click-through rate (CTR)
Definition
The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.
Information
It is important to distinguish what a click-through rate does and does not measure. The CTR measures what percentage of people clicked on the ad to arrive at the destination site; it does not include the people who failed to click, yet arrived at the site later as a result of seeing the ad.
As such, the CTR may be seen as a measure of the immediate response to an ad, but not the overall response to an ad. The exception involves ads that display no identifiable information about the destination site; in these cases the click rate equals the overall rate.
Merely getting visitors to a site had value when Web site traffic was generally accepted as a measure of success. The trend towards profitability, along with better tracking tools, has resulted in less interest in click-through rates and more interest in conversion rates.
A high click-through rate does not assure a good conversion rate, and the two rates may even share an inverse relationship. An advertisement geared towards curiosity clicks will result in fewer sales, percentage-wise, than an advertisement geared towards qualified clicks.
3/30/2010
what is CPC, cost-per-click
Definition
The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.
Information
The terms pay-per-click (PPC) and cost-per-click (CPC) are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as distinct terms. When used as distinct terms, PPC indicates payment based on click-throughs, while CPC indicates measurement of cost on a per-click basis for contracts not based on click-throughs.
For example, consider a campaign where payment is based on impressions, not clicks. Impressions are sold for $10 CPM with a click-through rate (CTR) of 2%.
1000 impressions x 2% CTR = 20 click-throughs
$10 CPM / 20 click-throughs = $.50 per click
The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.
Information
The terms pay-per-click (PPC) and cost-per-click (CPC) are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as distinct terms. When used as distinct terms, PPC indicates payment based on click-throughs, while CPC indicates measurement of cost on a per-click basis for contracts not based on click-throughs.
For example, consider a campaign where payment is based on impressions, not clicks. Impressions are sold for $10 CPM with a click-through rate (CTR) of 2%.
1000 impressions x 2% CTR = 20 click-throughs
$10 CPM / 20 click-throughs = $.50 per click
admagnet publisher, a biggest competitor of adbrite
Today I found that a new ad publisher, called admagnet.net / admagnet.com, which is a most popular publisher in the world. Admagnet is CPC network.
I have checked the its alexa rank, which is within top 500. Wa, biggest publisher. It will be one of biggest competitors of Adbrite.com (which rank is within Top 1000) in future.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/admagnet.net (accessed on March 30, 2010)
----------------------------------------
Traffic Rank Change
Yesterday 351 -82
7 day 379 +33
1 month 351 -71
3 month 396 -86
-----------------------------------------
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/adbrite.com (accessed on March 30, 2010)
------------------------------------------
Alexa traffic rank for adbrite.com:
Traffic Rank Change
Yesterday 842 -155
7 day 932 +33
1 month 876 -28
3 month 910 -14
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But till now, I have not tried their service. I will give more review or comments for you after I try it. Please wait. The following is some introduction from their site ( Taken from http://admagnet.com/aboutus.html):
Ad Magnet, the ad network launched by DGTL Media uses proprietary 4th generation ad serving technology to aggregate billions of ad impressions across categories, create audience segments and help advertisers reach highly fragmented Internet users.
Ad Magnet provides a completely transparent platform for advertisers to tap into audiences across sites by various categories, surfing habits, context and other similar features.
Ad Magnet’s state of the art inventory monetization platform uses proprietary longitudinal research algorithms to enhance advertiser performance and maximize publisher revenue. Hosted on Rack Space and a number of CDNs, Ad Magnet delivers an uninterrupted, robust and state of the art feature laden platform. Ad Magnet has the expertise of working with a large client base across categories like Finance, E-Commerce, Automobile, Travel, FMCG and Education.
Ad Magnet is backed by Sequoia Capital, a leading venture capital firm in India whose investments include Applabs, First Source, Cafe Coffee Day, Global Logic, Indiatimes, Travelguru and Shaadi.com. Globally, Sequoia Capital has been an early investor in leading technology and internet companies such as Google, Yahoo, Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Paypal and Youtube.
I have checked the its alexa rank, which is within top 500. Wa, biggest publisher. It will be one of biggest competitors of Adbrite.com (which rank is within Top 1000) in future.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/admagnet.net (accessed on March 30, 2010)
----------------------------------------
Traffic Rank Change
Yesterday 351 -82
7 day 379 +33
1 month 351 -71
3 month 396 -86
-----------------------------------------
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/adbrite.com (accessed on March 30, 2010)
------------------------------------------
Alexa traffic rank for adbrite.com:
Traffic Rank Change
Yesterday 842 -155
7 day 932 +33
1 month 876 -28
3 month 910 -14
-------------------------------------
But till now, I have not tried their service. I will give more review or comments for you after I try it. Please wait. The following is some introduction from their site ( Taken from http://admagnet.com/aboutus.html):
Ad Magnet, the ad network launched by DGTL Media uses proprietary 4th generation ad serving technology to aggregate billions of ad impressions across categories, create audience segments and help advertisers reach highly fragmented Internet users.
Ad Magnet provides a completely transparent platform for advertisers to tap into audiences across sites by various categories, surfing habits, context and other similar features.
Ad Magnet’s state of the art inventory monetization platform uses proprietary longitudinal research algorithms to enhance advertiser performance and maximize publisher revenue. Hosted on Rack Space and a number of CDNs, Ad Magnet delivers an uninterrupted, robust and state of the art feature laden platform. Ad Magnet has the expertise of working with a large client base across categories like Finance, E-Commerce, Automobile, Travel, FMCG and Education.
Ad Magnet is backed by Sequoia Capital, a leading venture capital firm in India whose investments include Applabs, First Source, Cafe Coffee Day, Global Logic, Indiatimes, Travelguru and Shaadi.com. Globally, Sequoia Capital has been an early investor in leading technology and internet companies such as Google, Yahoo, Apple, Oracle, Cisco, Paypal and Youtube.
3/29/2010
CPM Cost per thousand
CPM
Definition
Cost per thousand impressions.
Information
The CPM model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in contrast to the various types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is only triggered by a mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale).
The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by the number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM equals a $10,000 total price.
1,000,000 / 1,000 = 1,000 units
1,000 units X $10 CPM = $10,000 total price
The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPM by 1000. For example, a $10 CPM equals $.01 per impression.
$10 CPM / 1000 impressions = $.01 per impression
Definition
Cost per thousand impressions.
Information
The CPM model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in contrast to the various types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is only triggered by a mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale).
The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by the number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM equals a $10,000 total price.
1,000,000 / 1,000 = 1,000 units
1,000 units X $10 CPM = $10,000 total price
The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPM by 1000. For example, a $10 CPM equals $.01 per impression.
$10 CPM / 1000 impressions = $.01 per impression
list of PPC or CPC networks for publisher / advertiser
Here is a list of CPC Networks. CPC means Cost Per Click and CPC Advertising networks pay you for every click that you generate on the ads served on your website by the CPC networks. CPC networks are very popular and a widely used method of blog/website monetization.
- Chitika - TheireMiniMalls service has shown great results for many Bloggers and siteowners. You choose a keyword and they show relevant products on yoursite using a pretty unique interface.
- Adbrite - Sell space on your site for text ads
- Clicksor - These are the guys that generate contextual ads on sites that show up when you hover over a double-underlined word.
- BidVertiser - PPC (pay per click) program with a low $10 payout amount.
- Amazon aStore- Easily create a store or shopping section on your site instead ofsending your visitors to Amazon. Amazon handles the shopping cart andfulfillment.
- Amazon Seller - Sell your stuff on Amazon
- Amazon Affiliate Program - Using your existing site, sell anything you can find on Amazon
- Associated Content - If you write a story, how-to, rant, etc. you can submit it to them and they will pay you $3-$20 per article if they like it
- Azoogleads - Another ad program. They do have some decent companies lined up as advertisers. You provide space, they’ll provide an ad.
- Bravenet- These guys offer a ton of services for webmasters and blog owners.Although I feel like I was spammed for a while, it has ceased andthey’ll pay you $1 for each person you send over
- Blish- Whether you’re a company with thousands of digital (downloadable)products, or you’ve written an ebook or some code, Blish offers you aplace to sell that content.
- Blog - Start a blog and consistently write excellent content. With good ad placement, you may make some money.
- Business Opportunities Blog- I am adding this because I am a subscriber to their site and I seeideas everyday that could result in making money. A lot of the ideaspertain to online businesses. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, it’sa good reference.
- CafePress- You provide a design, they’ll toss it on a T-Shirt, Hat, etc. Noupfront costs. Get a free online shop and promote your products on yourwebsite.
- Clickbank - Another Affiliate Program site with 10,000 products to advertise
- ClicknWork- Get paid $5-$150 per hour for basically doing freelance work on aper-assignment basis. You have to pass a pretty tough test to get in.
- Commission Junction- If you have a site, you can join Commission Junction. Once enrolledfor free, you can choose companies whose ads are pertinent to yoursite. Companies have the ultimate say on working with you. Their areeasily over 1,000 companies to choose from here.
- CreamAid- For blogs only, advertisers provide you with a topic and you writeabout it on your site. To do this, you have to install a flash widgetinto your blog post. The more people you bring into the conversationthrough the widget, the more you get paid. It’s difficult to explain.
- eefoof - Think of it as YouTube Flickr Music. You add original content and they pay you based on the visitors you attract.
- Ether- If you are an expert on something, Ether provides a way for people topay you to talk about it in a one-on-one setting. If you want to charge$250/hr, that’s fine. You have to do all the advertising so you shouldhave a blog or site already established.
- eBay - Come on, you know what this is.
- eBay Stores - If you have a real store and want to sell your stuff online, this is a decent option to get you started.
- ELance - Name gives it away. Programmers, Codes, Web Designers, Writers, Editors, can look for freelance opportunities.
- Feedvertising- This is an arm of Text Link Ads and is currently only good forWordpress 2.0 Users. This does me no good currently, but as you canguess, they place ads in your feed(s).
- Feedburner- Not only are they the best place to house your feeds, they will alsoadd ads to your feed. You get paid per impression and click.
- Google Adsense- Come on, you don’t need an explanation. These ads are all over theplace. Google displays relevant ads based on your site’s content
- Google Adwords- Create simple text ads and choose keywords that determine when theyare displayed. This is where the Adsense Content comes from. You do notneed a site for this.
- Google Answers- If you are good, Google will pay you to answer questions in yourspecialty. Questions all come from normal people like you and me. Youcan get paid $2.50 per answer you provide.
- H3.com- Get paid to fill jobs. Commissions range from $50-$5,000. It alldepends on how tough the job is to fill and how desperate the hiringcompany is. This is another one that’s tough to explain.
- Indeed.com- Add their job board to your site. They then post jobs based on thegeographic location of visitors and the position types you pre-select.I tried it and I they continually report that I sent 0 visitors and Iknow that’s not right. Nevertheless, I may have an isolated problem sothey make the list.
- InnerSell - If you have a customer that wants to buy something you cannot sell, you can sell the lead here.
- Jellyfish- This is a shopping site that pays you a percentage of the purchasesmade by people you refer. They are not part of a wider affiliateprogram so you do it direct.
- Jigsaw- It’s a pretty flaky model but if you have a Rolodex full of goodcontacts, you can sell them here. I can’t make sense of it but it lookslike you get $0.10 per profile.
- KarmaOne- They are basically a recruiting website. If you fill one of theirjobs by finding a good candidate, you’ll get paid anywhere from$50-$12,000. It all depends on how desperate the hiring company is.
- Linkshare- If you have a site, you can join Linkshare. Once enrolled for free,you can choose companies whose ads are pertinent to your site.Companies have the ultimate say on working with you. Like CommissionJunction, there are a ton of companies waiting to evaluate your site.
- Microsoft Adcenter- Bid on keywords and Microsoft places your created ads then they aresearched for. This is similar to Google Adwords. You do not need a sitefor this.
- Overstock.com - Sell your stuff on Overstock.com
- Pageflakes- This is a company that developed a user-defined Ajax homepage to showfeeds, flickr photos, and a ton of other things. Think of it as areplacement for your Google Homepage. Anyway - they’ll pay you $1 perreferral that you send over. They are not part of a wider affiliateprogram so you do it direct. This one is pretty simple.
- Pay Per Post- I don’t agree with this model entirely but they have advertisers thatwill pay you to write about their products on your blog.
- Pheedo- If you have an RSS feed, run it through Pheedo. Like Feedburner, theycan include ads into your feed and if you really become large,advertisers will pay a premium for you to show their ads.
- Shareasale- I’ve never really worked with them but I do have an account. They aresimilar to Commission Junction and Linkshare however they seem to havelower tiered companies with advertising offers.
- Shoemoney - This is a blog that can teach you a ton on making money online. I’ve spent hours reading his old stuff.
- Software Judge - They will pay you up to $50 to review software.
- Text Link Ads- I have never made a dime here but I know people that have. You canearn by sending advertisers to them or by selling spots on your site.You must have a real site or blog to do this - nothing on a shareddomain (i.e. /blogspot).
- Vibrant Media- Don’t bother unless your site has 500,000 page views of text basedcontent a month. If you have that readership, these are the guys thatdisplay bubble box ads to underlined words on your site.
- West Work At Home Agent - Not entirelyonline but this is worth a mention because it’s won awards and is verylegitimate. If you are an at-home Mom or free-lancer without work, youshould check this out.
- Yahoo Publisher Network- This is the Yahoo version of Google Adsense.
Alternativas Adsense:
infolinks lower payment threshold to $50.
As you know, infolinks does not pay you till your threshold is up $100. But today they announced that the publishers may get money when the earning is more $50. Good news for publishers. We will not wait more days to get our earning. The following is their blog news.
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As you all know… We do our best to make sure our publishers are our top priority.
Due for high demand for early payments, we decided to change the current payment threshold.
Starting February, Infolinks is proud to offer the lowest payment threshold in the industry.
Update your selected form of payment today to Payoneer (Offering the new Infolinks prepaid MasterCard and automatic ACH) or PayPal and enjoy a lower payment threshold of $50.
The initial activation fee will be waived for you, if you sign up till March 31st – learn more here.
To support the new payment system, and due to the high processing fees involved with Bank wires and regular ACH – the Payment threshold for publishers choosing to continue to receive their payments via Bank Wire or regular ACH will be increased to $400. If your earnings are less than that threshold at the end of the month, these funds will be carried over to the next month.
To update your payment method, simply log on to your account on the Infolinks website. Go to the ‘My Account’ tab and click on the ‘edit’ button on the ‘Payment details’ section. Choose your preferred payment method and fill in the required details. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button once you’re done.
For more information about Paypal or Payoneer Mastercard / automatic ACH, please go to our FAQs at http://www.infolinks.com/faq.html
------------------------
As you all know… We do our best to make sure our publishers are our top priority.
Due for high demand for early payments, we decided to change the current payment threshold.
Starting February, Infolinks is proud to offer the lowest payment threshold in the industry.
Update your selected form of payment today to Payoneer (Offering the new Infolinks prepaid MasterCard and automatic ACH) or PayPal and enjoy a lower payment threshold of $50.
The initial activation fee will be waived for you, if you sign up till March 31st – learn more here.
To support the new payment system, and due to the high processing fees involved with Bank wires and regular ACH – the Payment threshold for publishers choosing to continue to receive their payments via Bank Wire or regular ACH will be increased to $400. If your earnings are less than that threshold at the end of the month, these funds will be carried over to the next month.
To update your payment method, simply log on to your account on the Infolinks website. Go to the ‘My Account’ tab and click on the ‘edit’ button on the ‘Payment details’ section. Choose your preferred payment method and fill in the required details. Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button once you’re done.
For more information about Paypal or Payoneer Mastercard / automatic ACH, please go to our FAQs at http://www.infolinks.com/faq.html
The Top 10 Alternatives to Google Adsense
Google AdSense is the current leader in content-sensitive web-based marketing. Webmasters can place Google AdSense JavaScript code on their web pages in order to allow Google's servers to show context sensitive advertisements (Google Adwords). The left hand side of this page shows an example of a Google AdSense skyscraper displaying a text or image ad.
Google's terms and conditions are very strict such that many web publishers cannot use adsense adverts on their sites. They are either denied from joining the Google AdSense program in the first instance, or in a situation that is becoming more and more common do not wish to do business with Google. A number of publishers are also finding their Adsense accounts are being disabled for reasons that are completely beyond their control. The problem is that most of the alternatives to Google's Adsense are pretty useless. Most of the good ones (such as doubleclick) are only interested in very large volume customers and so are not interested in the little guy with his blog who wants to earn a small income on the side. For this reason I have compiled my Top 10 alternatives to Google's Adsense that are ideal for the small time publisher.
If you are a advertiser then you may be interested in these best alternatives to adwords.
Has your adsense account been disabled? Then try these top 10 alternatives.
AdBrite
Bidvertiser
Infolinks
Clicksor
Chitika
AdToll
Exit Junction
Yahoo Publisher Network
Target Point
Fastclick
Note: The descriptions are based on personal experience and do not represent any form of endorsement.
1) AdBrite
AdBrite, is currently one of the best alternatives there is to Google's adsense. While they do not offer the same large selection of ad formats that Clicksor and Google Adsense provide you they do offer the most commonly used ones. In addition they offer inline page links with have some great click through ratios as well as interstitial full page ads which offer an excellent way to monetize all traffic to your site not just traffic that clicks on your ads. Their payouts are also very competitive. They have more relaxed terms and conditions than Adsense and are much more accepting of smaller publishers including bloggers.
If you're a publisher, use AdBrite to set your own ad rates, and approve or reject every ad that's purchased for your site or just have AdBrite auto accept ever ad. AdBrite enables you to instantly sell ads to your visitors via a "Your Ad Here" link, in addition to selling through AdBrite's marketplace and sales team.
Revenue is typically split 75/25 in your favor. Through a small snippet of HTML placed on your site, they handle serving, scheduling, billing, customer service, and sales. About half of AdBrite's sales are generated from the marketplace and sales team, while the other half are generated from users clicking "Your Ad Here" on your website.
While AdBrite can provide publishers with more revenue and better ads than traditional ad networks such as Google AdSense, they work fine along-side them as a way for you to generate additional ad revenue by selling ads directly to your visitors -- something the other ad systems don't do. Ad Brite also lets you select your own minimum bid prices and give you the option of showing an alternative ad service such as Clicksor when bid prices fall below your minimum.
If you're using AdBrite on your website you also have the option to turn off AdBrite's "run-of-network ads" and AdBrite will only display ads that have been approved by you allowing you to prevent competitors ads being shown on your site. If you have no ads running, AdBrite will display nothing but "Your Ad Here" or your alternative ad provider.
Note, from my experiences it can take a day or so from when you signup with AdBrite and put their code on your website to actually start seeing relevant ads showing up. So if you see the message "Advertize on this site" just be patient and give it a day or so and you should start seeing relevant ads showing up.
AdBrite also accepts Blogs and Bloggers as sites so if you are fed up with other programs turning you down because their terms and conditions restrict Blogs try AdBrite.
2) Bidvertiser
Bidvertiser can be a useful alternative to Google and offer some intriguing ad formats including what they refer to as free design. This lets you specify the look and dimensions of your text ads. While a useful feature I have not investigated how well it works but imagine that while it sounds good on paper it could result in lower priced ads being displayed. I.e. most advertisers will probably want to keep control of the layout of their ads and so turn off support for Free design ads.
Bidvertizer pays you either in $25.00 increments by check or $10.00 increments by PayPal.
Customize the layout of your ads: BidVertiser gives you a simple point-and-click tool to help you customize the layout of the ads to fit your site's look and feel, in order to retain the high quality of your website. Bidvertizer also offers the opportunity to block unwanted ads. The reports provided by Bidvertiser are adequate but not outstanding. The only real problem is that they can be picky with who they accept into their program and can be quick to ban users whose websites show what may be perfectly valid fluctuating visitor behaviour. Click here to visit Bidvertiser's website where you can either sign up as a publisher (show peoples ads on your site) or as an advertiser (show your ads on other sites).
As an advertiser you can get $20 in free clicks by following this link: Bidvertiser Advertise and get $20 in free clicks.
3) Infolinks
A relative newcomer to the scene Infolinks specializes in In-Text Advertizing. That is it indexes your page looking for keywords and phrases that are not currently links and converts them into advertizing links. When a user places their mouse over the link a box opens up showing the ad. If they click on the link you get paid. It is very simple and works very effectively. The nice part is that you can use Infolinks to compliment an existing advertizing campaign on your website. For example you can show banner ads with AdBrite or Bidvertiser and show text links with Infolinks. Or you can even show text links with both AdBrite and Infolinks together on the same page to maximize your revenue.
Infolinks claims to be leading the industry with the most relevant in-text advertising links and the highest revenue share - guaranteed. I am not sure how they 'guarantee' this but having used them for several months I can attest that their payouts are indeed good compared to other In-Text advertizing options.
In-Text advertizing is also useful if you have a site under construction. For example, suppose you have built a list of links but have not added all the links yet. Infolinks will parse your page and convert a lot of these into links. People then think these are part of your site, click on them and you get paid. The unobtrusiveness makes it a very attractive way to monetize your site without inundating and alienating your visitors with flashing banners, pop-ups etc.
Infolinks pays you either by check or fee free by PayPal.
Infolinks' features:
Quick and easy setup with no changes to your website
Ads are tightly integrated with your content - no additional space required
Free sign up with no commitments or risk
User triggered, less intrusive advertising that won't distract from your site's content
Highly relevant In-Text ads for your site visitors with record high conversion rates
Click here to visit Infolink's website and signup for an account to give them a try. As with most alternatives to adsense it is free and there is no obligation.
4) Clicksor
Clicksor is one of the current leaders of the small publisher Adsense competition. They have payouts upto a market leading 85% and unlike a number of alternatives the cost per click bid values are high enough that you can earn a decent income. They are also, in my experience, much more tollerant than Google. Their terms and conditions suggest that you should only place one copy of their code on a page but as long as you only place a single pop-up or DHTML code on a page they seem happy to let you place many context sensitive ad blocks on a single site.
Clicksor also has a big advantage over a number of the lower ranked alternatives on this site in that their ads are truly context sensitive. Thus while you can provide keywords they have technology that will also show ads targeted to the content of your site. This means your visitors are exposed to ads of the same subject as they were searching for when they reached your site and thus vastly increases the click thru ratio and thus your sites earning potential. The context sensitive nature also saves you the hassle of having to specify keywords for all of your sites and decide in advance what people might be looking for.
The online stats provided by Clicksor are not perfect but they are enough for you to keep track of the trends with your site. They also allow you to add as many sites / domains as you want under a single account. You also only need the root page of your site approved. Once this is done you can place ads on all of your sub pages.
The payment schedule with Clicksor is also much better geared to the small site owner. In any pay period in which your earnings exceed $50.00 ($20.00 with PayPal), payments are made either by check or instantly through PayPal ($20.00 minimum for PayPal). Revenue totaling less that $50 (PP $20) will rolled into the following period. The pay period is based on a 15 day schedule so you can get paid much more frequently. Clicksor also do not require a Social Security (SSN) or Individual Tax Identity Number (ITIN) to join and so while this 'technically' does not help US site owners with their tax liability it does make it much easier for non US citizens to join up and start earning revenue.
That said I have had several reports of late about Clicksor becoming more picky about who they accept and rejecting accounts. This is especially true of sites not based in the USA, Canada or the UK as well as sites not predominantly in English. I have also seen issues with their reporting of earnings, especially referrals not working properly. Thus I have moved them further down the list but I still recommend you to try them.
Advert wise Clicksor features:
Multiple formats available including text, image and animated ads.
Text Links
Image Ads
Flash Ads
Animation Ads
Banners
Pop unders
Interstitial Ads (NEW)
Dynamic (DHTML) highlighting
Click here to visit Clicksor's website and sign up for an account to try it out. There is no obligation and no fees ever. Note, once you start adding the advert code to your site it can take up to 24 hours for Clicksor to get up to speed as it were so initially you may see some ads that don't appear to be relevant. Once their contextual engine kicks in, however, the relevance quickly improves.
5) Chitika
Chitika - The Leader in Impulse Merchandising
Chitika (pronounced CHIH-tih-ka) was founded in 2003 and is the industry's leading impulse merchandising company. Chitika was founded in May 2003 and is based in Massachusetts. Chitika (pronounced CHIH-tih-ka) helps web publishers generate revenue using innovative publisher-side advertising and merchandising solutions and services.
Chitika doesn't really stand alone as a single advertising solution but instead provides you with a way to compliment your existing advertising / publishing program with some additional Ad Units which are altogether different from the standard ad boxes, pop-unders etc that everybody else provides. Instead of displaying these 'industry standard' advert boxes with text and image ads that all look the same they instead provide active boxes that show targeted products from different manufacturers. If you run a blog for example and discuss a product you may find the chitika box showing links for this product and competitors products. If people purchase these products you get a paid a commission. This is referred to as impulse marketing in the form of Premium Ad Units (eMinimalls). Feel free to give it a try although I think the ideal use of this service would be as a compliment to another advertizers service. E.g. you could show Clicksor context sensitive ads on your site and then compliment these with Chitika's eMinimalls.
For advertisers and media buyers, Chitika is a proven channel for targeting on-line consumers and qualified buyers. For all publishers, Chitika is an easy-to-use platform for earning daily ad revenue. If you visit a site showing Chitika's ads from a search engine then the Chitika premium ad unit kicks in showing you ads that are specific to your searching - otherwise you can have it show an alternative ad provider, such as adsense, or you can just have it collapse away to show nothing.
Chitika allows you to display targeted products based on what people searched for to get to your page and you get paid for clicks. It provides a robust comparative shopping experience for your visitors. Visitors will love the interactive search code -- and it makes you money
Click here to visit Chitika's website and sign up today.
6) AdToll
AdToll pays on a CPC basis. Their user interface is great and navigating through the user panel is both easy and pleasant. Payments are available via Cheque, Paypal, ePassporte and Wire/Bank Transfer. It is also possible to use the revenue you earn as a publisher to advertise your website further. Such integration is something that is entirely missing from Google's adsense-adwords.
The newest technology by AdToll is a Peel Away Ad technology that shows a peel on the top right hand side of a web site. When the mouse moves over the peel it opens smoothly to reveal the advert within. This new ad format allows you to make use of the lesser used, yet highly visible top corners of web sites. It is very non intrusive to the site visitor. Since it uses a small amount of space, it is efficient use of web site real estate. An additional plus is that such a new advertising format always draws curious clicks for visitors.
Click here to visit AdToll and sign up for a no obligation account today.
7) Exit Junction
Exit Junction is relatively new and, I believe, a spin off from the now defunct Revenue Pilot. While Revenue Pilot has stopped running, however, Exit Junction is going from strength to strength. Exit Junction offers a unique approach to advertising that is compatible with all the other Ad Networks included Google Adsense. The key to Exit junction is that they focus on showing ads to users as they leave your site rather than as they arrive or as they browse. This approach offers you an additional way to monetize your traffic and also capture ad revenue from those that stumble upon your site from a search engine and then immediately leave.
By adding a small piece of Exit Junction code to the header section of your site users are shown an advert as they hit the back button. For example, if a user came to your site from a Google search and then immediately hit the back button to return to that search they would be shown an Exit Junction Ad in between your page and the Google search and you get paid for this impression. The ad is directly targeted to the search term that brought the visitor to your site in the first place. Hence Exit Junction is an ideal way of complimenting your existing ad services and so increasing your sites revenue without having to switch from your current ad provider.
Exit junction also covers all countries. You get paid for all traffic exiting you site regardless of its origin.
They offer fee free payout via Check or PayPal with earnings of as little as $25 on a monthly basis.
Click here to signup with Exit Junction for a free no obligation account.
8) Yahoo Publisher Network
Yahoo are currently playing catch up to Google and are trying to release their own context sensitive advertising service. This promises to be an excellent alternative to Google Adsense but in reality is likely to be a simple copy with the same restrictive terms and conditions as Google, including $100 minimums on payouts. The system seems to have been in beta test for several years now, perhaps explaining why Yahoo as a company is suffering. Unfortunately while you can visit their site and sign up to register for an account don't expect to actually hear back from them. They are either extremely selective or are simply not accepting new publishers and advertisers, either way they won't even bother to get back to you to let you know this and most applicants won't even receive a reply saying their application has been rejected. Thus until it goes live and it becomes clear what type of website owners Yahoo will be targeting I cannot place it any higher in this list.
Advert wise Yahoo Publisher Network will feature:
Display ads related to the content on your site. You'll earn revenue from qualified clicks.
Integrate other Yahoo! services into your web site, including Add to My Yahoo! (RSS), Y!Q and much more to come...
This beta program is just the beginning. Our mission is to deliver products and services based on the needs of the publishing community.
9) TargetPoint
Targetpoint's services are particularly publisher-oriented, you have absolute control over the appearance of your ads. They provide supervision over ad content. The payouts tend to be reasonable but they can be quite choosey regarding which sites are accepted.
Advert wise Target Point provide:
Adpoint generates content-relevant, revenue-evaluated ads.
Exitpoint helps utilizing the full capacity web exit traffic.
Imagepoint serves visual ads. Known to the rest of the world as Image ads.
Underpoint serves pop-under ad windows.
Searchpoint (beta) features enhanced search capabilities, which enhance your users� experience and generate additional profit.
Registration is free and they pay back a minimum of 60% of the total on-click revenue. Payment options include Bank checks, PayPal and Wire transfers (if eligible).
10) FastClick (Now known as ValueClick)
At first look FastClick would appear to be one of the better alternatives to Google's Adsense however, they are one of many online advertising companies that tend to favor the large customers. You'd think companies would have learnt from Google's success and accepted that the way to make money is to target both large and small. Remember Excite? They went the way of the dodo because they only targeted the top 100 companies rather than the small guys who can't afford large TV adverts and have to advertise on the Internet instead. Anyway, I digress. If you can get yourself accepted to FastClick (now called ValueClick) then you will probably be able to run some reasonably high paying adverts on your site but most small website owners will find that FastClick simply aren't interested.
Advertising wise FastClick (ValueClick) offer an industry-average 65-percent monthly payout on all advertising revenue your website generates. Fastclick pays by the 25th of the month for the previous month by check or PayPal.
Formats include:
Text Ads
Image Ads
Interstitial
Pop-Under
InVue
Google's terms and conditions are very strict such that many web publishers cannot use adsense adverts on their sites. They are either denied from joining the Google AdSense program in the first instance, or in a situation that is becoming more and more common do not wish to do business with Google. A number of publishers are also finding their Adsense accounts are being disabled for reasons that are completely beyond their control. The problem is that most of the alternatives to Google's Adsense are pretty useless. Most of the good ones (such as doubleclick) are only interested in very large volume customers and so are not interested in the little guy with his blog who wants to earn a small income on the side. For this reason I have compiled my Top 10 alternatives to Google's Adsense that are ideal for the small time publisher.
If you are a advertiser then you may be interested in these best alternatives to adwords.
Has your adsense account been disabled? Then try these top 10 alternatives.
AdBrite
Bidvertiser
Infolinks
Clicksor
Chitika
AdToll
Exit Junction
Yahoo Publisher Network
Target Point
Fastclick
Note: The descriptions are based on personal experience and do not represent any form of endorsement.
1) AdBrite
AdBrite, is currently one of the best alternatives there is to Google's adsense. While they do not offer the same large selection of ad formats that Clicksor and Google Adsense provide you they do offer the most commonly used ones. In addition they offer inline page links with have some great click through ratios as well as interstitial full page ads which offer an excellent way to monetize all traffic to your site not just traffic that clicks on your ads. Their payouts are also very competitive. They have more relaxed terms and conditions than Adsense and are much more accepting of smaller publishers including bloggers.
If you're a publisher, use AdBrite to set your own ad rates, and approve or reject every ad that's purchased for your site or just have AdBrite auto accept ever ad. AdBrite enables you to instantly sell ads to your visitors via a "Your Ad Here" link, in addition to selling through AdBrite's marketplace and sales team.
Revenue is typically split 75/25 in your favor. Through a small snippet of HTML placed on your site, they handle serving, scheduling, billing, customer service, and sales. About half of AdBrite's sales are generated from the marketplace and sales team, while the other half are generated from users clicking "Your Ad Here" on your website.
While AdBrite can provide publishers with more revenue and better ads than traditional ad networks such as Google AdSense, they work fine along-side them as a way for you to generate additional ad revenue by selling ads directly to your visitors -- something the other ad systems don't do. Ad Brite also lets you select your own minimum bid prices and give you the option of showing an alternative ad service such as Clicksor when bid prices fall below your minimum.
If you're using AdBrite on your website you also have the option to turn off AdBrite's "run-of-network ads" and AdBrite will only display ads that have been approved by you allowing you to prevent competitors ads being shown on your site. If you have no ads running, AdBrite will display nothing but "Your Ad Here" or your alternative ad provider.
Note, from my experiences it can take a day or so from when you signup with AdBrite and put their code on your website to actually start seeing relevant ads showing up. So if you see the message "Advertize on this site" just be patient and give it a day or so and you should start seeing relevant ads showing up.
AdBrite also accepts Blogs and Bloggers as sites so if you are fed up with other programs turning you down because their terms and conditions restrict Blogs try AdBrite.
2) Bidvertiser
Bidvertiser can be a useful alternative to Google and offer some intriguing ad formats including what they refer to as free design. This lets you specify the look and dimensions of your text ads. While a useful feature I have not investigated how well it works but imagine that while it sounds good on paper it could result in lower priced ads being displayed. I.e. most advertisers will probably want to keep control of the layout of their ads and so turn off support for Free design ads.
Bidvertizer pays you either in $25.00 increments by check or $10.00 increments by PayPal.
Customize the layout of your ads: BidVertiser gives you a simple point-and-click tool to help you customize the layout of the ads to fit your site's look and feel, in order to retain the high quality of your website. Bidvertizer also offers the opportunity to block unwanted ads. The reports provided by Bidvertiser are adequate but not outstanding. The only real problem is that they can be picky with who they accept into their program and can be quick to ban users whose websites show what may be perfectly valid fluctuating visitor behaviour. Click here to visit Bidvertiser's website where you can either sign up as a publisher (show peoples ads on your site) or as an advertiser (show your ads on other sites).
As an advertiser you can get $20 in free clicks by following this link: Bidvertiser Advertise and get $20 in free clicks.
3) Infolinks
A relative newcomer to the scene Infolinks specializes in In-Text Advertizing. That is it indexes your page looking for keywords and phrases that are not currently links and converts them into advertizing links. When a user places their mouse over the link a box opens up showing the ad. If they click on the link you get paid. It is very simple and works very effectively. The nice part is that you can use Infolinks to compliment an existing advertizing campaign on your website. For example you can show banner ads with AdBrite or Bidvertiser and show text links with Infolinks. Or you can even show text links with both AdBrite and Infolinks together on the same page to maximize your revenue.
Infolinks claims to be leading the industry with the most relevant in-text advertising links and the highest revenue share - guaranteed. I am not sure how they 'guarantee' this but having used them for several months I can attest that their payouts are indeed good compared to other In-Text advertizing options.
In-Text advertizing is also useful if you have a site under construction. For example, suppose you have built a list of links but have not added all the links yet. Infolinks will parse your page and convert a lot of these into links. People then think these are part of your site, click on them and you get paid. The unobtrusiveness makes it a very attractive way to monetize your site without inundating and alienating your visitors with flashing banners, pop-ups etc.
Infolinks pays you either by check or fee free by PayPal.
Infolinks' features:
Quick and easy setup with no changes to your website
Ads are tightly integrated with your content - no additional space required
Free sign up with no commitments or risk
User triggered, less intrusive advertising that won't distract from your site's content
Highly relevant In-Text ads for your site visitors with record high conversion rates
Click here to visit Infolink's website and signup for an account to give them a try. As with most alternatives to adsense it is free and there is no obligation.
4) Clicksor
Clicksor is one of the current leaders of the small publisher Adsense competition. They have payouts upto a market leading 85% and unlike a number of alternatives the cost per click bid values are high enough that you can earn a decent income. They are also, in my experience, much more tollerant than Google. Their terms and conditions suggest that you should only place one copy of their code on a page but as long as you only place a single pop-up or DHTML code on a page they seem happy to let you place many context sensitive ad blocks on a single site.
Clicksor also has a big advantage over a number of the lower ranked alternatives on this site in that their ads are truly context sensitive. Thus while you can provide keywords they have technology that will also show ads targeted to the content of your site. This means your visitors are exposed to ads of the same subject as they were searching for when they reached your site and thus vastly increases the click thru ratio and thus your sites earning potential. The context sensitive nature also saves you the hassle of having to specify keywords for all of your sites and decide in advance what people might be looking for.
The online stats provided by Clicksor are not perfect but they are enough for you to keep track of the trends with your site. They also allow you to add as many sites / domains as you want under a single account. You also only need the root page of your site approved. Once this is done you can place ads on all of your sub pages.
The payment schedule with Clicksor is also much better geared to the small site owner. In any pay period in which your earnings exceed $50.00 ($20.00 with PayPal), payments are made either by check or instantly through PayPal ($20.00 minimum for PayPal). Revenue totaling less that $50 (PP $20) will rolled into the following period. The pay period is based on a 15 day schedule so you can get paid much more frequently. Clicksor also do not require a Social Security (SSN) or Individual Tax Identity Number (ITIN) to join and so while this 'technically' does not help US site owners with their tax liability it does make it much easier for non US citizens to join up and start earning revenue.
That said I have had several reports of late about Clicksor becoming more picky about who they accept and rejecting accounts. This is especially true of sites not based in the USA, Canada or the UK as well as sites not predominantly in English. I have also seen issues with their reporting of earnings, especially referrals not working properly. Thus I have moved them further down the list but I still recommend you to try them.
Advert wise Clicksor features:
Multiple formats available including text, image and animated ads.
Text Links
Image Ads
Flash Ads
Animation Ads
Banners
Pop unders
Interstitial Ads (NEW)
Dynamic (DHTML) highlighting
Click here to visit Clicksor's website and sign up for an account to try it out. There is no obligation and no fees ever. Note, once you start adding the advert code to your site it can take up to 24 hours for Clicksor to get up to speed as it were so initially you may see some ads that don't appear to be relevant. Once their contextual engine kicks in, however, the relevance quickly improves.
5) Chitika
Chitika - The Leader in Impulse Merchandising
Chitika (pronounced CHIH-tih-ka) was founded in 2003 and is the industry's leading impulse merchandising company. Chitika was founded in May 2003 and is based in Massachusetts. Chitika (pronounced CHIH-tih-ka) helps web publishers generate revenue using innovative publisher-side advertising and merchandising solutions and services.
Chitika doesn't really stand alone as a single advertising solution but instead provides you with a way to compliment your existing advertising / publishing program with some additional Ad Units which are altogether different from the standard ad boxes, pop-unders etc that everybody else provides. Instead of displaying these 'industry standard' advert boxes with text and image ads that all look the same they instead provide active boxes that show targeted products from different manufacturers. If you run a blog for example and discuss a product you may find the chitika box showing links for this product and competitors products. If people purchase these products you get a paid a commission. This is referred to as impulse marketing in the form of Premium Ad Units (eMinimalls). Feel free to give it a try although I think the ideal use of this service would be as a compliment to another advertizers service. E.g. you could show Clicksor context sensitive ads on your site and then compliment these with Chitika's eMinimalls.
For advertisers and media buyers, Chitika is a proven channel for targeting on-line consumers and qualified buyers. For all publishers, Chitika is an easy-to-use platform for earning daily ad revenue. If you visit a site showing Chitika's ads from a search engine then the Chitika premium ad unit kicks in showing you ads that are specific to your searching - otherwise you can have it show an alternative ad provider, such as adsense, or you can just have it collapse away to show nothing.
Chitika allows you to display targeted products based on what people searched for to get to your page and you get paid for clicks. It provides a robust comparative shopping experience for your visitors. Visitors will love the interactive search code -- and it makes you money
Click here to visit Chitika's website and sign up today.
6) AdToll
AdToll pays on a CPC basis. Their user interface is great and navigating through the user panel is both easy and pleasant. Payments are available via Cheque, Paypal, ePassporte and Wire/Bank Transfer. It is also possible to use the revenue you earn as a publisher to advertise your website further. Such integration is something that is entirely missing from Google's adsense-adwords.
The newest technology by AdToll is a Peel Away Ad technology that shows a peel on the top right hand side of a web site. When the mouse moves over the peel it opens smoothly to reveal the advert within. This new ad format allows you to make use of the lesser used, yet highly visible top corners of web sites. It is very non intrusive to the site visitor. Since it uses a small amount of space, it is efficient use of web site real estate. An additional plus is that such a new advertising format always draws curious clicks for visitors.
Click here to visit AdToll and sign up for a no obligation account today.
7) Exit Junction
Exit Junction is relatively new and, I believe, a spin off from the now defunct Revenue Pilot. While Revenue Pilot has stopped running, however, Exit Junction is going from strength to strength. Exit Junction offers a unique approach to advertising that is compatible with all the other Ad Networks included Google Adsense. The key to Exit junction is that they focus on showing ads to users as they leave your site rather than as they arrive or as they browse. This approach offers you an additional way to monetize your traffic and also capture ad revenue from those that stumble upon your site from a search engine and then immediately leave.
By adding a small piece of Exit Junction code to the header section of your site users are shown an advert as they hit the back button. For example, if a user came to your site from a Google search and then immediately hit the back button to return to that search they would be shown an Exit Junction Ad in between your page and the Google search and you get paid for this impression. The ad is directly targeted to the search term that brought the visitor to your site in the first place. Hence Exit Junction is an ideal way of complimenting your existing ad services and so increasing your sites revenue without having to switch from your current ad provider.
Exit junction also covers all countries. You get paid for all traffic exiting you site regardless of its origin.
They offer fee free payout via Check or PayPal with earnings of as little as $25 on a monthly basis.
Click here to signup with Exit Junction for a free no obligation account.
8) Yahoo Publisher Network
Yahoo are currently playing catch up to Google and are trying to release their own context sensitive advertising service. This promises to be an excellent alternative to Google Adsense but in reality is likely to be a simple copy with the same restrictive terms and conditions as Google, including $100 minimums on payouts. The system seems to have been in beta test for several years now, perhaps explaining why Yahoo as a company is suffering. Unfortunately while you can visit their site and sign up to register for an account don't expect to actually hear back from them. They are either extremely selective or are simply not accepting new publishers and advertisers, either way they won't even bother to get back to you to let you know this and most applicants won't even receive a reply saying their application has been rejected. Thus until it goes live and it becomes clear what type of website owners Yahoo will be targeting I cannot place it any higher in this list.
Advert wise Yahoo Publisher Network will feature:
Display ads related to the content on your site. You'll earn revenue from qualified clicks.
Integrate other Yahoo! services into your web site, including Add to My Yahoo! (RSS), Y!Q and much more to come...
This beta program is just the beginning. Our mission is to deliver products and services based on the needs of the publishing community.
9) TargetPoint
Targetpoint's services are particularly publisher-oriented, you have absolute control over the appearance of your ads. They provide supervision over ad content. The payouts tend to be reasonable but they can be quite choosey regarding which sites are accepted.
Advert wise Target Point provide:
Adpoint generates content-relevant, revenue-evaluated ads.
Exitpoint helps utilizing the full capacity web exit traffic.
Imagepoint serves visual ads. Known to the rest of the world as Image ads.
Underpoint serves pop-under ad windows.
Searchpoint (beta) features enhanced search capabilities, which enhance your users� experience and generate additional profit.
Registration is free and they pay back a minimum of 60% of the total on-click revenue. Payment options include Bank checks, PayPal and Wire transfers (if eligible).
10) FastClick (Now known as ValueClick)
At first look FastClick would appear to be one of the better alternatives to Google's Adsense however, they are one of many online advertising companies that tend to favor the large customers. You'd think companies would have learnt from Google's success and accepted that the way to make money is to target both large and small. Remember Excite? They went the way of the dodo because they only targeted the top 100 companies rather than the small guys who can't afford large TV adverts and have to advertise on the Internet instead. Anyway, I digress. If you can get yourself accepted to FastClick (now called ValueClick) then you will probably be able to run some reasonably high paying adverts on your site but most small website owners will find that FastClick simply aren't interested.
Advertising wise FastClick (ValueClick) offer an industry-average 65-percent monthly payout on all advertising revenue your website generates. Fastclick pays by the 25th of the month for the previous month by check or PayPal.
Formats include:
Text Ads
Image Ads
Interstitial
Pop-Under
InVue
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