Website Monetizers Evaluation

So I've been finding ways to monetize my site by signing up with programmes offering ad placements. Hands down, Google Adsense is the easiest to set-up and use. Of course it also has its cons. Read on for the list of what I've tried and my evaluation of each.

1. Google Adsense - There are three ways by which publishers (I belong to this group) can earn from Google Adsense: Adsense for Content, Adsense for Search and Referrals. Through Adsense for Content, ads related to your site's content will display on your site and you will be paid based on the number of clicks and page impressions of the ads. Adsense for Search enables you to place a Google Search on your site and earn from the ads displayed on the search results page. Lastly, you earn thru Referrals by referring your site guests to Google's products and services. You can choose from a variety of ad formats for all three but you're not allowed to change any part of the code once they've been generated. Also, there's a maximum number of ad placements you can put on each page of your site. Other than these two restrictions (make it three if you include the rule that you can't click on the ads on your site and you're not supposed to ask your site visitors to click them for you either; but all PPC programs have this restriction), Google Adsense is the user-friendliest site monetizer. Just sign-up and you're good to go.

2. Text-Link-Ads - This is the first non-contextual-based ad program I signed up for. This, and the following ad programs, is different from Google Adsense such that you sign up and register your site first and then they will sell the ad space on your site to the advertisers. This is the reason for the tedious process of stating where you plan to put their ads on your site, describing your site with all the keywords you can think of. I recognize the rationale for this so I patiently signed up. I even got excited because they had a Wordpress plugin and they even offer Feedvertising (you can serve ads in your RSS feeds!). After registering, I received an email stating that my site submission will be evaluated and once approved, they will send me another email containing instructions on how to move forward. After a couple of weeks, I was approved and then the ads started coming in. This is my top favorite so far because it brings so much revenue for me :)

Monetize your website now with Text-Link-Ads!

3. Adbrite - I signed up, described my site and chose my ad format and after a couple of hours, I already saw their ads on my site. They also have interstitial ads ("The Active Interstitial is an excellent source of revenue that doesn't take up any real estate space on your site. You also have the same great AdBrite control of approving all ads that are purchased for your site. Active Interstitial are launched via the same code as the text link zones. The Intermission appears once a day per user only after the user has shown engagement with your site, typically after the fifth page view.") and inline ads ("Inline ads match relevant keywords from AdBrite's network of publishers to AdBrite's network of advertisers. Keywords are double underlined and ads appear only when the user's cursor rolls over the targeted keyword.") which I hope doesn't annoy my readers (post a comment if it bothers your reading experience). Another interesting feature is the InVideo (wherein you can insert ads in your videos) and BritePic (by which you can integrate advertising in your images). I won't be able to use InVideo yet but BritePic I can definitely use. What I like about Adbrite over Google Adsense is that there is no limit to the number of ads per page and that I can actually see the listing of advertiser's ads (and how much they pay) when I log into my Adbrite account. One thing that is working against me in the advertiser bids is my site's low-traffic and close to nil Alexa ranking. I'm hoping this will improve over time. And oh, if you want to see my Adbrite ads, they're in the Blog section :)

Want to try AdBrite? Sign-up now!.

4. Bidvertiser - This is the third easiest to set-up. Although, I had to wait for a day after signing up before I was able to put ads on my site. Like Adbrite, Bidvertiser shows a lisiting of advertiser ads when you log into your Bidvertiser account. In fact, I have more advertisers in Bidvertiser than in Adbrite. Unfortunately I haven't earned anything from my Bidvertiser ads because they're strictly pay-per-click. If you want to "see" (*hint*) my Bidvertiser ads, you can find them in the News section ;-)

Make money from your Website or Blog with BidVertiser

5. WidgetBucks - WidgetBucks allows you to display merchant ads on your site. You get to choose the category of products you want to be shown on your site.

Earn with WidgetBucks now!

There you have it folks, the best and worst of my monetizer-hunting experience. If you know of any other ad programs that are better than Google Adsense, Adbrite and Bidvertiser, do tell. You can also share some ad programs that are not worth signing up for so as to save me from trouble.

I plan to do an evaluation of paid-to-click and paid-online-surveys next but I don't have a list yet so you can also send me a list or links then I'll greatly consider them :-)