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More Ways to Earn Advertising Dollars from Your Web Site (AdSense Alternatives)

by Sid Hale

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about creating an income from "selling" advertising space on your web sites.   I explained that almost any web site could be used to generate advertising revenues by serving context-sensitive ads using the Google AdSense program.  Google finds the advertisers, negotiates the per click price (by auction), tracks ad impressions and clicks, invoiced the advertiser, etc. By sharing the advertising revenue with you... Google can display their clients' ads on your site.  Their clients get broader exposure,  Google earns more advertising revenue from visitors that click on the ads on your site. You share in the ad revenues generated from  your site without having to attract the advertisers, negotiate the per click price, track ad impressions and clicks, invoice the advertiser, etc. Google currently dominates this form of advertising, but they also make all the rules.  That means that they can reject your application as a publishing partner, or they can cancel the ads on your site at will and your steady, recurring income can just evaporate overnight. The good news is that Google is not alone in this market.   Find What offers a similar revenue sharing program for small publishers (adRevenueXpress).  One advantage over AdSense is that you can enter a search term, and immediately see what the top bids are.  You can also use FindWhat as an adjunct to AdSense, by setting up a web page with a FindWhat ad block that will show when Google doesn't have an ad to display. Traffic Showcase uses similar ad formats to the Google AdSense program, and ranking of ads on a site is based on the advertiser's bid, but instead of placing ads based on keyword selection, the advertiser can select individual web sites/publications or niche categories to have their ads placed on.   Overture has a revenue sharing program called Content Match, but it caters to very large, high traffic sites (30 million page views per month).  The good news is that since Yahoo bought Overture, they have announced plans to offer a similar program for smaller publishers.  It is still in beta test (I have seen their ads tested on a low-traffic blog), but it isn't generally available yet, and no date for release has been announced.   You can sign up to be notified when Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions (the new name for Overture) makes new opportunities available for publishers at  http://publisher.yahoo.com.   This move by Yahoo! comes as MSN is widely expected to ramp up its own PPC ad network - adCenter.  At this point, Microsoft maintains that they will continue their relationship with Overture, but it's difficult to comprehend how they could expand their own PPC network without displacing the Overture ads that are currently shown on the site.   Last fall's extension of MSN's PPC deal with Overture specifically provided the option for MSN to begin selling and displaying its own ads on the site.  This would allow MSN to continue earning revenue from Overture ads while they ramp up their own ad sales program.   Steve Ballmer (Microsoft CEO) expects adCenter to compete effectively with Google and Yahoo! and said that having an independent advertising system was strategically vital.   I don't believe for a second that Microsoft is ignorant of the additional ad revenues that can be generated simply by adding a revenue sharing program with other web publishers.  MSN is fully expected to extend their adCenter program with a revenue sharing program, if only to attract more advertisers.  What's the bottom line for you? On-line advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry.   At least one major player (Yahoo!) is poised to include smaller publishers in their revenue sharing program to increase their share of that pot - making them the only major PPC advertiser to compete with Google on that front.   Microsoft plans to begin limited testing of  adCenter over the next six months, and as soon as they have built an inventory of paid ads they will surely follow suit.  With only half the number of web search displays as Yahoo! or Google either one, they will need the increased reach from a network of publishing partners in order to attract their share of advertisers. With the three largest search engines all offering PPC advertising, and (I believe) all offering revenue sharing programs for partner publishers, the partner publishers will have more choices.  The increased competition should lead to more creativity by all three players in the design and implementation of their revenue sharing programs, and it really is a win-win-win situation.     About the Author: Sid Hale is the owner of several successful websites including ad-CLiX.com and Info-Syndicate.com, and is co-creator of  jvAlert - a membership site for facilitating high-level Joint Ventures. Join thousands of subscribers who benefit from our highly informative iMarketing iNsight ezine. Stay up to date on the latest developments, tips, techniques, strategies and expert interviews by joining us now. Feel free to browse the archives!