I’m out to prove that you can make $1,000 per month by blogging on your own!
If you’re a frequent visitor to SiteFever, you’ll notice something different about the way it looks today… I’m not using any ad networks!
Many bloggers trying to earn some money from their sites turn to a variety of different ad networks and affiliate programs to help them monetize their blog. Here’s what I have been using on SiteFever:
Google AdSense
Kontera
Text-Link-Ads
AuctionAds
ReviewMe
Don’t get me wrong- these can be great sources of revenue; however, I’m going to prove to you that you don’t have to rely on these ad networks in order to monetize your blog. In fact, in many instances you can make even more money on your own!
First, let’s look at a breakdown of the commissions taken by the ad networks I have been using:
Google AdSense – PPC
Kontera – PPC
Text-Link-Ads – 50%
AuctionAds – 25-50% (eBay payouts)
ReviewMe – 50%
If you were taxed 50 cents on the dollar for a gallon of gas, or if you had a 50% tax on you utility bill each month, your head would probably go through the roof! Many ad networks take a very high percentage of your earnings as their overhead. You can keep 100% of your earnings by cutting out the middleman.
But Can I Still Attract Advertisers?
Sure! You’re offering the same exact service, aren’t you? As a matter of fact, when you sell your own ads, your advertisers will usually be your readers rather than random businesses that don’t even know you exist- such as is the case with ad networks such as AdSense and Kontera. And when your readers are the bulk of your advertising, they now have a reason to help you promote your site- because in turn, it promotes theirs! So now you gain more reader loyalty, and you can’t put a price on that.
Prove It!
Now I’m going to put my money where my mouth is. I’ve already removed all the ad networks and affiliate advertising from SiteFever.com. The rest is in your hands!
I’ve setup an advertising page where you can read all the stats about SiteFever.com along with the different advertising methods you can take advantage of, so be sure to check it out. Any advertising you purchase on SiteFever.com will come with live stats which will breakdown the number of impressions and clicks each ad has received along with automatic click-through rate (CTR) calculations. I offer impression based, click based and time based advertising opportunities on this blog.
To keep track of the progress, I’ve created a “SiteFever-O-Meter” which you’ll notice on the right side of your screen. This will keep track of how much average monthly revenue is being generated by this site without the use of any ad networks or affiliate links. We’ll start at $0 and work our way up to $1,000 per month. You can track the results by checking back often or subscribing to our RSS feed through your favorite reader or via e-mail.
Feel free to spread the word by linking to this article. Will it work? Only a month will tell! How much income can I generate on my own? That depends on you!
If you haven’t already downloaded my free 22 page PDF Blog Traffic Made Easy, be sure to check it out! It gives a ton of tips on how to attract hundreds of daily visitors to your blog without paying a penny for it!
i dont know if anyone else is doin this… great idea! Once i get my blog finished ill have to get you to review it. Cant wait to see how it goes!
[…] dont have to rely on these ad networks in order to monetize your blog. In fact, in many source: You Can Succeed Without Ad Networks & Ill P…, SiteFever.com- Improve Your Online […]
Well not quite – you are becoming your own ad network. There is every reason to make more money from it – no one takes a 50% cut out of your revenue, and you get to set your own prices! Charge at least as much as AdSense used to make in a particular spot, and you’re already in the win!
The problem as you pointed out is now finding the advertisers yourself. So.. how does this investment of your efforts compare to ad network’s cut?
I don’t remember what blog it was but people were talking about selling their links at eBay. I should work like a charm and you get to keep almost (except for ebay fee) all to yourself.
@Mikael:
It wasn’t this article was it? http://sitefever.com/top-10-most-unusual-but-effective-methods-to-increase-your-website-traffic/
(Tip #8)
thats sweet, private ad sales will make much more money than google or any other companies. I look foward to seeing how well this turns out for you!
Ad networks are becoming rich due to lack of marketing skill and awareness. My hats off to you J for showing others ‘the light’ at the end of the blogging monetization tunnel.
-Paul
Great blog man, I subscribed!
I am also using adsense and kontera, I was thinking about selling individual ad’s or even product. I am blogging about skiing, more so backyard skiing and feature backyard ski aras of the week.
Any ideas on selling this or making money other than networks?
@shaun: Stay tuned… I’ll be posting regular updates. At the end of 1 month I’ll post a graph comparison of my income with in-house ads vs. ad networks.
@Paul: Thanks!
@Travis: Thanks for subscribing! I honestly believe that most people can make more without them. Check back to see how I do! Maybe you’ll want to give it a shot yourself.
– John
Very interesting idea John, I will keep an eye out on your website for sure!
I still can’t understand why so many people like Kontera though, these adds are annoying when you read large articles and at once such an ad pops up right in the middle of the text.
But for starters like me, I think Google Adsense and those alike are ok to start experimenting with.
Maxmint
The opportunity is there to make more money, just depends if you can get the advertisers…. good luck!
Good luck with the experiment…
[…] people are following my project of managing all ads in-house insetead of relying on the ad networks to do everything for me (and take their large commissions). […]
It is actually very interesting to read about this, but I read the whole article and I still can’t find any convincing way to get more advertisers to review the ads at your blog.
Here’s how I see it, an advertiser can target hi/her advertising to hundreds of different sites at one click with very good precision just using the adwords panel, why would an advertiser want to go through all the trouble of submitting the ads to hundreds of sites manually, all with different payment systems all with different tracking methods.
I would love some more info on how you are doing it all.
http://www.markettreasure.com
[…] people are following my project of managing all ads in-house insetead of relying on the ad networks to do everything for me (and take their large commissions). […]
Good luck with your experiment… Thanks for share your tips
[…] seems to be a lot of interest from everyone wanting to see how the blog income has been going since I ditched all ad networks from […]
[…] Robinson wants to prove that you can succeed without the help of any ad networks. He has removed every advertising networks […]
[…] Robinson wants to prove that you can succeed without the help of any ad networks. He has removed every advertising networks […]
[…] Robinson wants to prove that you can succeed without the help of any ad networks. He has removed every advertising networks […]
I’ve been on this for ages!
Come over and I might just give you a deal
I am going to keep watching – I agree that you can succeed without ad networks, but honestly – don’t you think you are better off leveraging networks to help you?
@Eric:
Now, now Eric… have we learned nothing at all?
Would I have stood out at all if I just mixed the ads 50/50? Would you have found SiteFever.com if I didn’t take the leap and remove ALL ads from my blog? Most likely, not.
So I miss out on a few cents per week of ad network income in exchange for the publicity of being the guy who removed them all. It’s an easy decision for me to make, really.
Very cool, and I hope you reach your goal. I need to put more time into my advertising page and hopefully I can start getting some private ad sales. My goal is take out all my Ad Networks like Google and Kontera, but only after I am making a decent amount from Private Ad Sales.
I certainly see the tide turning with this type of monetization. As more sites handle their advertising in-house I think things can only get better. Site owners get a bigger slice of the pie and advertisers learn to respect channels that don’t involve networks.
It is going to be tough to have a steady $1k a month with the traffic your receive, but it is not impossible. Wish you all the best.
Great idea, from both a blog topic and business standpoint. I have been planning to replace ad networks in favor of direct ads on a lot of my sites… just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
Good luck meeting your goal. I’m sure you’ll get there.
[…] Robinson wants to prove that you can succeed without the help of any ad networks. He has removed every advertising networks […]
Is there a wordpress plugin that will help you run and track the ads?
@Mosley: There are a few wordpress plugins that will help you manage your own ads, but I don’t have a list together right now. You may want to run a seperate script apart from WordPress so you don’t slow your blog down too much.
Hmm… Well what script do you use? Most of the ones I have seen are hard to understand.
@Mosley:
There are literally hundreds of scripts you can use. I would recommend checking out http://hotscripts.com and browse to the PHP Ad Management category.
I recently started a new website because I didn’t want use ad networks anymore, but found it difficult to find advertisers:
http://www.forsalebypublisher.com
Listing your website lets advertisers know you’re interested in selling ads directly, and they may end up contacting you, instead of you having to go hunting for sponsors.
What a great accomplishment!
[…] page. At the end of the article he refers to a smaller site trying to do the same thing, called Sitefever.com. So this got me thinking if they can do it, I can do it. I never like Adsense […]
[…] in-house advertising didn’t start until August 19, so there is really only ten days of income to report. […]
Just found your site, via Jane May, great stuff.
This is very interesting article , I will now set up an advertising page on my blog-
Thanks for the free book.
[…] over $7000. The owner, John Robinson managed to make this money by setting up an advertising page where he takes 100% revenue. He makes no money from affiliate links or CPC ads. You can expect to see this happening on […]
[…] For Sale By Publisher: Cutting Out The Internet Middleman submit_url = “http://internetmarketingsucks.com/blog/2007/09/10/for-sale-by-publisher-cutting-out-middleman/”; So there’s a new site listing all the sites that sell advertising directly, instead of using ad networks. It seems like a great idea with this new trend of webmasters handling their own advertising. […]
err… did you decided to use the ‘other’ ad networks back?