Information about Adsense

AdSense Alternatives

2009-04-15T23:32:00.001-07:00

While AdSense is probably one of the best money making machines if you have quality content and a lot of traffic, there are lots of other AdSense alternativesout there. Some of them are only suitable for sites with 100,000+ monthly page impressions and more, others can be used by sites with low traffic. The key to understand is that when you are looking for an AdSense alternative, you should try several solutions, one at a time and seeing what works the best. No general advice can tell you the best solution for you. The best results are achieved through a trial-and-error method.

The following table provides a listing of programs, which can be used as an alternative to AdSense (and AdSense too), if for some reason you can't use AdSense. Also notice that some of the these programs can be combined with AdSense, without breaking Google's TOS.

I've tried only a few of those programs, so the information was collected from the programs' websites and quite a few of them don't disclose much information. I'm not sure whether they will disclose that information after you sign up either. If you discover any updates for this table please email those to me and I'll update the table. Thanks!

Here is the explanation of the abbreviations used in this table:

Company - Link to the site
Ad Placement Models:

Sell Ad Space - you place the link on the site and the buyer buys the right to put ads on your site
Contextual - your page is parsed and the most relevant (in theory) ads are automatically displayed
Keywords - you choose the keywords and ads based on those keywords are displayed

Revenue Models:

PPC (CPC) - pay per click (cost per click)
PPM (CPM) - pay per impression, usually pay per 1000 views
PPL - pay per lead (e.g. survey, form, download trial)
PPA - pay per action or acquisitioni (e.g. sale)

Investment: - whether you need to pay upfront
Payout - How much $$$ you can make. Either you get paid % of the revenue generation by ad or the bid
Notes - extra comments

Details Alternative

2009-04-15T23:32:00.000-07:00

Company	Ad Placement Model			Revenue Model				Invest ment	Payout	Notes
	Sell Ad Space	Con tex tual	Key word	PPC	PPM	PPL	PPA
Adagency1									70%
AdBrite	V			V					75%
Advertising				V			V		???
AffiliateSensor		V					V		90-95%	clickbank
AdSense		V		V	V		V		???
AllFeeds		V							60%
AuctionAds							V	free	100%	$10 min/month payout via paypal
AzoogleAds						V	V		???
BidClix	V			V	V				bid/???
Bidvertiser	V			V					bid/???	US-only
Buds Media									60%
Burst! Media									???	5,000+ monthly page views
BetterTextAds.com			V				V	free	100% - MLM	clickbank, home-income-team, ListJoe.com, MLM
Casale Media		V			V				70%	10,000+ unique monthly visitors
CBprosense		V					V	$89/y	100%?	clickbank
Chitika eMiniMalls		V	V						???
Claxon									85%	100,000+ monthly page views English content
Clickcent				V					65%
Clicksor		V							up to 85%
ContextCash		V					V	$97+ $37/m	???
ContextClick		V		V					65%
contextWeb ContextAd		V		V					50%
DynamiContext Kontera		V		V				0	50%	Compatible with AdSense!
Enhance Interactive				V					???
FairAdsNetwork			V	V			V	basic free	60%
Hurricane Digital Media									60-75%
ImgAds			V				V	free to $16	up to 75%	clickbank
Kanoodle BrightAds			V	V					50%
Linkshare									$1.50/ref
LookSmart			V	V					???
Mamma Media Solutions				V					50%	based on search
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress			V						???
NeverblueAds	V					V	V	free	client set	through web, email, paid search and sw
Nixie		V							???
Pay-Per-Play		V	V		V				25%	pay-per-play 5 secs audio, two levels of referrals
Quigo AdSonar				V					???
RealCast Media			V						???
RealTechNetwork			V	V	V				???	25,000 montly page views
Revenue Pilot				V			V		60%
Right Media									???
SearchFeed									???
ShoppingAds			V	V				free	???	$50 min/month payout via paypal
TargetPoint		V			V				50%+
TextAdMarket	V			V					75%	also CPD
Text Link Ads	V				V			free	50%	server side script
Traffic Marketplace									65%
Tribal Fusion					V				???
ValueClick				V	V	V	V		???
Veoda	V	V		V					60%-90%
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT & SmartAds		V			V				45%
WidgetBucks				V				free	undisclosed	promise an equivalent of $3-6 CPM. $50 min/month payout
Yahoo Publisher Network		V		V					???	US only

More AdSense Tips

2009-04-15T23:31:00.003-07:00

You can find more AdSense tips in The Unofficial AdSense Blog. Here's a sampling:

Note that Tip #6 should also refer to the section targeting feature.

You can find the very latest and useful AdSense tips in my Uncommon AdSense book.

Tip #4: Check your keyword density

2009-04-15T23:31:00.001-07:00

Although Google doesn't release exact details as to how they determine the ads to serve on a given page, they do tell us that it's the text content of the page that matters, not the meta tags. Before serving ads on a page, then, you might want to check its keyword density. A good, free tool for doing this is found here:

http://www.ranks.nl/tools/spider.html

This lets you fine-tune the page before exposing it to the AdSense crawler.

Tip #3: Avoid non-English characters on English pages

2009-04-15T23:30:00.002-07:00

This one is a bug, to be honest. My surname is French, and I prefer to write it out correctly with the accent grave on the first "e". Every page on my site would then include at least two accented letters, because my name shows up twice in the footer. On some pages my name shows up two or three more times.

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue. But on some pages the presence of the accented characters is enough to cause AdSense to display non-relevant ads in French. This happens whether the browser indicates a preference for French or not. When I reported this to Google, this is the answer they gave me:

Hello Eric,

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

We are currently working as quickly as we can to address this problem. As soon as we have more information for you, we will email you again.

We appreciate your patience.

Sincerely,

The Google Team

Until this is resolved, I've decided to strip out all accents except on the pages that are actually in French.

Tip #2: Don't be afraid to ask questions

2009-04-15T23:30:00.001-07:00

If you're wondering about something, don't be afraid to ask Google. So far, they've always responded to my questions within a working day. There are two email addresses to use, depending on the type of question:

Please feel free to email us at adsense-tech@google.com if you have additional technical questions or concerns. For general program or account questions, please email adsense-support@google.com.

Their responses are always very polite, and they appreciate getting problem reports and suggestions.

Tip #1: Don't put ads on empty pages.

2009-04-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

When I reworked my site, I built a skeleton set of pages that had no content, just titles and some meta tags. I displayed ads on those pages, however. Although all you see are public service ads at first, the very act of displaying ads on a page causes the AdSense web crawler to quickly fetch that page for analysis. A page with good content will thus begin showing relevant paying ads fairly quickly.

If you don't have any content, then, Google will have to guess as what your page is about. It may guess wrong, and so the ads that it displays may not be relevant. You'll have to wait until Google re-crawls the site for the ads to correct themselves. Here is what Google had to say when I asked them about how often the AdSense crawler updates a site:

Thank you for taking the time to update your site. New ads will start appearing on your site the next time our crawler re-indexes your site. Unfortunately at this time, we are unable to control how often our crawlers index the content on your site.

Crawling is done automatically by our bots. When new pages are added to your website or introduced to the AdSense program, our crawlers will usually get to them within 30 minutes. If you make changes to a page, however, it may take up to 2 or 3 weeks before the changes are reflected in our index. Until we are able to crawl your web pages, you may notice public service ads, for which you will not receive any earnings.

It's better to flesh out the page before you start displaying ads on it.

Can One Place Two Different AdSense Publisher IDs On the Same Page?

2009-04-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks if you are allowed to place two different Google AdSense ads from two different publishers on the same page? For example, you and your friend run a blog together. Can you place your ad on the top left, while his ad is on the top right of the same page?

The answer appears to be no.

According to Google AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions, section two, paragraph "AdSense for Content," last line:

You shall not display any Ad Unit on a page that contains Ads associated with another Google AdSense customer (e.g., Your Web hosting company), unless authorized to do so by Google.

This does not mean it is out of the question. You simply need to get special person from Google to do so.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Three different adsense codes on the same page

2009-04-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

I'm considering a page setup where multiple users/adsense accounts have their own individual adsense units placed on the same web page. In other words, Google would be crediting potentially three different accounts depending on whose adsense unit was clicked on the page at any given moment. Would this be allowable under the current adsense usage policies? I understand that the standard limit on types of adsense units would still apply.

Yes, that's allowed.

Details Com.

2009-04-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Company	Ad Placement Model			Revenue Model				Invest ment	Payout	Notes
	Sell Ad Space	Con tex tual	Key word	PPC	PPM	PPL	PPA
Adagency1									70%
AdBrite	V			V					75%
Advertising				V			V		???
AffiliateSensor		V					V		90-95%	clickbank
AdSense		V		V	V		V		???
AllFeeds		V							60%
AuctionAds							V	free	100%	$10 min/month payout via paypal
AzoogleAds						V	V		???
BidClix	V			V	V				bid/???
Bidvertiser	V			V					bid/???	US-only
Buds Media									60%
Burst! Media									???	5,000+ monthly page views
BetterTextAds.com			V				V	free	100% - MLM	clickbank, home-income-team, ListJoe.com, MLM
Casale Media		V			V				70%	10,000+ unique monthly visitors
CBprosense		V					V	$89/y	100%?	clickbank
Chitika eMiniMalls		V	V						???
Claxon									85%	100,000+ monthly page views English content
Clickcent				V					65%
Clicksor		V							up to 85%
ContextCash		V					V	$97+ $37/m	???
ContextClick		V		V					65%
contextWeb ContextAd		V		V					50%
DynamiContext Kontera		V		V				0	50%	Compatible with AdSense!
Enhance Interactive				V					???
FairAdsNetwork			V	V			V	basic free	60%
Hurricane Digital Media									60-75%
ImgAds			V				V	free to $16	up to 75%	clickbank
Kanoodle BrightAds			V	V					50%
Linkshare									$1.50/ref
LookSmart			V	V					???
Mamma Media Solutions				V					50%	based on search
MIVA AdRevenue Xpress			V						???
NeverblueAds	V					V	V	free	client set	through web, email, paid search and sw
Nixie		V							???
Pay-Per-Play		V	V		V				25%	pay-per-play 5 secs audio, two levels of referrals
Quigo AdSonar				V					???
RealCast Media			V						???
RealTechNetwork			V	V	V				???	25,000 montly page views
Revenue Pilot				V			V		60%
Right Media									???
SearchFeed									???
ShoppingAds			V	V				free	???	$50 min/month payout via paypal
TargetPoint		V			V				50%+
TextAdMarket	V			V					75%	also CPD
Text Link Ads	V				V			free	50%	server side script
Traffic Marketplace									65%
Tribal Fusion					V				???
ValueClick				V	V	V	V		???
Veoda	V	V		V					60%-90%
Vibrant Media IntelliTXT & SmartAds		V			V				45%
WidgetBucks				V				free	undisclosed	promise an equivalent of $3-6 CPM. $50 min/month payout
Yahoo Publisher Network		V		V					???	US only

AdSense Alternatives

2009-04-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

While AdSense is probably one of the best money making machines if you have quality content and a lot of traffic, there are lots of other AdSense alternatives out there. Some of them are only suitable for sites with 100,000+ monthly page impressions and more, others can be used by sites with low traffic. The key to understand is that when you are looking for an AdSense alternative, you should try several solutions, one at a time and seeing what works the best. No general advice can tell you the best solution for you. The best results are achieved through a trial-and-error method.

Here is the explanation of the abbreviations used in this table:

Company - Link to the site
Ad Placement Models:

Sell Ad Space - you place the link on the site and the buyer buys the right to put ads on your site
Contextual - your page is parsed and the most relevant (in theory) ads are automatically displayed
Keywords - you choose the keywords and ads based on those keywords are displayed

Revenue Models:

PPC (CPC) - pay per click (cost per click)
PPM (CPM) - pay per impression, usually pay per 1000 views
PPL - pay per lead (e.g. survey, form, download trial)
PPA - pay per action or acquisitioni (e.g. sale)

Investment: - whether you need to pay upfront
Payout - How much $$$ you can make. Either you get paid % of the revenue generation by ad or the bid
Notes - extra comments