Alternative Ways To Making Money With Your Blogs
Many bloggers rely on Google’s popular contextual advertising program, Adsense, for their revenue. Although, Adsense has been the driving force behind the increased level of interest in using blogs as a revenue generating tool, it may not meet the specific needs of some bloggers.
If you have a blog that produces a nice stream of traffic and are looking for alternatives to Adsense, you may want to consider some of the following options:
Adgenta (http://www.adgenta.com/)
Adgenta is a keyword-based advertising program that allows publishers to insert ads into their blog. Every time an ad is clicked, the blogger is paid a flat rate of 15 cents. While Adsense determines which ads to display based on its own assessment of your page’s content, Adgenta allows you to choose which keywords you would like it to use in choosing advertisements.
This can be a great solution for boggers who have pages that fail to serve up relevant Adsense ads or for those who tend to get only very low paying ads.
Adgenta’s interface is simple and sign up is free. The ads are inserted into your site using simple HTML blocks and the ads are actually linked graphics, unlike the more complicated script used by Adsense.
Yahoo Publisher Network (YSN) (http://publisher.yahoo.com/)
YPN is Yahoo’s version of Adsense and preliminary reports indicate that it may be a profitable solution for bloogers who are unable to use Adsense. The Yahoo system is very similar to Adsense. So, Adsense publishers should be able to utilize the program easily.
Although still in its infancy, the program is backed by a major player, which lends it a greater degree of long-term reliability. Unfortunately, the YPN project is still in beta and you must apply for or receive an invitation to participate.
Ad Networks
Instead of relying on a pay-per-click model, you may want to sell advertising space on your blogs. You can sell directly to advertisers or through the use of an ad brokerage.
If you have a blog that receives a significant number of well-targeted visitors, selling advertising space can be a great alternative to the Adsense model.
Other Options To Consider
- Chikita mini-malls (Chitika.com)
- Text link programs (Adbrite.com)
- MSN ContentAds (coming soon)
As you can see, even if Adsense doesn’t work for your blog or you cannot use Adsense, there are other options available. Adsense may be the biggest game in town but it certainly is not the only one.