Who doesn’t listen to music? Besides the ubiquitous MP3 players we see dangling from people, a substantial amount of individuals get their audio fix from online radio stations: many choices and styles of music, and just a click a way. Richard White is the CEO of one of them, BigRradio.com. He is our new Featured Publisher.

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VP: How did you get interested in web publishing originally? What were those early days like for you?

Richard White: Web publishing started with me in 2001. My first site I built was The Edge FM. The most challenging thing back then was coming up with ways to make our site self-supporting. The only source of revenue back then for ‘Internet Radio’ was Banner Ads. Placement of the ads (in the fold) was crucial. One bad day could mean serious financial issues.

VP: Can you tell us about your internet radio-focused website? Having this focus, are there any particular issues exclusive to your site that you had to overcome to make the advertising model work?

Richard White: When we created Big R Radio in 2003 there were huge obstacles to overcome. Numerous issues arise when you have several internet radio stations streaming from one site; millions of people hitting your site all at one time, data bases frying, servers dying, and bandwidth usage out of control. Placing our banner ads properly and adjusting and readjusting until we figured out what works the best for us was and is well worth time spent. (Even though I complain about it ).

Banner advertising is the consistent revenue maker for Big R Radio and our other sites. It’s dependable and they pay well. With other forms of advertising coming into the internet radio world as of last year, audio ads and banner ads are very complimentary with each other. And technology allows us to synchronize the two at the same time.

VP: Why did you start using RMX Direct as your ad network management system of choice?

Richard White: I was referred to RMX from a business partner of mine 6 months ago; we were looking for a more efficient way to manage all the different banner ad companies we were working with. Managing multiple sites, with multiple advertisers is quite the task.

VP: What statistical changes have you seen since you started using it? For example, have your eCPM and revenue increased?

Richard White: Since we started with RMX we have seen a consistent eCPM and of course our revenue has increased. The best thing about RMX is working with the many different advertising companies all in one site. It’s great. The other thing I think is great is the support from RMX. I haven’t used the forums much—that being said, I have browsed the forums and notice RMX replies quickly with professional answers. This is impressive and useful. Of course seeing all the banner ad companies compete for my impressions is something I have wanted to see for a long time!

VP: Do you have any final thoughts, tips or tricks that you think others using the exchange might find useful?

Richard White: I would suggest working with your RMX representative to fully utilize and learn the RMX system. It can be overwhelming at first, and you need to get it dialed in before seeing any dramatic results.

VP: Thanks for being part of RMX Direct, Richard!