As everyone surely knows by now, I’m an AdSense fan. In some ways this blog is the “unofficial AdSense blog”. Or at least, I’d like to think so…
I do get asked on occasion about alternatives to AdSense, either from people who are dissatisfied with the payouts (and the payouts definitely vary a lot) or people who’ve been banned or suspended from the program. I can’t say I’ve researched the topic much. I did list a few programs in Uncommon AdSense based on things I’d tried myself (Chitika in particular, which seems to work quite well for product-based sites and blogs) and things others had recommended to me (such as the Yahoo! Publisher Network, which I’d love to try but can’t because I’m not a US resident). But except for the occasional affiliate link here and there, the majority of my focus is on generating AdSense income.
If you are interested in AdSense alternatives, Ben Shaffer has a new ebook out called AdSense Alternatives that lists 25 AdSense alternatives, including:
- AdBrite
- BidClix
- Kanoodle
- Nixxie
- Revenue Pilot
I don’t think it would be fair for me to list all 25 here. Pros and cons of the various programs are listed, but you’ll have to look closely at each program to determine which ones are or aren’t for you.
The book is about 50 pages long, only about half of which is devoted to the list of AdSense alternatives. At $27 it’s a bit pricey for what you get unless you count the bonuses, which are:
- IM Safety: The Legal Side of Internet Marketing (ebook)
- Kontera ContentLink Secrets (ebook)
- Conversion Grabber (software)
The latter looks interesting, it’s a PHP script to put up “buy now because there are only XXX left” type offers on a page.
That’s my nutshell review. If AdSense isn’t your cup of tea, or you’re looking to diversify, AdSense Alternatives might be a good resource for you.
Eric Giguere is the author of several printed books and knows a thing or two about content monetization. Subscribe to his AdSense blog today and never miss any of his insightful comments. And the not-so-insightful ones, for that matter.
Hello,
Why isn’t my CBACMS mentioned?
It is a nice alternative that is used on all my facebook applications and my http://www.fxpr.com financial portal. Take a look.
While I’ve been bemoaning the demise of AdSense for some time, I have yet to find anything better out there. I don’t consider CPA ads to be a legitimate alternative to Adsense, because they aren’t CPC and they can already be used alongside AdSense. So, I wonder how legitimate the concept behind the book is. However, I haven’t read it…so I don’t know.
Allow me to put in a plug here for Project Wonderful (http://www.projectwonderful.com/). I don’t think it’s going to mean big money for many, but some sites are just ridiculously hard to monetize…despite the fact that they might see decent traffic. Humor sites are one example (this helps explain why they are generally drenched in popups, interstitials and spyware installs). My clean humor site, http://mademelaugh.com, sees a fair amount of traffic each day (certainly better than most blogs), but most monetization efforts have shown very poor results. The nice thing about Project Wonderful is that it’s not performance-based. It allows folks to bid on your ad space. So, if you’ve got decent content and some space to spare in exchange for a fixed rate per day, it’s a pretty interesting option. It’s a very open system (everyone’s card are on the table regarding traffic, prices, etc), but I have to say that I like that (unlike AdSense, which is still largely shrouded in secrecy…and that’s just one of its many problems). I’ve had ad space available on Made Me Laugh for just a few days, and I already two folks paying on a daily basis for ad space. And I’m buying ads on two other sites using the same system. It’s an incredibly affordable advertising opportunity for those looking to reach some eyeballs…as well as an opportunity for those who are looking for a little extra income for their site.
Great comment, Chuck… it got caught in Akismet’s spam filter for some reason, but I kicked it out.
Project Wonderful looks interesting. TextLinkAds is also an alternative to look it if you happen to have pages that rank decently for certain terms… it’s really odd what people will bid on in this system.