Microsoft Advertising PubCenter, any comments?

[Nor]

Microsoft Advertising PubCenter, any comments?

We've been looking at this for a couple of weeks now, and to be honest, we are a bit confused with what they are trying to do here...
Is this only an option for those wanting to promote Windows apps? What is going on with Microsoft Advertising for Web Publishers??
Is the program for Web Publishers dead and done with?

Anybody have any experience with this?

Recommend!?....Stay away!?

 

[essellar]

Yes, that program is for Windows apps (WinMobile 7 and Win8 "Metro"/RT specifically). It's about getting apps, and apps (they hope) will drive the adoption of Win8 on the desktop and give them some kind of market share in the mobile space. This is version 2.0 of Steve Balmer jumping up and down yelling, "Developers! Developers! Developers!" Give devs a good shot at monetizing, and they'll create product. When they create product, people will need a platform to run the product on. Simple.

The PubScreener program is for high-traffic web sites (200K pageviews/mo or 50K search conversions). Microsoft is not particularly interested in managing micropayments, especially if there is limited benefit to themselves (people using other OSs and non-IE browsers may click through for the lulz, but conversions would be at a really, really low rate, meaning they need high pageview numbers to make it worth their while). If it's any consolation, it appears that they are at least in part motivated by a desire to get user money off the books — I've been a few cents short of a Google AdSense payout from a disused blog for a couple of years now, and if the click/impression ever comes that puts it over the top, I have to wonder how the accounting would work. So if your site qualifies in traffic terms, it's probably a good deal.