Wellington-based Digital Advance has seen its audience grow across all its sites, while its breaking-news portal Voxy.co.nz grew almost 40% July to September, Nielsen figures show.

“The growth we’re seeing is quite unprecedented” says Digital Advance founder Matt Harman.

“It’s clear from the figures we’re seeing that it’s not just growth in news audience either. It’s across the board.”

Aggregate Unique Browsers across all New Zealand sites tracked by Nielsen grew 25% July to September (Total Traffic).

Voxy.co.nz attracted 180,000 unique browsers (UBs) in August, which was 39% up on July (130,000), placing it firmly in the Nielsen Top 50 websites at 43rd most visited.

Visitors to New Zealand’s home of free stuff, Gimme.co.nz are up 18% over the same period (July to September), while recommendations website Recommended.co.nz grew its audience by 24%, according to Google Analytics.

“It’s a vindication of the initiatives launched by our new senior management team – heads of content Simon Randall who joined in July and commercial Kirsty Harman – who joined at the end of August.

New features on Voxy include a dedicated Health section, the expansion of the Politics section to be arguably New Zealand’s most comprehensive, the launch of regular competitions and increased use of social media to promote content.

“Readers love the mix of content on our sites and that’s why they are coming back in bigger numbers. And that’s good news for advertisers keen to engage new audiences.”

Kirsty Harman joins the team as head of commercial and Simon Randall as head of content.

Announcing the appointments, company founder Matt Harman said: “We’ve seen the reach of the Digital Advance network of sites more than double in the last year – Simon and Kirsty will take us to the next level.”

Kirsty will be responsible for growing the monetisation of Digital Advance’s existing businesses and identifying new commercial opportunities. She comes to Digital Advance from Fairfax Digital, where she was Advertising and Marketing Manager.

“It’s very exciting to be part of a nimble organisation with a clear vision for the future of the media industry. My job is to see Digital Advance thrives by developing platforms that enable advertisers and consumers to connect with each other in new and valuable ways.” says Kirsty.

Simon will oversee development of the groups four sites.  He’s spent fourteen years in media on three continents and comes to Digital Advance from the New Zealand Press Association, where he led the commercial team.

“The opportunity to be at the beginning of something new in media – a new model for our industry – was too good to miss,” says Simon.

“The speed of change with digital media is incredible. One day you’re kicking around a new idea, the next day it’s live on your site. And if your audience doesn’t like it, the feedback is instant.

“That’s another great thing about working in Online – the ability to converse with your audience. And that’s as true for advertisers as it is for journalists,” says Simon.

Simon’s first job was to refocus Guide2.co.nz into a destination for great personal finance content, hence Guide2’s new tagline – “making finance personal”. He will also introduce a broader range of bloggers from relevant professional fields.

Guide2 has recently enrolled bloggers from New Zealand and overseas and focused on delivering unique content to the site.

“The latest IAB advertising figures show that confidence has well and truly returned to the online sector. These appointments will ensure we are well equipped to capitalise on that confidence.” says Matt.

“Whether you want a credit card that offers interest-free days, zero annual fee or great rewards, you can now compare every credit card deal on offer in New Zealand in seconds,” said Guide2 founder Matt Harman.

The tool is the most comprehensive single source of information about credit card deals in New Zealand, Harman says.

“Our team constantly updates the information, so users can be confident they are getting the best deal out there.”

The tool can compare cards by any combination of bank, interest rates, type (credit, debit or charge), brand (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Diners), ‘colour’ (standard, gold and platinum) and feature (interest-free days, annual fees, rewards).

“Making it as easy and intuitive to use as possible was a priority for us,” Harman says. “Users just select the type of card and key features they want and the interactive table lists the best deals.

The application is completely independent of card vendors, which was another key requirement for Guide2.

“We wanted to create a tool our growing audience could trust as much as, and use alongside, our personal finance guides and news that have long been a mainstay of the site,” Harman says.

The application is the first of many changes planned for the site in the coming months, he says.

Guide2 is part of the Digital Advance stable of websites, which includes news site Voxy.co.nz, competition site Gimme.co.nz and personal recommendations site Recommended.co.nz.

Guide2.co.nz – making finance personal

“It’s always great to get free stuff, but in the current economic environment it’s even more valuable” said Gimme.co.nz founder, Matthew Harman.

Using a mixture of technology and human editing, Gimme.co.nz indexes and catalogues all of the competitions and giveaways currently being run by New Zealand organisations.

“Hundreds of New Zealand companies routinely giveaway fantastic prizes and free stuff — but finding what’s on offer can be major mission. We aim to change that.” said Harman.

All competitions and giveaways are granularly classified on Gimme.co.nz, so tracking, for example only the competitions that have cash or travel prizes is incredibly easy.

The site also offers a daily email digest of all the new competitions and giveaways added in the last twenty four hours and readers can subscribe to RSS feeds for even quicker notification.

“The best giveaways typically only last for a day or two, so finding out about them really quickly is very important. Gimme can help you do that.” said Harman.

Community contributions are also an important part of the site. “We have a lot of technology to help us seek out free stuff, but it’s the community that separates the great from the good” said Harman. Users can vote up or down promotions on the site and can also submit competitions and giveaways for inclusion in the Gimme index.

Gimme is the fourth site founded by Digital Advance in the last year. The company also publishes: Voxy.co.nz (community newswire and blogs), Guide2.co.nz (personal finance and politics news and ‘how to’ guides) and Recommended.co.nz (expert and consumer recommendations).

The site now reaches just over 60,000 monthly users and has a 60% male audience.

AdHub sports an estimated 500,000 unduplicated users per month across the network and has an email database of more than 100,000 people. If you’re looking for broad coverage across high quality niche sites or specific audiences and high-profile placements – please get in touch.

All ad sales queries for Voxy should now go through Josh and the rest of the excellent team at AdHub. For Guide2.co.nz and Recommended.co.nz, please continue to contact us directly.

Would you like to share that knowledge with tens of thousands of readers while earning money for your writing?

Then join the Digital Advance blogging community!

Digital Advance publishes three popular New Zealand websites: Voxy, Guide2 and Recommended.  We are on the look out for people with something to say to create topic specific blogs (ie: frugal living) for our community of readers.

What are the benefits of blogging for Digital Advance?

Greater exposure

• Joining Digital Advance gives you instant access to a thriving community of readers and commenters.
• Voxy, Guide2 and Recommended have quickly established themselves as leading New Zealand destinations for independent ‘how to’ guides and topical news – reaching 75,000 people each month.
• You’ll get more traffic from search engines because Google and Yahoo! favor websites with lots of frequently updated content and incoming links.

Make more money

• As a group we are able to attract bigger advertisers and charge higher advertising rates. Many major advertisers refuse to deal with blogs unless they reach a certain traffic threashold.
• We will help you find the most lucrative monetising opportunities and help you get the most financial value out of your writing.

What do I get paid?

• The more traffic you bring in, the more you earn!
• Bloggers earn a commission equal to 75% of the revenue derived from their page views.  For bloggers who generate 20,000 or more page views per month, the guaranteed minimum revenue you will earn is $200 per month.

What kind of bloggers are you looking for?

Voxy, Guide2 and Recommended bloggers are dedicated to living smart, savvy and fun lives. We value writers who are creative, resourceful and internet-savvy.

Previous experience blogging for online audiences is a plus — but not essential.

How do I get started?

Email us at blogs@digitaladvance.co.nz with the following:

1. Three sample posts of at least 400 words. These posts should show off your ability to write in different styles (for example, show that you’re able to write concise guides as well as interesting commentary). The three sample posts MUST be on topic. If you are linking to existing work, those must be on topic too.
2. Five concrete and specific ideas for future posts. Include details and/or an outline of the meat of the posts. For example, if you plan on writing about effective budgeting techniques, please list briefly what some of those techniques would be.

We’re looking for smart, helpful and insightful writing. We love stories that are authoritative, extremely useful or highly entertaining.

Recommended.co.nz brings together thinking and advice from experts and consumers, to help people find the answer to a range of everyday questions.

The site includes moderated independent recommendations on things to do and where to go around New Zealand, movies, books and health.

“Our objective is to bring together quality independent guides and recommendations, to assist New Zealanders who are doing research online” said Digital Advance Founder, Matthew Harman.

“Finding impartial online resources to discover, for example, the top things to do for free in Wellington, or Hamilton’s top cafes should be easy and up to now it hasn’t been.   Recommended.co.nz will help change that” said Harman.

The site will be updated daily with the latest topical guides and recommendations.

Site users are encouraged to submit their own recommendations to the website and to comment on and rate existing content.

Recommended.co.nz is the third New Zealand website launched by Digital Advance this year. It also publishes personal finance site Guide2.co.nz and Voxy.co.nz, a popular community newswire.

Voxy provides an open platform for newsmakers to speak directly to the community and feed the news conversations of the day.

“While contributions to the site do go through a moderation process, our aim is to facilitate the sharing of as many views and perspectives as possible” said Digital Advance founder, Matthew Harman.

“The news on the site will be ‘raw’, in that it generally won’t be edited prior to publication – however, readers can comment on every story, to help ensure that all sides of any issue are discussed and debated”.

The site will be updated seven days a week and includes the latest breaking national, business, politics, sport and entertainment news.

“At launch, we believe Voxy is already one of the most comprehensive sources of New Zealand news in the market” said Harman.

Voxy is the second major website Digital Advance has launched since its establishment in March this year.

It’s first site, guide2.co.nz, has rapidly established itself as the leading independent source of personal finance news and ‘how to’ guides in the New Zealand market.

Guide2′s mission is to provide New Zealand consumers with a comprehensive window into the world of personal finance — and part of that is making information really easy to find.

“We’ve added granular tagging to all of the articles on Guide2, to give users an easy way to delve deeper into virtually any money related topic” said Guide2 founder, Matthew Harman.

More than 1,000 topic, organisation, company and person tags have already been created, with dozens more added every day.

Topics like KiwiSaver or Gross Domestic Product now have their own sections and so do individual businesses (ie: Vodafone) and people (ie: Michael Cullen).

In addition, each section now has an associated RSS feed, giving readers the option of keeping up to date on topics that interest them, via their favorite feed reader.

Guide2 is also encouraging website owners to use its RSS feeds to publish headlines on their own sites.

“This is a service that we’re offering for free to publishers and is a great way for them to offer relevant and highly targeted content to their readers” said Harman.

Guide2 is owned by Wellington based online publisher, Digital Advance.

Guide2.co.nz

Online Publisher Digital Advance, today rolled out its first New Zealand website.

guide2.co.nz provides consumers with a comprehensive window into the world of personal finance, bringing together news and guides from New Zealand’s most authoritative sources.

The New Zealand Press Association (NZPA), Sorted, the Securities Commission and best selling personal finance author Mary Holm, have all made substantial contributions to the site’s foundation content.

“Our objective is to bring together the best independent voices in this area, to provide a broad and deep resource for New Zealanders” said Digital Advance founder, Matthew Harman.

The site will be updated daily with the latest news, topical guides and ‘how to’ material.

apnfinda powers a comprehensive financial services business directory on guide2.co.nz – rounding off the site’s offering.

“If people are thinking personal finance, whether that be saving, investment, home loans or anything else — in one place, they can now find out what’s happening, what they need to know and who can help them” said Harman.

A unique feature of the site is the ability for people to ask and have answered their own personal finance questions.

Guide2 researchers will hunt out answers to questions submitted and readers will have the ability to contribute to the pool of knowledge as well, through commenting.

“If the answer’s not already there, we want to help you find it” said Harman.