Last week, when I explained why I don’t use Google AdSense, Fiar’s comment among others, suggested there would be interest in reading about how I find alternative programs to monetize my sites. Apparently one of the big obstacles of getting away from AdSense is the trouble people have of finding suitable alternatives. And really, that’s one of the things Google has done a fantastic job on. No matter what your site is about, no matter what type of content you have, chances are they’ll have ads that are fairly relevant to your site. However, as I discussed last week, there are a LOT of problems with relying on AdSense. So, with this being Monday, I figured this would be a great topic for this week’s Reader Question Session.

Before I get too far into this explanation of how I do things, I’d like to mention that on something like this, there really is no wrong way to do it. Some methods may take a bit more time but in the end, it’s all going to be about testing so going about it in a slightly different way will probably net you the same result. Having said that, the first step I take when looking for offers for my site is to check out the more popular affiliate offer sites. Places like Azoogle Ads, ClickBank, or CommissionJunction offer the widest arrays of affiliate programs and chances are one or more of these sites will have an offer that fits your site. However, at this stage in the game I find it useful to have as many options as possible so let’s not stop there. The next sites I’ll check are what’s known as CPA (cost per action) sites. My favorite of these is CPAempire.com but there are plenty of them out there. Anyway, much like the larger sites mentioned above, the CPA sites have thousands of offers that all pay you when a visitor from your site completes a certain action. This can be anything from simply entering their zip code in a form, to buying a high dollar product and everything in between. Simply search for offers in your topic area or that would appeal to your site’s audience and pick out a few that you think will work the best.

Of course you don’t have to rely on just affiliate offers or programs. AdSense has several direct competitors such as Bidvertiser, AdBrite, Yahoo Publisher Network and many more. While these programs don’t have the sheer number of advertisers that Google has in it’s AdWords program, they can almost always offer up ads relevant to your site and your visitors.

Once you’ve found several AdSense alternatives, everything hinges on testing. Plug one of the new ads into your site and see how it performs. I usually try to give things a few thousand impressions to really get a clear picture but depending on the offer or your traffic, your mileage may vary. Once you’ve tested one, plug in the next one and give it the same test and so on and so on. I usually like to calculate the value per click each offer gives me, as well as the value per thousand impressions (the eCPM value reported Google AdSense). Some ads are going to attract more clicks or generate more curiosity than AdSense ads and that can skew your results. If you are making $0.50 per click from AdSense, and get 100 clicks a week, you might think an ad that pays only $0.30 per click would be less productive for you. However, if that $0.30 per click ad attracts 200 clicks a week, you’d be losing 20% a week! Obviously that’s just one example but the point is you should test everything and gather as much information as possible. The beauty of this is that you can test all the offers and ads you can find and in the end, if AdSense still performs better, you can always go back to it.

So there you have it, my process for finding ways to monetize my sites. If you have any questions or other suggestions on how to find ads/offers to run on your site, feel free to let us know in the comments below!

Initially google has become a threat to many advertising agencies. Its adwords and adsense search engine marketing can generate money for its clients while sitting at home, if only they know how to locate their niche market. Google adsense is one of the most popular internet marketing program to monetize the blog, but there are times when it is worth considering the alternatives like adbrite, yahoo etc. These alternative internet marketing solutions also capture huge market share for their clients. In this context seo reviews can tell lot about these alternative advertising techniques and methods for better optimization and visibility of your website.

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