30+ Self-Serve Ad Networks & AdSense Alternatives for 2010

Entrepreneur or SMB marketer drawing up an advertising budget for 2010? Try this massive list of over 30 ad networks I’ve compiled while browsing around the web. I’ve tried to focus on those that are SMB friendly with self-serve platforms. I’ve ignored CPA networks and tried to eliminate advertising aggregators, and the search engines. Particular demographics / audiences 1. FARK.com – 18-28 year old men – Flat rate text links sold on a weekly basis (through a redirect; they’re not for SEO points) 2. Facebook – The biggest social network has hyper precise targeting. Don’t overdo it though, or you’ll end up like I did once, targeting merely 20 people. 3. PlentyOfFish – The web’s second largest free dating site has an self-service ad platform 4. MyAds on MySpace.com – Self serve banners like Facebook, with similar demographic targeting 5. AdEngage – A variety of formats focused on humor and games 6. Canoe Klix – French Canadian contextual CPC on premium French Canadian sites 7. Adknowledge.com – Social network ads published on social games 8. Click-Share – A variety of demographic targeting options are available, including some not seen elsewhere such as household income, children in household etc. 9. Chitika.com – A focus on monetizing SEO traffic has made them attractive to retail advertisers. General – Most of these are available on a CPC basis, even if the ad format is banners 10. AdRoll.com – Offers help creating display ads, retargeting and other capabilities 11. BuySellAds.com – Blog banners, mostly 125

Yahoo Launches Ad Interest Manager

Yahoo has just rolled out its Ad Interest Manager which according to Yahoo is a new consumer tool which aims to make online advertising, particularly interest-based more transparent.  This, according to Yahoo is one way of building up user trust. The Ad Interest Manager site lets you see a concise summary of your online activity on Yahoo’s content network, so much so that you can determine your level of exposure to interest-based ad served by Yahoo Ad Network. Anne Toth, Yahoo VP for Policy and Head of Privacy, said that Ad Interest Manager will provide Yahoo users/visitors transparency into how Yahoo’s interest-based advertising works as he emphasized that users can opt-out of Yahoo’s  interest-based ad targeting. “Yahoo! is committed to providing consumers with increased transparency and control when they are online. Ad Interest Manager will show users what interests we think they have, and also let them edit and change those interests to reflect the most up-to-date information.” Specifically, Yahoo’s Ad Interest Manager Tool : Provides a central point where Yahoo! visitors can assert even greater control over their online experience. Gives visitors an unparalleled view into the information used to deliver interest-based advertising. Shows the visitor both Yahoo!’s educated guesses about their interests and a summary of observations, along with other information they have provided. Provides a list of specific interest categories that Yahoo! has placed a user into and lets people turn those categories off. Allows people who don’t want to see interest-based ads to turn them off entirely. If you want to opt out of this program, check out the Ad Interest Manager site . Be sure to allow cookies from Yahoo and you must be logged in to your Yahoo account too. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Yahoo Launches Ad Interest

Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam

I discovered a new exam within my Google Adwords Pro Center today called the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam. Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam The Google Advertising Fundamentals exam covers the basic aspects of AdWords and online advertising, including account management and the value of search advertising. I am not sure what promise if any passing this particular Google Exam holds.

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Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam

Affiliate Programs Explained

by Justin Harrison Some companies offer what is called an affiliate program. These programs are also known as associate programs, partner programs, reseller and sponsor programs. In a general sense, these programs allow you to use any online advertising medium to share revenue with an affiliate merchant website, by receiving a portion of their income for delivering customers who result in sales, leads or traffic to the affiliate merchant website. The popularity of affiliate marketing is very well realized now than earlier. This is prominent among the reasons for the high visibility of affiliate marketing programs among the ever growing number of affiliate marketers on a daily basis. Tracking an affiliate member?s activities has become very easy for these companies to do. With today?s technology it is easy for companies to track statistics and keep up to the minute records on income generated via the affiliate?s site. Companies can now use reliable pay out systems such as Paypal which also allows both parties to keep receipts of all transactions. With less time and effort required to put in for profit on all sides, there’s almost no reason to not use affiliate marketing if you have a company or product that needs customers. For affiliate, it’s easy money with practically no drawbacks involved. For the merchant, it’s cheap advertising at a trivial expense. Both sides profit, along with the customers who appreciate tasteful affiliate marketing over the more intrusive and obnoxious forms of marketing. Before we had the net, affiliate marketing was clunky and difficult to use effectively. But now, with online systems of connecting businesses, managing money, and displaying ads, affiliate marketing has really come into its own as a force to be reckoned with. No more is affiliate marketing a second-class marketing technique. In fact, it has become quite possibly the most profitable form of marketing to date, given the minimal expenses and trouble involved. If you’re still holding back on affiliate marketing, maybe you’ll be more enticed if you explore all the diverse options it can offer you. Not all affiliate programs work exactly the same. By diving in to see what the market has to offer for your personal situation, you can find something to tailor to your exact needs. There are actually a large variety of affiliate marketing methods, and the types will depend on how they are going to be classified. The macro level classification of affiliate marketing programs falls under three main categories: pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-play (PPP) and pay-per-performance (PPP) About the Author: Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing Expert and entrepreneur who has built up multiple 7 figure online business and consults to some of leading online brands including Amazon, BBC, AIG and many others.

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Affiliate Programs Explained

Local Online Advertising Spending Up?

eMarketer has published predictions for the online advertising industry over the next five years from two sources with conflicting points of view. Piper Jaffrey predicts a compound annual growth rate of 9% for local online ad dollars compared to 4% for national internet advertising spending. Local Online Spending Borrell Associates on the other hand predicts a much smaller 2.9% compound annual growth rate over the next five years for the local internet advertising market. From eMarketer: While Borrell believes the local online market is approaching saturation, Piper Jaffray indicates in its report that small businesses will begin to catch up with consumers online, bringing significant growth to the local online sector and moving local dollars from offline to the Web. Piper Jaffray considers lead generation the primary goal of local advertising, and suggests that mobile presents a major opportunity on that front. With online search the preferred method to find local business info, and consumers highly connected to their mobile phones, especially during the weekends, the research firm predicts huge growth in mobile search spending through 2012. US Mobile Paid Search Spending “Local lead gen companies will play a key role in bringing small businesses into mobile advertising,” according to the report. “Small businesses need to understand that mobile can be as valuable a channel as online and lead gen players be the educators.” While each analyst has well thought out and reasoned positions, I think both of their predictions will be proven wrong!

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Local Online Advertising Spending Up?