We like WidgetBucks! Why this up-and-coming ad network deserves a close look.

We’re always on the lookout for new ways to monetize a website. We’ve covered multiple ad-networks in the past, but Widgetbucks is an up-and-comer that really deserves a close look. Why?

Well, for starters Widgetbucks ad-units yield 50% to 300% more on average than most traditional ad networks. But that’s not all we liked. Read on for our in-depth review of this promising advertising network.…

WidgetBucks Review: What is WidgetBucks?

Their model is similar to Chitika’s eMiniMalls (covered in our recent Alternatives to AdSense article) with context sensitive ads that feature consumer products in embedded interactive ads. But the WidgetBucks platform stands on its own in a number of interesting ways.



These ‘pay-per-click Shopping widgets’ display popular consumer products (think DV cameras, cool footwear, DVD’s and more) using a unique algorithm which uses data gathered from millions of shoppers and selectively displays products based on your site content. We like this hybrid of a contextual ad and a micro-site. And the fact that the products are displayed with an eye on contextual relevance looks like a solid way to increase click through. (Although we’re not 100% sure how WidgetBucks matches products to site content on a site that doesn’t discuss any consumer products. If anyone tries that, we’d appreciate some details). WidgetBucks widgets also display both CPM and CPC ads, depending on what’s best for the site they’re appearing on..

The Setup

Setup was a snap. One of the things we like about WidgetBucks ad units is the vast selection of configurations to choose from: There are over 300 to pick through, and 256 color schemes to boot. Ads are embedded the usual way, with a small snippet of javascript code embedded in your site. In the account creation phase WidgetBucks offers two methods of payment: check and PayPal. Payments are made at a standard $50 minimum.

First Impressions

One slightly unexpected thing about WidgetBucks ads was the dynamic nature of the ads. The ads continuously cycle through a selection of products The ads are also interactive, allowing your site visitors to explore the ads, which are actually fully fledged sites squeezed into a very small amount of space. The one we embedded included multiple vendors, product ratings, top 10 lists and buying trends. Pretty cool considering it was all squeezed into a tiny space.

But I already use AdSense…

No WidgetBucks review would be complete without mentioning it’s ‘compatibility’ with AdSense: The ads aren’t contextual in the same way that AdSense ads are, and they look nothing like AdSense ads — so using WidgetBucks alongside (or on the same page as) AdSense ads isn’t a problem at all. (WidgetBucks ads are used frequently on the same page as AdSense ads - Ed)

A couple things to keep in mind

Now before jumping on the WidgetBucks bandwagon (and we suggest at least giving WidgetBucks a try, as the network looks like it’s got great potential, and setup was so quick) there are a couple of things we have to mention to make this WidgetBucks review complete:

1) It’s not ok to place widgets on non-English sites.

2) It’s also against the rules to place the widgets on a page just containing a bunch of ads (who would want to look at that page anyway?)

3) Adult content is no-bueno.

4) You must provide a valid domain name for the widgets you create.

5) Click fraud of any kind will get you booted (Duh.)

A possible problem?

Well, you knew there had to be something. (We don’t want to sound like cheerleaders after all). One problematic issue that we see is #4 above. We’re not 100% sure on this yet, and we’ve sent a question to their people to get some clarity on what it actually means. It looks to us like each widget needs its own static URL — which might create problems for dynamically generated pages — and it would certainly be a nightmare for webmasters with larger, established sites containing hundreds or thousands of pages.

Verdict

We like WidgetBucks! It’s certainly a sophisticated network, and the ease of setup combined with the promise of higher advertising earnings (plus the fact that it makes a “good neighbor” to AdSense ads) makes it a no brainer for us. Usually we’re forced to ask the question: Is it better than AdSense? But in this case it doesn’t matter. Using them both isn’t a problem. WidgetBucks has got fantastic promise for anyone blogging on electronic and/or consumer products — where the context sensitive nature of the widgets should make for well-blended ad units

A look at some AdSense alternatives. (Could you be making more money?)

AdSense often represents a small part (or no part) of the total revenues earned by a website. In a previous article we published an exhaustive list of the dozens of alternatives to Google’s ubiquitous AdSense advertising network. In this article we’ll get up-close and personal with a couple of these alternative networks. We’ll tell you what the differences are, and we’ll discuss why you may (or may not) see an increase in revenues with some alternative advertising strategies.

Could you be making more money?


The answer depends largely on your site. In order to correctly project revenues for any particular blog or website we would first need the answers to questions like: What is your blog about? What is your target market? Do you sell merchandise? Does your blog discuss any kind of consumer products? Etc.

For that reason, the question of whether or not any one of the following advertising networks is right for you, isn’t a question that can be answered in a general sense. The only real test is to give a new network a try, and see what happens to your earnings. Remember that many affiliate networks can take time to yield revenues — so “giving a new network a try” should involve at very least a one month trial.

Without further delay — let’s take a look at some alternatives to AdSense:

1) Clicksor

Clicksor is giving Google AdSense some serious competition these days, especially among smaller website publishers. The most attractive thing about Clicksor is that they pay out a whopping 85% of revenues.
That means if an advertiser is paying $1 per click, Clicksor is passing a whopping .85 to the site owner. The primary Clicksor advertising model is “in line” contextual advertising links. A clicksor text link ad looks just like a regular link on a page. If you move your mouse over that link, you’ll see a temporary DHTML popup floating over the link.












Clicksor also offers multiple other advertising styles including “Text Banner Ads”, “Rich Media / Flash banners”, “Pop Unders” and more. It should also be noted that Clicksor’s rich-media banners pay an average CPM of .50, which is significantly higher than the average AdSense ad unit. Webrevenue.org tested Clicksor on some other websites and we were duly impressed. The relevance of the advertising seemed to be equal to or higher than Google’s ad relevance. And the revenue generated in our particular case, seemed to be a clear improvement. Clicksor also offered two methods of payment: Check or Paypal.

One mild negative to the Clicksor network, is that their reporting and management tools are not as good as Google’s. Google also has better control over the look and feel of the text link ads — which allow AdSense ads to blend nicely with existing page content.

2) Yahoo! Publisher Network

Yahoo!’s Publisher Network is first rate alternative to Google AdSense. The network is extremely similar to Google’s and offers nearly identical ad formats and styles. It is believed that the payout percentage offered by Yahoo! is also equal to Google’s.

Yahoo!’s administrative tools appear to be a notch up from Google’s in terms of graphical quality, and sophistication — making site analysis easier and potentially more profitable.

One extremely nice feature of the Yahoo! Publisher Network is the ability to insert ads into RSS feeds, allowing web publishers to profit from sites who re-publish content through RSS.

Like Clicksor, Yahoo! Publisher Network also allows for compensation via PayPal.






3) AdBrite

Adbrite is a large advertising network (over 500 million impressions across over 50,000 sites) which includes in its network such well known sites as Alexa, LinkedIn, Excite and iWon. Also in their network are a-list blogs including The Drudge Report and BoingBoing. Adbrite supports standard ad unit types including text ads, inline link ads, banners and more. AdBrite also features full page interstitial units, video units and special interactive image units called “BritePics”.

AdBrite features an excellent level of ad customization allowing for seamless visual integration with all site designs. AdBrite even allows publishers to review ads before they appear on the site, and if AdBrite can’t meet a publisher’s minimum revenue requirement, publishers have the option to default to an alternate ad network like Google AdSense.

Alternatives to AdSense - An Overview

Most independently owned websites start out using AdSense ads. Why? For starters, no one wants to sell their own ads. It’s time consuming and likely to be fruitless given the amount of traffic most new websites start out with.

AdSense is also one of the two big cpc ad-networks that everyone’s heard of (the other being Yahoo! Search), and Google is a reliable name that people trust. But after awhile you may feel like exploring the hundreds of other networks out there. …Or maybe not.…

Google provides excellent reporting tools, analytics services, multiple ad format options and the option of both revenue-per-click (RPC) and ‘referral’ revenue models. All in all, Google AdSense is a great place to start.

But there are many other options out there — some of which may generate higher revenues for publishers, depending on site content, traffic and a number of other factors. (This site uses AdSense by the way - ed).

How many other options are there? As of the date of this post, I know of over 200 competing ad networks (and there are probably more). Of course, not all of them are CPM based networks like Google. There are affiliate networks like Commission Junction, and Linkshare. There are contextual networks like AdBright and AdKnowledge. There are networks that cater to the grey areas of advertising, like PayPerPost and PointRoll. And there are networks that focus specifically on shopping and product comparison like Shopping.com and PriceGrabber.

This is by no means a complete, or a comprehensive list. I also haven’t included any of the many niche oriented and foreign language networks.

Traditional CPM Based Networks

* 24/7 RealMedia
* Accelerator
* AdAgency1
* AdConion
* AdDynamix / Pennyweb Networks
* AdOrigin
* AdPepper
* AdSmart
* Adtegrity
* Ampira Media
* Bannerconnect
* BannerSpace
* BlueLithium
* BURST! Media
* Casale Media
* Claxon Media
* Click Agents
* Copernic (Formerly MammaMedia)
* CPX Interactive
* Federated Media
* Gold Group
* Gorilla Nation Media
* IAC Advertising
* InterClick
* Interevco
* Joetec
* Oridian
* Premium Network
* Quake Marketing
* Quin Street
* RealCastMedia
* RealTechNetwork
* Revenue.net
* Right Media
* Rydium
* The Robert Sherman Company
* TMP
* Tribal Fusion
* Valuead.com
* ValueClick
* Yes Advertising
* HyperBidder


Affiliate Marketing Networks

* Advertising.com
* Amazon.com
* Axill
* Azoogle Ads
* ClickBank
* ClickBooth
* ClickXChange
* Commission Junction / BeFree
* CoverClicks
* DarkBlue
* DrivePM
* emarketmakers
* Linkshare
* Maxbounty
* Meta Reward
* ProfitCenter
* Revenue.Net
* ShareASale
* Strategic Affiliates
* WebSponsors

Contextual Advertising Networks

* Google AdSense
* Yahoo! Publisher Network
* AdForce
* AdHearUs
* AdKnowledge
* AdSonar
* Affiliate Sensor
* All Clicks
* AllFeeds

In some later posts I’ll be detailing specific features and experiences with specific networks, but in the meantime if anyone has any first hand experience with any of them — or some data for comparison — feel free to comment below and tell us what works and what doesn’t. I think it’s pretty safe to say that no one is going to try all of them, so it would be great to have some feedback from others.