Ben Shoemate's Notebook

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: Adjix

20-word Description: Adjix is an online ad network that pays people to shorten links.

CEO’s Pitch: Adjix is a cross between TinyURL and Google AdWords. We let people shorten URLs (called “Linkers”). When a person clicks on the shortened URL, we display the original content with an optional ad at the top of the page. Both the Linkers and advertisers can see detailed link data such as who clicked on their link or ad (by IP address), when, and how many times. Very shortly, we’ll also report the webpage that the link appeared on when it was clicked (referrer) and also the OS and Web browser version.

Mashable’s Take: If you take Adjix at face value, it seems an interesting concept. It is a very simple yet potentially quite lucrative model built on a premise of revenue sharing well-refined by Google. It charges advertisers fees for impressions and click-throughs, and shares the bounty with people creating links.

Yet it is not only for the potential monetary push that Adjix is so intriguing. There is a utilitarian side to the coin. Because Adjix allows users to glimpse the click rate of the links they create, they can quickly determine whether such linking is grabbing interest. For folks trying to drum up traffic, this is a tool definitely worth adding to the chest. What’s more, if you need to expand the power of the engine, Adjix lists on its homepage a section devoted to the “Adjix Open API.” Altogether, it looks like something the frequent linker would very much enjoy getting on deck.

Now, there are some points raised about the relatively unique way Adjix functions which may not suit the end users. The most pressing one being spam. The service could be conducive to abuse. Indeed, last month, Performancing’s Jeff Chandler highlighted this concern with reference to the startup’s framework. In his response, Adjix founder and president Joe Moreno explained very simply that “we’ll shut down any spammer’s links. Everyone hates spam and we intend to freeze any spammer’s accounts.”

It’s definitely the case that Adjix has its ups and its downs. And the downs can seem a bit disconcerting, given the financial incentives involved. But so it is with various other ad engines on the Web, and Adjix appears to be one built in a fashion that could keep things aboveboard.

One thing is sure. The numbers Adjix provides are very easy to grasp. Advertisers pay $0.35 CPM for impressions, and $0.75 per valid click-through. Linkers subsequently receive $0.10 CPM, and $0.20 per valid click-through.

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials