And the verdict is in!

Yes, it looks like majority of JMMO readers and visitors click on online advertising, if they find it interesting (56%). Only 44% said that they never ever click on online ads. This was based on 181 votes.

One comment on this poll caught my attention:

“Wow, 50/50 so far, I’m surprised, I thought it would lean towards ‘No’. I agree with Krishna (altho the Q did say ‘usual’ reaction), I selected no, but I have clicked on them on the very odd occasion (I could count on one hand), usually for things something that’s only available in America that I click on out of interest. I don’t think I would ever follow up on a product and purchase it based on an internet ad. In fact that would likely turn me off that brand (don’t ask me why!). If there’s something I need I usually research the options to death before making an informed decision of my own.” - Nicola

I deliberately chose the words “Yes, when I find something interesting” as a response rather than just Yes/No because I really just wanted to gauge if people actually do click on them – no matter how rarely. And, it’s interesting to me that some folks will still consider voting for “No” even if they do click on ads on the rarest of occasions.

I also find it curious why Nicola and those like her might feel that way (getting turned off by a brand that’s advertised online) about online advertising.

In any case, thanks again to everyone who voted. I’ll be sharing our new poll soon!

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Poll Results: Clicking on Online Ads

Anyone here tried using Project Wonderful yet? I haven’t had a chance to play around with it yet. But, I’m liking the sound of it.

Basically, Project Wonderful is an online advertising marketplace with a twist. Publishers can sign-up to run advertising on their sites or blogs. And, advertisers can bid on those ad slots.

I think it’s great for smaller sites/blogs who’re not quite sure how to price ads on their online property. This way, the pricing gets taken care of, depending on demand. And, advertisers can get a real good deal – and target blogs/sites where they want their ads to run on.

Anyway, as always, I’d welcome your feedback if you give Project Wonderful a go. I’ll report some more if/when I get the chance to try it out myself.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Project Wonderful: Advertising by Auction

Cagintranet’s AdClustr is a fairly new blog that offers ways to make publishers earn more from online ad networks such Yahoo! Publisher Network, Text-Link-Ads, and the ever-infamous, er, popular Google AdSense.

Just recently, AdClustr shared 10 Tips on how to Increase Your AdSense Revenue: 

1. Improve placement of ads.

2. Develop multiple quality sites.

3. Increase the quantity and quality of traffic

4. Blend and integrate ads.

5. Enjoy your site’s content.

6. Optimize your content.

7. Experiment.

8. Improve your site’s design.

9. Avoid violating AdSense TOS.

10. Try AdSense alternatives.

One unconventional AdSense tip that made me nod is enjoying the content you write. Although sharing important tips from other sites, such as what is done with this blogpost, can be helpful on making your readers learn information from other sites, it’s important to brew your own blog posts and make them as interesting as possible both to your readers and yourself.

Other AdSense tips I’ve learned of that can help in increasing AdSense earnings include implementing section targeting, which informs AdSense bots what kind of ads you want your site to be served. This helps in making your visitors see only ads that are relevant to your site’s content. 

Filtering ads, aside from giving you more option on what ads to display, can help make sure that low-paying ads are not served on your site. 

Also, with the new face of the AdSense ads, ad blindness may not be as rampant now and experimentation with the placement can get addictive. But don’t overdo it to the point of making visitors notice the ads first before taking time to read your blog’s content.

And for those who want more AdSense optimization tips, you may now get tips straight from yourAdSense account’s inbox.

Got other AdSense tips to share?

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

How AdSense Publishers Can Make More Money

Bloggers may want to supplement their earnings from ad networks that are slowly allowing their blog monetization efforts tread the coveted realms of getting direct sponsors or advertisers.

If you’re one of ‘em I’m sorry to inform you that it’s not easy to get advertisers for your blog. How come?

It’s especially difficult to get companies or businesses to buy a spot on your blog to advertise on if:

1. Your blog is still a baby.

Whoever advised that one can get direct advertisers even though his blog is just a few weeks old is a fool. Ok, if you’re Britney Spears, Bill Gates, or John Chow or anyone who’s popular enough to get advertisers drooling for some spot even if they have just bought their blog’s domain name a few minutes ago, then, go. But if you’re an average Joe, it pays to get some traffic aflowing first. According to Yaro Starak Blog Traffic School newsletter, about 500 visitors per day is ideal.

2. You’re an egomaniac or just outright greedy.

If your blog is not at any rate receiving an Engadget-esque traffic and you still managed to make some company get interested to advertise on your blog, rejoice! Now ask for an advertising rate that’s Engadget-esque and your money-making days from direct advertisers will be doomed. Just ask for what your blog is worth. 

How much should you charge your direct advertisers?

Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration proposed this method of deciding what rate to offer your direct advertisers:

While advertising rates may depend on lot of factors like site traffic, your niche, ad placement and even visitor demographics, we can use contextual advertising programs like Adsense / YPN or impression based programs like Adify or TribalFusion to estimate the advertising potential of our blogs.

Say you have a 125×125 space in the left sidebar where you are seeking advertisers. Run an Adsense campaign in that space for a week and track the performance using Adsense channels.

After a week, get the average CPM value for that space (this data is available in Adsense advance reports under eCPM).

Armed with the Adsense CPM figures, you can easily quote rates that are 20% lesser than Adsense.

[Adsense ads are contextual and therefore more relevant and enjoy higher click-throughs. On the other hand, static banners look the same across all pages and return visitors generally ignore them].

Here’s an example using the above model:

Your site receives 30,000 pageviews (or hits) every month. The 125×125 Google ad that you ran for 7 days returned an average CPM of $5.00.If your client is willing to advertise based on ad impressions, you may charge him $4 CPM. If he is interested in a monthly campaign, you can quote him 30*$4 =~ $120 per month.Also, you may charge a premium (50% or more) for ads that are displayed above the page fold near the most visible areas of the site. [CrazyEgg can help you here].

If your sponsor prefers a text link ad, you can use tools from text link brokering services like Text-Link-Ads Link Calculator  and Linkworth LinkPrice Lookup to see the going price of a text link ad on your site.

3. You’re clueless about your blog’s demographics and worth.

Aside from knowing how many pages, comments, and average traffic your blog has, proving how valuable your blog is using various ranking tools that aim to help appraise a blog will be very useful in getting advertisers interested. Although their accuracy is still debatable, many companies and advertisers rely on these measures to help them make an informed decision on whether to buy ad space from a site or not.

Here are some of these blog appraising tools:

• Google Pagerank Toolbar - checks your blog’s pagerank or how Google values your blog according to the number of inbound links that your blog has. The higher the pagerank the higher the blog value.
• Live Pagerank - checks your blog’s pagerank in all Google Datacenters.
• AlexaRank - ranks a blog according to traffic received. The lower the AlexaRank the higher the blog value.
• Technorati Rank – ranks a blog according to the number of blogs linking to it.
• Blog Juice Calculator - ranks a tool according to the number of BlogLines subscribers, Alexarank, Technorati Rank, and inbound links. The higher the blog juice, the higher the blog value.
• SEOMoz PageStrength SEO Tool - ranks a blog  according to its domain name’s age, DMOZ (open directory project) listing, inbound links, indexed pages from various search engines, etc.
• WeBuildPages Cool SEO Tool - it shows a blog’s placement for a certain keyword/phrase is searched.

Have a separate page that shows these information about your blog to make it easy for advertisers to start noticing your blog.

In summary, sure, it’s a very challenging task to monetize a blog through direct sponsors, but the important thing is, it’s not impossible.

There may be a host of better tools and methods to get advertisers knocking on your door. But if you want more bits of advice on how you can win direct advertisers for your blog, Problogger has a wide array of tips.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

3 Reasons Direct Advertisers Ignore Your Blog

Chad Randall, b5′s Director of Sales, posted this guest blog entry at Problogger: 10 Ways to make your Blog more Attractive to Advertisers. And, one of the things he said was:

8. Don’t use Google AdSense on your site.

OK, this could be the most painful one for most people especially if you are generating a few hundred bucks a month from it already. But Google ad sense devalues your site and makes it look unprofessional. You have to ask yourself, “Do I want some real revenue from my site or Google’s table scraps.”

With Google AdSense being one of the most favoured ways to make money online, it definitely riled up a few people. And, I can understand where they’re coming from. I mean, if you’re making a few hundred dollars off AdSense a month (or thereabouts) – or if it’s the only way you can actually see some kind of revenue for your blog – then, someone suggesting your site/blog looks unprofessional and unattractive to other advertisers just won’t make anyone happy, right? In fact, b5media does use AdSense.

So, is Chad being contradictory/inconsistent? No, not really. You can read more about what Chad has to say about this debate in his follow-up post at his own blog called AdvertiseSpace: Why I hate Google AdSense Part I.

Chad’s points are definitely interesting and valid. In fact, reading this whole debate made me remember my initial forays in to web publishing and online advertising sales. Back when AdSense, TLA, and all these other programmes were non-existent.

My first web publishing project was eWriteLife.com (which, incidentally, just received a makeover/revamp). That time, there were no readymade advertising schemes like AdSense, YPN, TLA, etc. Google was just brand new – back when I had to explain to people what it was and I had to convince folks that it was much better than AltaVista or Yahoo search. And, the most common way to build a site was through Geocities. That really dates me on the web, eh?!

But, I digress.

Anyway, even in the early 2000s – without a sales or advertising background – I was practicing every single point from the tips that Chad gave (except eWriteLife wasn’t a blog back then and #8 was not an option). And, yes, even though my site was relatively small (and very niche) – with just a couple of thousand newsletter subscribers, I managed to sell advertising space on my web publications. Earning $50-100 a month on ad space plus just a handful of affiliate links was plausible (and, the deals were never dependent on clicks). Not that it earned that much all the time, as I was still a web novice who had no idea what I was doing back then. And, I was only doing it on the side because the idea of making money solely on the web was just too strange back then.

In any case, this made me take a quick look at my AdSense earnings for eWriteLife the last couple of years. Although I believe I’ve been running AdSense since February 2004, I’ve only seriously started seriously using it a year later.

So, with this in mind, I looked at my eWriteLife report and it showed that between Feb 2005 – Jan 2006, the site earned just short of US$100. And, between Feb 2006 – Jan 2007, the site earned just a bit over US$50. Much, much less advertising money, for sure. But then, I stopped running ‘Advertise Here’ banners and such.

Before I started relying on AdSense and similar programmes, I ran direct ads on the site. If I remember correctly, I had a single client before who advertised US$50 per 3 months for a small graphical ad (around 150×150 px) – and ran the ad for 6 to 9 months (plus a few bonus months) on the site. I had a handful of other clients who also ran smaller ads in the newsletters.

Thinking of it this way, are we really better off targeting such advertisers instead of relying on AdSense? Is there a way to have a balance between ‘reliable’ ad programmes like AdSense and higher paying direct ads? But then, why would anyone pay good dollars directly to us if they know they can afford cheaper alternatives – and we’re accepting small change from AdSense on a per click basis?

So yes, I guess, there are a few questions that have been raised by this debate. And, it’s all worth thinking about and weighing in.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

To AdSense or Not To AdSense?

If you’ve got a BidVertiser account and you’re an eBay seller too, then you might be interested to find out that you can now promote your eBay auctions using BidVertiser.

Here’s what the Bidvertiser announcement says:

BidVertiser now allows eBay sellers to automatically create an ad for their eBay items that are now on active auction. The eBay Ad will include the following:
- An updated pricing of the item
- Time left till auction ends
- An image and a description of the item.
- The Ad will link directly to the item’s auction page on eBay.

And best of all – We are so confident that BidVertiser will work well for you also as an advertiser that we will immediately credit your advertiser account with $20 worth of funds, no deposit on your part needed!

Here’s a preview of an eBay ad.

Too bad I’ve got no eBay auctions going or I would’ve tried this out.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

BidVertiser Offers eBay Ads

Blogsvertise is an ad programme that’s basically similar to ReviewMe and PayPerPost.

There are two ways to make money directly from this programme:

1) Sign up as a blogger/publisher and be available to write sponsored posts (otherwise known as ‘tasks’).

and/or

2) Recruit advertisers using their affiliate programme. More info on this later in this post.

As a blogger/publisher, you basically just register your blog and wait for a ‘task’ to be assigned to you. Acceptance to the programme isn’t so difficult. You just need to have a blog that’s been active for 30 days or more. If not, your blog might be put on probation (with lesser payment). And, no pornographic/adult material will be accepted. Read More on Guidelines/Rules.

When assigned a task, you need to write a permanent entry that’s at least 75 words long (2-3 paragraphs) within 5 days of being assigned. Bloggers do not need to endorse the product or website that they’re writing about. You can write anything you want – from reviews to simply mentioning it in a neutral fashion, as long you meet the word requirement and you put about 3 or more links to the site.

Publishers are informed of payment fees based on each task. According to their Blogger FAQ: The current payout rate for new accounts is $4 – $25 per entry. Most will fall into the $5-15 range. Payout Rates will vary and are frequently based on popularity/traffic of blog as measured by independent third parties.

In terms of getting paid, publishers are meant to receive payment within 30 days of approval. All payments are sent via PayPal. And, it looks like there aren’t any payment thresholds.

Blogsvertise also run an affiliate programme. But, they only pay you for qualified advertisers (i.e., no compensation for recruiting other bloggers/publishers). Payment for such referrals is 20% of the total fees that the advertiser spends on Blogsvertise. For example, if you recruited an advertiser and this advertiser spends US$500 on Blogsvertise, you get paid US$100. You have to be a registered user in order to create your affiliate ID link.

Sample Affiliate Buttons: (*affiliate links)

I’ve signed up in their Blogger/Publisher programme a few weeks ago using my ‘test blog site’, Chrysalis Creativity. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes. If you’ve used the programme in any way, let me know what you think of it too.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Blogsvertise

Just found out from Darren about this conference called Future of Online Advertising, which will be held on the 7th and 8th of June 2007 in New York, USA. He will be one of the speakers – along with other industry experts like Steve Rubel and Michael Walrath. Some interesting topics include: How to guarantee the success of your online advertising, Ads in Online Video – Which ad format will work and why? and How to dramatically increase ad revenue from your site.

The one-day pass costs US $845 (with an early bird price of $695 – Ends March 5), the 2-Day pass costs $1495 (early bird $1195 – Ends March 5), and the ‘Conference in a Box’ costs $1295.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Future of Online Advertising: Conference

It’s been a while since I experimented with an affiliate programme or an advertising programme on my own. This time, I decided to try Text Link Ads*. I know I’m a bit late in trying this out. But hey, I’m happy to catch up.

There are actually three ways you can use Text Link Ads:

1) As a publisher – If you have a weblog or a website where you can run ads, you can apply to get your site approved once you have a Text Link Ads account.

2) As an affiliate – You can put affiliate links to your blogs, sites, email signatures, etc. so that people who sign-up through your link will be accounted for and you can get paid a commission.

3) As an advertiser – If you have a site, service, or product that you wish to advertise, you can purchase affordable links from Text Link Ads’ list of publishers. There’s even a $100 in FREE Links* promotion.

If you’re already a Text Links Ads user and/or you’ve also decided to try it out, I’d like to hear from you. It’ll be interesting to find out what your experiences are like.

*Affiliate links

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Text Link Ads

If you’re running a start-up company and you’ve won at least one major award (from a publication or event organiser), then you just might be eligible for free advertising on Creative-Weblogging.com. The site claims to have an audience of nearly 750,000. So, this should be a really good deal, if your company/business can be approved.

This post is originally from Just Make Money Online. Please respect copyright.

Free Advertising For Start-up Companies