IQ News: CMGi’s Adsmart Spawns New Consulting Unit

Advertising network Adsmart officially launches a new consulting division this week dubbed Adsmart Consulting. The Andover, Mass.-based company, a unit of CMGi, will provide free, day-long audits of Web sites within its network of over 220 sites, with plans to roll out consulting services to out-of-network sites on a per diem basis later this summer.
“Informally, we were already doing this,” said John Federman, chairman and CEO at Adsmart. “In our business development processes, we were doing consulting for sites that were with other networks or sites that had no affiliation. What we began to understand was that we were creating an expertise in our organization for understanding how to monetize sites.”
Federman said the consulting division will help Web sites improve their profitability by suggesting additional revenue opportunities, for example, or making the site easier to navigate, or making the content more appealing, increasing traffic and impressions. Adsmart consultants will help sniff out and suggest possible syndication or partnership opportunities for its clients.
Adsmart expects the new consulting division to generate “a pretty significant revenue stream” and consulting clients will break down to approximately 50 percent within, and 50 percent outside, its network.
“For us, it allows us to take some of our talented people who come from the Internet, who come from the world of advertising, and rather than informally add this on top of their other responsibilities, give them a sole focus,” said Federman.