Hoping to capitalize on the millions of publishers that are looking for ways to monetize the content on their web sites, MIVA has joined the ranks of Google and Yahoo! as a company that offers syndicated contextual advertisements. MIVA is veering slightly off the path that has worked for Google and Yahoo! however, by offering "inline" ads to sites that wish to integrate advertising more directly into their content.

The MIVA Monetization Center will allow publishers to apply for inclusion in their syndication network. Once approved, syndication partners will have their choice of ads in three different formats:

MIVA's InLine option really isn't anything new. The concept has been offered by numerous other companies over the years, though the ads were usually triggered by AdWare programs that were bundled with popular software downloads. Even MIVA itself has been offering the ads since last September. The difference now is that the InLine ads are available to publishers of all sizes via the self-serve MIVA Monetization Center platform.

"By including MIVA InLine within MIVA MC, we're giving web publishers the ability to display Ads both within and beside site content," commented Seb Bishop, President and CMO, MIVA. "We believe this level of flexibility gives our product a unique edge over the competition and provides a real depth of revenue generating options for web publishers."

Another key difference between the MIVA system and other popular contextual ad networks is that MIVA plans to reveal the exact share of the revenue generated by ads in their network.

No word on the street yet about how well the integration works or what the earnings look like compared to the more popular options. I'd imagine that it will only be a matter of a few weeks before we start hearing from bloggers and other content producers.