Non-network advertising

[Kajenx]

Hey, I'm new here, so I hope this isn't one of those questions that get's asked constantly...

Anyway, I started a flash gaming site a few months ago and the site already has some fairly good traffic (about 1500 unique visitors a day) and I'm expecting some big increases because I'll be releasing a new game with a link pretty soon. Now, I'm currently using Google AdSense and I'm not very happy with the payout on it. I'd like to go about getting my own advertisers, but I have no idea how it's done as I'm pretty new to this whole thing. Can someone give me the lowdown on how it all works, or perhaps point me in the right direction?

[ibQuixote]

What do you mean by "non-network"? Many advertisers use affiliate networks which have many advantages over going direct to an advertiser. Mostly they eliminate a lot of manual work, and as a "neutral" third tracking and reporting entity add a modicum of trust. If that doesn't suite your fancy, just do a search on "affiliate forums" or such where you should be able to find "independent" affiliate programs who use various tracking programs.

Good luck!

[Kajenx]

So, are networks usually the most profitable way to publish advertising? I was thinking that because you don't need to pay a percentage to the network, you'd make more in the long run. I guess it's more logical for advertisers to use networks these days though...

[prfb]

This is a very interesting topic for me, too. I agree that for a smaller site in general the amount of time spent selling ads would probably cost more than the cut taken by an ad network.

And yet, for my niche I wonder... the number of ad-buyers is limited, some of whom I know personally. So the effort required to sell shouldn't be too bad.

It seems like there should be ad servers where you can sell your own inventory and they just host it, so that there's a neutral 3rd party to track the # of views and click-throughs.

That said, I don't really know what the options are.

Now that Openads (the former phpAdsNew) is beta-testing a hosted solution, is that an option?

Where else should I look?

Any pointers much appreciated.

Thanks,
P

[rjbrown]

I use a free service from adcreatepublish for my advertisement. It's basically exactly what you said; a third party host that accepts credit cards for you and tracks the number of times advertisements are viewed.

I used to use google ads but 1) it's an eye sore on my website and 2) the CTR is horrible.

Let me know if this was of any help.

[prfb]

rj, Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think that'll work for me. I need a service that would give advertisers confidence in how impressions recorded and reported. An organization with a long track record or obvious pedigree is key. =/

BTW, your "tips and questions" link on the demo page is broken.

Any publishers have experience with this sort of thing?

Thanks,P