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Beyond Adsense - Part 2 of 2

Copyright 2008 by Jane Chin, All Rights Reserved.

Up Front Disclosure: I’m using referral links to discuss the products in this entry, since I have personal experience using each of them and can therefore speak intelligently to the pros and cons. If you want to sign up for any of these products, I appreciate you using the referral link, and I may get credit for it

This is a continuation of my previous article to look beyond Adsense ads to supplement your blog revenue. In the first article, I looked at Text-Link Ads, ReviewMe, and Adbrite. In this article, I’ll be covering Widgetbucks and AuctionAds. I have a private invite to ShoppingAds but at this time it’s too soon to tell the results with ShoppingAds.

WidgetBucks
You get a $25 sign-on bonus with WidgetBucks, so at least for the first month you’re guaranteed $25. That said, your site needs to generate a total of $50 or more to get paid. Payment terms are 45 days from meeting accrual requirement of $50, like Adbrite, which I find too long: would any of the folks running these site agree to wait 45 days to get their paycheck, or wait 45 days for their advertisers to fork over the money? I think not. At least AdBrite doesn’t have a minimum payment amount.

Pros Minimal administration, passive, multiple blogs per account.

Cons Not as many ad layout options as Adsense, Adbrite, or AuctionAds. Long payment terms (45 days) with high minimum payment ($50 minimum). Product selection seems limited.

AuctionAds
AuctionAds did well for me on one of my high traffic sites, but only for the first few months. Afterwards, site readers seemed to experience “Auction Fatigue” and I saw revenue drop significantly past the first few months even when the ad placements and keywords remained the same. I also suspect that keyword selection has something to do with it, since your readers won’t click through to bid if they aren’t interested in the items displayed. There is a $50 minimum for payout, but at least you get paid directly through your payment account and there’s no 45 day wait.

Pros Minimal administration, passive, multiple blogs per account. Immediate payment via Paypal account if meets minimum accrual of $50.

Cons . High minimum payment ($50 minimum). Auction keyword targeting may affect display result and therefore click-through rates by readership. Readers may experience auction ad fatigue similar to google adsense text ad fatigue and become blind to the ads.

Conclusion
At the time of this writing I’m almost exclusively using Text-Link Ads and Google Adsense for my content-heavy blogs that are focused on niche topics. I reserve Widgetbucks for a small handful (3) of my blogs, and AuctionAds for one highly-trafficked website (not a blog). I keep a small AuctionAd on this blog, but it’s more for experimentation than revenue generation.

Recently I was asked by a business-oriented social networking site to serve as an expert commentator, and by posting every other day (on average, and the posts need not be long at all), I was paid $500. That’s been a reasonable deal for my time, so I’ll continue to do this as long as they continue or increase the compensation rate.

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