By Allan Maurer
HOLLYWOOD, FL—Anyone who follows blogs or uses social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace knows everyone from the average housewife to bona fide experts are creating incredible amounts of online content—usually for free or carrying only Google ads. A new web site called RedGage wants to change that so that content producers can get paid for their blog entries, articles, photos, videos and other content.
Founded in 2007 and funded with angel investments of about $1 million, RedGage integrates with 20 different advertising networks to help monetize the user supplied content that is the backbone of so many sites.
“We founded RedGage because we realized these social networking platforms make millions from the content of their users. It’s what gives their pages value. We think it’s only fair that the creators be compensated and that was the basic premise,” says CEO Daniel Redlich.
The site is a centralized hub where users can earn money for all the things they’re already doing online at places like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and Blogger. It automatically aggregates user’s content from various sites and pays them based on the page view popularity of the content.
“Our system picks the highest rate for each individual,” Redlich says. It works, he says, because ad networks are looking for high quality content to advertise against. They don’t get that on a typical Facebook page, where the conversation might revolve around last night’s dinner or morning coffee.
“From an advertising perspective, it’s hard to get into that conversation,” he says. “The ad networks are looking for more relevancy.”
Aside from paying people for the content they create, Redlich says the site has the added value of validating what the content producers are doing. “It’s validation that what they’re doing has worth,” he says. Some users, he points out, “Are using the site like a portfolio. Aggregating all of their content in one place is a major advantage for users.”
The system includes a build in search engine.
There is no charge for the RedGage service. The company takes a percentage of the ad revenue produced.
Redlich says the young company runs a very lean operation and will soon break even or become profitable from advertising revenue alone. “From the start we’ve had more traffic than we expected,” he adds.
Redlich says the company may look for an expansion round later if it gets the terms it wants. “We’re not under any pressure to raise money,” he adds. “We would ideally open a new round to ramp up operations and take it to the next level.”
Online: www.redgage.com
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