Sneaky but very clever - Snap.com
Yet another new and innovative way for making money on the web, yet not for you!
Snap.com has a “service” for websites, which adds look ahead capabilities to any link. It is called “snap shots” and is very polished. It takes a “snap shot” of the contents of a link and displays it to the user without navigating to the link destination. This sounds pretty cool until you realize what the objective is.
In addition to this “service” for webmasters, Snap.com has a web browser plug-in. So, if you don’t use the service on your website, users can still take advantage of this look ahead feature by installing it in their web browser. It seems Snap.com has their bases covered.
Getting it to work.
For your website, Snap.com gives you code to add to your web pages. It also works with blogs, like Wordpress. I tried it with this blog and it works very painlessly and is kind of nice. It doesn’t work with links that are local, only links to other websites.
Personally, it seems like a nice feature. The only problem is they add their own link to other websites. Considering how much work it takes to drive traffic. For them to add a link (without your permission) seems a bit much. So, after using this “feature” for 5 minutes, I removed it.
What’s the Catch?
To get this cool feature, you are shown ads each time you use their “snap shots” to preview a link. The ad is a link appearing below the snap shot. Other times, it shows an ad you specify. Personally, I think this is very clever. But, webmasters should be aware, unless you join their publishing program, they are stealing your traffic and potential revenues with this tactic.
Snap Shots Publisher Program.
The Snap.com publisher program cannot be joined by just any webmaster. You must have 250,000 monthly impressions to qualify. Plus, at least half your traffic (50%) must come from the United States. In addition, they want your website to fit only a few categories, including Autos, Travel, and Health.
In my opinion, they need to work out a few things before this is adopted by most webmasters. In addition, they need some kind of referral program. But, time will tell if they move in this direction. Otherwise, join their publisher program and see if it’s right for you.
If you are not a “Snap Shots” publisher, there is little reason to use “snap shots” on your website.
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