Trae's dashboard

This error is a result of your MeFile account not be successfully activated. You will need to complete that process using both your email address and cellular phone in order to receive funds.

You should find a message in the Home page of your MeFile account reminding you of "Activation Required". That message should contain the link to complete the process. Let us know if you have any issues activating - we'll be glad to help.

We will soon have an update to the adgets that will better explain the activation errors and provide instruction on how to resolve. "Error 1009" is not real user-friendly! ;-)

A couple of reasons why you may see an initial dip in ad offers after
first signing up:

1) YouData is all brand new - a completely new way of thinking about
advertising - and has only been on the ground for a few short weeks.
As ads continue to flow into the system, only the ads specifically
targeted by the advertiser that are a match for you will be pulled
into your Queue by your MeFile. Overtime, more and more ads will fill
the market that match your MeFile. It will just take a little time.

2) Advertisers not only control the target definition for their ads
and the offer or "bid" amount, they also control how many times they
want the same offer to go to the same person. For instance, an
advertisers for an energy drink may develop a campaign that sounds
like this: "Send this 30 second video spot offer to college-age males
in Iowa and Ohio. Offer them $.50 for their attention. Only show the
ad to the same person 3 times max, with at least a 48 hour buffer in
between each offer." These controls set by the advertiser are the
reason why the same ads don't show to the same person for an infinite
number of times.

Together, 1 and 2 above explain why many new MeFiles receive many ad
offers at first, but the number may taper off temporarily: all the
advertisers who had offers pre-loaded and waiting for a MeFile just
like yours have set parameters so as not to reach the same person too
many times with the same message within a certain period of time. As
new advertisers come on board, you should eventually see a more steady
and predictable flow of offers past that initial group. They're coming!

Thanks for your patience with this new market, and keep checking
back. Your attention IS a valuable product. YouData is working hard
to let advertisers know that you are open for business!

Hope this helps!

This is probably the question most frequently asked by new MeFiles.

First the short answer: There is no way to predict how many ad offers any individual MeFile should expect to receive in a day. The number of ad offers you receive over any period of time depends completely on the market for your attention for that period of time.

For the longer answer, we'll probably have to answer in several parts, but here's a start...

When setting expectations on the number of ad offers to expect, several factors must be consdered:

1) Each individual's attention is a very valuable product to many, many advertisers - but NOT to ALL advertisers.

For instance, a steak restaurant does not want to purchase the attention of a vegetarian, and a vegetarian restaurant does not necessarily want to buy the attention of steak-lovers. Likewise, the vegetarian does not want to see steakhouse ads, and the steak lover is probably not as interested in the local vegetarian restaurant.

For advertisers, YouData's "attention marketplace" allows them to define exactly the audience that they believe will be interested in their product or service. For consumers, by defining themselves in their MeFiles and placing a price on their attention, they better ensure that only relevant ads reach them.

2) Each MeFile will have a completely unique and individualized experience in the attention marketplace.

As discussed above, although there may be thousands of ads flowing through the system at any one time, they do not all match you and your unique MeFile. Those same ads, however, might match your neighbor, who has a completely different set and number of ads each day. On any day, you may receive many offers, while your neighbor, who has completely different traits in her MeFile, may receive few. The next day, that might switch. And each day, depending on the unique traits in each MeFile, you and your neighbor will likely receive a completely different set of ads.

3) We're just getting started!

Right now, the biggest factor determining the relatively small, but rapidly growing, number of ads flowing through the system is TIME. YouData's attention marketplace is extremely young - less than 2 months at the time of this note. While advertisers are responding very positively to the great product you are providing them, it will likely take several months for a significant number of them to give up on their old, inneffective ways of trying to buy your attention from someone else, and figure out that it is better to just buy from the source. We are working hard to let advertisers know that you are open for business. They are listening, and more will come!

Thank you for your patience as this little experiement get its legs. Keep checking back. The ads will find you.

Also PLEASE keep sending in your questions, feedback, and suggestions. We do listen and want to get this right!

Thanks on behalf of Team YouData!

Great question. The short answer is yes - ads do expire.

Longer answer:
The parameters on each campaign are set by the advertisers themselves. Here are just a few examples of parameters that advertisers may set on a campaign to determine how their ads behave:

1) Budget. Each advertiser names the price for each offer (minimum is $0.20) and exactly the budget for the entire campaign. When the budget is spent, the campaign is suspended. The advertisers may then fund it back up, or kill the campaign and start a new one.

2) Calendar days. Advertisers set a Start Date and an End Date for each campaign.

3) Frequency maximums. Frequency is defined as "how often the same MeFile will receive the same ad/offer". If an ad has been set with a frequency max of X, the same MeFile will only be offered to collect on the offer X time(s) maximum. So if a MeFile has received and accepted the ad offers X number of times, they will no longer receive ad offers from that campaign.

4) Click-frequency controls. Further, advertisers can protect themselves from rapid-clickers by creating campaign parameters that withdraw or put an ad offer on "snooze" for any MeFile that appears to be clicking in rapid succession. The effect for the advertiser may sound like this - I really want this type of MeFile's attention, but if they have clicked on X number of ads in the last Y number of minutes, withdraw my offer until Z hours have passed. XY & Z are determined by the advertiser to their own comfort level.

There are a few other factors that determine the behavior of ads, but hopefully that provides a picture.

Regarding the number of ads to expect during any period, we are posting a response to that frequently-asked question here.

Quick addition to summarize the spirit behind this policy... Requiring a unique cell phone validation for each MeFile is our way of assuring advertisers that it is difficult (cost prohibitive) for any one consumer to create multiple MeFiles.

Hi awickstr. Send an email to support_at__youdata.com indicating your cellular carrier. We will do some research to see if they can be added to the system.

The carrier must be a US carrier (for now). Pre-paid cell phones are currently excluded due to the transient nature of the accounts and how often the number may change between owners.

Thanks!

Here are some possible causes and solutions:

--------------------
:: Cellular number and/or carrier info entered wrong

The steps for updating cellular info are here.

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:: Cellular plan prohibits SMS/Text messages

This one's tricky. If your cell phone cannot accept SMS/Text messaging, it will obviously be unable to receive the code. We currently do not have a work-around for this. You may be able to "unblock" text messaging on you cellular account to allow receipt of the Activation Code.

--------------------
:: The code may have been successfully sent, but is held up or delayed due to carrier, traffic, and or misc relaying servers along the way.

Give it an hour. If nothing shows by then, something is probably amiss. Email us at support@youdata.com.

Hope this helps. Respond back if not. We'll get it figured out!

Unfortunately we cannot wave this requirement at this time. We have to be able to assure advertisers that each MeFile was validated against a unique cellular device. SMS/Text messaging a code from our systems is the only way to assure the number entered is a cell phone (and not a home phone, for instance).

For more on this subject, please see here and here.

We apologize for any inconvenience and hate to turn anyone away. Should you find yourself able to receive a text message at some point in the future, please come back and give us a try!

To update you email and/or cellular info, try this:

1) Go to YouData.com and login to your MeFile using your MeFile ID and Password.

2) Once logged into the system, go to the "Housekeeping" tab where you can update your email address and/or cellular number/carrier.

3) Upon any update, the system will send new activation codes to your new email address and/or your cellular phone.

NOTE: If you were just signing up and reached the Activation stage of the sign-up process, a MeFile with your MeFIle ID and Password was created. You do NOT need restart the sign-up process from scratch. If you do, and you try to use the same MeFile ID, the system will tell you that the MeFile ID is no longer available. You can complete the activation process by logging in using your original MeFile ID at YouData.com and following the steps above.

Thank you, lightspring. We sincerely regret that you are disenchanted. We certainly do not enjoy turning anyone away, and the policy is not intended to be elitist. It is crucial, however, to this "marketplace for attention" that we be able to limit the number of MeFiles to one-per-person. So far, requiring a cell phone validation code is the best technical alternative we have been able to come up with.

We will keep trying to come up with other solutions and are always open to suggestions! :-) – Trae, on October 02, 2008 21:42

One more thing to stress, just to set expectations for fellow MeFilers...

YOU WILL NOT GET RICH WATCHING ADS! :-)

Though your attention is very valuable, it is probably not quite valuable enough to retire on! If all goes as planned, however, it should be enough to sponsor your music and video downloads, and support you favorite blogs and other web sites. Not a bad thing, right?

You can actually make money 2 ways by hosting our Text Ad 5-Stack adget on your blog site.

YouData Text Ad 5-Stack:

1) When a MeFile owner first reveals their ads, the graphic banners are revealed and the MeFile has the opportunity to collect $.05 from each advertiser. When they collect, YouData also pays the blog site $.02 per ad. Since 5 ads at a time potentially show up for each load, that potentially means $.10 to the blog site each time a full 5-stack is revealed.

2) When the text portion of the ad unit is revealed (after the banner impression is collected), the MeFile owner has the option to split their own click-through proceeds with the hosting site in sort of a "tip-jar" transaction. The MeFile owner actually controls the split percentage with the host blog by adjusting the Give/Keep slider at the top of the player.

Hope this helps! Let us know of any further questions!

Team YouData