InfoLinks Performs

I was approached the other day by somebody from InfoLinks, asking me if I was interested in running in text ads on my site. Since I didn't know exactly who they are, assuming they were an advertiser, I replied saying they'd have to go buy ads through Kontera as they ran my in text ads.

She then explained they would like me to try theirs and replace Kontera, I did some searching and it appears that many publishers indicate that InfoLinks out performs Kontera soI figured I'd give it a try.
Within just a few minutes of applying on their site and communicating by email my account was approved and within a very short time ads were highlighting. After the first day I went to look and sure enough, it was a good 30% higher revenue than Kontera was (on average), and the link itself was a direct replacement, color and style wise, with only the InfoLinks popup looking different.

Obviously after one day it's hard to tell much, but that first day was very encouraging. I will report more after a couple weeks.

I Have Finally Given Up On Clickbank

After months and months of effort I am finally giving up on Clickbank for good. I really, really wanted my project to work, but when the products and related ads simply don't inspire confidence, and Clickbank themselves offers very little in terms of tools to make the most of their ads, it is hard to get anything done.

I went so far as to build my own application to manage the database of ads, and allow the user (me in this case) to configure keywords and stop words to query the ads and get a random list of ads related. This helps overcome the biggest problems with Clickbank, which is having to constantly monitor which ads are still running and which have expired, because, if an ad has expired, it wouldn't be downloaded in the daily updates to my application. Secondly, it keeps ad blocks fresh by randomizing the list to help combat ad blindness.

The one thing it can't do, that I do believe most any successful Clickbank users do, is really promote those products in reviews, articles, news clips, or whatever content they publish.

Basically my system made Clickbank operate much like many other ad systems, allowing the publisher to select the ads.

But it was really all for naught, I made very little revenue and most of the products that I ended up seeing ads for linked to one page scam type product sites and such things like that. So, at the end of the day, if the products aren't good, or don't market themselves in a legitimate fashion, it's going to be difficult for any ethical publisher to make much money.

If there are successful Clickbank users out there, I would LOVE to hear your secrets...

WordPress Gets Attacked Again

WordPress seems to be a lightning rod for hacking lately.

For information on the latest attacks on this very popular script, check out this article at RedFerret and also get some tools to help you secure your install.

This is why I encourage custom apps in many cases. While not everybody has the skills to build one, most blogs could get by with very simple tools and things as complex as WordPress actually end up resulting in more holes for hackers to get in.

Read the article, and secure your site today. You and everybody you share a server with, will thank you.

Google Dives In To Behavioral Ad Targeting

Today Google starts it's next level of data mining and personal privacy invasion. Sort of, but I am guessing this will raise some concerns with privacy advocates.

Google is now targeting ads in a new way. Any web site that shows Google's AdSense advertisements now put a cookie on the visitors machine and track what other sites that person visits, as long as that site shows AdSense as well. So, in addition to the content of the page and the location of the visitor, they can also target based on the interests of the visitor based on the other sites they visit. If you visit a lot of technical blogs, for example, sites will figure that interest in to the algorithm when determining bid levels and ads to display when you visit any AdSense monetized web site.

Pretty impressive, but also comes off as somewhat invasive. Impressive on the level of targeting, data mining and and personal information, but invasive into people's privacy. I have a Google Account, so everything I do now ties back to not a cookie, but me personally, in theory. If they don't, it is at least possible.

The cooler part of this release is the Ad Preferences that were also released. With Google's Ad preferences you can also target yourself by adding your own interests. Of course in doing so Google is getting yet more data tied to a person, but at least this way it's the person themselves giving it to them.

I really like Google, so I hate to sound so critical of them, but some of the stuff they do just rubs me the wrong way. I think about the scene in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum (as I recall) was explaining to the creator of the park that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

That being said, if it ups the CTR ever a little for publishers, good!

Google Sued By a Disabled Publisher...and the Publisher Wins!

People threaten this all the time, we see it almost daily, for sure weekly. Some angry publisher that got disabled comes to AdSense support forums and starts screaming about contacting his lawyer. The poster usually get mocked by others for wanting to sue for a couple hundred dollars.

Well, Aaron Greenspan, the founder of Think Computer Corp, decided to do just that, he sued Google and won. He filed a claim in small claims court for a little over $700, and small claims court does not allow lawyers, so they couldn't send their dream team, instead sent a paralegal. According to the stories I read on this subject the paralegal was not even properly informed as to why the account was disabled so Google really didn't have much of a chance.

It is also told that had that paralegal been properly informed they may have won simply because it was well documented from other people that saw the site that the publisher was, in fact, violating the policies for the service.

Many people talk about filing class actions or small claims court dates, but very few ever have, this guy did. I doubt I would have, I mean, how much time, energy, gas and miles on the car does it take to go through with this for a likely losing battle. He happened to win and it may have been intentional, if Google wanted to win, they could have simply documented why the account was disabled.

There we go though, proof it CAN be done.

Microsoft adCenter a Terrible Disappointment

As I stated in a previous blog, a couple weeks back, I was approved as part of the first open beta of Microsoft's adCenter Publisher network. I started uber-excited because I need an alternative to Google AdSense, or, at the very least, want one available.

I logged in to the control panel and started looking through the tool and it was an impressive array of tools, from banner design rotators to test multiple designs at once, very advanced designs with font choices, borders with drop shadows, and much more.

Well, after I added some "properties", which amounts to domains for approval it took 10 days for approval, however, ads are supposed to show up during that time, so I put ad code in. I was testing on a couple smaller sites that, even if it fails, wouldn't cost me much in cost revenue.

After ads never showed up, even after the property approval I hit the support forum. There I find out my sites are not content rich enough, so I am told. These sites are all completely original, and very text heavy, with very little imagery. So, if those site are not content rich enough, for starters, why were they approved, and for second, my God, what IS content rich enough!

Over many, many days I got impressions logged for maybe 1% of actual page views...and I earned a whopping 18 cents over two weeks. The ads that did show were horribly irrelevant as well.

Now, in fairness, there are quite a few very happy users in the system that are doing well, but for two weeks of hassles, headaches and a little lost money, I am personally grossly disappointed.

They do have a tool set that should make Google blush with inadequacy, but if the tools don't work, eh, it's all for naught.