YouCooks Yappenings

Dear fellow chefs,

I’m pleased to announce that we rolled out our first ads via Google AdSense today.  Effective immediately, the “Community Browse All” and individual “Recipe view” pages will feature a single banner ad at the top.

Every ad shown under the recipe view page will state the name of the person (who entered that recipe) to whom most of the revenue from the ad will be shared.  We follow Google’s guidelines for these ads.  So please refrain from clicking on your own ads (ads that appear against your own recipes).  In any case, Nautilus assures us that our algorithm determines such fraudulent clicks very well, and no additional advantage or revenue will be accrued by you by clicking on your ads.

Here are some quick facts in answer to questions you may  have:

Approximately how much of the ad revenue will you share with me?

The exact proportion of ad revenue that is shared with you is determined by our algorithms.  But we will share at least 60% of the revenue attributable to you with you. That proportion is hard-coded within the algorithm as the lower limit. As of today, the fraction shared with you is between 75% and 80%.  That is, for every dollar we make from ads shown on your recipes, you get between 75 and 80 cents. The rest is for the gasoline that powers YouCooks.

How can you tell how much of the revenue is driven by an ad on the page with my recipe?

Ah.  Our algorithms have a clever way of making that judgment in a fair, reasonable and sound way. After all, we can tell when your recipe is being viewed or used and by whom, can’t we?

When can I get my first check?

As soon as the amount accrued by any of our users crosses a threshold (currently $10), we will send an email notification to the user to arrange for a suitable payment method via our dashboard.  Once the payment method has been finalized, we will mail that first check (or transfer that first amount into your account).

Do I need to do anything special to start receiving checks?

No. You don’t have to do anything special. We will contact you as soon as our balance owed to you is over $10.

What can I do to improve the amount I’m getting?

The revenue you get from your recipes depends directly upon the number of views your recipe gets.  YouCooks will promote your recipes some.  But obviously your best ambassador is you, yourself.  So get the word out - get your friends and family to view and use your recipes.  Make sure your recipes are sufficiently high in quality, creativity, originality, and of course taste!  Enter even more recipes. Promote them on your blog, twitter and fb accounts. Get more people to sign up and enter their recipes so there is a healthy sharing going on.  But remember, don’t click on your own recipes!

Sincerely,

Mathangi