Today, we're making two changes to our Ning Terms of Service (TOS) related to the acquisition of Ning by Mode Media (formerly Glam Media), a company that helps connect online publishers (like yourself) with top brand advertisers. As we stated in our initial announcement of the acquisition, we plan no immediate changes to the Ning team, product, or business as a result of the acquisition. We’ll continue to deliver new, innovative features to help you build and manage a vibrant community.
The two changes to our TOS are related to new revenue opportunities offered by Mode Media that Network Creators may elect to take advantage of in the future:
- For Network Creators who choose to apply to join the Mode Publisher Network and are accepted, we’ve added a new clause to our TOS. Network Creators who join the Mode Publisher Network grant us a content license that enables us to promote and showcase their Ning Network and their network’s content on Glam.com, Bliss.com, Brash.com or other Mode-affiliated websites.
- In order to help us deliver the highest value revenue programs, we've made a change to the TOS to help us account for all of the traffic and usage on the Ning Platform as measured by comScore, a third-party service that measures the worldwide audience and usage of websites. If you use your own domain for your Ning Network — unless you request at any time to opt-out — you agree to assign the traffic relating to your domain-mapped Ning Network to Mode Media for comScore syndicated audience measurement reports.
In case you have questions about the second change, here are a few FAQs to help out:
Who uses comScore?
Advertising agencies and large brand advertisers subscribe to comScore’s reports to compare the traffic and audience composition of publishers – including individual publishers, networks of publishers (e.g. Mode Media), and companies who own multiple websites (e.g. AOL).
Why is Ning making this change?
This change will help advertisers who use comScore to get a more accurate measure of the traffic and audience across all networks on the Ning Platform.
What happens when my traffic is assigned to Glam Media in comScore?
Your traffic will roll-up under the Ning / Mode Media property in comScore reports so that comScore subscribers can see total traffic and audience composition across the Ning Platform and the Mode Publisher Network.
Will advertising agencies and brand advertisers still be able to see my individual network’s traffic and audience composition?
Yes! If you use your own custom domain for your Ning Network, your network’s traffic will still be available and viewable in the comScore reports.
What if I don’t use my own custom domain for my Ning Network?
comScore only reports top level domains (e.g. Ning.com). If you don’t use a custom domain for your Ning Network, your traffic is already included in the report for the Ning.com domain.
Why might a Ning Creator opt-out of assigning traffic to Glam Media?
- Network Creators who directly sell ad inventory across multiple websites to advertisers may want to “roll-up” the traffic from all of their websites into a single property in comScore reports. Note, you need to subscribe to comScore in order to create the property roll-up.
- Network Creators who have already assigned their traffic to a publisher network other than Mode Media will likely want to opt-out.
Can I opt-out in the future?
- Yes. You can opt-out at any time and we will notify comScore to remove your domain-mapped network from the Ning / Mode Media property roll-up. Note, this removal process may take up to 60 days to take effect.
- Alternatively, you can submit a new Traffic Assignment Letter (TAL) to comScore. Please kindly let us know if you do this so we can remove your domain-mapped network from our property roll-up.
NOTE: Post Edited on 4/29/14 to reflect Glam Media's name change to Mode Media.
Replies
I personally recommend that everyone opts out. After doing some extensive research on glam they seem a little shifty.
hi..
1. do we receive compensation for the glam media ads that are on our site?
2. what does that mean...if you are accepted by glam media...why would a site not be accepted
3. are the glam media ads video commercials... i want video commercials on my site
thanks..
I was looking to hopefully attract national brand advertisers to my network. And with out the knowledge of how to attract, bill or rates to charge this glam media merger and opportunity really excites me. I can wait to further grow my network and monetize my site.
how many of us actually have 100000K visitors a month to even get on the Glam network? Not many of us i would suggest LOL
it looks clear that revenue split will be 50/50 but this sharing is after adjusting overheads which are not defined. Only they know what appetite they will have at that point of time. Why not to specify clearly. Should the NCs silently accept whatever they mention against overheads or will there be any proper system?
Second point- Why Opt out.... why not opt in... those interested must opt in, rest must be considered opted out.
@Eric,
What about second question.....
Thanks Eric...
My network is too small but is growing. It will reach to the minm required level within a year. Till then I need not worry. I will decide later on.
quesation about revenues
if you say have your traffu=ic score assigned to ning/glam which gets millions of hits compared to singl,e domain getting tens of thousands
would your trafic score being assigned too ning/glam mean higher revenuesfrom ad networks like adsense
and
does this comscore thing only apply if you do run glam ads?
ps i tried apllying tto glam last week and iover and over i got unable to update database errors
and i tried contacting glam and got no responce
edit just tried 3 more times and still get the unable to update database error
Soaringeagle,
comScore is used by ad agencies and larger advertisers when they are considering making a large purchase of ad inventory. They use comScore to optimize their reach and frequency within a specific consumer segment, given a set online ad budget. So for example, if they see in comScore that they can place an ad purchase on the Glam Publisher Network and reach 90% of female internet users globally who are interested in a specific aspect of health & wellness and spend less than other options -- they will be more likely to choose Glam Media.
Adsense and other remnant networks operate differently. When an advertiser places an ad purchase (e.g. through Google Adwords), Google uses complex algorithms to optimize where the banner or text placement is displayed. I don't believe they use comScore in any way for these algorithms.
If you are serving Adsense ads on your Ning Network, the change to Ning TOS won't effect your Adsense revenue. However, we hope we will be able to bring interesting revenue programs to you in the future based on a more accurate reporting of traffic across the Ning Platform in comScore.
I hope that answers your question. And I apologize for the issues you are having the the Glam Publisher Network application - I'll reach out to the team and let them know.
Thanks,
John
One other suggestion, I have looked at Glam media and the site for publishers and the information they provide is very thin. It is not clear what benefits publishers would have, what is the revenue split, etc. I do manage a network that has very high traffic (about 300,000 hits a month) and am fairly certain I wouldn't use Glam with the conditions they have but still having some more detailed info about the product, benefits, beyond the minimal info provided on their site asking people to request to see if they can be approved would be a good step in transparency or perhaps Ning can post more detailed info about the real costs/benefits if a NC or publisher wanted to consider Glam media
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