Ask HN: Any idea's on how to implement this? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any idea's on how to implement this?

3 pointsaitoehigie7 comments

Hi, I am developing an text-to-web advertising platform and I am stuck at a point. Short description of how it works: Any one can text a 140 character message to a short code, and have it displayed on any website that is on the network of the advertising platform. My Problem: How do I display the text ad on the websites that are on the platform? Iframes? Flash?

If you have ever implemented something like this, I would really like to have some tips from you.

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It's really up to you. If the websites on your network agree to add a component to their website you can technically implement this with an IFRAME or any component with JavaScript that references some JavaScript file of yours. You can even do it with an image URL, but the image URL won't cycle without the aid of a script. However, it's likely that your thinking of a page based solution, and not a dynamic solution for single page AJAX like websites.

All the above will work, now it's up to you which you prefer.

I would be interested to hear more about how you plan to monetize this. Assuming you are using Twilio or something similar, there is some outlay on your part. Will people who want to advertise have their own account or will it just be a 1 dollar charge to their number or some such?

Cool idea, look forward to hearing more.

Thank you for your response. Actually advertisers would not need an account, once they browse to any website that is on the ad network, they simply text their ad to a short code, since most people in my country here are prepaid mobile users, their account is debited and the revenue is shared between the mobile operator, the ad platform and the website owner.

This is a very interesting idea.

Look at item 3 at the end of this posting http://aitoehigie.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/building-a-world-... from the author's blog for one good application area.

I would still like to have some tips on how I can embed the text ads on 3rd party sites when I do not access to the code of the 3rd party site. Thanks guys

I think there are lots of cool things that can be done with SMS but I don't think I get this. Why would an advertiser want to text in their ads instead of just typing them up in adwords or another advertising platform?

This are my reasons for creating this platform. 1. This is made with the local market in mind (Nigeria, West Africa), I doubt if this would be a hit in the first world. 2. Due to lack of a reliable payment gateway for local users here in Nigeria, I decided to use premium sms (short code). Once an advertiser texts his ad to the shortcode, his prepaid credit is debited, his ad appears on the target website of his choice and the revenue is shared between the ad platform, the shortcode provider and the website owner. 3. Google adsense or adwords isnt too attractive here in Nigeria because of the hassles of getting paid by google. Recurring online payment gateway issues.

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