the depth of blogging with the breadth of social networks to create engaging, relevant online experiences that connect advertisers with influencers and their audiences. Six Apart is partnering with Adify, the premier technology and media company focused on vertical online advertising, to provide the advertising program to bloggers.

In addition, the Six Apart VIP program will promote and support influential bloggers in building their audiences and visibility. Services for VIPs include blog assessment and optimization, design and template analysis, and educational services and webinars.

Design, Development and Implementation Services
With the acquisition of Apperceptive, Six Apart will continue to design and develop next-generation social media applications and experiences for major bloggers, large media companies and corporate customers. Six Apart Services will help online publishers that want to power custom communities, encourage user-generated content, and manage web publishing from a single, scalable application. The group will also integrate social publishing platforms with customers’ existing systems to create effective internal collaboration tools.

Blog Optimization and Tune-up Services
Six Apart is offering a set of personal consultation services to bloggers of all sizes that help them get the most out of their blogs. The new “Turbo Tune Up” and “Power Launch” services, designed to improve the marketing impact of their blogs, are now available to all TypePad bloggers. These services are an addition to the existing world class support currently available to TypePad customers.

New Business Units
Six Apart is forming two new business units to provide the new services. Six Apart Media, led by David Tokheim, will provide the premium advertising program to influential bloggers and custom advertising solutions to marketers. This group will also identify, cultivate and support bloggers for the VIP program.

Six Apart Services, led by Marissa Levinson and David Jacobs, will provide design and implementation services to large publishers and corporate customers.

Any blogger can receive a blog tune up or power launch service from Six Apart’s professional support team.

“By adding these services as we continue to invest in our core technologies, Six Apart is ideally positioned to capitalize on the rapid growth in the blogging market and provide complete solutions to our customers,” said Alden.

About Six Apart
Six Apart Ltd. provides award-winning blogging software and services that change the way millions of individuals, organizations, and corporations connect and communicate around the world every day. The company provides the Movable Type social media platform, the TypePad hosted blogging service, Vox, a free blogging service for friends and families, advertising solutions for leading brands and influential bloggers, and services dedicated to making bloggers successful. Founded in 2002, Six Apart is a global company with its headquarters in San Francisco, CA, and offices in Tokyo, Paris and New York City . For more information visit the Six Apart corporate web site at http://www.sixapart.com/.

Here are some examples:

Since Six Apart powers the platform we have the ability to connect the bloggers and the advertiser in fresh, innovative ways no other network or digital media company can. We’ve been providing innovative campaigns to companies like HP, MSN and Universal Studios for the past two years and we’ve learned a lot about how to spark and sustain the conversations between marketers, bloggers, and their readers – in a way that puts the control in the hands of the consumers. Here are some custom examples

http://www.livejournal.com/entertainment/ – You’ll see the MSN Brand integration underneath the LJ Editorial

http://www.vox.com/politics/ – You’ll see the MSN Brand integration underneath the Vox Editorial

http://community.livejournal.com/knockedupmovie/ – LJ Sponsored Community that was developed for the theatrical release and then revived for the DVD release.

http://joydtaylor.vox.com/ – Vox Blog Themes that were developed for the HP campaign.

Another aspect of the campaign that was remarkable, was on http://www.designtoinspirecontest.com/ Over 330 users submitted designs that they created both to share with others and to enter the contest. The designs were placed in a gallery for users to vote on.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. How was this originally leaked to some of the other blogs?

  2. Wow, this product/service sounds pretty amazing.
    Bit of a bummer they only do advertising for larger scale blogs because my blog is just getting up and running, maybe once I hit the big time and make the technorati top 100 list I can sign up.
    The marketing help for bloggers of all sizes sounds pretty good. I struggle getting my head around the best ways to market my blog and get it out there. Sometimes I feel like I have a load of great content but just not enough people to read it and add to it. But I am continually seeking to improve and I think this service could really help me.

  3. Starting an ad network is an obvious next step for Six Apart to take. I expect we will see a similiar anouncement from WordPress in the near future.

    The one thing these companies don’t seem to understand is that advertising is just one potential revenue stream for content websites and is purely dependent on traffic volume. Niche websites with small, but very loyal and targeted audiences can generate significant income IF they have multiple revenue streams.

    Over the last year I have observed the revenue streams of over 100 content websites and the ones that do best (by a broad margin) are those with advertising, affiliate marketing, sell one or more products (e.g. ebooks, reports, etc), have a premium membership service and arrange events (such as seminars, workshops, etc.). If you want to see an example of how a niche site can make $7,000 a month by having 5 revenue streams, take a look at this case study/example: http://www.subhub.com/articles/how-to-start-a-recession-proof-online-business

  4. Hmmm… Lets see how six apart goes in the near future..

  5. This is very interesting news, Darren. It’s great to hear of a service supporting influential bloggers in every respect, especially as you are now accepting bloggers outside the network.

    I’m off to read more about this now. Congratulations :)

  6. wow,,, exciting news i must say. gotto read more on marketing stuff thx for the post

  7. Yeh. techcrunch.com also had a competition asking their readers to guess whom Six Apart bought. I said defensio.com, which obviously is wrong. Nevertheless a good move by Six Apart.

  8. Blech. I can’t stand MT and could care less about Six Apart and their elitist programs.

    Now, if WordPress/Automattic were doing this… that would be a different story!

  9. Wow.. everyday a new ad network is launching..

  10. I’m not as strongly against Six Apart as Lara is. But that being said I do sort of feel like a little fish in a great big pond. I would like it if WordPress came out with something like this also.

  11. my nee design resources blog is also wordpress. I’ll just have to stick to promoting my blog myself for now. Mabey sometime in the future I’ll be able to use a service like this.

  12. Hey, just what the world (wide web) needs….another ad network. lol

  13. Lets become one of the pioneer to use this new ad network… :)

  14. interesting to see how this goes
    good info

  15. Darren,

    I read about this on their site this morning.

    I could only think, yeah, but when will TypePad allow me to add stuff that’s basic elsewhere like email-subscribe-to-comments, or CommentLuv, which is sweeping WordPress? These basics really help grow small- to medium-sized blogs rapidly. Even RSS-subscribe-to-comments only became available in the last month or so, and only if you jump through hoops. Painfully behind-the-times. I’ve tried “talking” to them, to tell them it’s time to step up, but the red tape and lack of interest are amazing. Lots of smaller bloggers are heading for the WordPress hills in frustration.

    There are things I love about them, but right now they’re expanding for the big guy but not taking care of the basics first.

    Regards,

    Kelly

  16. “Influential bloggers”? What do they exactly mean by that?

  17. Six Apart doing SEO. What a hoot. Heavy posters on TypePad see their content filtered/penalized by Google because of duplicate meta and other issues related to TP.

    They are “aware and working on it.”

    Perhaps SIx Apart could clean up its own mess before offering to “help” more bloggers.

  18. @Miles Galliford, Your site is wonderful. I love your writing style! The initial fee is a bit out of my league right now – perhaps after this summer you’ll be seeing me.

  19. Its great to be one of the brilliant people that help improve our technology. Those who wont stop searching and making things that can help people. I am so proud of six apart because of they continue there service to people despite of hardships. I know it is not easy to give people the best for them but with six apart they were always be there for the people, willing to give time and impart there service with hight quality.Continue your good job!

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