Entries Tagged 'Websites' ↓

One of my blogs was recently invited into the BlogHer Ad Network. I was surprised to learn that they now allow men into the program but jumped at the chance to join.

I am getting very tired of the PPC model of Google AdSense and have been looking for alternatives. Once I give the program a little more time, I will probably look to switch my other blogs to similar programs.

Here are the things I don’t like about PPC.

Virtually no control of who you are advertising for.
I frequently see ads that lead to MFA landing pages. I’m not really looking to be the bottom rung on somebody’s arbitrage machine. On my parenting blog I talk about IVF and autism. I frequently see ads to sites that I would in know way endorse and definitely wouldn’t want my readers to go to. You can set up a blacklist in AdSense, but new sites are constantly being created and I don’t want to spend all day messing with the blacklist.

No control of how much they are going to pay you.

Sometimes I’ll get over $1 for a click. Sometimes I get 1 cent for a click. Recently the pay per click seems to be getting lower but it will probably pick up again over the holidays. I don’t like how Google refuses to disclose how much they keep for each of the clicks that I generate. I don’t really care what the percentage is, but I would like to know the rules.

Emphasis is on getting visitors from search engines.

The PPC game seems to work best when you get visitors from the search engines. So there is a major focus on writing things that will show up high in the search engines. Personally, I end up having trouble writing when I start thinking about keywords and SERPs. I know that SERPs will still be important for driving traffic, but for me the focus on these things will be a little less important.

Here is what I like about PPM.

Emphasis is on highlighting the ads instead of hoping they blend well.

Companies use CPM advertising because they are working on branding. They might be hoping to get some direct clicks and purchases but they are focusing on the TV advertising model. Get the name brand out there to a targeted audience and when those readers go shopping, hope they remember your name. The best way for this to work is to put the ad front and center and as obvious as possible. No hiding a bunch of text links between the catergories and blogroll in the sidebar.

Rewarded for something going big on Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.

I’ve written in the past that I think Google notices traffic spikes and starts heavily filtering AdSense clicks. It wouldn’t bother me so much except it seems like they apply that filter on all of my blogs when one of them gets a spike. Maybe it is just coincidence but if so it is a pretty common coincidence. PPM on the other hand is a little different. Traffic spikes are good. That is more eyeballs being exposed to the branding campaign.

Emphasis is on getting repeat visitors and visitors that want to subscribe to the blog.

Building a community is the reason why blogs are so popular. If we didn’t want repeat visitors we wouldn’t bother allowing comments. Repeat visitors to a PPC program are not as important because they are not the people that tend to click on ads. Repeat visitors are great for a PPM. When they stop to check for replies to their comments and check for new posts, that is page impressions. That is exposure for the company running the ad.

I’ve just been in the BlogHer program for a few days now. We’ll see if I still like it as much in a few weeks but it has made a good first impression.

Technorati Tags: BlogHer, online advertising, AdSense

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am a subscriber to Popular Science Magazine. One of my favorite parts of the magazine, and the section I turn to first, is the How 2.0 Section. How 2.0 is basically a section of the magazine filled with D.I.Y. projects. They usually have an insane but cool project, a medium difficulty project, and one I could do and afford.

I’ve come to find that they have the How 2.0 Section on the web, which is nice because you can click on the links in the articles to buy parts, etc., something that obviously isn’t possible in the print version.

Anyhow, I’m lacking any ideas to write about today, I thought I’d share the link. I hope you find something there you like.

I accidentally clicked on an BP add over at Diggtoday.

Once I hit back and investigated a little bit, I realized that Digg and Google have worked together to create a very accidentally clickable ad unit.

Check this out (click on the image to see it in the original full size):

I used my own copy of Paint to draw the red box that shows the clickable area for the ad. That is a lot of white space to accidentally click on. I’m not sure whether I should be annoyed or jealous.

I love StumbleUpon. It is a great way to find new and interesting things to read and look at on the internet.

As a blog (or two) owner, I love the traffic that it can bring when one of my stories gets a couple thumbs up.

One of the great things about StumbleUpon is you get to contribute to a social network type of site without ever really visiting the actual site. Almost all StumbleUpon interaction works through their toolbar that you add to the browser.

However, part of what makes StumbleUpon work is finding other people that like similar things so you can follow the articles that they like. That is where StumbleUpon needs a bit of a nerdy makeover.

They give you the normal options of filtering out people by gender, age, and even city, state, zip. I don’t really understand any of those options. I’m trying to find people that like certain things. I don’t care how old, where they live, or which bathroom they use at the mall.

I do care that they actually use the site.

I want to be able to filter out people that haven’t been active in X number of days. For me, it would probably be 7 or 14 days.

I would also like to find people that have actually voted for a story in X days.

I do care that they are not already one of my friends.

People that are already friends of mine don’t really need to show up in the search results. If I am searching for people, I am trying to make new friends.

I can’t imagine either of these options taking any real amount of work. All of the data is already there and displayed on various screens. They could probably make the changes in a day and not even need to bother their real programming nerds.