The Glam Applications Network has already partnered with developers such as Meebo, PollDaddy, PicApp, and AOL’s Sphere to create its initial menu of offerings. Applications range from polls and slideshows to video commenting systems and quizzes designed to be embedded in blogs or other sites.

Like other ad-enabled widget systems, the Glam Apps Network’s advertising system lets you place ads — sold by Glam Media, with a revenue sharing model — directly into the apps. You can also choose to use the apps without ads enabled.

As of now, the App Network is available in beta mode only to sites hosted within its Glam.com and Brash.com networks. A public rollout, however, is scheduled for early next year.

The system is fully open source, using standards such as Google Gadget, OpenSocial, and OpenID. A full open source release is set to occur before the end of the year so any developers can get on-board.

Related posts:

1. Glam Media scores 6.7m extra eyeballs via Womensforum.com
2. Glam Media Scores $10 Million
3. All that glitters isn’t Glam

It’s an interesting move from a company that in its most recent round took $80 million and was said to have turned down a $1.3 billion takeover offer in May. A sign of the economic downturn, or something more serious?

Glam has always been an interesting model. At its core it’s a blog network, running some moderately successful sites, but the big money came in as it expanded into advertising on other sites where most of its advertising inventory now resides. I had some experience with Glam years ago at b5media, and they were spending some serious money on getting inventory then, offering well above what most other advertising networks were offering at the time. It’s a model they continued to use, signing up more and more sites, the latest being WomensForum.com in July with 6.7 million monthly views. And yet, things started to go wrong earlier this year when word leaked that Glam was savagely cutting minimum pay rates for many in the network, with some reporting cuts of up to 80%. The cuts could only mean one thing: that Glam wasn’t able to profitably sell advertising above the minimum rates they were promising, undermining their model of acquiring inventory at high base rates.

As the US economy does slow, and online advertising growth declines (I’d note that the overall spend is still growing, but at slower rates this year), the Glam model will only face more pressure. Couple the financials to the Federated Media problem, where successful sites in the network can easily walk away when they’re big enough or confident enough to do their own direct advertising sales (a trend that will accelerate as advertising money gets tighter) and the future isn’t quite as positive for Glam as it once was.

Related posts:

1. Glam Turned Down a $1.3 Billion Offer: Report
2. Glam Media Launches App Network For Blogs
3. Glam Media scores 6.7m extra eyeballs via Womensforum.com