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Step I: All Advertising networks have an unbridled desire to be able to claim the biggest reach and most unique visitors of any network in the world.  20 million, 50 million, 100 million, ONE BILLION!

Step II:  They continue to pony for top spot and allow publisher after publisher to join their network, with very little emphasis on quality.

Step III: Too many publishers competing for selling their ad space dilutes the market within that ad network.

Step IV:  Advertisers have so many options to choose from they end up basing a lot of their decisions based on price and buy the lowest CPM’s.

Step V: Therefore… YOUR CPM’s totally SUCK!

• my free advice to ad networks:

A) Limit the publishers and choose based on quality instead of just traffic.

B)  Sell out your existing inventory 100%

~Chad

While I’m doubtful that I will have a part II until there is a seriously updated version, I thought I’d leave it open anyway.

So, anyone who has read my previous rants on why I hate Google AdSense part I, and part II might be more than a little surprised that I’m writing this post.

Is there anything really to Love about AdSense? Sure…

1. Anybody is welcome. Yes, if you are super small have almost no traffic you can still get in. It’s like a nightclub that has no bouncers, no age restriction and no dress code. Anyone can get in.
2. No discrimination. All international traffic is A-OK. A lot of advertisers and ad networks are not interested in certain countries, especially 3rd world countries where the value of a visitor or click is sometimes virtually useless. Google wants it and can monetize it.
3. Set it and forget it. Probably one of the lowest maintenance things you’ll ever have to do to make at least some money off any blog. Even if you only do a few blog posts, and give up blogging completely for the rest of your life and never go back to you own site, it still might generate some traffic and money for you.
4. They Pay on time. If you ever have enough traffic on your site to reach that $50 minimum you will get paid, and it will show up each month like clockwork. (Which makes me also ponder…How many millions or 10 of millions of super small publishers never hit that min payout? Where does all that money go…Google Vault?)
5. It gives you a benchmark. I use AdSense as a floor benchmark, I kind of always see it as one of worse case scenario if you can’t monitize your banners any other way. Pubmatic also now has an AdPrice index that gives you guidelines of what you should be earning, and it breaks it out depending on your blog size.

So I know there are tonnes of raving fans…What do you love about AdSense?

1. Don’t hijack the page. Full page takeovers are even more obnoxious and intrusive than pop-ups. At least most pop-ups can be blocked. Never force someone to view an ad. Everyone should have the choice to view or ignore any advertisement, anywhere.

2. Don’t use sound. Banners should for the most part not make noise of any kind. Unless perhaps it is a movie trailer ‘AND’ the user has initiated the action. This means that they have either rolled over it and/or clicked on it. If not, don’t play sound. EVER. If you site using flash embedded with sound, remove it. Nothing makes a user close a site faster than music blaring. (Except maybe un-intentionally opened porn at the office)

3. Don’t go NASCAR. Pick a set number of banners and stick with it. Don’t just keep adding banners because you can sell them. 6-8 should be max. If you have to make more money, up the price instead of adding more.

4. Don’t sell pop-ups! These should have been wiped from the web years ago. They fucking piss everyone off. They are visual spam. They suck, bottom line. Don’t use them. Period.

5. Don’t pretend they’re not ads. Doing a paid review on your site is an advertisement. If you were paid, it is an ad. Disclose it.

More reading:

Top 5 most annoying Internet ads of all time

The world of annoying ads

#1 Change up your creative often: This one is the most important, so I started with #1 first. ‘Ad blindness’ is a common fact with any type of advertising whether it is big billboard on the side of a building or an ad on the homepage of your website. Frequent visitors are going to notice something different about the site if you have a new advertiser with a new banner ad, once they have seen the ad several times or even several dozen times they will start to ignore it, moreover, actually not even see it anymore.

#2 Rotate different ads: This is an alternative to actually replacing an ad, try just rotation multiple ads in the one position. Most publishers should be able to rotate multiple creatives automatically for you within their ad server. Test out 4 different ads for a few weeks and use the one with the highest CTR on that site and others.

#3 Use tracking URL’s: If you’re not sure what traffic is coming from which ad, they you really won’t be able to tell which campaigns are effective. One simple software package is http://www.eztrackz.com/. At the very basic level at least create a reference tag (?ref=) for the URL you use for your ad campaigns. Anything after the question mark won’t affect the URL that the click goes to, but it will show up in your referral logs. (example: http://www.b5media.com?ref=advertisespace)

#4 Know the Blog: Make sure that the ‘readers’ of that blog are the right demographic for your product. Ask yourself ‘who reads this blog?” Sometimes the readers of the blog are more comprised of your competitors instead of your potential customers. Get as much information about the audience as you can.

#5 Get Above the Fold: Don’t get lost on the page, or way down the side bar. The majority of the blog readers are coming to the homepage, and reading the 1st post. If you can’t see your ad when the page first loads, neither can you customers.

#6 Don’t forget the value of branding: Every marketer is always so focused on clicks, CTR & CPC, but don’t forget about the ad impressions. Almost all forms of more traditional advertising are still about ‘how many people’ have actually seen your ad. Blog readers are a little more savvy than the average Internet user, so even though they may not be clicking as much, they do see your ad, and they are remembering your brand.

b5media Inc. Blog Advertising Network

7) Good bang for your buck: Most bloggers are part time and or just do it for a hobby, so any income is usually good income. You can get on some great blogs for as low as $50 or $100 a month. Try getting on Yahoo or MSN for $100. See if they return your email :)

6) Easy to get started: Most medium sized blogs now have an ‘Advertise with Us’ section with simple pricing and direct contact to the blogger/owner or blog network they are affiliated with.

5) Blog readers are power internet users: Blog readers spend a lot of time online, so if you are not marketing your product to them where they live, you are missing them completely. 44% of the readers of our video game channel spend more than 30 hours online each week. (I’m sure a lot of the left over hours are used playing video games :)

4) It elevates your products status: Let’s face it advertising says a lot about your product, and so does the medium by which you choose to promote it. Your product or service will seem a lot more cutting edge being promoted on blogs over the yellow pages.

3) Blogs tend to be read by other bloggers: A high percentage of blog readers actually have their own blogs. This one leads into my next 2 points and the last one being the key reason for advertising on blogs.

2) Bloggers are early adopters: Bloggers and blog readers are much higher on average to test out new technologies than that average internet reader. For example with the readers of b5media’s business channel, 78% own a laptop computer, 58% own an LCD or plasma TV, and 55% own a blackberry or iPhone. Those usage numbers are way higher than the average internet user and massive compared to the average TV viewer.

1) Bloggers are very influential: This is the big one. The powerful influencers are quickly shifting to the small voice. I’m not talking Oprah here, I’m talking about the single parent stay at home mom that loves the book, the 4 hour work week, and hates windows vista. Bloggers are generating dedicated readers and followers that not only test out or buy a product that they recommend, but the readers too are blogging about it. It’s a waterfall of influence if even one prominent blogger likes your product. I reference those to products, because that book popularity was spurn in the blogosphere and Vista was killed by it. Bloggers can make or break your product. Get in front of them early and let your product grow with them…