Goodbye, AdSense
I don’t know about all you, but my websites are online to make money. And when one stream of income starts turning to a trickle, it’s time to move on. That’s exactly what Adsense is doing to me, and I’m now searching for alternatives.
I decided to make this a case study, and allowing everyone to take a peek into what I’m doing. I’m sick and tired of watching my CTR and eCPM drop on a daily basis, and decided it’s time to start running some tests. While it scares me, this is long over due.
The first thing I did, which I mentioned the other day, was signing up to an Adify network. The biggest draw here was the ability to….
1. Approve the ads
2. Set my own CPM and CPC
3. Redirect the ad to something else should there be no ads that meet my minimums
The control, really, was what got me. Now the down side is how long they take to approve. I’ve been waiting most the week now, and I don’t like to wait for anything. (Yes, just call me part of the microwave generation – I want my instant gratification NOW lol).
So in the mean time I’m testing some other thing. I’m starting with the recipe site, since I have the least to lose from tests here. My income hasn’t changed a whole lot in the past year, despite the number of page views multiplying by five. (I’m not joking – this week last year I made an average of 50 cents a day with less than 100 page views, and now at over 500 page views a day, I’m seeing less than a dollar. Hmm, no, those number DO NOT add up!).
While I wait for GourmetAds.com to approve me (please, oh please, let me join! I’m begging you to approve it NOW!), I’ve redirected the ads in just the category section to an affiliate program that pays a buck per lead. Having run an ad for this same affiliate on IQ in a place there never was an ad before and already seeing one lead, I’m quite hopeful it will turn into some quick cash. Heck one lead a day would be better than the pennies Google is throwing at me right now, and I have a feeling it’s going to do much better than that.
Anyway, just to recap, I’ll be testing out ad networks that allow me to control the prices, and when those prices aren’t met, I’ll be falling back on either Adsense or pay per lead affiliates (just a few to start, to test the waters). I’ll be sure to post my results after a week or so, and hopefully be able to report more on the ad networks. 
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Kara
Topics: Ad Case Study | 2 Comments »
March 14th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Awesome! Can’t wait to read about your results. Adsense does nothing for me, so I have to expand.
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March 15th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
What if you leave adsense on, but perhaps one small ad (or is it against the terms). Or an even better idea, do some AB split testing, then you will truly know which system makes the most money.
Why is it do you think that the CPM has gone down so much?
I look forward to the results.
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