User generated content publishing system

• US 10,204,316 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2007
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leaf Group Ltd. (Graham Holdings Company)
• Original Assignee: Leaf Group Ltd. (Graham Holdings Company)
• Inventors: Muller, Sean, Rosenblatt, Richard, Perez, Joey C., Ameen, Dennis A., Fitzgibbon, Larry, Griffin, Greg, Gherardi, Laurent, Jurgens, Jr., Jon R., Havener, Brian, Moran, Glenn, Busenbark, Dean, Jones, Mark, Youngers, Adam, Godley, Ewan
• Primary Examiner(s): Ouellette, Jonathan P
• Application Number:
  US11/851,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20080082381A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,177 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11-912
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products

Abstract

The invention is directed to a User Publishing System (UPS) that enables both content publishing for users that share what they know in articles and enabling these users to get paid for providing the content through use of a User Compensation System (UCS). The invention enables users to create and edit content in multiple formats, from multiple sources, and in multiple languages. The system can be integrated for use with a plurality of different websites and adopt both the look and feel and the content format of each website, and/or other communication medium. Compensation may be provided to the user providing the content based on a variety of metrics.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a tangible storage medium storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising;

publishing logic executed by the processor for a publishing platform that performs actions, including;

ranking a content provider based on ratings received, via an automated feedback system, from users regarding contributions of content of the content provider, the ratings comprising ranking of an article provided by the content provider and the ratings being variable for each respective user, wherein the users are different from the content provider;

receiving, from the content provider, content in a first format and layout;

automatically reformatting the received content into a second different format and layout;

selecting at least one advertisement from a third-party advertisement provider, where the selection of the at least one advertisement is based on the ranking of the content provider;

selecting a website for publication of the reformatted content, where the selection of the website is influenced by the third-party advertisement provider;

publishing the reformatted content onto at least one webpage of a website, the at least one webpage comprising the reformatted content and the at least one advertisement;

automatically reformatting the received content into a third format and layout associated with a different communication medium other than web pages; and

publishing the reformatted content using the third format and layout through the different communication medium; and

compensation logic executed by the processor for a compensation platform that is configured to perform actions, including;

determining compensation to the content provider based on the publication of the content, based on a plurality of factors, comprising at least one of frequency of views, popularity of content among other users, or advertisement related clicks;

inhibiting at least some compensation based on a detected fraudulent click activity; and

providing the compensation to the content provider.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining compensation is further determined based on at least one of the following:

a number of advertisements displayed on a web page with the published content, a pay per click (PPC) for advertisements on the web page, cost per thousand (CPM), cost per lead (CPL), cost per action for an advertisement (CPA), or a mouse over of an advertisement within the web page.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the publishing platform further comprises a traffic logger that is configured to track an activity associated with a viewing of the website by a viewer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the publishing platform further provides the content provider a plurality of user interfaces useable for editing and publishing the content.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the inhibiting at least some compensation further comprises:

determining an acceptable range of advertisement related clicks on the website for a viewer of the website;

if advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to be within the acceptable range, counting the clicks in determining compensation to the content provider; and

if the advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to exceed the acceptable range, inhibiting the clicks from being used in determining compensation to the content provider.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein if the advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to exceed the acceptable range, the inhibiting at least some compensation further comprises:

determining a network address associated with the viewer; and

if the viewer is determined to be the content provider, based on the network address, determining whether to exclude the content provider from additional compensation.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the publishing platform performs actions, further including:

automatically analyzing the received content to identify potentially offensive content; and

if potentially offensive content is identified, inhibiting the potentially offensive content from being published.

8. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing thereon computer-readable instructions to cause a system to:

rank a content provider based on ratings received, via an automated feedback system, from users regarding contributions of content of the content provider, the ratings comprising ranking of an article provided by the content provider and the ratings being variable for each respective user, wherein the users are different from the content provider;

receive, from the content provider, content in a first format and layout;

automatically reformat the received content into a second different format and layout;

select, by at least one computing device, at least one advertisement from a third-party advertisement provider, where the selection of the at least one advertisement is based on the ranking of the content provider;

select a website for publication of the reformatted content, where the selection of the website is influenced by the third-party advertisement provider;

publish the reformatted content onto at least one webpage of a website, the at least one webpage comprising the reformatted content and the at least one advertisement;

determine compensation to the content provider based on the publication of the content, based on a plurality of factors, comprising at least one of frequency of views, popularity of content among other users, or advertisement related clicks;

inhibit at least some compensation based on a detected fraudulent click activity; and

provide the compensation to the content provider.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the system to:

determine an acceptable range of advertisement related clicks for a viewer of the at least one web page;

if advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to be within the acceptable range, count the clicks in determining compensation to the content provider; and

if the advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to exceed the acceptable range, inhibit the clicks from being used in determining compensation to the content provider.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the compensation is further determined in part based on another activity by a viewer, and wherein the other activity includes providing a positive comment on the content.

11. A method, comprising:

ranking a content provider based on ratings received, via an automated feedback system, from users regarding contributions of content of the content provider, the ratings comprising ranking of an article provided by the content provider and the ratings being variable for each respective user, wherein the users are different from the content provider;

receiving from the content provider, using at least one computing device, content in a first format and layout;

automatically reformatting, using the at least one computing device, the received content into a second different format and layout;

selecting, using the at least one computing device, at least one advertisement from a third-party advertisement provider, where the selection of the at least one advertisement is based on the ranking of the content provider;

selecting, using the at least one computing device, a website for publication of the reformatted content, where the selection of the website is influenced by the third-party advertisement provider;

publishing the reformatted content onto at least one webpage of a website, the at least one webpage comprising the reformatted content and the at least one advertisement;

determining compensation to the content provider based on the publication of the content, based on a plurality of factors, comprising at least one of frequency of views, popularity of content among other users, or advertisement related clicks; and

providing the compensation to the content provider.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining compensation is further determined based on at least one of the following:

a number of advertisements displayed on a web page with the published content, a pay per click (PPC) for advertisements on the web page, cost per thousand (CPM), cost per lead (CPL), cost per action for an advertisement (CPA), or a mouse over of an advertisement within the web page.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

tracking an activity associated with a viewing of the website by a viewer.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

inhibiting at least some compensation based on a detected fraudulent click activity.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing the compensation further comprises:

determining an acceptable range of advertisement related clicks for a viewer of the at least one web page;

if advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to be within the acceptable range, counting the clicks in determining compensation to the content provider; and

if the advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to exceed the acceptable range, inhibiting the clicks from being used in determining compensation to the content provider.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising if the advertisement related clicks for the viewer are detected to exceed the acceptable range:

determining a network address associated with the viewer; and

if the viewer is determined to be the content provider, based on the network address, determining whether to exclude the content provider from additional compensation.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the compensation is further determined in part based on activity by a viewer, wherein the activity includes providing a positive comment on the content.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

automatically analyzing, using the at least one computing device, the received content to identify potentially offensive content; and

if potentially offensive content is identified, inhibiting, using the at least one computing device, the potentially offensive content from being published.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a request from the content provider to delete previously-provided content; and

updating the ranking so that the previously-provided content is not factored into calculations of the updated ranking.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the ranking is further based on an average of the ratings regarding the contributions of content of the content provider.