Is there any serious competition for adsense?

[Automotive site]

I mean the same model they use as far as publishers are concerned i.e. earnings per click.

You would think Microsoft would be competing to take away share from adsense, but I haven't heard too many good things about them. And I am not even sure they are even available to UK publishers.

The only viable alternative I have seen is Chitika. But Chitika is pretty small and their inventory isn't nearly as large as adsense.

- They have an image next to the ads which isn't always ideal when you want to embed ads aligned next to content.

- They only show ads to search visitors from the US and Canada. What about the UK? Most of my sites get second most number of users from the UK (behind the US) and I am sure this is the case for many other publishers.

The performance of adsense this week has left me in a situation where I wish I could just replace their code with that of a like-for-like competitor. But at the moment we are stuck with them because they are still the best, and also in the hope that things will return back to normal in a day or two.

[netmeg]

No, there is not. Not that is "set and forget" like AdSense, and will still earn. Microsoft's program is still in beta, is not available outside the US (and I've been testing it on and off for two years - the advertisers just aren't there, at least for my niche)

[ember]

No

[HuskyPup]

Unfortunately nothing I am aware of that's as easy to implement or doesn't require billions of page impressions ever day.

I'm in the UK and have tried Chitika and its EPC averaged about 1/3rd that of AdSense and its CTR was quite low if I remember correctly.

I just had a look at my account in Chitika and they're now showing International, I'll see if I can get a chance for a read up on it.

[alika]

Yahoo had a similar program, but it never went out of beta, never went out of the US, and simply closed shop

I use Chitika, and income is about 10-13% that of Adsense. Even Kontera is about the same, even worse.

Unfortunately, there's no real alternative -- except direct selling of ads to advertisers.

[super70s]

I read in here (or one of the linked articles) that Amazon is trying to get something going so there may be a sliver of hope. They certainly have an enormous affiliate base to help them get it jump started.

[Automotive site]

I have actually tried Chitika before and their stats just do not stack up well against adsense. If you have two adsense blocks and one chitika, as far as I am concerned, you are better off removing Chitika and provide your users with less clatter or putting a third adsense block in place of Chitika. This is from my experience of having Chitika on a while back for a few months. What's more, their CTR and ecpm steadily decreased with time.

[netmeg]

The problem with Amazon is that as soon as a state decides to use the Amazon nexus status to tax internet sales, Amazon up and pulls out of the state. (Which means there's no tax revenue there, so it's pretty stupid, but I digress) Even if they come up with a publisher ad program, that nexus thing is still gonna probably keep them out of a lot of states.

[nomis5]

From my perspective there definitely is an alternative and every month it is becoming more compelling. Vibrant Media now earns me, on one of my sites, my most popular one, almost the same as Adsense.

I am also very well aware that the site I sold last year now has Vibrant ads on it. I suggested them to the new owner and he is over the moon with the earnings.

Annoyingly for me Vibrant have a minimum number of page impressions before they will consider a site. My major site exceeds their limit but I also have several other sites which do OK but don't reach their page impression limit. The minute they abolish that limit to include all, then vibrant ads will be on all my sites.

Implementation of the ad code is simplicity itself - it has to be for me because any mention of javascript links or the like makes me run a mile.

The only other alternative I have ever discovered is a private affiliate. That worked very well on the site I sold and I'm turning every stone to find a similar one for my existing sites. When I do, and I will, Adsense will be treated as a very poor relation as far I'm concerned.

I was the all time "Adsense is the best and only" person but times are changing for me in a big way.

[Leosghost]

Depends entirely on where your business is based ..not all areas have the same options available.

[tangor]

The problem with Amazon is that as soon as a state decides to use the Amazon nexus status to tax internet sales, Amazon up and pulls out of the state. (Which means there's no tax revenue there, so it's pretty stupid, but I digress) Even if they come up with a publisher ad program, that nexus thing is still gonna probably keep them out of a lot of states.

Don't fool oneself... G will eventually be targeted just as strong as Amazon, et al., in future legislation. Only reason why not at present is the number of Googler's in White House Livery and the fact that Google has no "taxable" PRODUCT (ie. goods)---but that revenue stream will not be ignored for long, mark my words.

[ken_b]

I have my doubts that any serious competition for a general ad network to compete with AdSense will show up anytime soon. The price of entry is pretty steep.

Niche ad networks might do well is some cases.

[Automotive site]

Isn't Vibrant one of those that offer text underlines (intext)? I find they just clatter up content with an underline every few lines. They might be off-putting to readers. My health site doesn't quite match their traffic limit anyway. I am some 150K page views away from their 500K monthly requirement.

[koan]

I never could justify to myself using those javascript text links (Kontera, Vibrant, etc) on my sites, even if it works. It makes your site look spammy.

[Swanny007]

The next best earning thing I've found is Vibrant. Yeah, in-text links. I hate them but I'm trying to treat my sites more like a business so in the interest of running profitable sites, they're up there. I'm making maybe 1/3 of my AdSense earnings with Vibrant, so it's a nice boost in overall revenue.

I also tried Chitika but that just seemed like too many ads on the page. The nice thing about Vibrant & Kontera is the ads don't popup if you don't mouse over the links.

Oh, and I don't show the Vibrant ads to logged-in registered users. Just guests... since they're contributing less to the site's success ;-)

[frakilk]

No serious competition at the moment. However if Facebook launches an AdSense-like system things could get very interesting for publishers.

[alika]

The good thing with Adsense is at least they let you know of any changes in their policy. They are more open about it

With Kontera, only when I questioned my rep as to why income plummeted was I told that they changed their policy by adding a click delay to reduce accidental clicks.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I'm having good results creating my OWN ads the old fashioned way. I set up an area the size of known standard ads and I write a couple of ads myself using affiliate links related to my site subject. I then run them site-wide. Looks like ads, without the "powered by google", and people click.

Unfortunately I don't earn unless they buy BUT I have full control on landing page/text used etc.

[farmboy]

I've always wondered why Yahoo, Microsoft and others seem to have so much trouble trying to introduce their own product and keep it going.

Is it they are so geeky they just can't introduce something simple that works?

Forget the content-basing, the Interest-basing, etc. Just a blogads type program for the web would seem to have promise. The advertiser and site owner agree up front and away we go - the details are handled by the middleman.

FarmBoy

[netmeg]

Yahoo's networks (apart from their search) were known for being really the dregs of the earth. (Believe me, I know, I used to park domains in it) Bing/MSN has a really nice product, but they just don't have the advertisers; even with BingHoo the old Yahoo advertisers are probably still gun-shy about anything other than search advertising (plus they know full well that they won't get the eyeballs they will in Google)

Without relevant advertisers willing to pay a decent CPC, the whole thing goes to pot.

[eeek]

The only viable alternative I have seen is Chitika. But Chitika is pretty small and their inventory isn't nearly as large as adsense.

Chitika only shows reasonable ads when the user came to the page via a search. If you can, show something else when the referrer is't a search engine.

[centipede]

There really isn't any competition. I know people who have had some success with Chitika, Kontera (text links), and Vibrant Media (more text links) but I think those three are in distant second place compared to AdSense.

Some decent competition in the space has to be coming - online advertising is too big a market to be owned by one company. I don't know if it'll be Facebook or Apple or Amazon or some upstart. Or all of the above.

[nomis5]

centipede - have you tried all three of those in text advertising companies?

Certainly the one I'm currently using is not a distant second, it's a close second and getting closer as the weeks go by. I think it does depend on the type of site the ads are put on but unless you try you'll never really know.

[alika]

I've tried Chitika and Kontera. They are only about 10% of what Adsense earns for me.

Even worse, Chitika emailed me that my site's just been smartpriced. So we removed them in most of our pages.

Kontera's income also fell hard recently - and when I inquired, I was told that they made changes to their clickable area. If I had not inquired, I wouldn't have known about it because they never announced anything; just the income dropped by 50%

[wheel]

I negotiate ads in the range of $25/1000 impressions. Does anyone get that with adsense?

The only reason to use adsense is if you're lazy or you don't give a rip about your website. I've got adsense on a few sites - every one of those are ones I don't care about and am simply too lazy to do anything else about.

[Play_Bach]

Thanks wheel, good to know. If you don't mind sharing, how do you track the impressions count with your advertisers? I'm not sure how best to do this. Do you just tell them you're daily page view average and say "$25 will buy you x amount of days on my site" or do you have a Google Analytics type of page view breakdown?

[Automotive site]

Wheel, Yes I am a bit lazy to go around searching for advertisers. The very few private advertisers I have had came to me rather than me approaching them.

$25 cpm is seriously good. I recently put a CPM network on and they couldn't fill at even $5 cpm rate I set on a pretty high quality health site.

What I am looking to do is find someone who will seek out advertisers on my behalf and I will pay commission. So, for example, if he/she can secure an x amount a month for a banner ad, I am willing to pay them up to a quarter in cut.

Are there any companies on the net who solicit on behalf of website owners?

[centipede]

@wheel - I am absolutely lazy, and that's one reason that I use AdSense. I have 100 web sites and don't want to maintain an ad sales team. Google is my ad sales team. My using AdSense doesn't mean that I "don't give a rip" -- I care about my sites deeply.

@nomis5 - I have not used the in-text advertising companies. I find the text ads annoying and don't think they add value to the site, or help the user. I'm dabbled with Chitika and they didn't touch AdSense on a CPM basis. They recently sent me an email offering guaranteed $5 CPM, but then wouldn't actually commit to that when I tried to sign up. So I'm sticking with AdSense until something better or equal comes along.

[wheel]

I'm not sure how best to do this. Do you just tell them you're daily page view average and say "$25 will buy you x amount of days on my site" or do you have a Google Analytics type of page view breakdown?

openx. It's free. Advertisers buy a block, openx distributes their buy evenly across the available inventory. I might consider doing affiliate stuff, but frankly the couple times I've tried to it's become apparent that I don't know what I'm doing.

Make sure you have an 'advertise' link on your pages, with good contact information.

Google is my ad sales team.

lol. They're not your sales team, you're their ******. Think about the agreement you have with them, how your 'advertising team' works on your behalf. What's your split? Oh, that's right. They don't tell you - you take whatever $ figure your 'sales team' decides to give you, no discussion, no details. Riiiiiight.

Yet for just a bit of effort, you can get both control, and decent pay.

So the answer to the question, is there and 'decent' alternative to adsense is:
if you want low earnings but easy plug and play, then no.
if you want decent earnings, then yes. The alternative is to seek out your own advertisers/affiliates/monetization.

Frankly, if you can't monetize your own work, you might be in the wrong business. I specialize in a niche, so in my niche I know how to monetize - and I'm prepared to do the work to make that happen. When I look at the 'generalists' that I know that are successful (the folks that throw up a site on anything), I don't believe they typically use adsense. The do the work to find proper monetization techniques for whatever niche they are in.

[Play_Bach]

> openx. It's free. Advertisers buy a block, openx distributes their buy evenly across the available inventory.

Thank you wheel! :-)