AdFreeq's adBoard offers users the ability to curate and share classifieds.

The newspaper industry's print model has hit a rough patch—its outdated pricing strategies continually fail to produce reliable revenue. And with local classifieds moving online, it's easy to see why some small-town papers have folded.

But Peter Meng (left) thinks he can help publishers monetize their online presence with a new-age version of the classifieds. He co-founded his solution, adFreeq, to connect sellers with niche markets.

"We're trying to personalize classified ads," he said. "We want it to be less intrusive and more and more about the presentation, so stuff finds you based on your interests."

The startup's app can live on any publisher's site as an "adPortal," which pulls in contextual data in order to serve targeted ads.

And publishers are interested.

"We've presented it to customers and they literally said 'we're salivating over this,' " Meng said. "It's encouraging that you've built the right product for your customer." Earlier this month, adFreeq classifieds began appearing (below) on the Columbia Missourian's newspaper website.

What sets adFreeq apart from traditional web-based ad providers is the hyper-local, user-generated content. So if you're reading an article about the St. Louis Cardinals' opening day roster, adFreeq might serve up local offerings from folks selling tickets.

Meng got the idea about four years ago, when Twitter launched its search feature. He was fascinated with the potential of social and location-based ads. Two years later, Meng pitched adFreeq for the Missouri School of Journalism's Reynolds Fellowship.

Missouri gave him the go-ahead to start research in Fall 2011. "We were able to prove that the market validated it, that the customers wanted and needed it," Meng said. "This wasn't an idea that we were throwing up against the wall, hoping it would work."

In Spring 2012 the startup finished its prototype, and earlier this year, adFreeq launched its first version.

The business' success hinges on three users: publishers, sellers and buyers. Meng said adFreeq benefits the lot. Publishers want in because they get a cut—70 percent—of the posting fees. AdFreeq lets sites control parameters such as pricing and topic matter through embedded adPortals. Sellers get access to a specific market, and buyers get an aggregated, personalized feed of products, along with search and filtering features that help adFreeq outshine sites like Craigslist.

AdFreeq also aims to stand out with a Pinterest-like feature called adBoards, which lets users curate and share classifieds they're interested in.

Teams in two countries are building the startup: a U.S. squad led by Meng and a China team captained by co-founders Chris Eckhardt and Ryan Tang.

The U.S. branch is funded by a $50,000 investment from Capital Innovators—a St. Louis, Mo., startup accelerator—and Meng's $80,000 fellowship. The startup last week added another $50,000 from St. Louis when it earned an Arch Grant. As a result, Meng said his company will add a sales office in the city.

In China, the government granted adFreeq $160,000, which was enhanced by an angel investor—they're hoping to launch that version by month's end.

AdFreeq plans to make that money back by taking 30 percent of each posting fee. Meng aims to get adPortals on 200 to 300 sites in the next 6 months, but noted that hooking bloggers could accelerate the process.

"If we build like we think we can and create a viral product that a lot of blogs will want to have, it's going to be significant," he said.

They're also working to grow their network of providers; Meng's goal is to have 10 million user and business ads within system by the end of the year.

Here's an adFreeq promotional video outlining how it works and why it benefits publishers.

Credits: Screenshots from adfreeq.com and columbiamissourian.com. Peter Meng photo from rjionline.org. AdFreeq video courtesy adFreeq.

About the author: Paige Reitz is a communications associate at the Omaha Community Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind Omaha Gives.

Today is the day every nonprofit in town wants you to know about. From midnight to midnight, it's Omaha Gives—a 24-hour charitable challenge organized by the Omaha Community Foundation to rally the entire city to give to the local causes they care about.

The minimum donation to give is set low ($10) on purpose. While Omaha Gives is about raising as much money as we can as a city in 24-hours, it is also about showing that when we work and give together, we can make a significant impact for our local nonprofit organizations who work day-in and day-out to support our city.

And Omaha Gives is not just about the money either. All over town there are free horse rides, free skate days, free swing dancing lessons, free morning coffee. Participating organizations have planned all sorts of events for free to the public. In essence, they are giving to you as a thanks for giving to them today. And that sort of relationship is a beautiful thing.

So go out, say thank you to the organizations that make a difference in your life here in Omaha, and visit OmahaGives24.org to give!

Earlier this year, we were excited to announce the addition of our third full-time editor and the achievement of a company milestone: We now have a full-time editor in each of the Silicon Prairie's flagship cities (Omaha, Des Moines and Kansas City).

With our newsroom staff increased, so too is our story volume. But before we go too far down one path in this new chapter for us, we want to hear from you. What are the stories you value most? How often do you read Silicon Prairie News? What can we do better?

With those questions and others on our mind, we're asking for 10 minutes of your time to complete a reader survey. The anonymous survey results will help guide the steps we take to improve and evolve what you read on Silicon Prairie News. They'll also help keep our news blog free of charge, since advertisers need to know our audience.

Take the SPN Reader Survey

Credits: Photo by Malone & Co. / Big Omaha

Silicon Prairie Shorts are sponsored by Polsinelli. On a daily basis, Polsinelli technology attorneys work with clients creating or using innovative technology. Check out the firm's Science and Technology Law Group to learn more.

"Boutique Window has saved our customers time by allowing them to publish information about their merchandise once and automatically pushing it out to their Facebook page, website and Twitter account," co-founder Courtney Rodgers told Silicon Prairie News.

Co-founded by Rodgers and Ella Wirtz, two former ad agency interactive strategists, the startup hired Nebraska Global's Don't Panic Labs to build its software. During its beta period with 26 stores, Boutique Window focused on refining its functionality and not adding to it. Thanks to input from those early users, Rodgers said, a "few major enhancements" are now in the works.

"We're not quite ready to reveal what were working on, but we think our stores are going to be excited," she said.

The startup will launch a marketing campaign this week and later this summer it plans to grow its team, Rodgers said.

For more on Boutique Window, see our post: "With new platform, Lincoln duo aims to boost boutiques’ in-store sales".

Here's a look at one of the stores using Boutique Window:

Credits: Image from Boutique Window on Facebook. Screenshot from OMT! on Boutique Window.

Silicon Prairie Shorts are sponsored by Polsinelli. On a daily basis, Polsinelli technology attorneys work with clients creating or using innovative technology. Check out the firm's Science and Technology Law Group to learn more.

When we first covered Bandwidth Pool in March, it had just released its public beta—users could sign up, pay the service's $99 deposit and have around 20 providers bid for their business. Since then, the startup has pulled back its aim to add users, and has instead focused on improving its website's user experience, Bandwidth Pool founder Ben Anderson told Silicon Prairie News today.

The state loan will cover the cost of needed site updates—currently done by a team of contractors—and over the next 18 months, Anderson said he plans to hire two to five employees in sales and marketing roles.

"We're going to be working to try to create better awareness on a state-wide level of the service that we offer," Anderson (right) said. When that's complete, and the startup has proved its approach to finding an Internet service provider works, he'll focus on expanding Bandwidth Pool in other states.

Anderson has put $50,000 of his own money into Bandwidth pool and angel investors have added $75,000. The state loan required a 50 percent match, which is accounted for in the angel investment. Anderson said he anticipates the need for additional funding in the future.

For more on Bandwidth Pool, check out the startup's promotional video below and see our post, "Bandwidth Pool puts Internet providers in the same boat for buyers".

Credits: Video from Metro Studios on YouTube. Ben Anderson photo from LinkedIn.

Silicon Prairie Shorts are sponsored by Polsinelli. On a daily basis, Polsinelli technology attorneys work with clients creating or using innovative technology. Check out the firm's Science and Technology Law Group to learn more.