Client Since:  May 2010

Monthly Visits:  +/- 1,200,000

Average Order:  $160

Pricing options:  $100 for 40,000 up to
  $500 for 250,000
  impressions

Newschoolers.com is part of the larger Grind Networks, which is a collection of extreme sports websites. Newschoolers. com in particular, focuses on the ski community with a large cult following.

This niche website was popular well before it began to generate revenue from advertising sales, but with increased popularity came demand. However, there was no real solution for this - orders were taken manually.

One of the first to take advantage of the opportunity was EC Headwear, which was a an independent hat company founded by a 15 year old ski enthusiast. EC Headwear grew along side Newschoolers - growth of the website came growth for this young entrepreneur.

As the number of advertisers increased so did the attractiveness of the website to larger brands. Soon Newschoolers.com was getting ad requests from companies like Mountain Dew. In order to fulfil these requests Newschoolers' Marketing Guru, Doug Bishop, set out to find a solution.

First option was direct ad sales with the hiring of an advertising sales rep. Doug quickly realized the disadvantage of this method to small advertisers. Ad orders from companies like EC Headwear, that helped elevate the site's profile in the first place, were being rejected because it was too costly for the ad sales rep to pursue.

With the introduction of Shiny Ads, Doug was able to "bring the family back together." EC Headwear was able to advertise once again, and with an even bigger advantage than before. Now they were able to compete in a league of well known brands, which is typically not an option for small businesses - gaining major brand credibility.

The process of integrating Shiny Ads was simple, painless, and almost instant, "the hardest part was calculating CPM rate." The high amount of banner impressions, promoted Doug to inquire about geotargeting. At the time, this add-on was not available, but Shiny Ads developers worked with him and integrated the option within 48 hours, and "the feature has been invaluable."

What has surprised Doug the most is that really small companies have tried the solution and continue to purchase over and over. "They have learned that, low and behold - if you advertise people buy."