CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING: 12/19/08

Contextual Advertising

Contextual Advertising is a relatively new form of advertising on the web that will consider the context of the site, a page or a search query, to display ads from advertisers that correspond to the topic. Its usual form is text-based, using regular hyperlinks, sometimes small graphics and brief descriptions to attract users that may be interested. It is usually highly targetted and is better accepted by users because it is less obstrusive, less bandwith hungry and more relevant than the classic graphical banners. For example, a web page about photography will automatically draw advertisers selling cameras and other photo related accessories. It also has the benefits of making the job of a web publisher easier to find sponsors, as the contextual advertising company acts as an automatic middle man between publishers and advertisers, who bid for specific keywords using an auction system. The same can be said for advertisers, since they now have access to thousands of possible web sites to automatically advertise on. It usually works as Pay per Click, meaning the publisher only generate revenues when a user actively click on an ad, as opposed to Pay per Impressions, an older system that generates revenue based on the number of time the ad is displayed.

Google was on the forefront of this innovation when they created Google Adsense, the first major contextual advertising program. In the beginning, these new ads appeared with their search engine, but they soon expanded it to include webmasters and their web sites, which they named their "Content Network". Using a few ligns of Javascript code, publishers could insert Adsense on their web pages and it would then automatically serve relevant ads using Google's search algorithm. Google also considers other factors such as the geographical location of visitors and their languages, so ads can actually be different for each visitor. Other companies followed with similar programs, but they lacked the sophistication of Adsense since they demanded specific keywords from webmasters instead of detecting them on their pages. Other big players on the web are now slowly embracing this terrific new marketing technology, such as the Yahoo! Publisher Network and MSN adCenter. Contextual Advertising is making it now possible for smaller webmasters and publishers who own small hobby sites to monetize their efforts without spending all their time dealing with appropriate sponsors that may not necessarly be interested with smaller sites when taken on an individual level.

Contextual advertising programs and Google Adsense Alternatives

Here we list companies that offer this marketing solution to webmasters. Google Adsense is often considered the prime choice, but they do have restrictions and some people may be refused to their program.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Five Top Blog Advertising Options

I’ve been in this game for a while, but I’m relatively new to blogging. I understand that a lot of people get into this industry because they think they can make a quick buck. I have no illusions. I am sure that this blog will be my least profitable web site. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t make money with this blog. I will review several options available to bloggers. I currently use all of the following methods, though not all of them are used on this blog.

Affiliate Marketing - Some of the big networks in affiliate marketing include Commission Junction, Linkshare, ShareASale, among many others. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you can throw up a page full of banners and generate an income. Having too many ads is a sure way to drive away your visitors. Tailor your ads to your posts and you can not only provide a service, but make more money than having random, un-related ads on your blog. For more information on affiliate marketing, I strongly suggest you join ABestWeb.
Paid Posting - There are several options available for bloggers who wish to get paid to post. One of which is the recently redesigned PayingPost.com which will, if approved, present opportunities to you that you can choose to accept and blog about. If your post meets the requirements, you can earn a few bucks per post. Keep in mind that your blog will need to be somewhat established first. What’s great about this option is that you can earn while doing something that you’d be doing anyway, blogging.
In-house Ad Sales - Many people overlook this option, opting only for affiliate ads or adsense for banner and link advertising. By offering site sponsorship directly (see 125×125 ads to the right and the advertising page), you can control the price, the ads and it can be a much more guaranteed form of income. Some advertisers can also help you by sponsoring, or providing prizes for contests. If you think it’s too hard, look into OpenX, formerly phpAdsNew, to serve the ads and PayPal to handle subscriptions. It can be fairly automated. If that’s still too hands-on, check out Bidvertiser.
Contextual CPC Ads - Contextual ads are those that display depending on the content of they page of your site on which they reside. There are many pros and cons of using Google Adsense (see sponsors ads to the left) or Yahoo! Publisher Network to serve contextual CPC (cost per click) ads. If done correctly, they can generate substantial revenue. But there are many marketers out there looking to swindle new bloggers out of their money by offering them the road to quick cash. Your success with contextual CPC advertising generally depends on the traffic to your blog, whether or not they have a high level of ad blindness, and the content of your blog.
Contextual Links - Rather than having CPC banners and ad blocks on your blog, you can have CPC links directly in your posts. These ads are usually set to appear differently (i.e. two underlines) so as to not confuse the visitor. Once the link is moused over, an ad bubble pops up. One such network is Kontera - you can run this in addition to Adsense and not be in breach of terms.

Turn Your Website Traffic Into Revenue

Making money on the internet is no great mystery - many people have done it in many ways, and you can take advantage of their experience. It is not an easy task to accomplish, but then nothing worthwhile is. If you have a website, it is time to start turning your traffic into revenue that you can use to pay your monthly hosting bills, and maybe even work on your websites full time.

While there are a multitude of ways to make money from your website, different methods are better for different websites. From text ads to affiliate programs, choosing the right program is the first step to turning your website into a cash generating machine.

Informational Websites

Probably the most straight forward type of website to monetize are those that provide information about a certain topic. You don’t need your users to buy anything or sign up for anything, they simple need to be on your website. The ideal type of ad for an informational website is probably the contextual ad, although depending on your site and your traffic you should shop around the various providers and pick the best one for your site.

Google Adsense

The most popular contextual advertiser, and probably the best place to start. Sign up for an adsense account (it’s free) and in a day or so you should be approved. Follow the simple steps to get the code for your website, and then just insert it. Now you’ve got ads running on your website.

As easy as adsense is to set up, maximizing its effectiveness is another matter entirely. There is no easy answer to this, and the best advice is to experiment with different ad placements and sizes. What works for one page may not work for another. The most effective way to use adsense is to integrate it into your page content so it looks like that web page and not an ad. With google’s code generating, you can customize how your ad looks, which helps when integrating.

Adsense also automatically searches your site and displays ads that are relevant to your subject matter. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing, as you run the risk of displaying competing websites on your pages, which you probably don’t want. There is a solution to this, in that you can add filters to your adsense account, so google will not display ads for a certain url that you specify.

Adsense is a great tool to start monetizing your website, and it may be the only tool you need. It is very easy to get up and running, and very little upkeep is required. However, it is most effective when used on sites with a lot of text, so if your website isn’t informational in nature adsense is probably not your best option.

Yahoo Publisher Network

Yahoo Publisher Network, or YPN for short, is Yahoo’s answer to adsense. While it is currently in beta, you can apply for an invitation and begin running YPN ads on your site if you are accepted. Follow the same methods you used with adsense when using YPN, and compare which plan generates more money for you. Note that you CANNOT run adsense and YPN ads on the same page.

Affiliate Programs

If your website has information on a certain product, it might be worth it to join an affiliate network for that type of product. When you sign up as an affiliate, you are basically generating leads for a parent company. So if you happen to have a site that has book reviews, it would be a good idea to sign up as an affiliate to a book store and then send users who wish to buy the book to a site where they can purchase the book, and you get a percentage of the purchase price.

Amazon and commission junction are two excellent affiliate programs. Most good affiliate programs will let you customize the look and feel of how you send visitors to their site, so in essence the only thing they do would be process an order.

While affiliate it can be difficult to get up and running with an affiliate related site, it can be immensely rewarding. The best way to generate revenue is to make it as easy as possible for the user to buy whatever product you are advertising. Set up your affiliate links so they can clink on a single link and be taken to the parent companies purchase page and you stand a much better chance of making a sale.

Service Websites

Not all websites are dedicated to bringing the user information. Many sites bring the user a service, such as image hosting. In this situation contextual ads like adsense and YPN aren’t ideal, since there isn’t a lot of information to determine what ads to display. In this situation, its better to use a non-contextual advertiser so you can control what type of ads are displayed.

Adbrite

Adbrite is a great alternative to the contextual based ad networks like YPN and adsense. Adbrite still runs text ads, but they don’t necessarily have to have anything to do with your page. You sign up with adbrite, and then other webmasters pay you to run their ads on your page. You can again customize the way the ads look, and you can deny sites from running their ads on your page if you wish.

Adbrite is ideal for sites that might not have a lot of text, such as image hosting sites. You are able to determine how much to charge for other webmasters to display their ads on your page, so if your site has good traffic you can make some good money with this.

While there are many other options that you can and should explore to turn your website traffic into revenue, the suggestions above are a good start. Try them out, experiment with different placements and colors, and see how you do. Don’t get discouraged if at first you aren’t making any money, try changing the look, feel and placement of the ads and give it some time.

Can You Really Monetize a Blog With Contextual Advertising?

According to some people, the idea of monetizing a blog is nice, but the task is more difficult to achieve than expected. This kind of thinking is understandable, if not entirely true. Because although there are thousands of bloggers who aren't making a bean from their blogs, there are others who have managed to bring in hundreds and even thousands of dollars from theirs every single month.

It's true that some people object to advertising being in place on a blog. Since a blog is a personal journal about a specific subject, advertising can seem rather out of place. But why shouldn't bloggers earn some cash for their efforts - particularly if they have found a good audience to focus in on?

There are of course several different advertising models to look at, but people often find that the less intrusive ones work best on blogs of all kinds. That's why contextual advertising fits in so nicely with blogging. It doesn't look obtrusive on the page and the choice of whether or not to look at or click on the ad s is left to the person reading the blog itself. A popular contextual advertising method is In-Text advertising.

The main advantage of choosing an in-text contextual advertising network to deliver ads to your blog is that it leaves you more room for other things. You don't have to allocate a certain amount of room to put normal classified style ads on your page. Instead, the ads are linked neatly to whatever content you decide to write about. They take up no extra room at all.

And yet they can still deliver a good return, bringing in an income stream that can help to pay for your hosting costs and much more. This is the main reason why a lot of bloggers try different forms of advertising, to see which one brings in the best return for them.

Contextual ads are virtually guaranteed to deliver a good return since they will automatically appeal to the people on your site. If you have a regular audience you will benefit even more, since people often come back over and over again to a blog they like. And that means even more potential to raise your income from this form of advertising.

So is it about time you got some monetary rewards for your blogging efforts? If it is, give contextual advertising a try today.

Kontera is an In-Text ad network that offers contextual advertising to publishers across the web. Kontera's advanced contextual ad technology guarantees the highest degree of relevancy between content, keywords and ads.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mika_Tal