Why You Should Choose Adgitize in Light of CMF Closure

With the news that CMF ads is shutting down bloggers are probably looking for the best place to advertize. CMF has chosen to endorse Project Wonderful, but I think there are good reasons to choose Adgitize instead.

To the credit of Project Wonderful, they allow you to target where you want your ads shown. You can research blogs that match the topics you cover and choose to advertise only on those. They are also incredibly cheap, free (if ad publishers are silly enough to allow this) or just a penny or pennies a day. And, not only that, but their engine will track the timing and let you spend portions of pennies over just a few hours. So, ok... it's cheap to place ads, but you have to do a lot of research and requesting.

On the flip side, if you choose to publish ads with Project Wonderful, you are only going to make pennies a month, unless your blog gets a huge amount of traffic.

Frankly, I think it devalues the whole blog industry by promoting the idea that it's OK to receive less than 50 cents a month for a banner ad. That said, I still have PW ads on one of my blogs. It's the one with the best traffic, and even with ads that get cancelled the minute the price goes above 3 or 4 cents a day, I still make about 2 cents a day. Whoopie. Come to think of it, maybe the next time I cash out, I'll just cancel it too.

So, why choose Adgitize? Adgitize is a blog advertising network. It's about advertising- you are not going to get rich there either. But it's a lot less work, and if you are willing to click just 51 ads a day you can at least break even, and maybe make a couple of dollars.

Adgitize serves ads to all the blogs in their system that publish ads. The membership just broke 10,000, with over 18,000 blogs logged. Not all of those are active, but let's say that half of them are. Your ads will be shown on 9,000 blogs without you needing to do anything at all after you create your profile and banner, and pay $14 a month. (There are shorter plans, if you just want to try it out.)

Since advertisers who want to get paid enough to get back their $14 have to click ads, you will get traffic. There is always the argument about whether it is quality traffic. I say, "You have to get people cruising through to have a hope of creating readers out of them."

If you don't want to advertise, you can choose to just publish Adgitize ads and click 100 ads a day. If you do this you will earn a few cents, which eventually ads up to enough to cash out. But, remember, the point of Adgitize is not to make money, the point is to advertise.

You are allowed to block any ads in the system that you feel aren't appropriate for your blog. All blogs are checked by a human being within a few days of their applying to the system, and ones which do not adhere to the standards are turned off. (the biggest issues are original content, no popups or autoplay, must be safe for work, and current material) There are some other customizations available.

Owner Ken Brown says, "We are currently working back through our membership base, now four years since our launch, and are removing blogs which are no longer active or following the standards." That will be a long haul to complete, but it's nice to know that someone is trying to pay attention.

To summarize, I think that Adgitize gives bloggers a lot of exposure for very little work. With only $14 in hand you can start building recognition and getting traffic that will never cost you money again as long as you click those 51 ads a day.


Adgitize

Year End Report- 2010 Online Income

The original purpose of this blog was to track whether I would be able to earn enough income online to sustain life. The big answer is, so far, no.

Earlier, I was reporting the amount earned every day, even though it was pennies. This took way too much time, and was impractical. But, for any faithful, or incidental, readers I may have I’d like to provide a year-end report of my efforts. It's long, but some of you have indicated that you are quite interested. So, here it all is... my successes and other attempts.

There are several categories of income included here: Online writing venues, pay-to-click, and other- mostly blog advertising. I’m not going to post proof of payments... You can either believe me or not, and I have no reason to make any of this up. I will make a few comments about each income source.

Total online income for 2010 is $2666.79. All in all, not bad, but not enough. If I were to write content for eight hours a day I could probably double that, but I would go stark raving mad at the tedium. I’m currently focusing on Shared Reviews, where I think I have the best chance of building significant residual income.

Highly recommended earning sites in green! Not recommended in pink! Your may or may not like in yellow.

If any of these appeal to you, might I ask that you sign up under me? Many sites will just sell your referral to someone else, so why not help a friend? It will cost you nothing. The site names are links, with referral info if applicable.

Online writing venues
for a comparison of four of these, see Comparing Four On-Line Writing Venues
Textbroker: reliable income for decent writers, payouts twice a month. You write, you get paid. No residual income.
date	income	outgo
9/21	$98.03
8/21	$39.07
7/21	$62.71
4/21	$30.82
4/6	$33.52
3/21	$75.06
2/21	$192.75
2/6	$66.03
1/21	$131.24
TOTAL	$729.23
Shared Reviews: reliable income for diligent writers, payouts seldom on time, but always come eventually. Residual income increases as the body of your work increases. See How to Write Excellent Content for Shared Reviews
date	income	outgo
12/9	$102.44
8/26	$64.69
7/26	$35.73
6/19	$40.18
5/21	$55.00
5/18	$36.45
4/7	$42.14
3/29	$33.80
3/9	$15.00
2/18	$51.87
1/14	$60.25
TOTAL	$537.55
Helium: horrible rating structure which is required for residual income, very frustrating. I reached payout threshold, and will not go back there.
date	income	outgo
12/9	$27.88
TOTAL	$27.88
Associated Content: submit for upfront pay (slow response time), or page views only. All carry small residual income which increases as the body of your work increases.
date	income	outgo
12/9	$7.06
11/10	$5.44
10/18	$2.30
10/13	$5.00
10/13	$4.11
10/11	$4.49
9/28	$2.97
9/22	$4.35
9/21	$4.02
9/15	$4.45
9/14	$4.64
9/8	$5.65
9/8	$4.61
8/11	$4.01
7/14	$3.62
6/9	$3.12
5/12	$3.02
4/14	$2.93
3/10	$4.98
2/10	$7.55
1/13	$9.14
TOTAL	$97.46
Seed: I haven’t had a lot of luck getting content accepted here
date	income	outgo
8/17	$12.50
TOTAL	$12.50
Vertical Blogger: was offered two assignments, and then no others
date	income	outgo
2/5	$45.83
TOTAL	$45.83
Advertising
Adgitize: primarily for blog advertising, not income, but advertisers who also participate can recoup expenses and make a little money
date	income	outgo
12/23		$14.00 for ad
12/6	$ 20.85
11/24		$14.00 for ad
11/7	$21.20
11/21		$14.00 for ad
10/9	$16.50
9/21		$14.00 for ad
9/9	$15.69
8/22		$14.00 pd
8/7	$23.01
7/19		$14.00 for ad
6/14		$14.00 for ad
6/9	$10.99
5/16		$14.00 for ad
5/7	$16.97
4/16		$14.00 for ad
4/7	$20.53
3/10		$14.00 for ad
3/6	$18.96
2/7	$17.93
1/30		$14.00 for ad
1/6	$28.56
TOTAL NET	$57.19
Project Wonderful: makes pennies a day, but it’s quite trouble-free, and I did better in the second half of 2010
date	income	outgo
11/2	$20.00
TOTAL	$20.00
Chitika: contextual advertising, similar to and compatible with AdSense
date	income	outgo
10/31	$11.27
4/30	$10.50
TOTAL	$21.77
AdSense: needs large traffic numbers, very strict regulations about click fraud and content
date	income	outgo
5/25	$102.56
TOTAL	$102.56
Private Client
date	income	outgo
12/10	$55.00
TOTAL	$55.00
Surveys
PineCone Surveys: you must be invited to join this Neilson survey site which pays $3.00 for most opinion surveys
date	income	outgo
12/23	$3.00
12/8	$3.00
11/24	$3.00
11/2	$3.00
10/20	$10.00
10/19	$3.00
10/7	$3.00
10/6	$3.00
9/7	$3.00
8/23	$3.00
8/6	$3.00
7/12	$3.00
6/28	$3.00
5/24	$3.00
5/14	$3.00
5/3	$3.00
4/8	$3.00
3/12	$3.00
2/8	$3.00
1/7	$3.00
TOTAL	$67.00
My Survey: I’ve been a member for many years. You don’t get paid a lot per survey, but you don’t fill out multiple questionnaires just to be told you don’t qualify. If you are shown a survey, you will be paid
date	income	outgo
9/22	$40.00
TOTAL	$40.00
Pay to Click
Cashium: pay to click- not very stable (I make about 3 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
12/13	$2.29
TOTAL	$2.29
Neobux: pay to click- reliable, need either basic membership or natural referrals- rented referrals lose you money (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/17	$2.97
9/10	$1.97
TOTAL	$4.94
Buxto: seems reliable- I bought permanent referrals, but payout threshold is $50, so I haven’t reached that yet (I make about 15 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/12		$18.00 to buy referrals
TOTAL NET	$-18.00
Clixsense: reliable, Alertpay charges processing fees, so this was my net from $20.77 worth of clicking (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
1/9	$18.50
TOTAL	$18.50
PalmBux: has had outages, and lost money for some investors (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
12/13	$2.29
TOTAL	$2.29
OnBux: seems reliable (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/11	$2.11
TOTAL	$2.11
Other
Swagbucks: get paid for internet searches- all it “costs” you is that their suggestions are the top few choices returned in the list
date	income	outgo
10/4	$10.00
4/28	$10.00
1/26	$10.00
TOTAL	$30.00
Microworkers: I made cashout and will not return- too many offers are illegal or shady
date	income	outgo
3/12	$10.69
TOTAL	$10.69
Other: not at liberty to disclose source- online employment, not permanent
date	income	outgo
3/24	$600.00
2/6	$200.00
TOTAL	$800.00

Changing My Project Wonderful Strategy- I Did It

My earnings at Project Wonderful have dwindled to under a penny a day. I really have a problem with providing an ad slot for multiple sites at absolutely no charge. So yesterday I changed my ad format on My Quality Day (this blog was not approved), to two single ad slots, with a minimum price of a penny a day. This is $.30 a month, which is more than reasonable. (I can certainly understand why many blogs simply post spaces to rent for a set amount per month.)

I learned a couple of things. You have to make duplicate, but different ad boxes for the two slots. If you just use the same code for both spots then whoever rents the one slot will show up in both slots. For example, I labeled the box MQD1, and then placed the code in my blog twice. What I got was two copies of the same ad. I had to make a separate box MQD2, and put in the code for MQD1 and then MQD2.

I did notify my regular advertisers that I was changing the shape of the ad box, and that I would have to cancel their ads, but hoped that they would consider placing a new ad. Some have.

Now here is a mystery. Right away one of the boxes was bid up to 2 cents for a day. The ad was placed for 4 days. That means that it should have run continuously, and for the first complete 24-hour cycle I should have made 2 cents, minus the 25% commission, which would be 1.5 cents. Instead I made 1.2 cents. Maybe their fees have gone up, and they didn't change the documentation. It wouldn't surprise me.

I'll try this for a while, but perhaps I will eventually just try to privately rent a couple of ad spaces.

Changing My Project Wonderful Strategy

web ad income Dec 28 (6 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.54 Adgitize $.87 Project Wonderful $.002 Clixsense $.01 Neobux $.075 ______________________ Total: $1.50

Project Wonderful Denies Application

As I mentioned last Tuesday I had not signed this blog up for Project Wonderful ads, so I put in an application. That application was denied. Here is what they said.

"Our website review process forms an assessment of a website using a variety of criteria. These criteria include, but are not limited to, suitable content, ease of site navigation, and the website's potential value to Project Wonderful and the experience of its members. Unfortunately your website, at http://justthrowmoney.blogspot.com, does not currently fulfill these requirements."

OK, so I won't get an extra penny a day. It's hard to care. But I am curious as to what elements of this site are problematic. I checked out the standards they use to evaluate sites.

"Adult content" - none of that here
"Sensitive content" i.e. hate speech, etc - none of that here
"Not enough content" must have at least 30 quality posts - This is post #129
"Duplicated content" - all my posts are original
"Clean site design" - I think it's fine>
"Sponsored content" - this has to be the problem. The standard continues

This one mainly applies to blogs. There are blogs which have accepted money in order to link certain products. This can take a few forms: "review posts" (usually with affiliate links), links to other sites through click-tracking relays, double-underlined links on keywords, and so on. We have found that such tactics are very anti-reader and cause any additional advertisements (i.e., ours) to perform very poorly. If you have such posts on your site, it's unlikely we'll be able to have you as a publisher.

I'm a bit shocked at this even so... Of my 129 posts, there is one which is a paid product review, and one which is a paid article. There are no double-underlined links. I don't even know what a "click-tracking relay" is, but I don't think I have any- can't be things like AdSense because lots of PW members use that. I don't have any popup ads. I sure am trying to NOT include "anti-reader" tactics!

I found several blogs on PW that are similar to mine including Internet Report About My Idea, and Indocontest, and possibly more (I got tired of working through the list.)

Anyway... it looks like if you have a blog that focuses on making money by blogging that you won't be approved by Project Wonderful. Corneymans Moneypage was also recently declined.

See Changing My Project Wonderful Strategy

web ad income Sept 19 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.11 Adgitize $.60 Project Wonderful $.02 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.05 Chitika $.03 Microworkers $.20 ______________________ Total: $1.02

Changing My Project Wonderful Strategy

I've had an account with Project Wonderful for five months now, and I've earned $10.46, and spent $3.04 on ads I've placed on other blogs. I haven't withdrawn any funds yet. (There is a $10 minimum withdrawal and a $1 processing fee.)

As I explained yesterday, one site that I had Project Wonderful ads on was delisted. I finally have figured out that the problem with counting visits is that I did not have an ad on the index page, but only on sub-pages. Their system will count sub-pages as part of the parent page, but not child pages at an equal level.

I regularly make about 3 to 5 cents a day on My Quality Day, but the Get Off The Couch News blog often is running ads that cost the advertisers nothing. In an effort to gain at least a bit of income from that page I've reduced the number of ad boxes there to one. That way, every time another advertiser selects that blog it pushes the price up by a cent. And, even though it's not a great fit, I placed it in the Travel category, rather than leaving it uncategorized.

And, I also realized that I don't have this blog signed up with them. So I put in an application (each blog must be separately approved). It can take up to four days to receive an approval, so it will be a few days before I can place an ad box here.



Project Wonderful
Project Wonderful Connects Advertisers with the Web

web ad income Sept 13 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.11 Adgitize $.53 Project Wonderful $.03 Shareapic $.01 Clixsense $.11 ______________________ Total: $.79

Project Wonderful - Connects Advertisers with the Web

Project Wonderful uses a complex algorithm to manage a system of bidding for ad space on web sites. Users don't really have to understand it very much, once you get used to the idea that it really does work.

When I first signed up at Project Wonderful I put the minimum amount of money in an account ($5.00) and bought a few ads to see how it works. You select a publisher based on categories of ads they have requested, minimum daily price, traffic patterns, etc. You also select a maximum bid and an amount of time you want your ad to run.

The publisher may choose to accept or reject your ad. Some will accept any ad, some will accept repeat ads from previously approved sites, and some will ask to approve any new ad. Once a publisher accepts your ad then the computerized bidding kicks in.

The computer will compare your maximum daily offer against the other bids for ads on a particular site on a regular basis. If there are two ad slots, the first two ads will come in at the minimum bid, which might even be $0.00. Talk about reasonable advertising! But the third request that comes in will force the price for one slot up to $0.01. And so on...

When you sign up to accept ads you must first be approved. If the site is a blog it should have 30 quality posts before applying. Once your site is approved you create boxes to hold the ads. You can choose to accept one or more of seven different sizes of ads, and just follow the instructions to create your widget, which you insert on your web site.

For sites which average about 100 hits a day you are likely to get bids in the range of 1-3 cents a day. I have seen sites that command nearly a dollar a day for an ad, but I don't own one of those yet!

Note that sites which get very few hits and haven't had any bids for 5 days will be automatically delisted. You will be notified if this is in danger of happening.

I received personal emails quickly in response to questions. The system seems to run quite smoothly, and historical earnings and performance data is easy to access.

So far I'm pleased with how well Project Wonderful connects advertisers with small time bloggers. As soon as this blog has enough posts, I plan to apply to add it to the Project Wonderful network.

Project Wonderful

web ad income today (4 blogs, 2 web sites): Adsense $1.03 Adgitize $.78 Project Wonderful $.02 ______________________ Total: $1.83 Total to date in April -$4.75 Total in March $4.88