I know that is a harsh title but very fitting for this post. Yes, this will be a rant post!
The top three blog ad networks out there right know are Entrecard, Adgitize and CMF Ads. They all are getting worse over time and I am not happy with any of them right now. Lets start with Entrecard:
When Entrecard changed ownership they made an announcement that they were suspending outside ads. Well it did not take them long to re-implement that. Right know there are only two ads that are running and they are Entrecard ads. It won’t be long until other outside ads are brought in. I estimate it will be in about 2 week. I am not getting any traffic right know from Entrecard, I am lucky if if I get 3 visitors a day. It makes more sense for me to use this space to sell my own ads instead of letting Entrecard make money from my ad space. I was very close to dropping Entrecard all together, in fact I took the widget of for a couple of days. I put it back on because I still have over 30,000 credits and do not want to surrender them. The only value I see in Entrecard is that it allows me to advertise inexpensivelyon some of my blogging friends’ blogs like Extreme John and Dragon Blogger. There are about 8 blogs that I rotate my ad on, if they leave I will follow.
Adgitize was and still is my favorite blog ad network but they really pissed me off a couple of weeks ago when they raised the price from $14 to $24 for a month. That is a big increase, maybe Ken has not heard that we are in a recession. I think he is making a bad business decision. He should of lowered the price to attract more bloggers and increase he total pool of money. I predict that over half of the current bloggers will not renew and he will make less money then he is currently making. I currently have a paid ad running on Adgitize and I get about 60 visits per day but I do not think I will renew next month.
I took of my CMF Ads widget this week as it was not even close to being worth taking up valuable space on my blog. I was with them for 4 months and probably got about 10 visits total. I am not sure why but people did not click through to my blog. On the publisher side it really sucks, in order to be competitive you have to price your blog at 50 cents per month. Even if you get 10 people to advertise (you will be lucky to get 10) that comes to only $5. Then you will have to wait 4 months to get $20 so you can request a payout. They take $10 and you get $10. I am not exaggerating, it took me 4 months to make $10 with CMF. I would like to believe that my blog space is worth a little more than that.
**Update- as of 12-21-09 – Adgitize reversed their decision to raise prices and lowered the monthly cost back to $14. It is refreshing to see a blog ad network really listen to the bloggers. FYI, adgitize was my top traffic generator in 2009.
I am wondering what your experiences with these networks have been.
Does anyone else think they all suck?
Is there anything better out there that I should know about ??
Advertising online is too expensive for most small website owners. The cost for certain keywords can be astronomical and with no guarantee of conversion, you can rapidly run through an advertising budget. However, the true ROI is the only factor to consider since it may be “cheaper” to advertise on a more expensive network with better conversions than a cheaper one with less conversions.
.-= Charles@Homes in Las Vegas´s last blog ..Real Estate Update =-.
I think there is a lot of room for improvement but as long as no one develops a better method, I suppose we can’t complain too much.
-Jack
Hi,
Been through the EC ring and was quite disappointed. Still evaluating Adgitize and CMFads.
You may want to look into “Along for the Ride!” as a traffic supplement:
http://matthiaschronicles.tanaya.net/AFTR/
.-= Mar Matthias Darin´s last blog ..The Truth About the Health Care Bills =-.
An ad network can only be as good as the blogs that belong to it. Clearly you run many ads on your blog. Why did you not reveal the click through rate on those? It seems you desire traffic regardless of quality. One month you recommend something, next month you say “don’t bother with it”. Am I to blindly trust your advice?
@Turnip- Thanks for your comment. A big part of my blog is checking out different promotion techniques and then writing about the experience. With that said, it is quite possible that one month I might say that I am trying this and it is working well and then 6 months later I might say that it is not working out so well and I am trying something else. That is the way it goes. In regards to the quality vs quantity aspect of the traffic, as a blogging tips blog, I view every visitor that comes from ad networks as quality targeted traffic. I fully realize that it is up to me to turn them into loyal readers. No offense, but with the 2 new visitors a month I was getting from CMF, it was not the quantity or quality that I was seeking. With Adgitize, the 1,500 visits per month give me a great opportunity to convert a certain percentage into repeat visitors.
PS. I would not recommend blindly trusting anyone.
The larger and more effective ad networks raises their price. They are more focused to the online earning webmasters and are completely out of reach for common bloggers who do it as their hobby.
Is it good to pay more money on larger ad networks or less money on starting networks?
.-= shkhanal@blogging´s last blog ..Promoting your website for small money or no money at all =-.
Hi,
I just started to blogging and never knew vetrans are doing so lot of efforts to stand their blog well. I don’t have that money right now so that I could use any of these paid solutions. But all this information opened a new world to me.
.-= Blogging´s last blog ..Display Your Ads for Free! =-.
i think these ads can be very beneficial for those who really wants to make money but i do agree that sometimes it really sucks.
.-= amy@black friday ads 2009´s last blog ..2009 Cyber Monday Ads, Sales, Deals Specials =-.
Its better to sell private ads if you can sell. I am using digital point forum for searching advertiser.
.-= work at home´s last blog ..Top posts on work at home opportunties =-.
well yes google owns this niche , we all know that but i’m verry happy with it.
he most popular advertising network on the Internet. It is owned by Google, and it allows bloggers to monetize their blogs by displaying contextual text messages.but sometime they really sucks.
I have tried both ad network, but till now I can not make money from those ad network. As my blog PR increase so I am searching for advertiser for selling private ads.
.-= work at home´s last blog ..Link exchange with my blog =-.
i think these ad are sometime might be useful but most of the time they really sucks.thanks for sharing this information.
.-= monika@black friday specials´s last blog ..2009 Cyber Monday Ads, Sales, Deals Specials =-.
I have to agree that the blog networks do suck and I actually have a post loaded for my views on Entrecard and how I think I fit into th Entrecard mix. Good post bro.
.-= Extreme John@ Blogging and Business CEO´s last blog ..Best Tanning Salon in Florida =-.
Hi,
it have a nice post with a good article.Are there any good ad networks for a blog or website? And what is click fraud? Oh and im 16, so adsense doesnt work.
.-= 2free playstation cheat codes´s last blog ..Cheating for fun =-.
Hi Dan. My experience with Entrecard was actually better before it changed hands. Right now I remove it off completely on my main blog and just kept it for smaller blogs to get some traffic. I no longer do any drops..
Adgitize is just about the same. I never bought any ads with them as I think there are more effective ways of promoting my blog. I only have it up on one blog and have not made any money with them yet. Not that I am concerned though.
CMF, never used it.
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..Make Money Online With No Ads? =-.
I second Dana, I have heard numerous case studies emphasizing the benefits of blog ads and the amount of traffic that generates. I am still skeptical to use them. Is it really helpful especially with a niche like mine which is highly competitive.
.-= Mack@Foreclosures Las Vegas´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble =-.
Thanks for sharing all this. I’ve recently started taking these programs seriously and I’m just beginning to truly understand how they work. I find Entrecard and Adgitize (if you’re an advertizer and the $10 increase really took me aback too) helpful in driving traffic to my blog. With Entrecard, I just drop actively and and advertize in popular sites (the ones I can afford anyway) and that seems to do the trick. There might be some part of the dynamics I’m still missing though. With CMF, I still have to see how that works out, but I do think that the 50% tax is a bit much.
.-= Ivy@Spinning Lovely Days´s last blog ..Travel with Baby =-.
Sounds to me that all of these are a waste of time. I do not, nor will I ever use these services. Thanks for the warning, Dan
.-= Jim Clary´s last blog ..Video Article Marketing is a Hot New Trend =-.
I never been test blog ad network yet. Is it really worthy regarding to traffic?
.-= Dana@Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Using Bing Search Engine =-.