All posts in Online Advertising

Why TLA (and others) has to follow Google

by Ades on November 21, 2007 in Advice to Businesses, Articles, Google, Online Advertising with 11 Comments

There are couple of reasons why TLA and its counterparts LinkWorth, ReviewMe, and P-P-P… etc should be considering “nofollow” tags.

Text-Link-Ads has been keeping mum regarding “nofollow” tag integration into its text links, while LinkWorth made it clear that it won’t be giving in to Google’s demands.

In its latest sweep Google also punished all the blogs who use P-P-P (and in some cases wrongly punishing those, who merely had mentioned P-P-P in their blog posts, but not actually used the program). This time, Google gave them PR0. What will be Google’s next move? Remove all the blogs from its index? Most probably…

Here are some of the reasons why TLA (and other text link selling programs) should consider using “nofollow” tags:

Not all blogs are JohnChow dot com

There are very few blogs if any, which are independent of Google and do not need Google’s PageRank nor its search engine traffic. Most of the blogs in the blogosphere are dependent to Google, and do not want to be de-listed or banned from its index.

Bloggers are leaving the system

Everyday there are more and more blogs that are complying to Google’s requirements. That means TLA and others are loosing money every single day.

Advertisers do not mind “nofollow” tags

Not all advertisers are chasing PageRanks, some of them just want to get traffic – potential sales traffic. Therefore, they do not care if the link has “follow” or “nofollow” tags.

Personal experience. I made one of my sites Google compliant and removed the TLA script from the site. I also added “nofollow” tags to all the outgoing links. The result: two of my customers came back and advertised on my site directly! They didn’t mind the “nofollow” tags, they told me that the traffic they were getting from my site was more important than the PageRank or the “nofollow” tag for that matter.

Thus, TLA lost all the customers that were advertising on my site, but I could retain some of them. TLA 0 : Me 0.5 (not 1, because I lost some of the advertisers too).

Time to step in

Programs that sell text links (like TLA, LinkWorth etc) might say that they are merely filling in the gap between link buyers and sellers. But the reality is, they are playing (and can play) much bigger role than they think. Because the fact is, currently many bloggers (including me) are standing at the crossroads. They are waiting for a small jolt from Google’s side to make a decision. So far, Google’s actions (especially the last one – giving out PR0) has been very effective on majority of the blogs.

If the next move by Google will be the de-listing of the blogs from its search index. I am sure, over 80% of the blogs will rush to comply with Google’s demands. Then, for text link selling programs, that would mean, simply put – end of business!

It is obvious that the blogosphere is already shifting to Google’s side, slowly but surely. So it would only be natural if the programs like TLA and LinkWorth stepped in to facilitate this movement. The movement of legalizing the text link selling industry, based on Google’s terms. (Search Engine is Google’s, therefore Google has all the rights to dictate the terms.)

Because if they (TLA and others) step in, they will save lots of money. The money that is about to be destroyed by single action of Google. If they don’t step in, then bloggers will comply with Google’s demands anyway – forsaking the current earnings they are making from TLA and other programs. Just like the blogs that have already forgone their earnings, so that they can stay friends with Google.

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My PR7 is gone, but links are still selling…

by Ades on November 1, 2007 in General, Google, Online Advertising, Personal, Sponsors with 11 Comments

In the latest PR update (actually, even before that, in the earlier PR downgrade), I lost my PR7, now it is PR5. Since it was a penalty from Google for selling text links on my blog, I had two options:

Remove all the TLA and LinkWorth text link ads from the blog and request Google for reconsideration. Which, most probably would give me back my PR7.
To keep the links and continue selling text links and doing paid reviews.

You are right. I did choose the second one.

Was it a right a decision?

From the financial point of view, it was a right decision. Because now I can keep making money with TLA and LinkWorth. Moreover, after the downgrade, I sold two more new direct text-links for $150 each, one is LogoMaid.com and another NetRadio.com.

Had I obeyed Google’s demands, I wouldn’t be talking about my new $300 income now.

This proves that, you can still make money with a lower PR blog. It also proves that, not all advertisers are looking for a high PR backlink. Rather they are looking for a good blog (preferably with high traffic) that is related to their business.

New design for AdesBlog soon, plus introducing 125×125 buttons

AdesBlog will be having a redesign soon. Together with the new design, I will be introducing new advertisement options – popular 125×125 buttons. Initially there will be total of six buttons. Fees for the first batch of advertisers will be very attractive, very good discounts are awaiting them. So if you are interested to have your button, please contact me a.s.a.p. It’s first come, first serve. So the faster you contact me, the better chance you will have in securing a spot. book your spot here.

List of PR7 web directories to submit your sites

by Ades on October 17, 2007 in Blogging Tips, Marketing, Online Advertising with 19 Comments

Here is a list of PageRank 7 directories if you would like to submit your websites. Having your website included in one of these directories might improve your search engine results and possibly improve you PageRank too.

Best Of The Web

Best of the web (BOTW) is a directory that was established in 1994. Currently it is offering 60 day free advertising for all new submissions.

Win 10,000 USD! They have a contest going on too, if you submit your site using this Promo Code: WIN10K you will get 15% discount and automatically included in the “Win 10,000 dollars” contest. Contest ends at the end of November. contest page.

Main Directory: www.botw.org Price: $79.95/year
Blogs Directory: blogs.botw.org Price: $39.95 one time fee

Business.com

One of the popular web directories on the net is Business.com, it was sold for $345 million in July 2007. This directory receives over 6+ million monthly business visitors. If you have a company, you should seriously consider business dot com directory.

Price: $199/year
Website: www.business.com

EatonWeb

EatonWeb is a blog directory. When you submit your blog it will be rated based on three rankings: strength, momentum and overall. See here for how these rankings are calculated.

So after being accepted to this directory, you will have to improve your rankings, in order to be shown higher than your competitors.

Price:$24.99/year
Website: http://portal.eatonweb.com/

Bidding Web Directory

BWD is a directory with a twist, when you get listed in their directory, your site will be ranked alphabetically. So if you have a site that starts with letter “Z”, in BWD you still have a chance to be ranked on No.1 spot. How? You need to bid your way through. If you have lots of money you can even get a place on the homepage. Homepage displays the Top10 bidders, currently highest is $950.

Price: $10 one time fee
Website: http://www.webdirectorybid.com

Additional PR8 Directories to consider

You should consider Yahoo Directory and Dmoz.org too. Yahoo is $299/year, while Dmoz is free. If you can get listed in Dmoz, then you will be lucky. Because Google pays more attention to dmoz listed sites in search results.

If you know of any other PR7 or 8 directories, please list them in the comments.

Correct way to market any product

by Ades on October 12, 2007 in Marketing, Online Advertising with 6 Comments

Just like any science, studies in any other fields too advance and improve. Marketing now and marketing 5 years back is not the same. During my marketing class in MBA, there was an interesting discussion about the target profile VS target audience. At the end of the discussion, lecturer made it clear that “target audience” concept was simply wrong way to market products. Why?

Here is why

In “target audience” concept, when we want to market a product we try to determine an audience. Let’s say I want to sell my “color picker” product.

In this concept, I would assume that my target audience is:

People who are 18-29 years old
Males
IT related people (webmasters, bloggers, web designers..etc)

It does sound logical to define the target audience in this manner. But let’s be frank, not all 18 year olds need my color picker, not all males want to pick colors too… some IT related people are just busy with servers (they would say color what??) So what would be the correct way to define the correct customers for my product?

Target Profiles my friend…

In target profiles, you simply concentrate on one person. The idea here is that you single out one person that will need your product. And then you assume that there are thousands of similar people to this person in the world.

So again, color picker example… I would single out “person who uses Adobe Photoshop extensively”. Person who works with photoshop here can be Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Blogger, Programmer…etc As long as the person is a Photoshop user, I am not interested in their profession (age, gender, demographics…etc either) but I am interested if he or she is a Photoshop user. If yes, then I want to target that person!

Because my product solves the problem of loading heavy photoshop again and again when you need to capture a color (code) from the screen. When photoshop user see my color picker, he/she would say “hey, that’s a nice tool. it would make my life a lot easier!”.

Once I have identified my customer, in my case who is a photoshop user. I would need to find these photoshop users and advertise them my product. They can be in photoshop forums, they can be reading photoshop magazine and they can be purchasing photoshop filters (in this case I can contact photoshop filter seller and partner with him, bundle my product or give discounts to their customers). You got the idea, right?!

Once you have identified that one person who needs your product, the possibilities of advertising your products is endless. I hope this post was useful.

Introducing new ad option, 468×60 banner on header

by Ades on September 25, 2007 in Online Advertising, Personal, Sponsors with No comments

I am introducing new ad option for advertisers on this blog. It’s 468×60 banner ad on the header, which will be served sitewide. There are two options for this:

CPM Option – price per thousand impression. The price per CPM is $5.00. Minimum order should be at least 20 CPM.
Monthly Option – price for the monthly option is fixed at $80/month. Your ad will be served together with other banners for the duration of one month. There will be no more than 20 banners in circulation. Currently there are 8 banner ads in the system.

You will be given advertisers account to track your stats (i.e clicks, click-through rates, impressions…etc). Contact me if you are interested. Please check advertisement opportunities page for more information.

ADSDAQ beta is open to all web publishers

by Ades on September 25, 2007 in Make Money, Online Advertising with 3 Comments

ADSDAQ sent me an invitation to their beta release. ADSDAQ is a publisher program where you make money by serving only graphical ads. It’s a banner ads only program. Banner formats available for serving are: 300×250, 120×600, 160×600 and 728×90. They do not have 468×60 banner format. I am not sure why, but most probably because of the banner blindness for this format. I had blogged about ADSDAQ here previously.

The Difference
It’s different from other publisher programs in one way. You can set your own price. You can set different CPM rates for different campaigns. For example, if you set $10 per CPM, then only banners (advertisers) that bid more than $10 per CPM will be displayed on your blog.

It’s one way of controlling SPAM banners. Those IM smiley banners won’t appear when you can control the price, and when you set high CPM rates. Usually those spam banners will have very low CPM rates, something like 0.05 – 0.50 per CPM.

Note: Setting too high CPM will eliminate too many advertisers, thus making your site too expensive to advertise on. So be careful about it.

As for me, for testing purposes I have set my CPM to $5.00. Maybe that can be guide for you. You need to keep testing with different rates, in order to get optimal CPM rate.

The Performance
I had joined the program, and will be serving 160×600 banners on the left column of this blog. After 1 to 2 months I will blog about the performance. Till then stay tuned! ;)

Should you join?
Why not. Give it a try and if it will work out for you, then don’t forget to drop here and leave a comment about it.

Site: http://www.adsdaq.com (not affiliate link)

Will Google buy Text-Link-Ads.com?

by Ades on September 15, 2007 in Google, Online Advertising with 5 Comments

Will Google eventually buy Text-Link-Ads.com? Decision will depend on Google’s long-term strategy, strategy that deals with growing concern regarding the paid links services, i.e services like TLA which offer services to sell text links on your sites. Now there are literally hundreds of them. And thousands of people are using these services.

Google’s Stand

At the moment, what Google is saying is: “Do not use these services. Instead use my Google AdWords.” Or that’s the message what people are getting from their recent war on paid links. Currently Google seems to be loosing the war. Nobody seems to be following Google’s order, only the sites which make more than 90% of their income from Google AdSense are taking a heed.

Google claims that “paid links” are being used to manipulate Google algorithm, be it to get a higher position in the search engine results or increasing the rank of the page artificially – through buying text links from high ranking sites.

To combat this, Google asks you to report your paid links to them, or to add rel=”nofollow” to the links. When Googlebot sees nofollow on any link, it will automatically ignore the link and do not index it. Obviously advertisers do not want that, and publishers comply with advertisers’ requests. When there is a demand, there is a supply!

How to use rel=”nofollow”:
<a href="http://www.advertisersite.com" rel="nofollow">Paid Link</a>

Google says Advertising is not wrong

Google says we are not against advertising, but we are against the manipulation of our system. What that means is, if you want to buy text links from a site with the purpose of getting more people visit your site, or to make more sales, or to just make awareness of your product. Google says that’s fine with us, but please use rel=”nofollow”.

So according to Google, there is nothing wrong with buying text links and getting a traffic to your site. But they have a problem if your SERP (Search Engine Results Position) increases or your PageRank increases due to your purchasing a link (and of course if you do not use rel=”nofollow”).

But that does not go well with advertisers. Because advertisers (and everybody who has a website) want higher SERP and higher PageRank. Because one of the objectives of buying paid links is to improve your SERP for certain keywords, so that you won’t keep advertising again in the future. So that, next time, people can find your site through Search Engines easily. So ordering a paid link that has rel=”nofollow” on it, is like drinking a Coke that has no gas in it (not carbonated). It simply has less ROI (Return On Investment) than a link that can boost your SERP and PageRank.

Google is screwing its own algorithm

By telling people to report their paid links, Google has somehow distorted the meaning of paid links and made it much more difficult to recognize them at first sight. Because now, afraid of being penalized by Google, bloggers and publishers have resorted to hiding their paid links under different titles. People are also using image titles for their advertisement sections, hoping that Googlebot won’t notice it when it spiders.

Has Google banned TLA?

TLA founders seem to think so, since searching Google for “text link ads” do not return any result for Text-Link-Ads.com. They used to come up on No.1 spot before.

Let’s assume Google had banned TLA. Then why would it allow TLA to use its AdWords to advertise the site? Below is the screenshot when you search for “text link ads”. TLA’s ad comes up on top.

You would say, money is everything, that’s why Google allows it. But iWEBtools’ Google Banned Checker service does not think so. In fact, it thinks TLA is not banned from Google (see below).

Also TLA’s official blog does come up first for the search “text link ads blog“. If Google really did ban TLA, then its blog should have been banned too right?

This can mean TLA is not banned, but somehow has lost its SERP or it’s being partially penalized by Google. Probably for selling text link ads. You can loose your SERP for various reasons, one of them is being intentionally targeted by a black hat seo expert.

Summary

Time will show if Google will stop its WOPL (War On Paid Links, I just made up that acronym ;), and if it will eventually takeover Text-Link-Ads.com. I personally believe, Google shouldn’t be acting as a big brother on internet and asking people what to do on their sites. Instead Google should spend more time in their Labs and come up with a better algorithm. What do you think?

First impression counts, Bidvertiser’s failed attempts

by Ades on September 13, 2007 in Online Advertising with 2 Comments

I have probably received these kind of emails from Bidvertiser more than 20 times now. None of them affected me to go back and use the system. This is because when I first signed up and tried the system (some 1+ years ago), I was disappointed with the performance. So I stopped using the system.

Since then Bidvertiser keep sending me different kind of offers, $20 in free clicks, $50 in free clicks etc. But the impression that I got from my first experience tells me that even with this $20 or $50 free clicks, it won’t work. So I don’t really bother to try again.

Do it right from the first attempt

This tells us how people are affected from the first use of any system or program. First time impressions does count. That’s why it is important not to launch the product before it’s completely done.

If it is a publisher or advertiser program it should be tested out properly. And all the program incentives should be properly laid out, and of course the incentives should be attractive enough to keep the members. (You should try to keep the member when he/she is already interested in your program and when they are using the system, and not chase them after they have already gone).

Your experience with Bidvertiser?

Have you guys used Bidvertiser? Any success? Please share us your experiences so that people new to this program can get the idea, what kind of program it is.

TLA’s WP Post-Level-Ads plugin coming soon

by Ades on August 24, 2007 in Online Advertising, WordPress with No comments

I have suggested to TLA about creating a WP Plugin for their Post-Level-Ads service. Post-Level-Ads allows advertisers to buy text links directly on individual posts. Ads appear below the post, under the heading “Related Link”. (see screenshot below).

Currently only way to purchase post-level-ads is, through TLA’s directory. So if you read a post in one of the participating blogs and want to buy an ad on that particular page:

You need to go to TLA’s directory and start searching for this blog
Since TLA do not list the blogs’ url or name, it will be difficult to find the blog you want
It will be even more difficult to pinpoint the individual post, if the blog has hundreds of posts.

What is the Solution? WP plugin of course. Once installed, this plugin would automatically display a text link below every post on your blog e.g “Buy a text link below this post”. This would allow advertisers to buy text link ads on the spot. No need to go to TLA’s directory, and no need to search. Just click and pay! How is that sounds?

At least the response from TLA was positive, here is the feedback:

Tech Support – Text Link Ads

Great! Thanks for the suggestion — seriously, thank you.

We are always looking to provide a better and more efficient service to our publishers and advertisers.

I will try to go over logistics with our development team and see how soon we can get this going. It’s really a great idea and it would indeed benefit everyone.

So I hope we will be seeing the new PLA plugin soon.

What publisher program organizers should know

by Ades on August 23, 2007 in Advice to Businesses, Make Money, Online Advertising with No comments

Often times we talk about what bloggers should do to be qualified for certain publisher programs. And what techniques they should use to maximize their profits.

However we never really talk about the other side of the spectrum. That is, what features publisher programs should offer? Features that are valued the most by most of the bloggers. In this post I will address some of the things that bloggers want the most in a publisher program.

Please do comment with your suggestions and I will update the post. Updated post can serve the publisher program organizers (Google AdSense, TribalFusion, LinkWorth..etc) as a guide on what features to offer in order to be a successful publisher program, program that suits the bloggers’ interests best.

1. Walk the talk – Program should generate real money

There are hundreds of publisher programs that boast in their advertisements, that you can earn a lot if you just sign up and use their system. However when you do sign up and try it out, it will turn out to be a huge disappointment.

Believe me, nobody wants to stick with the program that makes no money. So if you want bloggers to stick with your program, pay them good. If your program is struggling to generate money or if it is a startup, you might want to reduce your own share of revenue and give more to the publisher. Because it’s better to retain publishers and earn minimal revenue in the beginning, than to loose them forever and make no money. And consequently get bankrupt.

From my own experience, up to now I have not used back the programs that didn’t work for me in the past. So, first impression counts, it’s a one time bid-to-win for the publisher programs.

2. Pay Immediately – No Net30 or Net60 policy

Most of the publisher programs do have a Net30 policy. That means you can get your first payment only after you have waited for 30 days. While it’s widely accepted policy, nobody wants to get paid late. So paying the same month (or beginning of next month) makes the publisher program more competitive compared to others.

For example TribalFusion has a Net45 policy, on the other hand LinkWorth has done a great job in paying the publishers immediately, you get paid in the beginning of every month for the past month earnings.

3. Offer more withdrawal options – Not just check and paypal

Check and paypal seems to be the standard for sending out payments for publisher programs. And for some like Google AdSense, checks are the only option for international members. Checks usually reach 10-15 days (with USPS) after the checks are sent out, and it takes another 30 days to clear. So that’s a huge drawback.

And as you already know not all international users can withdraw from their paypal accounts. When you do find the way to withdraw, often your paypal account gets frozen.

Therefore adding more payment channels will only help the publisher program to gain more ground, especially from international users. Some of the payment options to be considered besides checks and paypal are:

Wire Transfer
MoneyBookers
Western Union
Direct Deposit

4. Give publisher some control over ad prices

Some publisher programs like TribalFusion allow you to set minimum CPM prices (price per thousand banner impressions). Setting your own CPM will automatically block some advertisers, and only show those advertisers’ banners, who have allocated budget that is more than your CPM price.

Not everybody wants to show those smiley or flashing (you win! you win! click!) banners. So setting your own CPM gives you some control over what to show and what to block based on price.

5. Let them use other publisher programs together with yours

Unless your publisher program is so good and pays really well, do not include a sentence in the program policy that says: “…you cannot use other similar publisher programs on your site besides OurGreatOne“. Because bloggers want to make money from different sources, nobody wants to place all their eggs in one basket.

Conclusion

These are most important elements in any publisher program, based on my own experience. If you think publisher programs should other important features that are not included here, please write them in the comments and I will include them to the list.

Note to publisher program organizers: You might want to keep track of this post for future updates. It’s optional but vital for your survival.

New study, banner blindness is getting worse

by Ades on August 21, 2007 in Online Advertising, Usability with 1 Comment

According to Jacob Nielsen’s latest study, banner blindness is apparently getting worse. And he says that unethical way of advertising gets better results than normal advertising. For example, study found that flashing banners with fake “close” and “OK” buttons got more clicks than normal banners. These are banners that mimic the system error notifications.

Heatmaps from eyetracking studies: The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas didn’t attract any fixations. Green boxes were drawn on top of the images after the study to highlight the advertisements.

Solution: Ad blending

According to the study results, blending an ad to the content (and making it more like a part of content rather than ad) works better than displaying the ads as ads. I think everybody knows that by now already, because everybody is doing it in Google AdSense.

However it also suggests that blending it too much, might actually hurt your business in the long run.

A specific ad may or may not be ethical, depending on how closely it masquerades as content. I caution against going too far, because it can backfire and mislead users. Unethical ads will get you more fixations, but ethical business practices will attract more loyal customers in the long run.

The study also suggests that advertising through ad networks (e.g Google AdWords, TribalFusion..etc) is less effective than advertising directly on the desired website. Because the banners get less fixation (i.e less people will look at them because of the banner blindness) when advertised through ad networks.

I kind of agree with this, with ad networks it’s very easy to waste your money in a second and get no results. You can easily get few hundred times of banner impression but it’s possible that you get only a hand full of clicks. That said, you can read the full article at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html

Bidclix.com, advertising network is closing

by Ades on July 26, 2007 in Online Advertising with 3 Comments

Advertising Network BidClix is closing soon. If you have account with them and have some funds in your account, then you better login to your account and request for a check.

After this BidClix will be joining DRIVEpm, and you won’t be able to login to your account anymore at BidClix website.

Here are the important dates for you to take note:

July 31st: BidClix will stop serving ads and stop accepting bids from advertisers.
July 31st: The last day you will be able to verify your contact information for payment/refund.
August 6th: The last day you will be able to log into your BidClix account to call reports etc.
August 8th – 30th: Final checks to all verified accounts will be sent.