Monetize Your Website

Do you have a website that you would like to monetize but not sure what advertising programs are out there? I’m going to cover those, talk about each and share my personal experience and let you know what works for me.

Until this page is completed, it’s going to serve as a list of monetization programs that I need to review rather than a complete review. I tend to forget things as of late (don’t say a word :) and I need some place to write it all down.

Monetize your website with these ad programs:

Google Adsense
I’ve used adsense for what seems like forever! Back when I first started with adsense, I lived on a tight budget and spent most of my weekends programming and developing websites for fun. I made no money at all from my efforts and satisifcation came from seeing an end product up on the web and helping others with free support on a variety of topics.

I needed money and I reluctantly decided to sell one of my high traffic sites. The offer was okay and would have solved our budget issues, but it was nothing when considering the amount of time I put into the site.

A few days before I was to sign the contract, I decided to try ads, something I stayed away from due to the spammy look they gave websites. Google adsense was different, they could offer related ads that were clearly marked and yet provide some income, or so they claimed.

I stuck the ads on the site and when I checked the amount I had made from the previous day, I promptly tore up the contract. Since then, there have been other programs, such as Yahoo Publisher Network which after the Yahoo Party, meeting my rep and other employees, I was convinced this program was going to hit it big – unfortunately it never made it and was absorbed by Microsoft.

Microsoft Pubcenter Beta is an excellent program and is neck to neck with Adsense depending on the content of the website. Staff is extremely responsive and they offer a forum where you can post questions and receive responses. The program is still in Beta and targeting has been steadily improving – they are definitely determined!

I’ve heard that Commission Junction (CJ) is another great place and that some are making a killing with this advertiser, but I’ve tried the program and results were incredibly poor. I’m guessing that there is a method to selecting and monitoring ads that would realize a big return and it’s just a matter of spending time and really understanding the ins and outs.

I’ve also tried intelliTXT by Vibrant Media when they first came out, and although the payout was good, the ads were annoying. These are the double underlines you see on a site that when moused over, pops up an ad.

Other Advertising Programs I need to research – Overview included but I need to do more research…
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Quigo AdSonar was an attempt at something like Adsense, but the payout was poor – that was a long time ago and the company now redirects to Advertising.com which started as TeknoSuft AdWave in 98 and purchased by AOL for $435 Million. In 08, the Advertising.com is now Tacoda, AOL, Buy.at and Quigo.
Note: I need to check this out – claims to reach 85% of the market. When I went to join, it asked me if I wanted Ad Serving, Sponsored Listings, Video, Web Display – Guessing that Ad Serving is like Adsense and Sponsored Listings (requirement of 5 million impressions per month) is more of a custom tailored program. The Video goes to an email address and the Web Display send you to PubAccess for sites with less than 15 million impressions per month and asks for information for sites over 15 million.

IDGtechnetwork – I’ve been contacted by them but there is very little information about this company (the advertising program that is) and am hesitant to lock myself into a contact just to test the program out. They wanted exclusive run of the sites.

Yarie – Offers text links like adsense link units. Not a lot of information about this company and site seems pretty basic. They also buy websites and then monetize those sites.

Casalemedia – Canidian company that offers a number of ad formats including popups and hover ads that may be flagged as spyware according to Wikipedia.

NetSeer – Uses ContextLinks, text links you place on your site and gives you the ability to have a custom landing page on your own site) – seems more like a incremental revenue program rather than a full fledged ad program like Microsoft’s Pubcenter or Adsense.