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It’s Been a Slice
Written by Chris Bowler on June 28th 2010
As many are now aware, atebits was acquired by Twitter earlier in the year. And as happy as we were for Loren — who has been a dream to work with — we were concerned about what that meant for us. To be specific, would Twitter continue to carry the ads served by Fusion in Tweetie for Mac?
Move ahead several weeks and here we are: Twitter gave us official notice that Tweetie for Mac would no longer carry our ads. And with the recent update to the application, we now know that June 30th is the last day that our ads will be included in this fantastic piece of software.
So, we wanted to say a big thank you to Loren for including us this past year. Loren has mad talent and impeccable taste — it was an honor to have our ads displayed in such a great piece of engineering. As well, we wanted to give a big thank you to all of those who support the Fusion network. Your comments have been heard and are greatly appreciated. And while we will also miss seeing our ads in Tweetie, we are proud to have them carried by each and every member on the Fusion network.
Onward and upward.
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New Friends
Written by Chris Bowler on June 7th 2010
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: the best aspect of running Fusion is getting to meet and partner with so many talented people in this industry. The last couple of months have greatly reenforced that fact. We’ve added a handful of amazing additions to the Fusion networks and I wanted to touch on each in a little more depth.
Touch Network
As we announced last month, we’ve fully launched our Touch network. Finally.
And with that launch, we announced our newest member app, Textie. June brings another solid addition — we’re proud to have our ads displayed in the free version of Byline as well. Byline has long been one of the best options for keeping up with your RSS on the iPhone and we’re ecstatic to partner with Milo and enable a free version for iPhone and iPod Touch users.
Get a copy and check it out yourself.
Creative Network
With all of our focus on the new network over the early part of 2010, our additions to the existing Creative network were on hold. Not so now. We added a small handful of new sites and services in May, without a proper introduction. So, here’s a belated look at those additions:
And the additions have continued in June:
As with most updates, we try for a solid mix when expanding our network. As you can see from the lists above, we cross design and development, social media applications and personal blogs, publicly curated news sites and focused niches. It is an honor to see our ads on each of these sites and applications — the expertise and quality of each is of the highest order.
For advertisers, we can continue to bring your products in front of the right audience. For readers who are already familiar with the Fusion lineup, you now have a few more resources and voices to subscribe to.
And there’s more to come. Soon.
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Textie and Touchy
Written by Michael Mistretta on April 29th 2010
Introducing Textie!
Today our friends Mason Lee and Loren Brichter launched Textie, a free and gorgeous way to text from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Free download, no monthly expenses, no subscription fees, nada. It’s fantastic. We’ve been playing with the beta for a couple months now, and we have to say — Textie is the real deal.
You can text other Textie users, regular email addresses, and most U.S. mobile phone numbers at absolutely no cost. Picture messaging is a hoot, and push notifications work so well that you forget you aren’t using the native Messages app. Textie looks and feels like an Apple-designed iPhone app. Better, in some ways.
All that said, Textie comes free with one of the most beautiful implementations of Fusion Ads that you ever did see. (What product would be complete without?) Which brings us to our next topic of interest for today…
Touch NetworkAt long last, we are officially launching our Touch Network. Ever since the iPhone came out, it’s been a bit of a dream of mine to integrate our ads into the iPhone applications that we use everyday. (In fact, Loren Brichter first approached us about putting Fusion Ads in Tweetie for iPhone before Tweetie for Mac was even a twinkle in his eye.)
We’ve seen many third-party iPhone advertising solutions over the last couple years — the good, the bad, and the ugly. But none of those methods did justice to how we felt iPhone advertising should be done.
As an iPhone user going on two years now, there aren’t many things that I actually purchase on my iPhone. To be completely honest, living out in the boondogs of Texas with sketchy service has trained me to Instapaper interesting links for later, rather than painfully waiting to load them over the Edge network.
As a result, I’ve grown to stop clicking on ads in iPhone applications.
The only thing I purchase on my iPhone (besides, admittedly, Chipotle on occasion) are iPhone apps. Plain and simple. Let’s face it, no one really wants to be making online accounts or entering credit card details on their phone. To us, “I’ve already got the account, you’ve already got my credit card, now just give me the app” sounded like a better deal.
At the same time, the AppStore has exploded in popularity, and aside from getting on the Top 50 list or being featured by Apple, it’s hard for great iPhone apps and hard working devs to get recognized for their work. We want our Touch network to be the go-to marketplace for iPhone developers looking to get their name out directly to their users in a classy and affordable way.
It’s the same tasteful Fusion ads, specifically done for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Only iPhone developers can advertise on the touch network. There’s only one ad per app, custom and natively integrated into each app. Tapping on the ad will take you directly to the AppStore. Every time. Check out the app in more detail and purchase with another tap.
The most interesting observation I’ve made while watching my own usage patterns is how often I will click a Fusion ad on my iPhone simply because of consistency — I know what to expect, every time. Shawn Blanc said it best during one conference call, “It doesn’t even feel like an ad. Just a little friend that’s peeking down, waiting to share something new with me.”
I think that sums up what we believe at Fusion — gentle recommendations over pushy ads.
Aside: for those wondering about the iPad, due to the nature of the device we’ve decided to classify it as a “desktop” device. Therefore, iPad apps will run the same ads as the main Creative network.
So here’s the deal: we’re looking to ramp up and get things rolling on the Touch Network.Advertisers: if you’re wanting to jump on early, we’re offering 25% off your campaign if you book with us by May 7th.
As for iPhone developers wanting to carry Fusion ads, while we’re still invitation-only, the fact of the matter is we only have a handful of applications on our own devices that we know and use and love. We’re looking for more high-quality iPhone and iPod Touch apps that would work well under an ad-supported / premium version model.
If that’s you (or someone you know) we want to hear about it. Feel free to shoot us an email and we’ll start talking business.
In closing, there’s one more thing I wanted to address: iAds.As soon as Apple announced their take on an advertising platform, I received emails and texts asking how we were going to respond. Would we be willing to compete with such a behemoth company?
To be honest, I don’t think iAds affects us at all.
We think Apple has done a great job at bringing mainstream advertising to the iPhone in a very big way. But they are going after a drastically different market than we are. In fact, their approach is different in almost every way. They believe in serving ads en masse that are both fun and interactive. We believe in serving ads exclusively that are simple and targeted. They believe in taking over the whole screen and “immersing you in the ad.” We believe in making the ad as unobtrusive and polite as possible.
It’s a different way of looking at things. I have no doubt that Apple will thrive and make loads of money with iAds, but at the same time, I don’t see why we can’t do the same. We think there’s room for both companies to operate side by side successfully.
If anything, iAds has been good for the iPhone development community at large as it’s generated a lot more interest among developers to create free, ad-supported versions of their applications.
We’re just looking for the iPhone developers that feel the same way as us.
We think we’ve got something really special, and we’re excited to see where it’s going to go.
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Hello 2010
Written by Chris Bowler on January 1st 2010
2009 was a good year for us here at Fusion. It was a year of growing, learning and enjoying the company of some great new people.
But there’s a good possibility that 2010 will be even better. And it starts today with the addition of some of the talented folks I referenced above. We’re honoured to announce a handful of new members:
- Pattern Tap: inspiration depot for interface designers and the baby of Squared Eye‘s Matthew Smith.
- Owltastic: the personal site of the talented Meagan Fisher, lover of all things owl.
- First & 20: home to the iPhone home screens of all your favourite geeks.
- AisleOne: the personal site of Antonio Carusone, AisleOne is a wonderful source of content focused on design, typography, minimalism and grid systems.
- Simple Desktops: and another entry in minimalism, Simple Desktops serves up wallpapers that enhance rather than distract.
- thelongbrake: the personal online abode of Joshua Longbrake, photographer extraordinaire.
- Matthew Buchanan: the personal site of Matthew Buchanan, devigner extraordinaire.
- Note & Point: a collection of inspiring presentations for Keynote and Powerpoint.
- Simplenote: a slick web service that syncs with the companion iPhone app — which happens to be the best note application for the platform.
Whether a personal blog or a targeted service, all of these sites have our utmost respect. We’re proud to have our ads displayed on each.
And we wish you all a great year. Thank you for all your support over the past year.
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Happy Holidays
Written by Chris Bowler on November 30th 2009
We’ve been on a bit of a hiatus here at Fusion. The past few months have been busy as we’ve focused on a few new directions we hope to announce soon. During this time, we’ve held off from adding any new sites or services to the Fusion lineup.
But that’s about to change, and it starts this holiday season. We’re very happy to have a couple of new members with whom we’ve been familiar with over this past year. Starting early December, Fusion Ads will be displayed on our favourite portfolio application Carbonmade, as well as our favourite share-everything service, Droplr.
Since Fusion’s initial launch just over one year ago, we’ve been blessed to work with some of the most talented and kind people in this business. Our success is largely due to the quality of the people on whose sites our ads are located. And with new members such as Droplr and Carbonmade, 2010 is looking just as good.
Have a great holiday season everyone!
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Welcome the Newest Fusion Members
Written by Chris Bowler on September 1st 2009
It is my great pleasure to announce our two newest members to the Fusion network. Over the past year, we’ve had the pleasure of working with some of the people we admire and respect the most in this industry. And our two newest sites are no exception.
- Jon Hicks: Jon’s blog was my very first introduction to the world of blogging some 4 years ago. So it’s such a honour to have him even aware of Fusion let alone willing to join as a member. It gives us a lot of pride to see our ad beside Jon’s beautiful sketches of large bricks of cheese.
- Minimal Mac: Last month we welcomed the personal site of our good friend Patrick Rhone. Today we’re excited to announce that Patrick’s newest blog is now a member of Fusion. If you enjoy the Macintosh platform and appreciate simplicity, be sure to check out Minimal Mac.
It is so enjoyable to work with great people and since starting Fusion we’ve been extremely blessed in that regard. And now, we take some time to focus on other things. Stay tuned …
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A Fresh Coat of Paint
Written by Chris Bowler on August 17th 2009
Well, maybe it’s a little more than a coat of paint.
Welcome to the new digs of team Fusion. When we first launched in November of last year, our needs for a website were simple. We wanted to give one concise page of who we were and what we were doing. With the help of Cameron.io, we had a page that met those needs.
But in the past 8 months, Fusion has exploded. Our needs grew a little. Okay, a lot. Add that to the fact that we’ve got some exciting plans for the next few months and suddenly we needed to make some changes.
Then fortune shone on us and one Mr. Elliot Jay Stocks tweeted that he was available for some work. So I said to Michael, “Michael, let’s shoot for the moon and see if Elliot would be interested.” Turns out he was.
A couple of months later, here we are. And we couldn’t be happier with Elliot’s work — what a pro! And a cheerful chap to boot. If you want awesome work accompanied with a professional demeanor, you won’t find anyone better than this guy. Thanks for the great job Elliot.
The new design was planned with the future in mind. One of the major changes will come to the light in the next few months.
The other was to focus on the different options we offered to our customers. On the home page, you can now see the three different advertising options we offer. Each has its own selling points, but all are great value.
We heard a lot of stories about how hard it is to coordinate the approval and release of an iPhone app with an ad spot to gain exposure. “We’d like a June ad spot, but we’re not sure if our app is going to get rejected …” is the gist of what we often heard. And so, after some thought, our Bursts were born.
Bursts are one-week spots that are flexible and affordable, suited to meet your needs, not ours. They’re a good option for those who want to test out our service without committing to a full month or who are promoting the launch of a new product. Add this option to our regular monthly spots and our roadblocks — another great option for promoting a launch — and a little Fusion panache, and we think we’ve got the best ad service around.
Lastly, dear readers, you have a huge role to play in what we do. We are one of you — what interests you interests us. Like many web-centric people are doing these days, we built for ourselves. Our aim is to advertise products that are of interest to us. Because if we like them, we know you will too.