Cute Puppy Provides Free Advertising
written by Michael Kwan
See Spot. See Spot run. Run Spot, run.
Despite what its name may lead you to believe, the free advertising system that serves as the subject of this review has nothing to do with the classic book series starring Spot the Dog. That’s why there are a couple extra letters attached to Spottt. Even so, it’s not like Spottt is completely original either.
See Spottt. See Spottt Share. Share Spottt, Share.
You’ve surely noticed that the 125×125 button has suddenly become the most popular advertising format on a number of blogs. Part of the blame credit can probably be placed on the redesign of John Chow dot Com several months back. With this in mind, the folks who run AdBrite decided to capitalize on the emerging ad style and Spottt was born.
The idea is that anyone with a webpage can get their hands on some free advertising in exchange for offering some advertising to like-minded websites. After you design a 125×125 button for your own site — Spottt works with blogs, MySpace, Xanga, LiveJournal, and any other website — you submit this to the Spottt database. They provide you with Spottt code that must be implemented into your website and this is where you display ads from other sites.
Spottt is a free link exchange program, but the sharing is not on a one-to-one basis.
Two For Me, One For You
The Spottt code includes a traffic tracker, so you are able to know exactly how many times your Spottt widget has been shown to site visitors. These impressions are translated into Spottt credits. You would think that with a traffic exchange program, each impression on your site would then result in one impression of your Spottt ad on someone else’s site. Sounds fair, right?
Well, that’s not how Spottt works. Instead, the FAQ tells us:
For every two times an ad is shown on your site, we’ll show your ad once. We’ll use the extra pages to show Spottt “house ads” that promote the Spottt service to other people like you. This will help grow the Spottt network which means your Spottt will have the ability to show on even more sites.
In the future, Spottt will be able to sell these extra impressions to paid advertisers. You’ll still have the opportunity earn “free” ad impressions, but there will also be an option to buy Spottt credits.
Create Your Spottt Ad
Signing up for a Spottt account is an incredibly straightforward process. All you have to do is provide an email address and you’re good to go. You’ll get an email confirmation and then your account is activated. From there, you’ll create your first Spottt.
Ideally, you’d like to have a graphic that is already 125 pixels wide and 125 pixels tall, but Spottt will automatically resize any image to fit these proportions. After filling out the short form above, you will be presented with your Spottt code. This must then be implemented on your site. Here’s what Spottt looks like on Beyond the Rhetoric.
Although you start generating Spottt credits right away, it takes a day from them to verify that your code has been implemented correctly. After that, your Spottt ad will start appearing on other people’s websites.
The Pinkest Link Exchange Ever
Spottt is cute. It’s too cute. Just about everything that has to do with Spottt involves a cute puppy (Golden Retriever?) and a whole lot of pink. Not to sound sexist or anything, but this makes Spottt seem terribly feminine and it may not be immediately appealing to the more masculine among us. To get a higher level of adoption, it might have been better to go with a gender-neutral color.
Entrecard All Over Again
If you’re thinking that Spottt sounds familiar, you’d be right. BlogRush does it with a text link widget and Entrecard does it with, you guessed it, 125 ad buttons. The two key differences are that Spottt was created by the same people that brought you AdBrite and Spottt has the one-for-two impression scheme described above.
That said, one of the biggest advantages that Spottt has is that they force you to embed their code above the fold. This significantly increases the exposure of your ad button, because both BlogRush and Entrecard users are known for placing their widgets further down the page.
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(12 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)
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Very nice review as always Michael. I really appreciate the depth you go into with them
My only issue with this review is that you never actually tried SPOTTT, did you? Because if you did, you’d know that right after you get approved, you can move little SPOTTT all the way down to the bottom of your webpage and the bright people at Adbrite would be none the wiser.
Would that be wise though? If the ad spot is not visible doesn’t that mean that others will not want to advertise on your site?
You do know what a TOS means, right?
Exactly. Like the part that says: “Participant agrees to the following requirements of the Program:
SPOTTT banner placement must be above the fold, at least 850 pixels.”
Thanks John for teaching us how say some really nice words in a PAID review.
What makes you think that I didn’t try Spottt? There’s even a screenshot included with the Spottt implemented on my blog.
Its a good review but i for one will not be using spottt. The amount of traffic you would gain will be small compared to the amount of credits my blog for example would be generating.
Secondly i would not want the code above the fold on my blog as this would then reduce my income from banner ad sales.
Spottt is no different from any of the other 1000`s of banner exchanges on the internet.
yup totally agreed to this one
What a creative idea. I think it’s better concept than EntreCard. I’m going to try it. Thanks for your information.
IF you do implement it, it would be great to here you impression on how it worked.
Good review Michael!
I’ve heard of spottt before, but your review made me make a decision to try it out. Although I’m not sure that now is the right time, somewhere down the road I definitely will.
Cheers,
Alex.
A good article. Thanks for sharing!
AdBrite is a joke, imo. People have had bad experiences with them left and right.
As far as Spottt goes, I may give it a try on my internet related blog. Requiring that the widget goes above the fold isn’t always a good thing. Not everyone has internet related blogs. Confusing your readers by leading them directly to unrelated widgets, before they even view your site, just doesn’t make any sense.
Is there any way to edit what sites are displayed on your blog?
good review micheal …. not worth it to me because i dont see anything special or fancy about them.
Very nice review, I am really amazed by the sites subject and work, its a very nice idea for a site, and the name is soo cute!
I will look forward to use that site with my own sites,
ali hatukai
hatukai.com
I’ve never really felt that good about this type of deal. I’m not sure that the ads on my site will end up being at all relevant and I have no idea where my ads are going.
It sounds like a good investment for a new blog/site but as people have mentioned if a site is already established and they are making money from this space why swap it for a link to another site for free.
Really good review. I think it’s worth to take a look at Spott. It may grow in the future.
Not worth taking the effort to go through all that when there are better and more lucrative offers there…
My apologies… what I meant to say was…
Not worth taking the effort to go through all that when there are better and more lucrative offers out there…
Sorry for the double post…
It seems an unusually lucrative means of gathering small amounts of traffic. A 125×125 unit above the fold is worth more than you’d get through this (unless you’re a new blog, then getting credits would be difficult).
It’s essentially an CPM model and those don’t work too well on this small scale IMO. You’d do better dedicating more time to sites like StumbleUpon.
That above the fold requirement sure is turning off. I can’t see why I should put the ads above the other things more important to be on top.
That’s pretty cool. It appears another benefit might be that it doesn’t require you to click anything or drop cards anywhere. I will have to check it out as Entrecard is wearing out its welcome.
i signed up when techcrunch posted it and I STILL haven’t been approved
nice review. lack of photoshop skills is going to mean one crappy banner from me
Spottt is total crap. Only big sites can profit with it.
Also, there is no control over what ad displays in our widget.
I don’t like that at all. My blocked BlogRush list continues to grow! -Thanks for the heads-up
Nice post john.
Oh well…one is already too much … two would be ahhhhh!!
How would you or anyone here recommend getting traffic in the first place for a new blog? Keep in mind that I’m unemployeed and broke.
Pretty nice review, hope i could get a review such that also.
Trying out Spottt right now, I wish they had some options to change the background color of the Spottt tag line however, to help it blend a bit better…
Good review Michael, but all I have to say is yawn, another advertising widget. I only have so much sidebar room.
Does anyone else remember the old LinkExchange.com program that Microsoft purchased? They had a similar 2:1 program.
Not sure I will bother with this one. There are just too many widgets from random people we try to include.
Looks nice, but it’s so much similar widgets lately!
This may be something that is good for someone starting out and needs free advertising or someone that has extra advertising space on their site that isn’t generating any income.
A lot of new website owners and bloggers are always looking for ways to get some free advertising.
If you can’t currently sell the spot where you would place that Spottt ad code, why not ad Spottt on your site until you find advertisers.
~Terry
that was a great review sir michael! i already have gotten mine a few days ago and i am starting to get traffic. not that much yet but hopefully more soon. i like it because it’s free and it’s cute.
Isn’t this bad with google though? can’t it bring your pagerank down a few points?
well nice review but i got few questions… is that against google TOS? im new to bloggin so thats y
I just bought that premium wordpress theme that John advertises on this page (up top). It has a lot of sidebar room, so I might try this out. It’s free, so what do I have to lose?
Good post and like the concept idea!
it drew my attention, i think there playing it smart. i’d rather get the attention of as many readers instead of targeting a small group. More clicks out of it.
I don’t necessarily agree with the gender neutral thing, being a fairly masculine male myself, I use zecco (stock broker) and their site is pretty pink. Doesn’t really bother me.