This week we have introduced a new ad design and format for publishers.  It is a standard size IAB 728 x 90 banner size that looks like this:

- Advertisers can include a picture (left) and a custom call to action of their choosing.
- Publishers can customize the look, feel and colors to suit their application pages.  You can configure this in the Ad Chap web interface as usual.

The new ad design and the call to action feature for advertisers is available for use immediately.

If you like the design and would like to see other IAB sizes in this format, let us know.

Believe it or not, Facebook hasn’t taken over the entire world – yet.
Thanks to Vincenzo Cosenza, an Italian social network specialist, and IBM’s “Many Eyes” project, you can check out which social networks are dominating in which countries. Note that this information is not 100% up to date, but does an excellent job of showing which social networks are the most popular in each country.

The map confirms what we already know – that Facebook is dominating in Western countries like the United States, that developing countries like India, Brazil and China tend to have radically different preferences in social networking, and that networks like LinkedIn, while popular, do not dominate any particular country.
Users with Java installed can check out an interactive version of the map below:

As Facebook’s global reach continues to spread, we expect to see this map change.
Reminder: Adchap is available on Facebook, as well as the Myspace, Friendster, Bebo, and Hi5 social networks. Check back to our AdChap Blog often for more social networking, social networking demographics and social news and information.

Social networking isn’t just for the youthful anymore, it would seem.

Over the last year there’s been a huge upswing of Facebook users aged 40+, and that shift in demographic is definitely going to start changing the face of the world’s largest social network.

Our statistics show that there are currently roughly 50 million Facebook users under the age of 40 living in the United States. In contrast, there are almost 20 million Facebook users over the age of 40. Statistics for other countries are showing similar patterns.

What does this mean for people advertising in social media? Among other things, it means that the target audience is changing, and that there are more opportunities for advertisers who aren’t pushing “youth” products and services.

Among the baby boomer Facebook crowd, the gender balance is dramatically skewed toward female, with +40 females outnumbering +40 males almost 2/1. This jibes with recent studies showing that older women are better at adopting new technologies than older men.

We have been getting a lot of requests from smaller publishers that they would like to try Ad Chap on their social network applications but the payout threshold was too high for them.

Effective immediately we are dropping the payout minimum for Ad Chap publishers  to $50.  This means that when your account reaches USD $50 in earnings, you will be paid.

We pay our publishers on time, once a month on a net 30 basis.

Payment methods.  We offer PayPal as the standard payment method.  If you are a larger publisher, we can arrange payment by bank wire / telegraphic transfer.

Social networks.  With Ad Chap, you can monetize your applications on facebook, myspace, hi5, bebo and friendster.

If you have any questions about regarding our payment policies or getting set up to deliver Ad Chap ads on your application, please contact us at support at adchap.com.

Both publishers and advertisers can register an Ad Chap account at http://stats.adchap.com

Everybody was buzzing last month about Bebo, the social network that experienced unprecedented growth in March, achieving a monumental 49% increase in unique traffic to their website.

Although networks like Facebook grew more into terms of total users over the same period, Bebo took the prize for the fastest rate of growth; at 49% growth month to month, Bebo was far ahead of the pack.
Since AOL’s acquisition earlier this year of the Bebo network, traffic to the UK-based social network had increased dramatically, due in part to AOL’s decision to begin porting their profiles over to Bebo in March and integrating their online and IM clients with the social network. While the move to acquire a pre-existing social network isn’t unique among the old portal giants (Yahoo acquired Del.icio.us and MyBlogLog), the immediate explosion in the growth of monthly unique visitors to Bebo’s network was.

When the April numbers came in, however, it became apparent that the massive spike was in growth rate was, largely, a one-time thing. However, the modest drop in the growth rate (-5%) indicates that Bebo is doing a good job of keeping traffic at their current levels – which is still significantly higher than it was before. Although the rate of growth may have slowed, the amount of traffic seems to be remaining steady – meaning that opportunities on the Bebo network are significantly better for both advertisers and publishers than they were before the March spike.
The integration of Bebo and AOL began in March, as did the bump in traffic. As more and more AOL users begin to populate their Bebo profiles and network with the pre-existing body of Bebo users, this bump in traffic can be expected to sustain for some time.