Mixx beckons advertisers with Sifter service

2371004 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:19:00 GMT

Some interesting innovations going on at Mixx, the social networking/news ranking website that's like Digg, but probably a little better.

Mixx is offering advertisers the chance to get direct feedback for their creatives from its heavyweight users with a new service called Mixx Sifter.

Advertisers can upload their creatives to the website, which will then be voted on and ranked by Mixx users, with the most popular ads awarded prominent location (and preternatural hype) on the Mixx homepage.

There's incentive for the users too, called Karma Points, which can be exchanged for prizes and such.

So advertisers need not fear unwarranted backlash from those in power, well, in theory, as the Mixx users voting on the ads are those trusted resources who have spent many hours logged on and contributing to the site.

Techcrunch reports that the service will typically costs advertisers $8,000 to upload their creatives to the site -- which can be in any format, banner ads, video, etc. -- and will compete against four other ads, which are then ranked 1-5.

It's a good idea, appealing to both advertisers and users, and even the uninitiated -- as a frequent Digg user, I'm suffering from Mixx-remorse, as the number of hours spent on Digg could have meant exciting prizes and notoriety on Mixx.

Let's see if Digg responds, well not 'if', but when, as it has been long speculated that Digg was working on something similar to Mixx Sifter.

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Users take over the digg.com asylum

255762 — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:29:50 GMT

The users have revolted and effectively taken over Web 2.0 favourite and news aggregator Digg.com.

The site's chief executive has had no choice but to throw his lot in with the users after and makes this a watershed moment in the world of users generated content.

It always seemed like something like this might happen, but at Digg.com, which allows users to rank news stories and blogs.

It began like any other day when Digg.com saw some content on the site that needed banning. This happens to every site.

In the case of Digg.com it was software code that helps online pirates make bootlegged copies of movies. The entertainment industry had threatened to sue. Clearly illegal and clearly got to go.

"In order for Digg to survive, it must abide by the law," Digg Chief Executive Jay Adelson wrote on the site Tuesday afternoon, adding, "We all need to work together to protect Digg from exposure to lawsuits that could very quickly shut us down."

The users, however, did not take kindly to this and revolted and scores of Digg's 1.2m registered users started deluging the site, apparently breaking all records, with the illegal code. The game really was up for Digg.com.

Their efforts ensured that every one of the top 10 stories on the front page either included the software code or slammed Digg's managers.

Not only that but many posted links to videos on YouTube, which had the code's 32-character string of numbers and letters

There was no way to stop it other than close the site down or go with your users base, which was the choice Digg made. It backed down and opened the way for a huge legal battle with Hollywood, which could well spell its demise.

"You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you," co-founder Kevin Rose blogged, acknowledging that a lawsuit could wipe out the 3-year-old San Francisco company. "If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."

This is huge and you can imagine the owners of other social content and UGC sites looking on and quaking with their boots.

What else could they have done? If the users are the business, their biggest asset, it seems when something like this happens you are royally screwed. It really is mob rule.

The irony is that some sites would kill for the kind of user generation that Digg has [ed some line in here about with great amounts of UGC comes...].

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Mixx beckons advertisers with Sifter service

Users take over the digg.com asylum