BlogProfit

AuctionAds: Automated eBay Revenue

Jeremy "Shoemoney" Schoemaker and the folks from Text Link Ads have teamed to create AuctionAds, a new automated monetization service for site owners. AuctionAds serves up a feed featuring eBay auctions, with members receiving a cut if the affiliate revenue from eBay. This service looks like itwill work best for site owners who are are looking for a turnkey solution to get revenue from their sites and are willing to give up a share of the potential affiliate revenue in exchange for a plug-n-play service. Shoemoney provides an overview:

A publisher can be up and running with AuctionAds within 5 minutes which means they are making money in 5 minutes. Each time a user clicks on AuctionAds and then completes an action on eBay, the publisher makes money. The publisher makes money even when the user just signs up for a new account on eBay. They also make money when a user places a winning bid. Publishers can also make money with the AuctionAds Affiliate program. Within every ad displayed, a publishers affiliate code is automatically included where it says “Ads By AuctionAds”. The publisher receives 2% of any affiliate refered to AuctionAds.

AuctionAds is reviewed at AdMoolah, John Chow and ProBlogger (Darren Rowse).

Google Allows AdSense on Page Creator

Google's AdSense blog features a post announcing that AdSense ads can now be used with Google Page Creator, the page-building app released earlier this year. David Jones from AdSense Publisher Support outlines the process for inserting AdSense code into Page Creator - which involves editing the HTML code, and is thus more challenging for newbies than the point-and-click AdSense insertion tools within Blogger. If you want to place AdSense ads on a free Google-hosted site, Page Creator's running a poor second.

There had to be a universal expectation that Google would ultimately allow users to monetize PageCreator pages withAdSense. But let's face it, Page Creator is a novelty act rather than a serious site building application. There are hints that its ultimate goal is to provide a front end on GDrive storage facilities (the same product manager works with both projects). Nonetheless, if you've built stuff on googlepages.com, now you can monetize it.

]]> The flip side is that it's slightly more difficult for Made-for-AdSense robot sites to insert the AdSense code. The fact that GooglePages is still open only to Gmail users (unless they changed that)vwill probably serve as a braking mechanism on potential mischief.

Google Cracks Down on Made-for-AdSense Sites

The Inside AdWords blog has bad news for some practitioners of "AdSense Arbitrage," in which site owners buy cheap AdWords ads to drive traffic to Made-for-AdSense (MFA) sites. Google says it will penalize AdWords advertisers who are determined to have "poor landing page quality." Google product manager Andrew C. explains: "Over the coming days a small number of advertisers who are providing a low quality user experience on their landing pages will see increases in their minimum bids. It is important to note, however, that the vast majority of advertisers will not be affected at all by this change, as they link to quality landing pages."

AdSense Arbitrage (also known as click arbitrage) is used by some folks who are claiming large monthly paychecks from AdSense. Lately there's been a lot of bloggers wondering whether the Made-for-AdSense industry is beginning to hurt Google's broader advertising programs. The brainiacs at the Googleplex appear to be paying attention and have responded to those concerns.

]]> JenSense points out that "many of those low quality advertisers might pull their ad campaigns completely, if the new minimum bid price for each keyword phrase does not make it profitable to continue advertising based upon the ROI of their own landing pages. And then they could start using more Yahoo or Microsoft for their ads, meaning YPN publishers could see an influx of these types of ads, and it could plague Microsoft ContentAds when it launches their publisher program."

"If this works out the way Google intends, it will be good for everyone in the AdSense ecosystem: publishers, advertisers and users," notes AdMoolah. "The only ones who will be hurt will be the MFA producers."

Free AdSense Templates Available Now

AdSense guru Joel Comm is is preparing to launch his latest product tomorrow, Instant AdSense Templates, which promises AdSense-optimized layouts for sites using Wordpress, Blogger, phpBB, vBulletin and Invision Power Board. Will these be worth the cost - which isn't listed but likely to be at least $97? There's no way to know based only on the sales pitch, and if Joel is serious about the 2,000 copy limit, the offering is likely to sell out quickly to members of his mailing lists who are willing to buy before they see reviews from purchasers.

For those looking for AdSense-optimized designs who don't have the cash to consider Comm's product, there are a number of free templates circulating. SapiensBryan has released two versions of a theme called "Ads Minded" for Wordpress, a standard fixed-width design and a wider version. These themes feature pre-configured spots for your AdSense ads, including a featured 250x250 square at upper right and a 120x600 skyscraper. A novel twist is the top "navigation bar," which is actually a horizontal AdSense ad link unit. Once the theme is installed in Wordpress, you need to go into the templates and swap in your AdSense code for the placeholders (which are images in a couple instances) to get things going.

]]> Also, if you see ads for AdSense-ready sites with content, be wary of those. They're usually templates that are pre-filled with free articles from article directories. Yeah, it's a quick-and-dirty way to populate a site with keyword-rich copy. But the Googlebot already knows these sites and articles well, as they're in use in hundreds of MFA (Made-for-Adsense) sites around the world. You're not the first person to buy these sites, and unless you're ready to customize each one with an introduction or summary, your site is likely to be ignored by Google.

You're much better off doing the hard, honest work of building your own site with original, unique content. Fine a niche, do your research, and then find a good template/design.

Will Google Penalize PayPerPost.com Bloggers?

The blogosphere is all atwitter about PayPerPost.com and its plan to pay bloggers to run pre-approved advertorial posts. So here's my question - wouldn't this endanger the Google listings of sites that participate? It's very clear that PayPerPost.com's clients are paying for the link from the blogger. PayPerPost isn't insisting on a "nofollow" tag on all those links to their paying clients. Instead, their pitch to advertisers notes that they "have the ability to require a dynamic tracking link for determining traffic or a regular link that will help you build search engine ranking. " The advertisers will benefit as much from the links as the traffic. It seems to me the bloggers are selling the link and their PageRank as well as any traffic that may click through to the advertiser. Only Google has final wisdom on this, but Google's Matt Cutts has clearly indicated that sites that sell links are likely to be penalized in the latest round of updates.

The sites that participate may be taking a big chance with their PageRank and Google listings. That's one more reason not to like PayPerPost, apart from the many objections outlined by others.

Digg 3.0 Ad Revenue Could Top $800K A Month

I was checking out the expanded Digg, and was intrigued by some of the numbers in a thread about Digg users based on a profile at Federated Media, which manages Digg's advertising. In addition to highlighting the all-male geekiness of Digg's user base, it also included the ad rates for each size display ad, along with an estimate that Digg receives 5 million unique visitors a month - with each visitor viewing 4 pages on average, for a total of 20 million page views. (NOTE: The original post didn't account for the 4 page views per user, so we have updated our math).

So how much will Digg 3.0 be making on ad revenue? It's speculative math, to be sure, but let's take a whack at it. The CPM (cost per thousand displays) rates for Digg's new design are $16 for 728x90 leaderboards, $14 for 120x600 skyscraper positions, and $9 for 125x125 blocks. The 125x125 slots often seem to be filled by Google AdSense ads, which will probably monetize at a slightly lower rate than $9 per thousand displays - but not much lower, given Digg's tech-related topics. So let's say $6 CPM for the 125x125 spots.

That works out to $36 per 1,000 page views for pages with all three ad positions. Here's what that works out to based on the percentage of those 5 million monthly page view bearing ads:

100 percent: $720,000 a month

80 percent: $576,000 a month

50 percent: $360,000 a month

Keep in mind that this doesn't include the $800 a week for text ads on comment pages, since the Federated Media profile doesn't provide enough information to make a reasonable guesstimate. So at current traffic levels, the top end could be reasonably estimated at a little north of $800K a month, which works out to $9.6 million a year.

That assumes the existing 5 million unique users, of course. Based on the number of diggs on stories today, it appears the redesign and expansion has attracted a surge in traffic. The additional categories will bring more users, which means that these guesstimates - to the extent that they're even close to real-world numbers - may represent the floor, rather than the ceiling. Of course, it all depends on how many ads Federated is selling, and whether the demand can fill those additional page views and ... sorry. My head will explode if I speculate any more. Anybody else got better math? If so, let's see it.

The Digg-obsessed Jason Calcanis, head honcho of AOL's new Netscape, takes note of the shift to three ads above the fold in the new Digg, as well as the fact that the home page and subject indices stick to a single 728x90. "Smart move... go light on top level ads, make it back on the second level," Jason writes. "We're doing something similar (this is the Google School of Design btw)."

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AdSense Downtime: New Features Coming?

Google's AdSense reporting system was down for maintenance Saturday, which is often a sign that Google is adding new features to the account management interface. Could this be related to the recent testing of cost per action affiliate selling programs? Whatever it is, it's bound to be good news for publishers. In its media day in March, Google’s priorities for the coming year included “building new products and services for publishers of information," suggesting an increased focus on AdSense. Google is also hiring new employees for its AdSense team, including one position described as a "cross-functional champion of AdSense publisher needs."

The short-term impact: a brief scare for AdSense publishers who check their earnings compulsively. "It was certainly odd today to see '0 - $0.00' on my Firefox windows," noted Eric Giguere (who uses the Firefox AdSense Notifier plugin, which is a great tool).

Interview with AdSense Expert Michael Cheney

We've tested a number of AdSense products, and will be reviewing them in the course of our blogging. One of the first products we examine will be a series of videos by UK AdSense expert Michael Cheney. For the moment, here's an interview with Michael in which he discusses his experience with AdSense.

Q. So what made you get started with AdSense?

A. I was looking for a way to monetize some of my websites. AdSense is such an easy thing to get started with the eye for it would be a great way to start earning more money without actually putting into much more effort. I think as soon as you see the first earnings coming into your account you get addicted to AdSense. I know it's what happened to me, and since then I've just spent time working out how to earn more and more each day.

Q. How much do you make with AdSense?

A. Some days I can earn close to $1,000 and others it's less than that. But it all comes down to how much time and effort you devote to creating a quality site that people like visiting. AdSense is not what my business is based on by any means - but it is a great way to earn revenue almost on autopilot.

Q. What is the biggest mistake people making with AdSense?

A. Probably the biggest mistake people make is thinking the AdSense earnings are easy to achieve. It is very easy to get started but as I learned it takes a lot of effort to increase your earnings. I got really downhearted whenever I would log in to my account to see that I had only made a few dollars. And that's when I decided to spend months and months of my time learning everything I could about AdSense.

I basically buried myself away and devoured every single piece of AdSense information I could find. I ran thousands of AdSense tests and started to see a dramatic effect on my click through ratio and therefore on my earnings.

This is why I'd decided to record the videos - because I knew that it would help people who were in my position to also increase their earnings. I've read an absolute ton of AdSense e-book's but they take so long to go through and always seem to keep information back.

With AdSense Videos I knew that I had to tell the story exactly as it is and actually show people and lead them by the hand through the exact techniques that I use to generate large earnings from AdSense.

]]> Q. In your videos you show people how to increase their AdSense earnings - can you give us a taster of this advice?

A. I don't want to give away my biggest secrets as you can understand! But some of the more basic things that you can do to increase your revenues include using ads that blend in rather than stand out from your content. Flat out the worst thing you can do with an AdSense ad is make it look like the standard Google ad. What you need to realise is that you will get more clicks if your ad actually appears part of your site rather than something that's just been dropped into the page.

Q. What would you recommend that someone do right now to increase their AdSense earnings?

A. I've created a totally free AdSense minicourse that people can go through to learn some of my techniques. It takes you through the four cornerstone principles that I've used to build up my AdSense empire. You can check it out, as well as all the AdSense Videos, here: Michael Cheney's AdSense Videos

eBay Plans AdSense-style Affiliate Tools

eBay is introducing a program that will allow websites to embed simple snippets of code that will generate keyword-optimized auction listings from eBay's site. The new program is called eBay AdContext. EBay's system differs from pay-per-click advertising systems offered by Google and rivals Yahoo and Microsoft by linking only to eBay auctions rather than serving as a generic advertising network. This figures to offer web site owners a potentially powerful additional income stream. Read more in USA Today.

Commission Junction Postpones HTML Link Expiration

Commission Junction has backed away from a plan to turn off all HTNL links on its affiliate web sites and replace them with Javascript links. The change was apparently an effort to police affiliates more closely, as the Javascript links would give CJ the option of "turing off" an affiliate if an advertiser had second thoughts about the relationship. The move sparked a strong reaction from many affiliates, some of whom started a petition drive opposing the change, which quickly gained more than 180 signatories.

Tonight Commission Junction informed affiliates that it was delaying the expiration of HTML links. While the new Javascript system will become available June 23 as planned, pre-existing HTML links on affiliate sites will continue working into at least early 2007.

]]> "At this time we have not scheduled a date for which the Legacy links will no longer be available or supported," Commission Junction said. "We will notify you at least six months in advance of making this change and will not require the change during the 2006 holiday season.

"We are confident that the features delivered with the LMI (Link Management Initiative) will provide long-term opportunity and success for your program. We recommend taking the additional time provided to understand the changes and continue to build sustainable relationships in the CJ Marketplace."

Are the protesting affiliates appeased? Not entirely, but the issue may be viewed differentlky once affiliates have had a chance to test-drive the Javscript links.

Optimizing AdSense Performance on Blogs

Duncan Riley at the Blog Herald has been analyzing the performance of the advertising on his Weblog Empire network, and has posted his conclusions about optimizing ad performance on blogs. Some of his findings are pretty well established (i.e. tight niches perform better on AdSense) but there were also some surprises. Duncan writes:

It really, really surprised me how many days I?d look at the stats and see clickthrus from Adsense ads on pages here at the Blog Herald that are so old I don?t even remember writing them! And sometimes the CTR is higher on these pages as well. Perhaps the Adsense ad was more relevant that the 2 year old content? who knows!

I've seen this phenomenon as well with older posts on offbeat topics. I still get a steady stream of traffic from a series of posts on cryptozoology (one of my more oddball interests) on my Technosponge blog.

Check out Duncan's findings, and see how they compare with your experience.

Google Wallet as Pay Per Sale Play?

Michael Nguyen wonders if Google plans to use Google Wallet to become a centralized affiliate marketing hub by offering in-house pay-per-sale tracking and processing:

But I think Google�s initial use of a payment system is to add a pay-per-sale model to their current pay-per-click advertising network. Merchants using AdWords to advertise and Google Wallet to process their sales will be able to track which ads lead directly to sales and at what cost. Merchants will be able to tap into the power of large scale affiliate marketing (ala Commission Junction). Publishers can then choose between which model to promote - AdSense for clicks or AdSense for sales.

An intriguing prospect, and one that makes a lot of sense. If that's not part of the plans, it will be now. Link via Threadwatch

Woeful Click Rates for AdSense RSS?

Tris Hussey at Qumana reports that AdSense for RSS isn't working very well, as he and a number of bloggers using the service are finding very low click-through rates. The bloggers cited include Robin Good, a new media luminary who has strong content and traffic. Meanwhile, the ThreadWatch team reports ad-saturated RSS feeds, some with up three AdSense ads among the first 10 entries. We're in the early stages of RSS advertising, so it could just be a matter of working the bugs out. Or maybe Dave Winer is right after all. Anyone have RSS advertising success stories to report?

BlogAds NanoNetworks Multiplying

A couple months back BlogAds began bundling blogs together into topical networks, offering advertisers a way to spread a campaign across many blogs in a specific market niche with a single ad buy. The concept got rolling in late February with a network of New York blogs, and regional networks for Philadelphia, North Carolina, Los Angeles and New England soon followed. There are now topical networks that aggregate blogs about TV, economics, food, Evangelical Christianity and baseball. The newest network is the Gadget Blogs Network, which includes our GameJournalism.com.

]]> In each case, the network has been "catalyzed" by an individual blogger who takes the lead in organizing member sites. Amy Langfield got the ball rolling with the NYC blogs. BlogAds founder Henry Copeland describes the opportunity on his blog:

"Smart bloggers small and large agree that the ONLY way to grab a significant chunk of the $250 billion spent annually on advertising in the US is to band together. What's been true of blog content will also be true of blogads: a single blog is an easily ignored ant - 100,000 ants together is an unignorable hive."

The network concept is familiar, having been pioneered by the Web 1.0 banner ad networks such as DoubleClick. But DoubleClick didn't care a fig about your site if it had less than 1 million page views a month. The BlogAds nanonetworks offer a model that can work for both niche blogs with modest traffic as well as advertisers, who realize that the targeting available through blogs is a better investment than the CPM-based campaigns of yore.

Optimizing AdSense: Google Offers 'Heatmap'

Which Google AdSense display size produces the best click-through rate? Where should I place the ads on my web page? Which text colors should you use? AdSense is the economic engine driving revenue on thousands of blogs and niche web sites, so it's an important issue. Even high-traffic bloggers like Wil Wheaton wrestle with the best way to optimize for AdSense.

Google has now posted a page of tips to help optimize AdSense, featuring a visual "heatmap" highlighting the ad placements with the best click-through rates. Newspapers have long used heatmap technology to analyze their layouts, using "eyetracking" technology to learn which design features draw readers' attention, and which parts of a particular news page are read first (the Poynter Institute has summarized many of these findings for news web sites in its Eyetrack 2004 research). Now Google is offering similar information to AdSense publishers.