HELP & SUPPORT

What is TrendMD?

TrendMD is the leading scholarly content discovery platform dedicated exclusively to the distribution of high-quality content across disciplines. With TrendMD, links to your content appear as recommendations on the web's largest scholarly content publishers and premium publisher sites.

We help publishers grow their readership and increase pageviews per reader.

TrendMD optimizes for engagement. The more interesting your content and the more traffic you drive, the more you will be recommended throughout our network. We use a complex set of algorithms to find the most interesting and relevant links for each individual reader on every page. TrendMD algorithms serve what readers want to read when they want to read it.

How does TrendMD work?

TrendMD powers a recommendation widget, which is free for content providers (such as publishers) to install on their website(s). This widget generates recommendations for readers based on their reading habits, allowing for content providers to increase the discoverability of their content. Clicking on the link might take the reader to another article within the same publishers' website(s) - or to a third-party website owned by a different publisher altogether.

Each click on a link that directs a reader outside the host publishers’ website(s) earns the host publisher a new visitor back to their site in return.

Here’s a concrete example, from the reader perspective:

  1. JAMA publishes an article about respiratory disease and would like to promote it. They set a weekly budget, and the article is disseminated through TrendMD’s network.
  2. Meanwhile, you’re reading a different article on respiratory disease in The BMJ. Since The BMJ has the TrendMD widget installed, it tells you that you might also be interested in the first article published by JAMA.
  3. You click the link. Your click “costs” one credit, which is deducted from JAMA’s credit balance. The BMJ receives a half credit which can then goes towards redistributing their own content—and JAMA enjoys the increased exposure and site traffic.

How do I get started?

Getting started is easy!

First determine if you are a good fit for our network. TrendMD works best if you're looking to promote scholarly content that is hosted in a central location. Unfortunately we do not currently work with individual authors looking to promote their published works.

If you meet that criteria, send us an email with the following information:

  1. Your name
  2. Website URL (where you host your content)

One of our team members will then reach out to discuss next steps!

How do content providers benefit from TrendMD?

Publishers and content producers use TrendMD for a variety of reasons, these are some of the most common benefits:

Grow your readership

TrendMD helps marketers generate high-quality views at scale by pushing out content on top scholarly sites. Advertisers use our marketplace to control which content is distributed over TrendMD’s network of publishers.

Read: TrendMD drives 49% increase in article readership

Drive Conversions

In order to drive traffic that converts into leads, downloads, sign-ups or other engagements, TrendMD’s recommendation engine learns and pushes relevant content most likely to interest your targeted users. You can then capture leads with engaging CTAs on-site.

Read: Elsevier’s monthly budget resulted in over 500% ROI with Clinics Review Articles (The Clinics)

Drive User Engagement and Content UsageTrendMD looks beyond just related links to help people discover, read, and cite interesting scholarly content from your journals and websites through personalized recommendations. Our recommendation algorithms continuously optimize the placements of links to your content for the right audience while readers are actively looking for something interesting to discover.

TrendMD’s dashboard allows you to track incoming traffic, link clicks, and other KPIs in real-time. You can analyze content performance and optimize your campaigns to meet your goals and improve ROI.

Read: TrendMD provides higher reader engagement than Google Scholar or Twitter

Increase Brand AwarenessTrendMD’s content discovery platform recommends content through high-impact placements alongside editorial on top scholarly sites across the web, matching advertisers with relevant publisher audiences across all categories, from STM, humanities, and social sciences. Your content can reach millions of viewers and gain valuable interactive exposure within a credible, trustworthy context.

TrendMD's article recommendation algorithm

Traditional recommender systems stop at semantic enrichment (i.e. relatedness).

TrendMD’s predictive recommendation engine analyzes hundreds of real-time signals to match people with the top handful of items they are most likely to be interested in consuming next. Our proprietary algorithm sifts through an array of situational factors every time the user loads a web page: collaborative filtering (relatedness, audience click behaviour (“people that read X, also clicked on Y”) and personalization (i.e. what you have read in the past), article popularity, geography, context, referral source, social media trends and more. Operationally, the algorithm takes into consideration behavioral, contextual, and social inputs, as well as general network trends and competition.

Recommendation links dynamically pair with different articles and change locations across our network, based on where they are most likely to receive the highest click-through rate.Our algorithms are optimized to connect the right content to the right reader, at the right time.

Bottom line: content that is generating the most user interest is given the most volume by TrendMD’s algorithm. It also pulls back on content that is generating less interest. Together, this ensures your budget is being allocated effectively.

How does TrendMD generate additional article views?

TrendMD generates additional article views by recommending your content on articles throughout the TrendMD network.

For content providers who have installed the widget and are on our Starter Plan (not paying for credits), about 75% of your additional article views will come from visitors on your own sites finding links to your content in the TrendMD widget (red box below), the remaining ~25% will come from visitors finding links to your content in the widget on third-party sites.

Installing the TrendMD widget on your website(s) typically increases article pageviews by 3-5%.

Content Discovery vs Search & Display

Content Discovery

"Content discovery” refers to a rapidly-growing space in the world of digital media that involves the use of predictive algorithms to help people discover content they may like but never knew existed.

Social media platforms often have discovery-based features integrated into their sites, such as Facebook’s News Feed or YouTube’s “Recommended for You” section. Discovery platforms like TrendMD are built around a predictive engine that all kinds of publishers can integrate into their site, surfacing targeted recommendations for their readers.

Content recommendations are offered in a variety of ways on publisher websites and apps. Recommended stories can be placed within content streams/feeds on a publisher’s homepage or along the right side of an article. The most impactful placement often immediately follows the end of an article, though recommendations can also appear mid-article (especially on mobile).

These types of promoted recommendations are less intrusive than traditional online banner ads, and the best examples create real value for consumers by providing them with relevant and informative content. Story-driven content also enables marketers to create a stronger emotional connection with their target audiences in a way that direct advertisements cannot.

Content discovery can drive results for marketers across industries and in service of many different metrics or goals. While banners ads may only have been effective for high-level brand awareness, content can engage consumers at all stages of the “consideration journey”, driving a variety of goals, such as lead generation, email subscriptions, purchases, and more.

Search ads

Search marketing is a type of 'pull marketing'. Search customers have typed in what they want and they are in the market for your product or service. The customer is "pushing" and advertisers only need to pull them in.

These ads are specifically designed to make a 'sales pitch' to the user. In the above scenario, the user was looking for pizza in New York City. The user is more than likely to click on one of the search ads to learn more about a product or service directly - in this case, pizza.

Display ads

Display marketing is a type of "push marketing". Users are not specifically searching for your product or service when the display ad is placed in their line of site. They may be viewing a video, checking their favorite news or social site, doing research or some other action. Here the advertiser is pushing the awareness of their product onto the user.

Display ads are similar to traditional television commercials. The majority of the audience will not have any interest in the product or service (unless highly targeted or via retargeting), at least not at that time. However, it is possible that the ads foster brand awareness, imparting a visual impression in the viewer’s mind so that they may recall your ad if and when they need your product or service.

TrendMD's reach

TrendMD is the world’s leading discovery platform, delivering over 1 billion recommendations to over 100 million unique users each month on 4,500 websites from over 300 scholarly publishers. As a content discovery platform, TrendMD surfaces promoted content alongside editorial content at a critical moment, when readers are steeped in “content consumption” mode. This moment is when readers are most open to discovering something new.

TrendMD's data privacy policy

Whether you’re simply a content lover who consumes our content or an TrendMD client, your data is safe with us. We do not share it with any 3rd parties. See TrendMD Privacy Policy for more details.

Will TrendMD ever interfere with my page load times?

No. We treat ourselves as a ‘guest’ on your website(s). The TrendMD widget always loads after the rest of the page, and has been designed to never interfere with the functioning of your website(s). This means that sometimes you may have to wait a few seconds for the widget to load on a page.

How does TrendMD % traffic lift compare for small vs large publishers?

Because traffic lift is a ratio (we look at the number of additional views relative to baseline traffic) the % lift for large and small publishers is comparable. Larger publishers generally have greater quantities of baseline traffic and therefore can earn more credits , but they also need larger numbers of additional views to get the same % lift.

When it comes to paid credits , smaller publishers need to pay less to boost their traffic relatively more than large publishers.

How does the TrendMD widget work?

The TrendMD recommendation widget is two lines of code that you install on your website(s). Once installed the widget recommends relevant articles to your readers using our recommendation algorithm.

At least half of the recommendations in the widget at any given time will be from your publications, the remainder (at most half) will be from other publishers in our network.



The TrendMD widget promotes your content:

  • on your own article pages (keeping visitors on your sites) - this is free!
  • on third party websites (bringing new visitors to your sites) - this costs 1 credit per visitor

The TrendMD widget promotes third party content on your article pages

  • every visitor that clicks a link to a 3rd party site earns you 0.5 credits

Learn more about our credit system and how to edit content sources for the widget.

What metadata is necessary for the TrendMD widget to work?

In order for the widget to make recommendations the following elements are needed:

  • Abstract and/or blog content
  • Title
  • First author
  • Publication date

  • All articles on your site that contain this information will be included in the internal recommendation pool.

    The following meta tags are compatible with the TrendMD widget:

  • Dublin Core
  • OG meta tags
  • Highwire Press tags
  • Eprints tags
  • BE Press tags
  • PRISM tags

  • The following are examples of meta tags we support:

    Meta tags for abstract and/or content
    Dublin Core meta tag

    <meta name="DC.Description" content= “[insert abstract or content description here]"/>;


    Meta tag for Title
    Dublin Core meta tag

    <meta name="DC.Title" content="[insert title here]”/>;


    Meta tag for authors (always list authors chronologically)
    Dublin Core meta tag

    <meta name=”DC.Creator” content =”[FirstName LastName]” />;


    Meta tag for publication date
    <meta name="citation_date" content="yyyy/mm/dd"/>;

    What are sponsored articles?

    The sponsored status of an article determines where this article will be seen in the TrendMD network.

    Sponsored articles will be recommended across the network as long as your credit balance is above zero.

    Non-sponsored articles will be recommended in the widget on your website(s) but will not appear in recommendations on other publishers' sites.You can change the status of your articles on the Professional or Enterprise plans by following these steps.

    Similarly, articles that other publishers have designated as 'sponsored' will appear in the widget on your site as third-party links. Find out more about how the widget works here.

    Article meta data

    In order for TrendMD to generate the initial recommendations for articles, we need to gather key article meta data (information about the article). This allows our algorithm to generate the initial sets recommendations.

    Key article meta data includes:

    • *Article title
    • *Article URL
    • *Abstract
    • Author names (when available)
    • Publication date (when available)
    • Journal


    TrendMD relies on crawling to acquire article meta data when a publisher is first onboarded. Once the widget is installed, it automatically picks up meta data from any newly published articles.

    * this information is required for the widget to provide recommendations

    ...

    Where do I access the TrendMD dashboard?

    After your account has been created, you can login to your account from anywhere on the TrendMD site by clicking on the Log In icon at the top right.

    Or by going directly to our sign in page.

    To request an account email us or fill out this form.

    Can I share my dashboard login or get separate logins for my team members?

    You can share your login information with other individuals in your organization, just be aware that they will have access to all the same features and permissions that you do.

    You can also request additional logins for others at your organization by emailing your Account Manager (if you don't know who your AM is, email us here).

    What is the difference between a ‘click’ and a ‘impression’ ?

    A click refers to when a user clicks on a link. An impression is when a user sees a link, but does not necessarily click on it.

    What does the star beside the article title mean?

    When a yellow star appears beside an article title in your dashboard, it means that article is sponsored.

    What is the overall process of installation?

    Installing the TrendMD recommendations widget is easy. After getting an account created and your content indexed, your Account Manager will send you your site-specific widget code.Setup takes as little as 10 minutes.

    What will TrendMD look like once installed on my website(s)?

    The TrendMD widget will automatically pick up the visual themes from your site (it will default to your existing CSS). However, both the appearance of the widget and the content presented by the widget can be fully customized.

    You can also use the !important rule to alter the CSS for the widget.Here is an example of what the widget looks like on BMJ:

    What placement of the widget do you recommend?

    In most cases, the widget tends to perform best if placed directly below the abstract with 2 columns or on the right hand side of the page with 1 column.

    That said, we encourage you to A/B test to determine the optimal widget placement that yields the highest clickthrough rate.

    We are transitioning to a redesign and a new platform, should we wait until after the transition to install TrendMD?

    There is no need to wait! The TrendMD widget code works the same way regardless of platform**. It's just 2 lines of javascript in the page footer and one line of HTML where you want the widget placed on the page. Additionally, the transition does not affect any of the backend work that TrendMD does to index the content and distribute your links across the network, so you will have complete continuity that you can follow through the resulting analytics in your TrendMD dashboard. **If you are switching onto or off Wordpress, contact us!

    Crawling your content

    TrendMD will crawl and index your publicly available article pages on your website(s).

    To make sure we don't get blocked, please whitelist our crawler IP: 40.121.218.195

    Please contact your TrendMD account representative for questions or support@trendmd.com to get started.

    Wordpress Plugin

    1. No indexing request is needed if the widget is installed via Wordpress pluginsome text
      1. TrendMD staff will register your organization and website(s) in the Admin Dashboard
    2. Download the plugin from https://wordpress.org/plugins/trendmd/
    3. Install the downloaded plugin in your WordPress Admin Dashboard by following these steps:
      1. From the Plugins menu, click on “Add New“
      1. Upload the plugin zip file by clicking “Upload Plugin“
      1. Click “Choose file“ to upload the zip file you have just downloaded
      1. Click “Install Now“
      1. Click “Activate Plugin“
      1. You will see “Plugin activated“ notification at the top of the page and ”TrendMD” will appear in the list of activated plugins
    1. During the installation process the plugin attempts automatic identification
    2. If this fails, the wizard will request the journal ID and TrendMD can provide it upon request
    3. Once the plugin is installed, enable indexing
    1. Click “Continue” to go to the TrendMD website, and click on “Create account”
    1. Login with your TrendMD account
    1. Complete your registration
    1. Add your website to TrendMD

    Widget placement customization

    1. Option 1 — you can place the widget container manually
      1. Tick the checkbox highlighted with red
      2. Include this code: <div id="trendmd-suggestions"></div> in the source code of your website wherever you'd like the widget to appear
      Option 2 — done by TrendMD developers via the "Custom widget placement" feature in Admin Dashboard
      1. Leave the above checkbox unticked
      2. File a request to development to customize widget placement
        1. You should provide the CSS selector where you want the widget to be attached

    Additional configuration

    1. Use HTML meta tags for article indexing, if the page does not refresh for each article
      1. Compatibility option (use meta tags inside the page html header to identify each article)
    2. Do not index articles from the following categories
      1. The widget will not appear on articles from selected categories

    Check install

    1. Navigate to an article page and select View>Developer>View Source
    1. This will open up a window with the website's code. Ctl+F “trendmd” and look for the code
    2. Look for: <p><!--TrendMD vx.y.z→</p> (code update activity might lead to changes in version number)
    1. Full Wordpress code
      <script type='text/javascript' src='https://js.trendmd.com/trendmd.min.js'> (https://js.trendmd.com/trendmd.min.js)> <p><!—TrendMD v2.3→</p> <div class="textwidget"><div id="trendmd-suggestions"></div></div> TrendMD.register({journal_id: 'xxxxxx', element: '#trendmd-suggestions', ... }}

    What key metrics do you provide?

    You can track the following metrics through the TrendMD dashboard for the last 30 days:

    Additional visitors acquired

    Additional visitors that clicks on sponsored links brought to your website. Your credit balance decreases by 1 credit when a click occurs on a link to your content featured on a third-party site

    Additional pageviews generated

    Additional pageviews are generated when visitors click on recommended links to your content

    Third-party affiliate link revenue

    Credits earned from visitors clicking on third party sponsored links shown across your website(s)

    We report these metrics along with total traffic lift and widget CTR in your readership spreadsheet,.

    You can also track TrendMD visitors through Google Analytics.Email your Account Manager for access to your readership spreadsheet or if you use a traffic tracking system other than Google Analytics.

    Don't know who your Account Manager is? Email us!

    What is the traffic growth metric and how is it measured?

    TrendMD directs additional visitors to your website(s) via clicks on your internal links, which are distributed on third-party websites in the network. Your credit balance decreases by 1 credit when a click occurs on a link to your content featured on a third-party site. Traffic growth is calculated by dividing the additional visitors directed to a website through the TrendMD widget by the baseline traffic on that site.

    What does clickthrough rate (CTR) mean?

    The clickthrough rate (CTR) acts as a key engagement metric for your content. TrendMD aims to put the most interesting and relevant pieces of content in front of readers so we are striving for high engagement. Links to your content will appear more often in places where it receives a higher CTR.

    The CTR is calculated by taking the number of times a user clicks a link divided by the total impressions (the number of times a link was seen):

    Click-through rate = Click-throughs (#) / Impressions (#)

    A high CTR means that a higher proportion of people viewing your widget or links are clicking on it. We consider anything above 3% to be a high widget CTR and anything about 0.3% to be a high link CTR.

    A low CTR, in contrast, means that a lower proportion of the individuals viewing your widget or links are clicking on it. We consider anything below 1% to be a low widget CTR and anything below 0.1% to be a low link CTR.

    What can I do to increase my CTRs?

    These are some factors that affect CTRs and steps you can take to increase your CTRs.

    Time Since Install Part of what makes TrendMD different is we make use of an algorithm to generate our recommendations. Because the algorithm learns about your content over time, the recommendations to your content will improve drastically over the first few months the widget is installed.

    This is an example of how TrendMD recommendations improve over time.

    Read about the experiment in this post
    Widget Placement We often see low widget CTRs when the widget is less visible on the page (at the bottom of open access articles, or hidden in a tab). The best CTRs are seen when the widget is highly visible, we encourage you to play around with the widget placement and see what works best for you.

    Broad/Narrow Content When your content is directly related to too large or too small a group of articles in the TrendMD network, it can take longer for the algorithm to determine optimal recommendation locations. If you think this might be preventing you from reaching your goals, speak to your Account Manager.

    How does your credit system work?

    Up to half of the spots in your widget will be populated by third party content - these are links to other publishers' articles that are related to the article where the widget loads. Any time a reader clicks on one of these links, you earn 0.5 credits. Once you have a credit balance greater than 0, links to your articles will begin to appear in the widgets on other publisher’s sites. Every time a reader clicks on a link to your content on another publisher’s site, you spend 1 credit.

    What does my ‘remaining credits’ balance mean?

    Your credit balance is the amount of new visitors TrendMD will deliver to your website(s) by promoting links to your content on third-party sites in the network. 1 credit = 1 new visitor back to your website(s) from third-party sites in the TrendMD network.

    What affects my ‘remaining credits’ balance?

    There are 3 events that affect your credit balance:

    1. Adding money to your account by setting a weekly budget will increase your credit balance.
    2. You earn 0.5 credits for every click that occurs on a third-party sponsored link featured on your website(s)
    3. Your credit balance decreases by 1 credit when a reader clicks on a link to your content featured on a third-party site

    What happens when my credit balance goes to 0?

    Links to your content will no longer be seen on third-party sites in the TrendMD network. You can add more credits by modifying your weekly budget.

    How do I add credits to my account?

    You can add more credits by modifying your weekly budget.

    How much does TrendMD cost?

    TrendMD can be used on your website(s) for free, indefinitely. We promote links to your content on third-party sites in the TrendMD network so long as your credit balance is above zero. You determine how much TrendMD will cost based on how many new visitors you want us to direct to your website(s). You automatically earn credits from clicks on third-party sponsored links featured on your website(s), which are then used to promote your content throughout the network. Additionally, you can add to your credit balance by setting a weekly budget. ‘In-network’ recommendations are always free.So if you want to ensure that your journal(s) get 1000 additional visitors per month, you set your weekly budget to $250 USD/week. See additional visitors acquired for more details.

    What is the Professional Plan?

    The Professional Plan (starts at $250/month) - not only gets the publisher more traffic credits to spend per month (min. of 250 additional credits per journal per month), but also gives them the ability to shape their traffic. For example, instead of promoting all of their articles over the network, they can select to only promote articles published within the last 2 years. As well - they can restrict the recommendations on their sites to only show their content published within the last 2 years. As a result the relative traffic increases to the smaller group of articles can be much higher.

    How do I set a weekly budget?

    Login to your dashboard and select 'Set weekly budget' from the 'More' drop down menu

    Enter the amount you'd like to allocate to TrendMD per week in the field and click 'Add subscription' button. For example, if you're monthly budget is $100, enter 25 in the box ($100/4 weeks = $25/week)

    1 credit = 1 new visitor

    Enter your credit card details and click 'Pay' button

    You will be notified that your weekly budget has been successfully added and your total remaining credits will be updated

    To unsubscribe from subscription, click ‘Unsubscribe’ button

    Once you set a weekly budget, we use our unique article-level metrics (e.g. click-through rates, engagement time, etc.) to algorithmically determine which articles from your sites get promoted across the TrendMD network at any given time. By default, the top 10% of your articles from the website(s) you register on TrendMD will be promoted across the TrendMD network at any given time.

    If you want more control, you also have the option to sponsor and unsponsor individual articles from your websites.

    Launching a TrendMD campaign

    Ready to launch your first TrendMD campaign? Great!

    Please reach out to support@trendmd.com to get started.

    You will need to include:

    • Example URL(s) and/or website(s) you want to promote
    • Campaign goals (e.g. conversions, lead generation, brand awareness, increase traffic, user engagement, etc.)
    • Typical monthly budget on other platforms
    • Target markets/Geo-location/users you want to target

    A TrendMD representative will reach out within 48 hours to discuss the launch of your first campaign.

    How do I make the most of my campaign?

    Define your goals and a strategy
    Before starting your TrendMD campaign(s), make sure to clearly define your campaign goals. With clear goals in mind, you will better able to optimize and determine where you can make improvements. You will always be able to answer the question of "How successful is my TrendMD campaign?" - then implement updates if needed.

    What would you like your content to do for you? Are you a new journal publisher looking to create buzz around your content? Are you an established publisher, looking to expand your audience while getting the most page views per visit possible? Are you a pharma company who has launched a new drug and looking to drive more awareness amongst HCPs?

    Whatever the case may be, make sure that you are clear on your goals at the outset of your TrendMD campaigns.

    Be as specific as possible

    If you can, quantify your goal. If you want as many pageviews as possible - do you want to see an average of 2 page views per click? 5? If you want TrendMD users to sign up for your website - how much are you willing to pay per conversion/what is your CPA (Cost Per Action) goal? $20? $50?

    Prepare your strategy

    Based on your campaign goals, you will be able to prepare your initial TrendMD campaign strategy. Your campaign targeting, content and creatives, and tracking should all be set up in line with your goals.

    Remember:

    • You can have multiple goals in mind when running TrendMD campaigns
    • You can run multiple types of content in your TrendMD campaigns
    • Different campaigns may have different goals
    • Your goals may change over time, and that's OK! Just remember you may need to update your optimization strategy with new goals.

    Creative best practice guidelines

    In general, the more content you include in your campaign and promote in the TrendMD network, the more visitors we’ll be able to deliver.

    Think of the TrendMD Network of publishers as an ocean, the readers as fish, and your content as bait. The more diverse your bait is, the more fish you will catch!

    A good rule of thumb: you should have at least 25 links to content per campaign. Remember, each link you provide does not need to link back to a unique piece of content. You can set up a campaign where you have 25 links running with different titles that all link back to the same piece of content. Bottom line: more content = more visitors.

    What kind of targeting is available?

    While our predictive engine excels at getting your content surfaced to those most likely to take interest, you can add additional layers of targeting to make sure you hit the right people. These are some of the targeting options available:

    • Geo-targeting (Global)
    • IP targeting (Global)
      • Target by IP-address ranges
    • Institutional targeting (Global)
      • Target hospital networks, universities, colleges, organizations
    • Doctor-targeting (US only)
      • By NPI #, speciality
    • User-targeting (Global)
      • Target specific types of researchers and/or HCPs in the network, globally

    Talk to your account manager to set targeting preferences on your campaign(s)

    Tracking TrendMD traffic

    Before launching your campaigns, we recommend that you have a plan in place for monitoring your KPIs (key performance indicators). If you are looking to generate leads from TrendMD users, how will you know if they converted? If you are looking to generate pageviews, how will you track pages-per-visit for TrendMD users?

    Having a tracking plan in place will allow you to better assess your opportunities for increasing user engagement. With data, you are able to make educated optimization decisions - leading to increased engagement and higher ROI. Gathering data can also help you optimize future TrendMD campaigns.

    By default we append UTM tracking codes to all articles contained in your campaign. However, we can append custom tracking codes based on your needs (e.g. we can append Omniture tracking codes, etc).

    For more information about tracking TrendMD with Google Analytics, check out our Google Analytics How-To's.

    Campaign pricing

    TrendMD currently only offers a strictly Cost-per-Click, or CPC, pricing model. This means that you set an amount that you’re willing to pay for every click to your content.

    For example, If you have a $25 campaign with a $0.45 CPC, this means you are willing to pay 45c for every click you get until you hit your $25 budget cap - so your maximum traffic potential is 56 clicks. You can always change your CPC depending on how well you’re performing.

    Campaign billing

    TrendMD operates on a pre payment billing model. In other words, when setting up a campaign, you select your budget and CPC, and we bill you before the campaign starts.

    Our default method of payment is via credit card. We accept American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. Follow these instructions to set your weekly budget and add payment information.

    If you do not have a credit card but are still interested in using TrendMD, please email us or speak with your account manager to see if you qualify for an IO. If we bill with an IO, payment is due on a net 30 basis.

    More content = more visitors

    In general, the more content you include in your campaign and promote in the TrendMD network, the more visitors we’ll be able to deliver.

    Think of the TrendMD Network of publishers as an ocean, the readers as fish, and your content as bait. The more diverse the bait you have, the more fish you will catch!

    A good rule of thumb, is that you should have at least 25 links to content per campaign. Remember, each link you provide does not need to link back to a unique piece of content. You can set up a campaign where you have 25 links running with different titles that all link back to the same piece of content. Bottom line: more content = more visitors.

    A/B testing

    After launching your campaign, you'll need to monitor your campaign metrics for guidance on which (if any) campaign elements you may want to modify.

    A/B testing allows you to test two similar elements to decide if one creates more engagement than the other. For example, you could run an A/B test in which the only element you change is the title of the article. Some of the elements TrendMD allows you to A/B test are content, title, website name, geo and user targeting.

    After adjusting your campaigns and determining their effectiveness, you'll need to monitor the elements to continue to improve your conversion rates. We recommend breaking your content into a series of sub-campaigns to gain more granular control and to make sure your campaigns are as optimized as possible.

    You can edit your content at any time, even during a live campaign and you can A/B test so there is no time lag in testing. Talk to your TrendMD account manager to get started on A/B testing.

    Can I block where my content appears in the network?

    If a specific traffic source is performing below average, you should talk to your TrendMD account representative. If you do need to completely block a traffic source, we recommend waiting 1-2 weeks for your campaigns to gather sufficient metrics, before deciding to take any by-publisher action.

    Understanding click-through rate (CTR)

    CTR or click-through rate can help you determine a lot about your campaign, namely if your content is relevant to the people you are targeting with your campaign. Bottom line, if the reader likes your content, they will click it. But if it isn't relevant, no one will click on your content and it will be quite obvious that you need to make adjustments to one or more elements of the content in your campaign.

    Content that is generating the most user interest or is the most relevant to your users (most clicks), is given the most volume by TrendMD’s algorithm. It pulls back on content that are generating less interest. Together, this ensures your budget is being allocated effectively. That said, it can take time for CTRs to increase for a newly launched campaign.

    In general, the higher the CTR, the more traffic you will get on the TrendMD network. That said, you may notice that some content items receiving a higher CTR generate less traffic than content items with a lower CTR. That’s normal! TrendMD’s algorithm optimizes for CTR context, meaning – different items can have a high CTR in different contexts than others.

    Contexts can be different sites, different content users are consuming, different user segments, or different platforms. There is no single item that performs best in all contexts.

    Your TrendMD account manager will reach out to you if there are strategies needed to boost your campaigns CTR.

    Understanding cost-per-click (CPC)

    CPC or “cost per click” is the amount of money you will pay for each click to your content promoted across the TrendMD network. It is very important that you understand how your CPC affects your campaign’s ability to scale and ensure you get the desired amount of clicks to your content.

    How CPC Affects Campaigns

    There are a lot of questions when working on how to manage the CPC of your campaigns and what it means. How high should your CPC be? What do you want to set as your starting CPC bid? With a CPC model, you only pay if someone is interested in your content and clicks on it. If you don’t get clicks, you don’t pay.

    The number of clicks your content receives is what will guide you on which content brings you the best ROI and which content misses the mark. You can take these findings and optimize your content through A/B testing and other optimization strategies.

    Sometimes, Bigger Really is Better

    Though TrendMD recommendations are primarily determined on relevancy, we do take your CPC into account. When setting up a campaign, your TrendMD account rep will recommend a CPC.

    We recommend you stick with that CPC bid to ensure clicks to your campaign content.

    Who do I contact for technical support?

    For general technical support or information regarding your account please contact support@trendmd.com or your customer support manager.

    I’ve installed the widget, but don’t see the widget loading on new articles

    Due to demand, from time-to-time, there can be a delay in generating recommendations for new articles. In general, the delay should be no longer than 30 minutes. If, however, you do notice that more than 24 hours has passed, and still no recommendations are generated for new articles, please contact support@trendmd.com

    How can I resume article indexing if the process has stopped or hangs?

    If you close the page before indexing is complete, you can resume the indexing by reopening the TrendMD settings page (Plugins->TrendMD). The WP plugin will resume indexing from where it left.

    How do I get more visitors to my site(s)?


    You get new visitors to your site by when someone clicks on a link to your content on third-party sites in the TrendMD network - each visitor that clicks on a link to your content costs you 1 credit. We promote links to your content as long as your credit balance is above zero.

    Your credit balance takes into account two credit sources:

    1. The credits you earn from clicks on third-party sponsored links featured on your website(s) (these are automatically used to promote your content).
    2. The credits you purchase by setting a weekly budget .


    By default, all of your articles from the website(s) you register on TrendMD will be promoted across the TrendMD network at any given time if your credit balance is greater than 0. On the Professional or Enterprise plan you also have the option to sponsor or unsponsor individual articles from your websites to control which articles your credits are being spent promoting.

    How can I select which article links are distributed across the network (i.e. made to sponsored links)?

    The goal is to promote the user’s articles on third-party websites registered in TrendMDArticles marked as 'Sponsored' are promoted and will appear in recommendations widget on third-party websites

    Sponsored articles appearing in recommendations widget on third-party websites

    Login to your dashboard

    Select the journal where the articles that you want to promote are located under 'All website' drop down menu

    Select one or more articles and click the ‘Sponsor’ button to mark article as ‘Sponsored’

    You will be notified that the articles were successfully updated and the articles will be marked as ‘Sponsored’ under ‘Status’ column

    Can I increase the number of pageviews generated?

    The best way to increase the number of pageviews generated is to optimize the placement of the widget, use Editor’s Choice, and set a weekly budget. By employing these strategies, you can increase readership by as much as 10-15%.

    What does the Editor’s Choice label do?

    The Editor’s Choice label boosts the visibility of your articles in the widget on your own websites.

    ‘Editor's choice’ articles will always appear in #1 spot in recommendations widget (i.e. the upper right corner of the widget) when they are related to the article. This means they will appear more frequently and in a better position than they would without this designation.If multiple articles are designated as ‘Editor's choice’, the single most relevant article from that pool of ‘Editor's choice’ articles is shown. Article designated as ‘Editor's choice’ will stay that way until label is manually removed.

    How to set an article as Editor's Choice

    Login to your dashboard
    Select a journal under 'All website' dropdown menu


    Select an article or articles by ticking the checkbox beside the article or articles
    You can select as many articles as you want


    Click the 'More' dropdown menu and select 'Mark as Editor's Choice'


    You will be notified that the articles were successfully updated and the articles will be marked as 'Editor's Choice' under ‘Status’ column

    How to remove ‘Editor’s Choice’ status from the article

    Login to your dashboard

    Select the journal under 'All website' dropdown menu

    Select the articles marked as ‘Editor’s Choice’

    Click the 'More' dropdown menu and select 'Remove Editor's Choice'

    You will be notified that the articles were successfully updated and the 'Editor's Choice' will be removed from the articles under ‘Status’ column

    Setting up event tracking with Google Analytics

    This is a summarized version of a great post by North Studio about setting up event tracking. For more information read the original article.

    Google Analytics allows you to track metrics like sessions, page-views and bounce rates without any special set up. Event tracking gives you greater insight into how readers are interacting with your website by tracking events like downloads or link clicks.

    Setting up event tracking requires three steps:

    1. Decide what you want to track
    2. Add a tracking code to your website
    3. Set up a goal in Google Analytics

    Once you've decided on what to track, you need to add a tracking code to the link for that action. For example, if you want to track PDF downloads, you need to add a tracking code to the download PDF.The code you use will depend on which version of Google Analytics you are using. To determine the version you have installed, go to the "Page Source" for your site, CTRL+F to search for "analytics.js" (Universal Analytics) and "ga.js" (Classic Analytics), whichever appears is the version of Google Analytics installed.For Classic Analytics (ga.js) your code will follow this format:

    onClick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'category', ‘action', 'opt_label', opt_value, ‘opt_nonInteraction’]);"

    For Universal Analytics (analytics.js) your code will follow this format:

    onClick="ga(‘send’, ‘event’, ‘category’, ‘action’, ‘label’, value, {‘NonInteraction’: 1});"

    These are the variables you need to consider:

    • Category (required) - This variable specifies the type of object that was interacted with.
    • Action (required) - The specific action a user took to trigger an event.
    • Label (optional) - Allows you to provide more context about the interaction.
    • Value (optional) - The numerical-value of the event.
    • NonInteraction (optional) - A boolean that when set to ‘true’ (or “1” for Universal Analytics) excludes the event from affecting metrics like Bounce Rate.*

    *By default, Google Analytics considers events as an “interaction”, which in turn affects your bounce rate.Continuing with the PDF download example, your download link might look like this:

    <a href="http://mywebsite.com/article1.pdf"> Article 1 PDF </a>

    And your variables would be as follows:

    • Category = PDF Downloads (because you're tracking PDF downloads across your site)
    • Action = Click (because that's the action the reader needs to take to access the PDF)
    • Label = Article 1 (because that's the name of our PDF)
    • Value = (none)
    • NonInteraction = false

      With Classic Analytics Tracking (ga.js) your code would look like this:
      <a href="http://mywebsite.com/article1.pdf" onClick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', ' PDF Downloads', ‘Click', 'Article 1');"> Article 1 PDF </a>

      With Universal Analytics Tracking (analytics.js) it would look like this:
    • <a href="http://mywebsite.com/article1.pdf" onClick="ga(‘send’, ‘event’, ‘ PDF Downloads’, ‘Click’, 'Article 1');"> Article 1 PDF </a>


    • Finally, you need to set up Google Analytics to track it.
      1. Log in to your Google Analytics account.
      2. Go To “Admin”
      3. Under the “View” column, click on “Goals”.
      4. Click on “New Goal”.
      5. Under “Template”, click on “Custom”.
      6. Choose a name for your goal and then under “Type”, select “Event”.
      7. Enter your category and action. Verify your goal and then click “Create Goal”

      To make sure everything is set up correctly, do a quick test.
      In Google Analytics, go to the "Reporting" click on "Real-Time" then click on "Events".
      In a separate window, go to your page and click on the event you're tracking (ie. the Article 1 PDF link).
      The action should show up in your Google Analytics: confirm that it has the correct Category, Action, and Label and you're all set!

    Why is there a difference between TrendMD reporting and Google Analytics?

    Discrepancies between TrendMD reporting and Google Analytics reports are normal because of differences in reporting methodologies. That said, both should follow similar trends. The following campaign example indicates some discrepancy between Google Analytics and TrendMD reporting, but the overall trend is similar. Let's explore some of the reasons for those discrepancies:

    1. Google Analytics site implementation
      • A common reason is not implementing Google Analytics properly on all article pages across the site, especially on newly added sections, leading to some of the TrendMD traffic not getting tracked by Google Analytics.

    2. Partial page load
      • Visitors may navigate away from the site before the page is fully loaded and Google Analytics tracking code executes, recording the TrendMD traffic.

    3. User browser preferences
      • Visitors may have set their browser privacy preferences to disable cookies, images, or JavaScript making them non-trackable by Google Analytics. The same goes for users that have installed Google's own opt-out add-on.

    4. Google Analytics sessions vs. TrendMD clicks
      • There is a distinction between Clicks recorded by TrendMD and Visits/Sessions recorded by Google Analytics. While TrendMD records a Click anytime a user clicks a content recommendation on a publisher site, Google Analytics records a single Session/Visit for all user interactions within a given time frame (which expires after 30 minutes of inactivity). For example, if a user reached the marketer's site through TrendMD twice within that time frame, he or she will be recorded as just one Session/Visit.

    5. Google Analytics sampling preferences
      • Unlike TrendMD, Google Analytics data is generally based on a sampling of all visits to the site, rather than the whole incoming traffic. Google Analytics uses sampling in order to generate reports on very large data sets (over 1m visits).

    6. Time zone differences
      • TrendMD reporting is currently still based on US Eastern Time (UTC -5 hours) for all global markets. If Google Analytics is using a different time zone, the daily reporting might have some differences.

    7. TrendMD UTM tag implementation
      • Marketers can get a more accurate view of their TrendMD traffic by implementing a UTM tag for their TrendMD campaigns. They can then see their campaign-specific traffic in Google Analytics under "Campaigns" rather than under the more limited "All traffic sources" (showing traffic from paid.TrendMD.com).

    For any questions regarding your campaign data in Google Analytics, feel free to reach out to our support team for further assistance.

    Tracking visitors from 2016 and earlier using Google Analytics.

    We updated the way we add tracking slugs to publisher sites over the course of 2016 - all publishers have been moved to the new system as of the end of January 2017. Here is how to track visitors as of January 2017.

    To track visitors acquired before the switch, use the following steps:

    'All pages'.

    In the search box on the right hand side of the table, search using 'trendmd'.

    Search trendmd-shared=0 for tracking TrendMD traffic within your sites.

    Search trendmd-shared=1 for tracking TrendMD traffic referred to your sites from third-party sites.

    To make it easier to visualize all the of the tracked content, go to the bottom of the stats table and change the number of rows.