Hello all! During the creation of BenjaminCass.com, I promised myself that I would explore the treacherous and deep sea of advertising and release the truth into the wild (i.e. to you, my readers). Although I have owned multiple other sites in the past, I found myself restricted to using mainly Adsense advertising, with no experimentation of new and (possibly) improved advertising services. This is why I made this promise. I wanted to give the middle men a fighting chance.
As you may know, BenjaminCass.com is still in the “baby stages” of its life, so please take into account that I currently have an Alexa rank of 720,601 and an “n/a” PageRank status (although I’m predicted to have a 5/10 at the next go-around). Listed below are the advertising services (and other online money-making services) that I have tried during my time spent here at BenjaminCass.com:
Google Adsense: I am trying to ween BenjaminCass.com fully off of Adsense (I have other sites that use Adsense religiously), and my stats will explain why. For the 15 days that I have used Google Ads on my site, I have had over 1,800 impressions. However, accompanying those 1,800 impressions is a 0.17% click-through-rate. If each click is averaged at about $0.25, you do the math. It really hasn’t been profitable for me.
Kontera: See all those double-underlined words in my posts? Thats Kontera’s In-Text advertising program, a.k.a. ContentLink, at work. During the 7 days that I have been using it, I have received over 1,050 impressions with a 1.39% CTR. With each click a little more than $0.10, I think you may be able to figure out a range in how much money I’ve made. Almost $2. Depressing to the core.
Text Link Ads: Because my site is new and was made after the most recent PageRank update, Text Link Ads did not accept me into their sales department (when I get my PageRank, I’m pretty sure they’ll accept me). However, I am a part of their affiliate program, in which I make money on a referral basis. Unfortunately, I have made 0 referrals to date, thus I have earned a pitiful $0.00.
Chikita eMiniMalls: I recently signed up for Chitika eMiniMalls and placed one small ad on my right sidebar. During its seven day existence, I had over 1250 impressions with a .45% CTR, making me just over a dollar.
Adbrite: Adbrite seems to be the most promising new advertising service on the market. With a plethora of different ad options and super-high payouts, Adbrite lets you control what and how content is shown on your site. See that “Your Ad Here” ad on the left sidebar? That’s Adbrite. Total earnings- $0.29 with 160 impressions.
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yLot: I just signed up for myLot a few days ago, and after about one hour of discussing different topics on myLot, I made $0.24. Although it’s not much, myLot offers a lot more than just monetary benefits. The myLot community is full of exciting new people, and the payout is only one of the many incentives of being a member. Check it out if you have time.
Sold-It-Myself-Advertising and Services: This was by far my biggest money-maker. I made over $80 in one week by selling
my own ad space, writing reviews, and making digital graphics for other bloggers. Again, for every blogger that hasn’t tried this, be sure to give it a shot. Read more about SIYA here.
AGLOCO: After my post and video of AGLOCO, I have received three direct referrals and two
indirect referrals with a total of 7.5 hours spent surfing the net. I rank in the top 27.70% of all AGLOCO users. So what is all that worth? I don’t know, and I won’t until the end. Hopefully something 
.
All Summed Up:
Money made during first 2 weeks of BenjaminCass.com: $88.34
Domain and Hosting Fees for BenjaminCass.com: $95.40
Money Spent on Advertising/ Other: $8.00
Root Beers Bought for Other Sites: $12.50
Hopefully I’ll eventually make some profit! I hope this helped you out if you were deciding whether or not to use one of the services above. Contact me if you have questions about any of the ad services above!
– Benjamin Cass, BenjaminCass.com, Copyright 2007
If you liked this, PLEASE buy me a [root] beer!Popularity: 80% [?]
This is one of the best posts I have read on this topic. Kudos for not misrepresenting as so many do. Do tell us how you can predict Alexa ratings…that is one of life’s mysteries to me.