Besting Adwords

Zero Conversions

Wed, 28 May 2008 16:03:25 GMT

After running Commission Junction for a week and a quarter of a million impression (mostly top of page banners). I have zero conversions, zero leads and have made $0. This is similar to other CPA experiences that I've attempted in the past. The ads were highly relevant; NBA playoff tickets on NBA blogs and simliar.

http://www.cj.com/

SponsoredReviews

Mon, 26 May 2008 19:15:00 GMT

SponsoredReviews is another pay per post service. I signed up today. I added a few of my blogs, but they haven't been approved yet. I'll provide more feedback later.

All Money

Mon, 26 May 2008 14:45:57 GMT

Websites are easy money. I ran a report on all my websites today, to determine how much each made over the last 365 days. I have seven websites that have been running most of the year. They all run on 2 web servers that cost $100 per month each and the domains were approximately $10 per year each. Both KBCafe and Talk-Sports made enough money each to pay for the dedicated web servers for several years out. In other words, every additional website really has a direct cost of $10 per year. My worst performing website was VacationRace.com, which made $70. I could run VacationRace on a shared web server for $50 per year. Even then, I would make a net profit of $10. Now, $10 isn't a lot, but at least I didn't lose money. Can you lose money on a website, if you simply keep your costs down? I doubt it. I'm kicking myself for not create 50 new websites this year. It'a all money.

Chitika Low $$$

Mon, 26 May 2008 14:21:34 GMT

I got a call from Chitika a couple weeks back asking to test their new premium ad units. They wanted me to replace my primary AdSense ad unit with their units. I decided a less ambitious test would be better and put it further down the right sidebar. I did so for the last 10 days. At first, I was confused because I was only getting a fraction of the ad impressions I thought I might. I asked them and they replied that this premium unit only appears for search referrers. That explained that, but that would mean very few ad impressions. It was paying about $0.09 CPC, which is well below the CPC of the AdSense ad unit it could replace. I'm giving up on their premium ad unit, but I'm gonna retest the eMiniMalls.

http://chitika.com/mm_overview.php?refid=randymorin

Voxant

Thu, 22 May 2008 14:59:49 GMT

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by Voxant to display their ads. They have some very interestering ad units. They have a video unit that pays $3.5 CPM. I didn't like it, as it was distracting. Instead, I went with their text unit ($0.25-$1 CPM). The text units are very large, but they are paying reasonably well. In fact, I'm making more from Voxant than AdSense. The truth will be told when I actually get paid (PayPal) and if the earnings hold up. I've experienced good times with other advertisers other than AdSense (Amazon, FeedBurner and Chitika), but earnings eventually sunk.

http://www.thenewsroom.com/

Commission Junction

Thu, 22 May 2008 14:53:10 GMT

Today, I created a Commission Junction account. I've heard both good and bad things, but I was never much into affiliate programs. I'll report back in the next few weeks with my successes and failures. I applied to four advertisers and one has already declined (MLB.com).

http://www.cj.com/

AdSense and Moving Blogs

Wed, 21 May 2008 17:40:10 GMT

This morning, I moved the iBLOGthere4iM blog from kbcafe.com to ibt4im.com. My CPM dropped from $1.8 to $0.19. Just a warning for people that consider moving there blogs. You'll likely incur a trough in revenues till you regain your old conceptually performing ads and CPM advertisers. I'm alsoo getting a lot of alternate ads, since Google hasn't lined up ads for the thousands of new webpages.

What's New?

Wed, 21 May 2008 12:27:44 GMT

Thought I'd just drop a blog entry bomb on what I've been up to in my advertising.

First, I've decided to completely abandon the FeedBurner ad network. After making as much $410 for ads in my feeds, before the Google takeover, I've now made $3.31 in the first two-thirds of this current month. I thought that by now, FeedBurner should've been integrated into AdSense. I kinda wonder what's up for the future of FeedBurner. Is it gonna turn into one of those forgotten Google purchases?

I'm dropping BlogAds from all my blogs, except Talk-Sports. I rarely ever get any new ad submissions for my blogs that get as much as 2000 daily pageviews. You appear to need at least 5000 daily impressions before BlogAds advertisers will consider your blog.

Last, I'm testing Chitika and Voxant and will report further soon on both.

$60 for 800 Words

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:16:22 GMT

In the last month, I've written 800 words in 4 ReviewMe paid reviews and I made $60. I could write another 6 campaign reviews, as they allow 10 per month. Assuming I could get the same pay per review dollars, that's $150 per month or $1800 per year. Now consider that their are several pay per post services, sign-up for them all and you have an awesome part-time job. You could easily write 30 reviews per month and make $5400 or who knows. Some of the paid reviews I wrote paid me as much as $125. Now add some AdSense to your blog and who knows, you might actually be able to quite the 9 to 5. I think I'll spend some time checking out the other pay per post services to discover just how profitable paid blogging can be.

On the downside, a friend of mine with a very good blog, was rejected by ReviewMe. He was using a standard Wordpress template with great technical writing, so his blog looked like a splog created from those article buying services. I think it's really important to customize the look of your blog before you submit it, so that it doesn't look like just another splog.

Frontier Labels

Thu, 15 May 2008 20:49:50 GMT

The following is a paid review.

Frontier Labels, Inc. has a website for ordering Labels and Stickers. They have candel labels, coffee bag labels, vitamin bottle labels, wine labels, beer bottle labels, bumper stickers, tea tin labels, paint labels and much, much more. Check out their homepage for a sampling of what they can do. From quarter inch labels to full page labels and everything in between. It's very easy to order your own labels thru their website and you can get them shipped in 1 business day express shipping or 5 days regular shipping. They'll give you an instant quote online (excludes shipping) and you can even chat with one of their team members for instant online help. They use an HP Indigo press and AB Graphics converting machine. Because this is a digital process, their is no cost per color or plate charges or setup fees. They have volume pricing which apply equally to single and multiple item orders. They support both Google Checkout and PayPal, and once you've order your first time, you can reuse your account to make ordering even faster. Check out their portfolio of sample labels. Ten percent of company profits are donated to help make a difference in their community. What a great idea!

http://www.frontierlabel.com/

AdSense Support STUPID!

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:24:56 GMT

Google's AdSense use to have the greatest support in the world, but recently it's gotten rather stupid. Stupid is the key word. I use to send emails to adsense-support@google.com. When I emailed that address, I got an automated response. In the response was instructions and if not sufficient, then I could fill out the contact form. I clicked thru to the contact form and submit the question again. I get another automated response. In this second response was instructions and if not sufficient, then I could reply to adsense-support@google.com. Can you say STUPID! There's two tipping points. One when the company goes from promise to success and a second when they go from success to stupidity.

AdSense-Analytics Integration

Tue, 13 May 2008 16:01:56 GMT

I cannot understand why Google hasn't integrated AdSense tracking into Analytics. Seems pretty trivial. I've tried various scripts to track AdSense clicks, but they are completely inaccurate. I've actually stopped tracking AdSense clicks because the data doesn't make any sense, so I don't place any trust in it. I simply use AdSense channels to track clicks. What's up Google? Am I missing something?

ReviewMe is Money$

Tue, 13 May 2008 15:00:36 GMT

ReviewMe, the paid blogging service, allows you to do 10 campaigns per month. If you have a few blogs that cover most of the ReviewMe categories, then you can at least make an extra $100+ per month by writting 2000 words. That's $1200 annually. I suspect that adding other paid blogging services can mean a substantial little bonus. I haven't tried the other paid blogging services. I'm thinking about getting some blogs going for my wife, so she can make some extra coin as well. For that matter, I'm sure my niece (in college) would appreciate this as well.

http://www.reviewme.com/

Analytic Bugs

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:55:52 GMT

Of late, I've noticed that the recent data in Analytics is incorrect. The data remains inaccurate until about noon of the next day, when it readjusts. It's quite annoying. This use to happen occasionally, but now occurs everyday without exception. This means that I can't evalute how my campaigns are doing until the afternoon of the next day. Since I do most of my work before noon, I'm stuck having to make my decisions a day later than I wanted.

Amazon Gift Certificates

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:03:20 GMT

For the last couple year, I've been taking my Amazon Associates money as gift certificates. When I did my taxes last month, I noticed that many of the certificates didn't arrive. Seven different certificates totalling more than $100. I sent Amazon an email asking for the gift certificates to be resent and they were. If you also take your Amazon money in gift certificates, then you might consider checking that you've receive them all.

ClixTrac Slow

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:00:25 GMT

ClixTrac is a free impression and click tracking service. I only know about it, because one of my advertisers uses it. Today, I noticed that their banners were timing out, which in turn caused my own website to load very slowly. I'm not too impressed. It's been several hours now and I've had to pull the advertising. Now, I'm gonna have to explain this to the client.

http://www.clixtrac.com/