• by August 15, 2007

Allstate, Ford, eBay and Atlantis Events were among the advertisers running across the entire Gay Ad Network as the new vertical venture officially launched Tuesday on over 200 Web sites representing more than two dozen online publishers, including local gay newspapers, national gay magazines, independent content sites and social networking services.

Gay Ad Network was founded by PlanetOut/Gay.com guru and gay online ad sales pioneer Mark Elderkin, who left the leading gay online publisher in July 2006--and is now competing against his former company on the ad sales side. The network's technology platform and backend infrastructure is provided by Adify, a company that powers many vertical ad networks and is financially backed by such firms as NBC Universal, Inc. and Time Warner Investments.

Now arguably the second-largest gay online ad player behind gay.com/PlanetOut, Gay Ad Network provides "an alternative to the main gay portal [for advertisers], and to Google Adwords [for publishers]," Elderkin said.

While the gay online audience has grown, it has also become fragmented across a wide number of mostly independent information, news, community and social networking sites, Elderkin noted. And most of them simply haven't had the resources to go after national advertising by themselves.

"We create scale by aggregating them all together," Elderkin continued. The result is the first-ever national advertising on the Web sites of several of the nation's top independent gay newspapers, like the Washington Blade and Philadelphia Gay News, for example.

Other publishers in the Gay Ad Network include Southern Voice, New York Blade, Express South Florida, David Atlanta and Genre Magazine; RealJock.com, a health and fitness Web site for gay men; Out in America Network, a collection of local content Web sites; Connexion.org, a social networking service for gays and lesbians; OutSports, a gay sports community; GayCities, a gay travel community; Windy City Times; Bay Windows; Pride Source; Philadelphia Gay News; JustMen; TheLWordOnline.com; GayOrbit; !!omgblog!!; GayWeddings.com; Bgay.com; GayWebSource; The DataLounge; and ProudParenting.com, a gay parenting network.

Unlike what he termed the big ad networks, Elderkin stressed that Gay Ad Network "doesn't mask where ads are going." He noted, "everything is booked manually. We select where we want the ads to be appearing." This level of service, combined with a desired affluent demographic, helps account for higher CPM rates, he added.

While initial advertisers in the network are targeting the entire gay demo, Gay Ad Network also offers sub-targeting to such gay niches as Travel/Local Guides; News & Politics; Style; Women; Health; Sports & Fitness; Entertainment & Pop Culture; Parenting; Community; and Business & Finance, as well as geotargeting. Elderkin said his team is currently working with some advertisers on campaigns that will do this kind of sub-targeting.

"My goal is to double the number of publishers in the next year," Elderkin said, "and to continue to see advertisers come in as the network grows."