Webvertization

Product Advertising API

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:14:43 GMT

I just found out that I have a lot of new code to write across my 44 websites. I've always used the Amazon Associates Web Services to monetize my websites. I've never really made a lot of money from it, but I make enough to keep using it. I've even developed some sites (www.hellosanta.org) that depend entirely on the Associates API. Amazon decided to rename this API to Product Advertising API and has changed it to require some form of authentication. Yikes to me. Who made this ridiculous decision? Arggggg!

http://affiliate-blog.amazon.com/2009/05/attention-amazon-associates-web-service-developers.html

Nth Ad Unit

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:57:49 GMT

A question I ask myself is how much do I make on that Nth ad unit. Is it worth the user frustration? Some blog units have so many ad units (Chris Pirillo) that after a minute the window continues to shift as new sections of the screen get incorporated. How much money did Chris make with that 10th ad unit that caused the textarea to disappear off my mobile screen. Thus frustrating me and causing me to write this instead of reading his blog and leaving a comment. I hardly doubt it was worth it to him. On the other hand, he's likely richer than I from this same strategy.

Google Images and Analytics

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:18:51 GMT

Question for any Googlemites out there that read this blog. How come Google can add Bing support to Analytics overnight and we are still waiting for Google Images support after years of asking? Personally, I've growing very weary of BigCos that buy valuable websites and put them into maintenance mode a year later. Analytics has to keep moving forward. Google has to respond to their user's feature requests.

More...

PayPal Merchant Rates

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:50:53 GMT

Today, while comparing rates between PayPal and Google Checkout, I noticed that PayPal wasn't charging me the advertised rates for the volume I was pulling. I dug into the details to find that you had to apply for the lower rates. I did and immediately was given the lower rates. I think it's very deceptive of PayPal that I wasn't being warned of this obvious issue. I figure it cost me a few hundred dollars over the last year. That's a few hundred dollars that I'm closer to selecting Google Checkout.

If Google Checkout simply had Subscription/Recurring payments, then I'd already be there. I did see they have an XML-based subscription payments service in Beta. I read it and it's total crap. You have to wonder if anybody actually uses that. Further, Google Checkout still doesn't appear to want Canadian vendors.

Advertising.com Terms

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:06:53 GMT

Today, I read the following in the Advertising.com terms.

Upon a determination by Advertising.com, in its sole discretion, that Publisher has violated any of the foregoing conditions of this Section 4, Publisher agrees that Advertising.com may, in addition to other legal remedies, assess liquidated damages of up to $1,000.00 per occurrence of each such violation, and that such liquidated damages are reasonable.

Let's just say I was stunned. Who would agree to that? It's one thing to fine someone who is in the wrong, but Advertising.com does not even have to prove anything (their discretion) and you are specifically agreeing that this is reasonable. I'm no lawyer, but I can read. I wonder how many $500/hr lawyers have advised their clients that this is reasonable?

http://www.platform-a.com/contact-us/publisher-info-request/publisher-terms-and-conditions

PayPal Slow?

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:16:25 GMT

Has anybody else noticed that the PayPal website has gotten very slow since their redesign last week?

AdSense in Decline?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:03:14 GMT

You don't hear much about AdSense anymore. Even I've moved most of my impressions to other ad networks. While my AdSense CPMs have declined other networks have promised higher and higher CPMs. In the next month, I'm looking at cutting my AdSense impressions in half, as I re-balance towards networks that ae paying better. If things don't change with AdSense, then I'll solely be using AdSense on sites that receive a trivial amount of hits. All my top sites could be AdSense free by the end of summer. It still gives me good CPMs for my smaller sites, but the CPMs on my larger sites is no longer significant enough to justify impressions.

Webvertization.com

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:15:27 GMT

I finally got around to moving Besting AdWords off of www.kbcafe.com/adwords and putting it on it's own domain www.webvertization.com. Hopefully this will get me off my ass and do some more blogging/writing.

http://www.webvertization.com/