Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: deepmedia on July 03, 2013, 10:36 pm

Title: Launching Deep Media - Self-Serve Advertising Platform for the Hidden Web
Post by: deepmedia on July 03, 2013, 10:36 pm
Hey everyone!

I am a big fan of the ideals of the Silk Road and Tor at large. The growth in the last couple years has been astounding, and is sure to intensify with the recent revelations about the NSA.
However, existing and potential hidden site operators have a big problem - how do you drive traffic to a new site while remaining anonymous? You can't exactly buy Google AdWords for your .onion site.

So I came up with an idea - I should start a bitcoin-powered ad marketplace for the anonymous web!
Basically, I want to create THE turnkey platform for hidden site operators to buy and sell ad space. I want to call it Deep Media.

Here's some more details:
PUBLISHERS (who want to make money by displaying ads):
- When you sign up, you indicate your site and verify ownership of the site. You specify a bitcoin address to receive ad earnings. A simple html tag, no javascript, is added to your hidden web service.
- Advertisers (whose ads have been manually screened for adherence to acceptable content rules) can publicly bid on ad space on your site, one hour at a time. So basically, each day has 24 slots that people can bid on.
- We skim a bit off the top (because, after all, it is all about the BTC's baby!) and give most of the ad revenue to you! :D

ADVERTISERS (who want to get traffic by buying ads):
- Harmful content, including, but not limited to: anything promoting violence, CP, or fraud - is completely forbidden
- New advertisers put up a bond. If they break content rules, they lose the bond.
- Advertisers upload their ad image(s), which are manually screened for content approval before being published
- Once they have at least one approved ad image, advertisers can bid (using the bond they posted) to have it displayed on any hidden site available on the platform, in one hour increments. At the start of each hour, the winning bidder (if any) for every site gets their ad published on that site for the next hour. Deep Media's automated monitoring service will frequently check the publisher's site to ensure they are displaying the ad.

By buying ad space in one hour increments, advertisers can prepay in very small amounts. This minimizes risk, allows advertisers to "get their feet wet" on many sites, and allows advertisers with minimal budgets to participate as well. I think it might be possible to offer a free edition as well - basically, you could display others' ads for free, and in doing so, earn "free ad credits" that get your ad displayed on other sites that want to earn free ad credits. Everybody benefits and the hidden web grows.

Let me know what you think of the concept. Do you think there would be a successful and worthwhile enterprise? All thoughts are welcome.

Cheers to all. :)

edit: btw, you can reach me at deepmedia@tormail.org