In Short: The Resolution
- September 2007 Cash outs will arrive to both Malaysian & Singaporean publishers within 1-2 weeks. Yes, we are aware that this is longer than usual, and we apologize. A detailed explanation is after the jump.

- Ad load time could be improved. A recent increase in the number of members and more visitors from countries other than Malaysia and Singapore has put a considerable strain on our servers. Although we are now already running on three dedicated servers, we will be upgrading our resources further to serve your better. An upgrade will be in effect within this week, with approximately 15-30 minutes of downtime required. This scheduled maintenance window will be announced shortly.

The Long Of It: The Issues & Reasons
When we first launched the Cost Per Click Ad system for Advertlets in 24th May 2007, we were excited at the fact that we would be able to serve 100% of all the blogs that have signed up with us and have installed our code. Which means that it would not be hundreds of blogs that get ads. It would be thousands. And it was a fair exchange, where relevant ads were served on all types of blogs, however, each blog would be given a chance to prove themself with the advertiser paying accordingly.

Unfortunately, some people spoil it for the rest. Recently we have had a few publishers in particular who have been attempting to profit from fraudulent activities – which is largely responsible for the delay in processing payments, but we are not making it an excuse. Usually, in the past, we would process the cash out requests as a group per month, and then send them out when all for the month have been verified.

However, we understand that our honest publishers are definitely going to be frustrated at the delay – which would justify a change in our process flow, so we’ve taken the decision to release the legitimate cheques this week, rather than take more time to process and clear the more doubtful cases. This change in policy will also apply to all future requests from now on. Hence, all valid earnings for September should reach publishers within the next 1-2 weeks from today. Please let us know if you face any delay receiving your payments.

We’ve spoke about this issue before, but it has come to our attention that there are new “tricks” being pulled in addition to click fraud, including hiding Advertlets ad units under graphic layers (effectively, hiding the ad) and impression fraud through use of proxies and botnets. We do not recommend trying these any under circumstance, and it most likely will result in an immediate ban. One more discouraging trend we’ve noticed recently: please refrain from scrolling Advertlets ad units using javascript animation, as obscuring the ad through movement does not justify the amount the advertiser is paying for a fixed spot. And of course, don’t ever put notices such as “please click on my ads!”. Its rather dissapointing to see cases like this happening, especially within the blogging community – sometimes even people that we have met in person. But we have to be fair for the good of all, and take action for the benefit of many.

Please take note of the following terms: Irregular clicks, which may be caused by accidental refresh requests, timeouts or server errors, non-excessive accidental clicks, and are usually “not your fault”. Impression fraud relates to using artificial methods to increase traffic. Click fraud is a proven case where we have established with great surely that someone is attempting to game the system. Naturally, we would need to assess the extent of which fraud has been commited, before deciding on further action, which requires human intervention – to audit if the amount is low or to ban if the amount is excessive. And in most cases, if your cash out function is disabled, it means that the system has automatically detected fraudulent activities.

As said before, its generally accepted that blogging is one of the most free, honest forms of expression available today. Apply the same philosophy to earning through your blog, and you can’t go wrong. We will continue to try our best, and listen to your feedback, and evolve as needed. Lastly, if you have any questions at all, do contact us, or if it ever goes unanswered, contact me personally. Thanks.

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. Your earnings will not just depend on your blog traffic, but the establishment level of your blog (Advertlets Premium Factors)
3. All Eligible Malaysian Advertlets Members with the Advertlets Code installed in their blogs, will get ads!
4. The Advertlets Support System will be launched!
5. The higher you put your Advertlets sidebar ads, the higher you will be paid!
6. More new ad sizes for fun and profit = more options for advertisers and bloggers!
7. New ad packages and billing options for advertisers – making it easier for everyone to get ads.
8. An interface revamp for the bloggers dashboard.
9. New advertisers in the new formats!*
10. No minimum blog traffic requirements!**

* Take a browse around..some of you have already noticed our new advertisers earlier today!
** We can’t guarantee you’ll make money with a very low traffic blog. But you never know until you try, and we’ll like to make it as easy for you as possible!

More coming over the next few minutes on this blog…meantime, we recommend that those who have signed up already to install more ad formats on your blogs – just click on the blogs tab, and click “get codes”!

It’s six more days to the 30th of May 2007 – the deadline for all review submissions. And we don’t want anyone to lose out from our offer. To participate head on over to http://www.advertlets.com/bloggers/rm15k-for-300-bloggers/ to get more details on our fantastic opportunity.

On another note, I’m sure many of you realize that it’s the 24th of May. Just as a reminder, as we’ve promised we will be launching network wide ad campaigns tonight to all our blogs. So if you haven’t signed-up to our network, please do. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to miss out on this opportunity as well. And as for our members, just as a reminder, please update your blog code from the Publishers Dashboard (under the blogs tab) to ensure that you won’t miss out anything tonight.

So there you have it, two great opportunities for all you bloggers! From us at Advertlets.com. Oh, by the way this is my first blog post here, hopefully not the last and I would like to say “Happy Birthday“, to our head programmer, Arsyan Ismail who’s turns an unmentionable age today!

Update: SilverHorseGunnySack and Infomalaya write about the 6 more days left too!

Please check your “Get Code” section after logging in – you will notice that there is one new ad format added in (468 x 60 : Banner). Please install it!We are going to serve ads in that new format soon, and preference will be given to those who already have the new ad formats installed when the time comes will be the first to earn! More ad formats means more advertising opportunities = more cash for bloggers and more exposure for advertisers. And on the 24th, even more new ad sizes are coming soon with different sizes to fit into all your favourite spots for your blog.

Update: It seems a few of you are coming across problems installing the code in your blog. If you see anything out of the oridinary, please e-mail us at info@advertlets.com, or leave a comment here, and we will get right to fixing your problem. However, please make sure you have the latest version of the code installed (login into your Advertlets account and choose “Get Code”), you will need to update the code for your current sidebar ad as well.

If you want to see how the default version of the Advertlets 468 x 60 ad unit would look like for you (Visitors from the US will not see the ad), check out Liew CF’s Blog – LiewCF.com and check out the banner right on the top of the page. We would also like to congratulate Liew for appearing in the papers recently, together with other local sucessful bloggers! You can read the full story on HongKiat.com.

And in summary…

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. Your earnings will not just depend on your blog traffic, but the establishment level of your blog (Advertlets Premium Factors)
3. All Eligible Malaysian Advertlets Members with the Advertlets Code installed in their blogs, will get ads!
4. The Advertlets Support System will be launched!
5. The higher you put your Advertlets sidebar ads, the higher you will be paid!
6. More new ad sizes for fun and profit = more options for advertisers and bloggers!
7-10. To be revealed soon.

Just 3 more to go! So, do wait for 24th May 2007, 9:30PM to see a whole lot of changes on Advertlets.com – and a whole new set of benefits & features for advertisers and bloggers. (Yes, and new paying ads too).

PS: To those who have cashed out already, you can expect your cheques in your mailbox very soon!

From our talks with advertisers and bloggers so far, we understand that advertisers want their ads to be noticed (resulting in better clicks), and bloggers want a good reason to put their Advertlets code in a prominent position on their blog. We’ve come up with a solution that we think is fair to all – bloggers who put their sidebar ads higher, will get paid more! We know that your blog design is very personal, and the sidebar is a very visible part of your blog, so we hope this is a good incentive to you. Help us deliver value to our advertisers, and we’ll reward you too

This will be based on an semi-automated system (we will also manually check and adjust if needed) that measures the distance between the top of the page to the sidebar advertisement placing. Please note that this will be sector/range based (eg, there will be no noticable difference putting your sidebar ad 100 pixels from the top of the page or 200 pixels from the top of the page).

For optimum earnings, we recommend that your sidebar ad is visible upon your blog first loading, without having to scroll, at a 1024 x 768 resolution on standard Internet Explorer/Mozilla Firefox web browser and toolbar arrangements.

In summary:

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. Your earnings will not just depend on your blog traffic, but the establishment level of your blog (Advertlets Premium Factors)
3. All Eligible Malaysian Advertlets Members with the Advertlets Code installed in their blogs, will get ads!
4. The Advertlets Support System will be launched!
5. The higher you put your Advertlets sidebar ads, the higher you will be paid!
6-10. (To be revealed)

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. Your earnings will not just depend on your blog traffic, but the establishment level of your blog (Advertlets Premium Factors)
3. All Eligible Malaysian Advertlets Members with the Advertlets Code installed in their blogs, will get ads!
4. The Advertlets Support System will be launched!
5-10. (To be revealed)

To allow us to serve you even better, we will be launching Advertlets Support – a full fledged support system where we can keep track of any questions, queries or comments each individual blogger might have, whether its about your earnings, blog eligibility, code installation or anything else. There will also be a comprehensive, categorized KnowledgeBase which will incorporate even more frequently asked questions as well. Looking forward to answer any questions you might have better, and faster!

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. Your earnings will not just depend on your blog traffic, but the establishment level of your blog (Advertlets Premium Factors)
3. All Eligible Malaysian Advertlets Members with the Advertlets Code installed in their blogs, will get ads!
4-10. (To be revealed)

Yes, you heard it right. We’ll like to thank you so far for your support. Your patience and loyalty will not go unrewarded! We have had a tremendous amount of signups since our launch on 9th March 2007, and well, you can probably see right now that demand from bloggers exceeds supply from advertisers for our current CPM ad format.

However, our new ad formats will enable greater value for our bloggers and advertisers and will fully utilize the strength, and magnitude of the Advertlets network. We look forward to celebrating with you on the 24th of May

We have one small favour to ask of you, to make sure you’re included in this – please fill in your personal details so we can facilitate eventual payment. Cheers!

East Malaysians: Yes, you too! In fact, we might have a few campaigns specifically for your side of Malaysia too.

Those Who Still Do Not Have 50 Demographics Submissions: Yes, you too! Remember, the demographics are used to FURTHER match you with advertisers, and make sure you are eligible for ALL advertising opportunities. You are already eligible to run advertising currently.

International Users: We haven’t forgotten you! Let us sort things out at home first, and we’ll get right back to you.

* Keep in mind, if you are signed up with Advertlets, but have not installed the code on your blog, logically there is no way we can give you ads. The “All Malaysian Advertlets.com Members Will Get Ads” statement is only applicable to Malaysians who have filled in their personal details and have a Malaysian bank account for us to make payment to via cheque / or willing to collect cash from a physical location. This does not apply to spam blogs (splogs), and blogs which consist of majority sponsored posts and blogs with less than 10 postings, blogs with inflammatory content, and blogs we have individually flagged as not eligible for inclusion into our blog advertising network. New blog registrations are subject to a 7-14 day approval period.

And as of such, we’re introducing Advertlets Premium Factors on the 24th of this month. No “blogger bands”. You are not lumped in the same price range as other bloggers, just because you have the same amount of traffic. We believe each blogger is unique, as is each blog. You start off at a base earning rate, and apply/or are awarded Premium Factors that determine higher earnings for your blog.

On the 24th of May 2007:

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. Your earnings will not just depend on your blog traffic, but the establishment level of your blog (Advertlets Premium Factors)
3-10: (To be revealed soon)

Contest: Same rules as last time. Take a guess at what the new Premium Factors are/should be, and write a post on your blog! The 5 most accurate, creative or entertaining entries get RM10 in their Advertlets Account!

1. Advertlets will launch new, non-traffic sensitive ad formats beneficial for low traffic bloggers.
2. (To be revealed over the next few days)
3. (To be revealed over the next few days)
4. (To be revealed over the next few days)
5. (To be revealed over the next few days)
6. (To be revealed over the next few days)
7. (To be revealed over the next few days)
8. (To be revealed over the next few days)
9. (To be revealed over the next few days)
10. (To be revealed over the next few days)

What do you think the new ad formats are? Write a blog post, guess, and speculate! Once you’re done, let us know the URL of your blog post to verify your participation in the contest. The 5 best/most accurate answers will get RM10 each in their Advertlets account!

* Contest details: Comments on Advertlets.com may be moderated/edited to avoid giving hints to others, thus ensuring a fair chance for all. Full comments and all winners will be announced on the 24th of May 2007. One post participation per person.

Only those who have signed up with Advertlets and have filled in their full personal particulars and payment details are eligible to comment and enter this contest. Those participating the Advertlets new ad format beta run are not eligible to take part in this contest.