Written on October 13th, 2005 at 04:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Adgenta Blog Ads - First Impressions Review
![[Ad]Gentalogo](wp-content/[ad]gentalogo.gif)
After a lot of hints the team at Qumana have launched the AdGenta advertising system for bloggers.
They describe the system as:
‘a post-centric advertising system. Post-centric ads appear wherever your post does: your blog, your feed, and search results. Each ad is based on what you think it should be, using keywords you define, not context a computer thinks up.’
The ads are not contextual ads - bloggers trigger them by choosing keywords - and they are not true ‘text’ ads really as they are image based ads which allows them to appear in both your blog and RSS feed easily. The beauty of them is that you can insert them anywhere in your posts as you wish.
You can see them in action at the Qumana blog.
I’ve not used AdGenta but have seen it implemented on a number of blogs. I thought I’d give some of my first impressions from an outsider’s perspective:
The Positives
There is a lot to like about AdGenta - including Payment via Paypal and a low $20 earning threshold before they’ll pay you. It also is said to work seamlessly with Qumana - a system that I’ve not tested because I’m on a Mac and it’s PC based.
The design options for AdGenta seem pretty extensive - they allow you to have control over 9 elements of your ads - much more than any other system I’ve seen. These elements are - Dimensions, Background Color, Border Color, Footer Color, Gradient Color, Title Font Color, Text Color, URL Color and Footer Font Color. That is pretty customizable stuff!
I’m also impressed that it seems you can track your ad performance on a post by post basis. This to me is great as it allows you to see which are your most profitable topics, positioning and ad designs.
I can’t see anywhere what percentage bloggers get from what advertisers pay - they say it’s generous and that they hope to share the percentage at some point to make it more transparent.
A question that is sure to be asked is ‘Can I use AdGenta with Google Adsense?’
Again on their help pages they write:
‘You can use both advertising programs without violating any known terms of service agreements. So long as you use the keyword field to drive your advertisements, the ads will not be contextual, and therefore will not violate your Google agreement.’
This is quite surprising to me as I’ve heard of Adsense disallowing site owners showing different ad systems on the grounds that they look too similar to Adsense ads - something I would have thought the AdGenta ads were in danger of doing. Adsense’s policy page says that ads that ‘mimic Google ads’ are not allowed.
I’m sure the AdGenta team have done their homework on this and this is a big win for them - however I’d love to get some direct feedback from Adsense on this before I give AdGenta a go.
The Negative
One of the interesting aspects of AdGenta is that they are selling it as something that you ‘don’t turn on or off on your entire site‘ - rather its something you insert in your posts individually. While I can see the advantage of this in terms of uniquely formatting entries it also doesn’t appeal to me on other fronts.
I’m thinking of the day when I discover that the ad design I’m using isn’t working well - or when I decide to stop using AdGenta and where I’d have to go into individual posts to make the changes. Perhaps I’m misunderstanding their system - but I have 12,000 pages of content on my blogs already - the idea of having to add this to all of them and make changes page by page doesn’t really appeal to me.
They write in their Help section:
‘There is no way to remove these ads as a whole, since they appear dynamically generated pictures.’
If I had to pick a weakness with the system this would be it in terms of the way I go about my blogging.
The other negative at present is that non Qumana users can’t use AdGenta - this excludes Mac users and anyone who is presently happy with the way they go about blogging with other tools
Will I use it?
This is the 64million dollar question I guess - will I be trying AdGenta for myself.
While I think there is a lot of positive things to be said for the system I can’t seem to get passed the one negative of having to manually add it and remove it from posts. For me to implement AdGenta across my 20 blogs would be a logistical nightmare and so I’m regrettably not going to implement it at this time.
Of course there is also the slight problem of not being able to use it via my Mac me not wanting to swap from using Ecto to another blogging tool to upload my posts to blogs.
If they can get over the non Qumana user issues I might give it a go on a new blog project that I’m looking at as it will be easy enough to implement on a new blog.
Otherwise - congratulations for the AdGenta team - well done on putting together what seems a professional looking and operating system. I’m sure it will suit some bloggers a lot better than it does me and that it will continue to grow and improve in time.
Written on October 13th, 2005 at 03:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Is Adsense Performing Poorly?
This week I’ve had at least 20 emails from bloggers asking if I (or others) have noticed any changes in Adsense performance.
These types of emails are not unusual for me - I get a number of them every week. Usually about 60% of these emails report per Adsense performance and 40% better than usual performance (I guess people email more when they are worried) but this past week has been unusual because out of 20 emails (a higher number than normal) 100% have reported poorer than usual Adsense performance - most over them referring to a period over the past 2-3 weeks.
At first I thought it might just be coincidence but the emails continue. Today I notice that my own Adsense earnings have been on the slide over this period also - largely due to a poorer than normal CTR. Earnings per click are stable for me and traffic is also (in fact its a little up if anything).
I’ve been putting this down to the fact that I’ve added Chitika ads to my blogs which perhaps have taken some of the focus from Adsense ads (I was willing to live with it because the increases in overall earnings that Chitika have bought are more than the losses) - but in talking to those who are noticing decreases in earnings it is only a minority of them who are trying the Chitika ads.
Others have noticed this trend also - a forum over at Webmaster (Something is Definitely Screwy at Google) world has been very Active over the past 10 days with many reporting decreases in CTR and eCPM. As usual - theories are flying about what is causing it and among the complaints are a few stories of increased earnings - but the more I dig the more I find people worried about their Adsense earnings.
I’d be interested to hear how things have gone for you over the past few weeks. Don’t share specific figures - but are the experiences that I’m talking about isolated to a few (earnings do go up and down over time so I half suspect it’s just one of those months) or do you find yourself in the same boat?
Update: Actually I’ve just done some digging around in my Adsense channels and want to say that while my overall CTR has decreased - that the real reason for the decrease in earnings does actually seem to be a decrease in click value on a couple of my bigger blogs. They have decreased by about 10-20% which to me indicates that the changes (I can only speak for my blog) seem to be coming from either less relevant ads being served or a decrease in the bidding by advertisers for these topics.
Written on October 13th, 2005 at 11:10 am by Darren Rowse
Blogging like a Goose Works
I’m feeling some good vibrations at the moment having just spent the last hour reading email, chatting to a couple of bloggers on IM and taking a look around a few of the private discussion forums that I frequent.
Why?
Today has been one of those days when the feedback has all been good.
- Readers are leaving comments and sending emails thanking me for my blogs
- Two people have just emailed to say that they’ve put suggestions that I’ve made here into practice and have seen significant increases in traffic and earnings on their blogs
- We had our fifth six figure blogging call this morning and a couple of the comments that participants made were really inspirational Things at b5 have continued to steadily (and in some cases spectacularly) grow with our bloggers each doing significant work.
- I just heard about three bloggers who met here at enternetusers who have decided to work together on some projects
I know not every day is like this but it’s one of those days where the whole Blogging Formation - Lessons from a Goose theory of blogging seems to actually be working - not only for me but others.
Cheesy I know - but a very satisfying day (so far).
Written on October 13th, 2005 at 11:10 am by Darren Rowse
Blog Marketing - Chapter 1
Jeremy Wright has just published the start of the first chapter of his new book - Blog Marketing (affiliate link). The chapter is called Blogging Basics.
Written on October 13th, 2005 at 11:10 am by Darren Rowse
How to Use Google Reader
Andy has a great introductory flash demo of the new Google Reader news aggregator (opens in a new window - 1.2MB) which will be useful for those just starting out with news aggregation.
Written on October 12th, 2005 at 04:10 pm by Darren Rowse
Blog Networks - Definitions
Martin has a post asking (and attempting to answer) the question What is a Blog Network? which might be of interest to some. It includes a very rushed and un-thought through response from yours truly.
I’m not really sure there is a single definition for a Blog Network - if you look at the range of them out there - they certainly come in all shapes and sizes and have a large variety of practices, values, purposes and formats.
But if definitions are you thing - head over and have your say.
Written on October 12th, 2005 at 11:10 am by Darren Rowse
Conflicts of Interest
Martin, the guy behind Blog Network Watch, has decided to call it quits after a week of blogging there. It’s not because it didn’t work (in fact he got a fair bit of attention) but because he saw potential conflict of interests. He writes:
‘I thought it would be a major conflict of interest for me to write about the industry (and you now me, when I write I usually go at it full on) when at the same time I have my eye on it for myself. As a journo I just would not feel comfortable with this.’
Conflicts of interest are something that I’ve had leveled at me here at enternetusers (the most recent critique is in this thread) as I, in my writing about blogging for dollars, do talk about blog networks and mention both the networks I’m involved with as well as those of others (whom some would say are ‘the competition’ - not that I view them as this necessarily….but that’s another post).
I thought that rather than letting such conversations happen in the comment threads of posts on other topics (largely between anonymous comment makers) that it might be worth having an open and honest discussion here in a post all of it’s own. I’m not interested in us having a flame war on the topic - but rather would like to think that we can talk about it in an open and constructive manner.
I won’t write a new response to the criticism - but I will repost both the original comment/critique from ‘Mcintosh’ and my response below. I’d be interested in others thoughts.
Mcintosh wrote:
‘Darren, do you believe you should be writing about this seeing you yourself run a b/netork
and you seem to be using your site as a focus group for your own needs. the blog herald also b5, has a post sourcing from you every 2-3 posts? and vica versa
it’s like Bill Gates writing a fair review about OpenOffice
every b/network owner is now probably dreaming of the millions they’ll make and by yours and duncans posts youre probably creaming yourslves.
b/networks will neverwork ‘
I replied
Mcintosh - I don’t think I have any conflict of interest here.
I declare my interests - I try to blog as openly and honestly as I can about what I’m doing and what others are doing and I try to link not only to my own sites but others as freely as possible.
In fact I probably link to my own sites less often than I would naturally do at times.
enternetusers is a blog about bloggers earning money - I think me writing about blog networks is part of that brief. I link to a variety of blog networks big and small - including some that some people would say are b5media’s competition.
This blog is also about what I learn from blogging - if you’re a regular reader of this site you’ll see that I regularly share what I learn from my different blogs. Yes this does give those blogs some publicity along the way but I would suggest to you that the costs involved in telling my secrets are also present. You’ll see me talk a bit about some of these in my Disclaimer.
In terms of Duncan - he and I linked to one another regularly well before we started doing business together. Again - since we started working together I think I’ve probably linked less to him. This is the first post I can see that i’ve linked to him in in 35 or so posts. How he chooses to link to me is his business.
The reason we do link to each other has more to do with an overlapping topic than anything else in the same way that I link regularly to other bloggers like Jen from Jensense.
In terms of b/networks ‘never working’ - I think you’ll find that there are a few blog network owners around who disagree with that - the Weblogs Inc guys being one of them :-)
Since writing this reply to McIntosh I’ve pondered his comments a little and would add the following:
I know for a fact that many blog network owners read this blog regularly - some leave comments publically - others prefer anonymity and correspond via email with me. I can’t break confidences but I know of at least two large blog networks who have significantly incresed their earnings by taking the advice/recommendations that I’ve written here. I’m yet to hear a criticism of my approach to blogging from any of these network owners - in fact it’s quite the opposite.
Having said all this - I understand where McIntosh is coming from and would be interested in others thoughts and suggestions.
Written on October 12th, 2005 at 08:10 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika’s Response to Stats Outage
Readers who have been trying out Chitika’s eMiniMalls will no doubt be aware that on 7 - 8 October they had some issues with their statistics. They reported in the stats area:
‘On October 7th and 8th our reporting system experienced an intermittent outage for a few hours. The problem has now been rectified. Due to this outage, you will notice that the stats for October 7th are missing. The stats for October 8th might also be slightly deflated. However, please be assured that we will make every effort to reprocess the stats, calculate and compensate for any lost revenue. We thank you for your patience and support while we iron out the reporting issues. Thank you.’
I’ve had a number of emails from readers asking what I could tell them about this outage and how they would be compensated.
As I have not formal association with Chitika (I’m just a publisher like the rest of us) I thought I’d approach my contact there for an official comment. This is what they responded with:
we had some log issues on the 7th and 8th.
There are two aspects to this:
1) Revenue: For this, we will compensate people in a “very fair” way. What is a “very fair” way ? Something like taking their revenue from their best day in the month or something like that
2) The actual stats for analysis: Some people are running tests and would like to know what happened. This is less of a priority. If we cannot recover from the log issues, the stats for the 7th will remain blank. And the stats for 8th will remain deflated.
So there you have the official word for those of you concerned with those two days.
I would add that it’s worth keeping in mind that if you’re running eMiniMalls that you are participating in a beta test which means that while the product is working well that there is the risk of some instability from time to time.
Written on October 12th, 2005 at 02:10 am by Darren Rowse
Positive Blogging
Instablogs has been copping a fair bit of criticism in the past few days since its launch a week back. One of their latest posts - Why This Unfair Treatment? - takes a look at a blogger’s argument that they are spam, their latest post explains their Plagiarism episode and a post a few days back looks at the best of the criticism of their network.
I’d like to give the Instablogs team a little more unsolicited advice and feedback (if they’ll allow me to).
My impression of their main blog at this point is that they are getting sucked into the trap of having to respond to every criticism that is being leveled at them. This is something that I see many bloggers do - they get critiqued and feel the need to justify, defend, argue and explain every negative mention of their work.
While I know this temptation on a personal level (I used to get sucked into it too) I would advise all bloggers to be careful of this as it can really bring down the tone of your blog. This is what I sense is happening over at Instablogs. At the time of writing this post virtually every post (except for one that I can see) on the main blog of Instablogs has some mention of some negative aspect of the launch.
I would agree that their launch could have gone better (they definitely have needed to address some things on their main blog) but I would suggest that there is only so much negativity that people will put up with on a blog. There comes a time when a blogger (or blog network) needs to move past the criticism.
After about 36 hours of the b5media launch - as directors we decided we’d given enough air to some of the criticism leveled at us and that we were going to move on to a more positive outlook. We heard the criticism, responded to it, adapted a few things in response to the best critiques and then drew a line in the sand and decided to move forward with some positive stories and hard work in getting things going for the network.
One of the problems of getting into a defense mentality is that you get distracted from the task at hand, another is that you find yourself getting into a negative frame of mind (which brings down your work and ends up being quite depressing) and thirdly every time you buy into a debate about your blogging it seems to bring out more critics and attack.
My advice to Instablogs (and all bloggers) is to take on board the critiques but to move on. Give yourself a few days without defending yourself and concentrate on building a quality network - this is the best defense you’ll ever find to what others are saying about you.
Written on October 12th, 2005 at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
Smart Online Marketing
Yaro has a good post on his experiment to buy a 100×100 pixel ad on the Million Dollar Homepage. The results were disappointing for the investment of $100 - especially when he compares the results of the ad to the results of writing a quality post on his blog that brought in much more traffic for no cost except for the time it took to write it. Yaro’s conclusion might not be rocket science - but it makes sense!
‘The clear answer to successful online marketing is that content is king. We know this. Looking at the big picture content maybe the most important ingredient but without consistency content is not a long term strategy. If you do not continue to produce fresh content then you won’t build on your efforts in the past. You must commit to building an audience using each new piece of content as a building block placed on the previous piece of content. Only by doing this as a long term strategy can you hope to build and retain an audience that will keep coming back.’
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