AnyLetter

I'd like to go into some depth regarding online advertising venues, especially those that are text based. I've used AdBrite since March, and I doubt I'll be dropping them any time soon. I've recently started using Yahoo's advertising network, though I'm technically beta testing it. And hopefully, in a week or so, I'll start using AdSense, Google's text ad program (though I still find myself wary of Google, but I use their products).

AdBrite works off of a wonderful idea, one rather well implemented. You receive bids every so often directly from the advertiser. You then review the ad, and if you accept, it runs anywhere from a day to a month. AdBrite tends to manually set the price of an ad running (right now, because my page views are rather low). I fetch a few cents a day for a link, whether you choose to click on it or not. Granted, I'd prefer you did, that way that advertiser has incentive to come back to me. I also get a set amount for clicking on a "network ad". These network ads are ones that AdBrite puts up for me as filler. I don't get paid for having the link up, only when you click on the ad (much like how Yahoo's works). You can manually set the price you'd like to recieve per advertisement/day though I find that set it too high, even by a couple of cents, and you turn off advertisers. I see more and more AdBrite ads than Google ads, and it seems that if you're a high traffic website, AdBrite is for you.

Yahoo Publisher Network works much in the way that Google's AdSense works. You are given a percentage of what and advertiser paid to get the business' advertisment into the network. None of this "we'll pay you to put up this link, whether we get clicked or not". Apparently the risk with Yahoo Publisher is much lower, so you'd think there's a lower payoff, right? Nope. I've had only a few ads clicked on through YPN, and produces a higher yield in pay than an AdBrite ad. And from what I've heard of AdSense, YPN outperforms that also.

Take from this post what you will, but I am going to give some unprofessional advice. If you maintain a small website or blog, use the Yahoo ads as they provide a higher return per visitor. Though, if you're a large website, go with the AdBrite ads, as the bidding can fetch quite a penny (an ad on Fark.com can run upwards of $200 a week). It's up to you. Personally, I'm going to run both and check back on this topic every few months. My site can only get bigger now that I've got a better feel for the blogging world and I'm actually having decent ideas. If you have evidence in contrast to mine, feel free to write about it on your site and link to me or send me an email. Both would be great of course.

Technorati Tags: adbrite, yahoo, yahoo publisher network, google, adsense, alito, halloween, windows live, leonor, microsoft, kristof, gomery, tierney, john tierney, ajax