Best Google Adsense Alternatives

[emmy]

Hello Folks,

I am thinking of introducing affiliate marketing/advertising to my site and wondering which other adsense alternatives might be comparable to Google Adsense? I know you have Adversal, Chitika , buySellAds e etal

But don't really know which one to go with and XF manager that is preferable to the management?

I am a newbie to Affiliate Marketing and any advice will be really appreciated. Just want to make a dime

Thank you

 

[WoodiE]

All depends on your traffic but you might want to look at other affiliate programs such as clickbank.com. I've found Adsense performs best for most of my sites.

 

[dawg]

Been looking into this myself and so far what i have found is garbage. I have tried.
chikita
Info Links
Vig Links
would also like to hear other ideas.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Been looking myself. I've just implemented, and still implementing, Adsense into my main site... slowly and progressively. Nearly one month and still adding to pages. I've looked around also and found little that really appeals, so one option I'm thinking about is to simply let Adsense run for a few months and then get https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xencentral-ad-server.2427/ or such add-on here, and offer my own private advertisement via hosted page that matches / gives me a little more, than Adsense does.

That way, advertisers can go through Adwords if they want and target my site, which is already happening, OR, if they happen to be in an expensive CPC niche, they may want to pay direct to run their banners and can do so with full stats and such, paying less than it would cost them via Adsense, but still giving me slightly more than Google would.

I looked at other paid sites, and the problem is that it can take 8+ weeks for advertisers to find you, all the while you have no revenue. I'm looking at the best of both worlds approach right now with the above and Adsense... which means if nobody has private ads running, Adsense is doing its thing for me. Either way, I'm then covered.

 

[SelfSufficientMe]

I've been happily suprised with Viglinks on both my blog and forum but I also run adsense.

I use Chris D addon to insert Viglinks it's simple and works well.

 

[jauburn]

Unfortunately adsense is the best thing going, by a long shot, for passively generated income. Unfortunately, too, adsense has many, many downsides.

 

[dawg]

Unfortunately adsense is the best thing going, by a long shot, for passively generated income. Unfortunately, too, adsense has many, many downsides.

Like banning people for no reason? even though the material they have on YouTube is far worse than any forum around.

The OP specifically asked for "alternatives" so far all the replies are pushing adsense which is not what he asked.

 

[jauburn]

Like banning people for no reason? even though the material they have on YouTube is far worse than any forum around.

Among other things, I'm sure.

The OP specifically asked for "alternatives" so far all the replies are pushing adsense which is not what he asked.

And that's telling. The simple reason is that most advertising alternatives suck. (Actually, make that all of the alternatives suck.) AdSense sucks, but it pays. Others suck much more, plus they don't pay much.

 

[dawg]

Among other things, I'm sure.



And that's telling. The simple reason is that most advertising alternatives suck. (Actually, make that all of the alternatives suck.) AdSense sucks, but it pays. Others suck much more, plus they don't pay much.

Unfortunately this is the sad truth. Until someone knocks Google off of their throne this is the way it will be. They dictate the Internet.

 

[Chimpie]

clickbooth.com seems to be doing well. Their headquarters is just down the street from me. I have never used them, but they're constantly growing.

 

[dawg]

clickbooth.com seems to be doing well. Their headquarters is just down the street from me. I have never used them, but they're constantly growing.

thanks for this, never heard of them I am going to sign up now.

also, speaking of VigLink, i have made a whopping $8 this month lol. and my forum has heavy traffic, waste of time.

 

[Chimpie]

They definitely live by the moto: work hard, play hard. They put a lot of expectations on their employees, make them work long hours, but boy do they party.

I've been inside their office just briefly, but the people who work there seem to like their job.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

also, speaking of VigLink, i have made a whopping $8 this month lol.

I'm shocked you aren't running adsense for guests... for the size of your site, that would be thousands a month lost revenue.

 

[dawg]

I'm shocked you aren't running adsense for guests... for the size of your site, that would be thousands a month lost revenue.

My site does not conform to Google's guidline policy. There is no way it ever could, my site serves a certain niche and if i ever changed that to please Google my forums would die.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Why not something like https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xencentral-ad-server.2427/ then?

The sheer impressions you have, at only $1 per 1k impressions for a 350 x 250 ad in posts... privately sold, would be thousands a month. Sure, it would take time for advertisers to find you, but they would... and cheap ad space is usually sold ad space nowadays.

I see so many people trying to charge premium prices for their sites ad space, and they just endup empty, thus they complain their revenue sucks. But really they're just doing the typical, and fatal, advertising mistake... of trying to over-charge thinking their site is worth big dollars.

Looking through a lot of ad space sites recently, eyeing of places for my own ads to run, let me just say that sites charging $1 per 1k impressions, there spaces are all sold, with a waiting list. Placement at $2 per 1k are empty... and subsequently those above those prices, and typically you find Google Ads running in those positions when visiting the sites. Just look through buysellads and places like that... cheap placement for good impressions are all gone, expensive ads spots are typically running adsense because people aren't paying those prices.

I don't think your ad space would last too long once word got around, to be perfectly honest, as your market is quite broad really from an advertiser perspective.

Just curious, more than anything. It's rare to see a site your size not running ads for revenue.

 

[dawg]

Why not something like https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xencentral-ad-server.2427/ then?

The sheer impressions you have, at only $1 per 1k impressions for a 350 x 250 ad in posts... privately sold, would be thousands a month. Sure, it would take time for advertisers to find you, but they would... and cheap ad space is usually sold ad space nowadays.

I see so many people trying to charge premium prices for their sites ad space, and they just endup empty, thus they complain their revenue sucks. But really they're just doing the typical, and fatal, advertising mistake... of trying to over-charge thinking their site is worth big dollars.

Looking through a lot of ad space sites recently, eyeing of places for my own ads to run, let me just say that sites charging $1 per 1k impressions, there spaces are all sold, with a waiting list. Placement at $2 per 1k are empty... and subsequently those above those prices, and typically you find Google Ads running in those positions when visiting the sites. Just look through buysellads and places like that... cheap placement for good impressions are all gone, expensive ads spots are typically running adsense because people aren't paying those prices.

I don't think your ad space would last too long once word got around, to be perfectly honest, as your market is quite broad really from an advertiser perspective.

Just curious, more than anything. It's rare to see a site your size not running ads for revenue.

Well to answer your last question first
when i started the site back in 2010 just like any other forum i was on a hostgator shared account for $5 a month. It was really just a hobby as i had a longtime career already and did this for the love of forums. Been a member or moderator on forums since the 90's. Anyway, as we began to grow overtime i made my users a silly promise back then, i promised them that if they donated enough to cover costs that would be good enough since it was a hobby. The years went by an that was fine and i continued to grow and donations have kept up just fine dont get me wrong. But now times have changed. I find myself working long hours on my forums 7 days a week, member support, donation support, moderating, templates, etc... etc..

It has become a full time job really, so i am looking to get paid for my work now. The problem is and always has been is content, We allow, cussing, flaming, adult content posted with spoiler tags etc...

Most of members access the site mostly from work so my site is somewhat work safe, if you walk by and see my site on a monitor you wouldn't think much of it. So my dilemma is finding advertisers that will work with me. I have good traffic, all US and Canada and parts of Europe. So i can make someone some money they just need to give me a chance

I just applied for BuySellAds, lets see how it goes.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

I did similar actually, same promise... and the same outcome now... and mine is a baby compared to your site, with only 740k posts and 500k monthly page views.

 

[TheBigK]

I personally believe that high traffic communities should directly sell the space to advertisers. That beats adsense hands down.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

That beats adsense hands down.

Yes and no. Adsense is extremely good at what it does, and with companies using retargeting more and more today, your site showing adsense can suddenly garnish a lot more relevant clicks as a result of nothing other than brands using retargeting companies.

If an advertiser pays for the top spot on your site, often visitors become bored of seeing the same site, thus click throughs drop and the advertiser leaves as a result, looking for their next investment. That leaves you constantly looking for your next advertiser/s.

Adwords allows you to target a site specifically, by country, state, city and specific demographics, which most advertisers don't offer directly selling ads, thus the end price the advertiser pays for direct advertising is much higher than via someone like Adwords.

You really have to make yourself cheaper in pricing when you go it alone, as that will bring people in with time. And your system has to sell impressions, and even better, randomised so your visitors don't see the same ads, same sites, over and over, thus click throughs lag, rinse and repeat.

 

[TheBigK]

@Anthony Parsons - I get the point; but our experience has been different. Our advertisers love the visibility they get - and we engage with brands for visibility than clicks. We've been offering custom ad-spots specific to the needs of advertisers and they love it!

We also rotate the banners and make sure that the users don't develop ad-blindness. We haven't seen clickthrough rates fall over periods of 3 months; the typical duration our advertisers engage with us.