Ad Networks Today: How Well Do They Actually Perform?

One folder in my bookmarks is dedicated to Ad networks that I have signed up with and actively promote. It's fun to check them all the in the morning to see how much money I made the day before. Some days can be less exciting that others, while some days are filled with surprises. Here's a partial list of the Ad networks I've signed up with, and how they're working for me so far.

1. Widget Bucks - So far I have the $25 sign up bonus, 36 referrals and a few bucks here and there. I really need to test it out for specific niches, I think the movies widget probably performs the best. Clicks have averaged from $0.10 to $0.25 ish sometimes. They better show me how much money my referrals have made me soon, or I'm going to have to stop promoting them.

2. Chitika - I heavily promoted them in the beginning on this blog, gave them the top spot. Placed them, and them only, in the sidebar, used various kinds of formats, and more...but all to no avail. This is one of those networks where you either make it or you don't. I guess I don't. But I, err...never say never!

3. TTZ Media - Started by John Chow, I had high hopes for this one. Sadly since most of the products were only technology related it really didn't work out as well as I had hoped. But don't get me wrong some people are making good money with this, so as long as your content is technology related it will work.

4. ShoppingAds - Delayed reporting and invite only. It's another product by the same guys that brought you TLA and ReviewMe. Since TLA looks like it might go belly up due to the recent PageRank debacle they had to start doing something else, right? I've made more money with them than with TTZ Media though, so again I have yet to completely test it out in a tight niche to get the best results.

5. DealDotCom - $12.86 in commission so far from two products sold. This was great for the early adopters who managed to get a lot of people signed up. Sadly my first tier didn't do much to promote it on their end, hence my results have not been that great as I wanted them to be. They offer some great products though, I might be selling something with them one of these days.

6. Shopzilla - This did good at times, and completely sucked at times. But as you can imagine nothing in life is constant. It's still in beta, what isn't nowadays, but the worst part is that a person needs to perform two clicks before you see any money. Like those "Link Units" in Google Adsense.

7. Google Adsense - Why do they insist on having JavaScripted referral links. Srsly! By far Adsense has so far been the best performing one to date for me on this blog and my other web properties. I will continue to use them.

8. Amazon - I'm actually quite amazed at how well this has performed for me! I had an 80% conversion rate with them yesterday, that's simply astounding! It would have been better if the referral rate was higher than a measly 4%. But hey they wouldn't be the A to Z of everything if they gave all the money they made out to affiliates now would it?

9. Feedburner - I made some pretty good cash with them last month due to the heavy influx of traffic I got. I don't know how they will perform this month, let's hope that it continues to perform as expected. Since the integration of Adsense along with the Feedburner Ad Network all my posts now carry Adsense on the bottom. This was quite helpful actually as the Ad placement looks ideal to me. Only pray that it keeps performing like it has.

Those are some of my most used ad networks. What about you? How has your experience been with any or all of the above networks. Feel free to write a post and link back to this one.

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