This seems like a great contextual advertising opportunity for many advertisers who are looking to really increase traffic and get exposure through a site that drives a great deal of traffic.

Walmart.com Traffic:

I’m not the greatest podcaster ever, so there are many things I sometimes leave out, check out the post I wrote for Search Engine Journal, “Is Contextual Advertising Part of Your SEM Strategy?” which goes into detail as well if you’re new and trying to use the content network or not too sure what it is or does.

Tune into the podcast now!

Using Google Content Network and Contextual Advertising

GeekCast.fm:
Using Google Content Network and Other Networks

They were asking volunteers to show their sites on the big screen monitor to critique their sites and how they are using adsene to monetize their content/site. One man volunteered.

This story is what NOT TO DO at a search conference or think before you do, at least read the guidelines.

This guy had a content site reviewing prescription drugs which apparently, I didnt know but it is known, is against the Google Adsense guidelines.

Who was on the panel? GOOGLE. It was kind of an akward moment to be honest and of course the guy from Google (MAYBE), jotted the site down.

Anyway, it’s a lesson…Hours of work probably for nothing. I wonder if Google would have found the site and how they go about chasing down sites that don’t follow the guidelines.

I always thought advertisements on the profiles should be shared with the user, after all, we put all the time and effort in getting our own traffic, designing our site, etc.

Ads-Click, a company from Switzerland which has some presence in the U.S., has developed a Facebook application for users that allows users to put a code and deliver targeted ads to their users sharing 80% of the revenue (80% goes to you.) So, depending on your content from your profile and that of your visitor, it will display a relevant ad by text I believe, once they click, you get 80% of that click and 20% goes to them.

{If Facebook and Myspace offered this to their users with Adsense or any other contextual ad programs, there would be more of an incentive for profile users to drive traffic, refer friends, etc. I guess it comes down to SPAM and how the public will react}

It is called MicroSocialAds and should be out soon. How will Facebook react to this if they do? Facebook not getting a cut of advertising done through their site?

So, Swicki is pretty cool. You can check it out on my blog at the left (it usually shows mini video clips but now it is showing a tag cloud.) Here is why I think this could work to monetize your visitors from video. It’s something new so users will be curious to click through. It’s a video widget which you set-up keyword tags and will show related videos (pretty cool videos you may even find interesting.) It scours Google video for related videos and takes the visitor to a site with all the videos in one place.

So how do you monetize this? While setting up your Swicki page, you can customize the ads section choosing what platform of ads to show (adsense, etc) and allows you to enter your code.

MIVA…you’ve heard of them right? Second tier engine…not a big name…not mentioned anywhere…public company. In its third quarter, the company pulled $36.7 million to $37.1 million in revenue if I understood right…that’s a lot of money, agreed?

How do you pull that…a second tier engine like MIVA. Interestingly enough, Google Adsense plays a big role in the MIVA business model. You can read all about it in the article but let’s take a quick look at the numbers:

“MIVA generated approximately $0.07 per lead on its 240 million clickthroughs during the third quarter of 2006. By outsourcing some of the billable ad space on its online destinations, search portals, widgets, and desktop toolbars to Google through the Google AdSense program, MIVA stood to make more on each generated lead, even after Google took its cut.”

If they made .7 cents a lead with 240 million click through and I’m doing the numbers right…that is $16,800,000.00. Arbitrage?????

The study is so detailed I’ll post some of it here; great interesting study.

Two things to think about when placing ads on your website:

1) Ad Positioning – Where is it? Is it Eye Catching?
2) Ad Content – Is it Relevant? (Sometimes Irrelevant ads to the content work best!)

Key Findings From The Study:

*Overall, two-thirds of online users have taken actions as a result of viewing online ads.

*Across all advertising, 14% more online consumers are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads than to contextual ads – 63% vs. 49% of the total audience.

* BT outperforms contextual advertising in terms of consumer attention by at least 10% across 14 major product categories, from Financial Services to Consumer Electronics to Pharmaceuticals to Fashion and Style. For example:
o 17% more online purchasers of computing products are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads.
o 18% more online auto purchasers are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads.
o 20% more online telecom purchasers are more receptive to behaviorally targeted ads than to contextual ads.
* Attention-getting behavioral targeting is preferable because more than 75% of online shoppers shop only once per month or less – and the majority research a product only once or twice before buying.