Ads for Adobe PDF

Here's another tip to improve monetization of your PDFs: test different PDFs to see if they return relevant ads before publishing them to your readers. In some cases, irrelevant ads may be returned because the content is too niche and there isn't enough advertiser demand for that category. Or perhaps it may be that the writing style is too varied and the analysis cannot determine the appropriate common keywords. (You can refer to my previous post for more tips on how to improve ad relevancy).

Over time, pricing for each publisher is automatically adjusted based on the performance of their PDFs. Therefore, if you publish a lot of poorly matched PDFs that don't result in clicks, then it can have a negative impact to the monetization of even your well-matched PDFs.

The best analogy is the real estate market. Everyone wants to live in a nice neighborhood. When some leave and depress the prices, that drives others to leave and results in a cascading effect. Likewise, when people are buying in and there is too much demand for the same location, then the prices go sky high. The marketplace team applies this principle of market planning so that all participants are, in the long run, better off in the market.

Posted by Cynthia Tillo at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you know that your writing style can actually influence how targeted and relevant ads are matched to your content? Here are a few writing tips on how you can increase the relevancy of ads for the PDFs:

• Check that your PDF has a main theme or topic that is discussed throughout the document.

• Check for spelling and grammar errors. Inconsistent spelling of the words affects the analysis accuracy.

• Use words that are related to the main theme or category of your content.

• Use common synonyms and variations of the keywords.

• If you use slang or new terminology, use it consistently.

• Keep paragraphs brief and avoid using long, run-on sentences.

• Avoid discussing too many unrelated topics in the same document.

Posted by Cynthia Tillo at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In order to maximize your revenue potential with the Ads for Adobe PDF service, it is very important to make it easy for people to find your PDF content and drive traffic to it.

Marketing Sherpa has a great article containing tips on how to ensure that your PDFs can be indexed by the search engines. I have included a summary below from a fellow blogger at Searchnewz:

Text Identification

In order to identify the text in an image in Acrobat, you would need to run OCR(character recognition) after opening your image-based PDF. Then go to the document menu, where it will scan the document and translate the image-text into text. You can then even edit the text according to your search engine optimization requirements.

Dividing the larger files

Dividing a large PDF file, into many smaller files would make it easier for the search engines to easily find your web page. By specifying your files, you can reduce the PDF download time, while you have the choice of opting for broader range of search keywords.

Optimize your PDF copy

After you have indexed the text PDF for search engines, you should also optimize the text with SEO techniques. Use specific keywords for the PDF and use them in the PDF text headlines, subheads and copy.

Discard duplicate content

You should be aware that the search engines simply hate duplicate content. So why bring the wrath of the search engines on you. Therefore, you should either alter one of same content that you have on the site, or delete it all together. Also, another option would be using proper meta tags. As it can prevent the search engines from indexing one of the pages.

Adding metadata

Another PDF technique would be adding text related Metadata. It would describe your file to the search engines and the search engines would use these information to index your page.

Adding links

In Acrobat PDFs you can add links, so that the customers can have a look at the product and can even add it to their shopping cart if they are interested.

Add your company footer

A company footer would include your companys name, address, contact information and website link. You can add these information to every PDF to facilitate searches for your business.

Optimizing links to the PDF

In order to convince, the search engines that your content is relevant, your website should have a display text containing the text specific keywords.

Posted by Cynthia Tillo at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Including ads in PDF documents may seem like treading on unchartered territory. I've talked to numerous publishers and they all tell me the same thing: they see this ad service as a means to explore new business models that will help them subsidize the costs of content creation and production. I think it's always helpful to remind your readerbase why advertising is such a critical piece of the publishing business. Sponsors help pay the bills and if the ads are relevant, they can even be interesting and helpful to your readers.

I've run across a few great examples of how publishers have communicated this to their readerbase:

1) Kevin Kelly's ebook on True Films
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/002538.php

This is a great ebook that reviews the best 200 documentaries. The link to his ebook includes a blog post that iterates why he is including ads with the ebook:

"I hope you get the updated version of the Reader and click to see the ads. Why? Because my hunch is that books-supported-by-ads is one way to extend the FREE. I would love to produce books for free, outside of big publishing, just as this recommendation site is given away for free. Cool Tools has continued for free for five years because it is funded by the ads on this site. There is a chance we can develop a similar culture and business model around FREE books. The engine would again be ads."

2) The Seventh Sun
http://theseventhsun.com/index.htm

The Seventh Sun publishes all sorts of fascinating articles and news about the virtual world. When you mouse over a PDF that has been ad-enabled, you will see a brief blurb describing the ads and why they are there.

3) Dinosaurs and Robots Dispatch
http://hooptyrides.blogspot.com/2008/02/dinosaurs-and-robots-dispatch-new.html

The previous founders of Boing-Boing have created a new publication for projects, techniques and tools, loosely arranged around the idea of transport. In their blog post containing the PDF, they write:

"There are folks who do not believe creative effort should be rewarded monetarily. I am not one of those people. Dispatch is released as a PDF with dynamic ads from Adobe/Yahoo. You can choose to turn off the ads or open the PDF with Apple Preview, which does not support ads. However, if you enjoy the Dispatch and would like to see future issues, I would appreciate it if you'd open with the Adobe Reader and leave the ads enabled."

Take a lead from your fellow publishers. Ad-sponsored content is nothing new, but sometimes, readers just need to be reminded how they are getting that content for free!

Posted by Cynthia Tillo at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)