Which Contextual Ads Work Best For You?

Written by Pablo Palatnik on August 21, 2007

My last blog post was about the Next Internet Millionaire reality online series that has just launched by Joel Comm. I saw Joel speak at the Affiliate Summit here in Miami about contextual ads and had a good presentation about the different networks who offer ads for publishers to place on their websites, blogs, etc and what works best. I wish I had the notes I took than to write in this blog post but unfortunately, I don’t.

Joel has great presentations on his YouTube channel and I think it’s worth watching every second. He is really a great speaker and exciting to listen to. He touches on arbitrage a bit on his presentation but that’s a whole other story. Wonder if he got banned from Google…I THINK NOT. He wrote a New York Times Best-Seller, “The Adsense Code”.

Now, from someone who has made so much money from adsense, you really have to wonder what they do in order to generate all this money since a lot of us just place ads and never satisfied with CTR’s, etc…and be like, “what the heck is going on here?…why aren’t people clicking?”

Many who start made for adsense sites don’t test enough (that’s usually the problem with most online marketing campaigns) and quit. I remember the one thing Joel said and maybe it’s because he made so much money with Adsense but people are and will click on things they are familiar with and trust. We’ve seen Google adsense on websites for years now.

Trying several different contextual ads, I have to say Google is in fact the best converting ad but there is one problem which people like Shoemoney and Darren Rowse point out…you don’t always want to place the ad in the same exact place if you have returning visitors because they can develop “ad blindness,” where they totally become immune to the ad and stop noticing it.

So which adsense ads work the best? I think a good strategy is not only to test for yourself but look at Joel’s blog (a.k.a. Dr. Adsense) and one of his sites or more and check out which ad units he uses.

www.joelcomm.com
www.wordsearchfun.com

The Next Internet Millionaire- Finally an Interesting Reality Series

Written by Pablo Palatnik on August 20, 2007

Joel Comm, one of internet’s most popular entrepreneurs within the industry has launched a reality show online, The Next Internet Millionaire. I had the chance to see Joel speak at the Affiliate Summit here in Miami this summer.

Joel has done some impressive things online such as start ClassicGames.com which was acquired by Yahoo! in 97’ and now is Yahoo! Games. Also, Joel wrote a NY Time Best-Seller book, The Adsense Code.

This is pretty exciting as it’s at least the first time a show online launches that I’ll be watching every time there is a new episode. There are 12 contestants competing for a grand prize of 25k cash.

The first episode is already out and I enjoyed it. The most interesting I found in the episode that I think we can ALL apply is SimpleOlogy, the simple science of getting what you want. The example put fourth was to make two points, map out your day, and make a point from start to finish. For every time you do something to meet your end goal in your day, you keep making that line straight. Every time you deviate from that point, you make the line skewed. The shortest way between two points is a straight line.

Thought of the day: In our complicated lives, we forget the simple things can make the biggest difference.

Watch the first episode HERE.

Signs of Emerging Online Focus & Ad Spend

Written by Pablo Palatnik on August 15, 2007

If you’re in the search marketing/online marketing business as an agency, consultant, etc…You probably encounter two different types of sale in a prospect: 1) The prospect that understands the importance of online marketing and its potential or 2) the prospect that thinks everything cost too much money and still believes traditional media will work better and wants exact figures of what you can provide costs, etc.

Little by little, #2 is becoming much more of a prospect than #1. Why? Experience. Everyone seems to have a friend that has started to market their business/service online and has some kind of success story. Of course, you can jump into the online advertising world, spend thousands of dollars and have NO SUCCESS whatsoever.

SearchEngineWatch reports that by 2011, online advertising will surpass newspaper advertising. “With a projected annual growth rate of than 21 per cent per year, online advertising is expected to reach $62bn in 2011, making it bigger than newspaper advertising, which is expected to total $60bn in 2011.The move to online advertising is not just a U.S. phenomenon. The shift in advertising spending away from traditional media to online and digital media is global.”

Before you could offer your clients two things: SEO or SEM. There are so many ways to brand a company and expose products now that the possibilities are endless and could give a client a scope of options to choose from.

The stats above say a lot.