Not All Ad Networks Are Created Equal

April 9, 2007

If you’re an internet astronaut who someday hopes to have his or her site rocket to the stars, then at some point you’ll probably be considering your options when it comes to monetizing your site. For some that means taking any and all advertisers regardless of the “punch-the-monkey” types ads. For other with a bit more pride in their creations and who don’t want to see it whored out to any old advertiser there are really only a handful of quality advertising networks. Here is a list of those networks and how they break down.

Adtegrity

* We promise to fill 100% of your advertising inventory with the best-rated banners and ads, and no default (self-promotional) banners.
* We also work with up-and-coming sites, believing in your ability to produce great content and future traffic.
* We primarily cover five vertical networks: entertainment, women’s interests, business, technology, and international.

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: 500,000
Unique Visitors Per Month: 75,000
Average CPM: No number listed ($.25-.75 is what we have heard)
Cut: No number listed (40% is what we’ve heard)

Blue Lithium

Advanced technology to bring you better rates
BlueLithium uses sophisticated behavioral and semantic targeting and then optimizes campaigns in real time to ensure optimal performance. These technologies, combined with BlueLithium’s approach of dividing sites into content channels, produce better results for advertisers while improving the relevancy of ads for site viewers. Data from BlueLithium and other next-generation ad networks shows that behavioral targeting alone can increase sales 10X for some advertisers over traditional run of network placement. Not surprisingly, advertisers are willing to pay more for this kind of performance.

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: -
Unique Visitors Per Month: -
Average CPM: No number listed
Cut: 35-60%

Burst Media

BurstDirect

Burst Direct helps publishers maximize their sell-through by providing massive reach to direct marketers. By joining the Burst Direct network, which is comprised of over 800 web publishers offering thousands of sites, you’ll be able to run a number of performance-driven campaigns across your site, and take advantage of the following benefits:

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: 20,000
Unique Visitors Per Month: -
Average CPM $.20 to 4.00
Cut: 35%
Contract Type: non-exclusive)

BurstNetwork
Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: 5,000
Unique Visitors Per Month: -
Average CPM $
Cut:
Three years (exclusive) 40%
One year (exclusive) 45%
Month-to-month (non-exclusive) 50%

Casale Media

“Looking for an end-to-end solution that delivers maximum earnings and high quality advertising content? Casale Media® connects its publishers to a large selection of quality advertisers across all verticals, and provides the technology needed to track, analyze and optimize the value and utilization of online media inventory. All Casale Media® publishers are provided with a custom web-based account interface that empowers them to take complete control over every conceivable aspect of ad management. Best of all, every ad delivered to publishers’ sites is dynamically optimized to maximize advertising income and inventory allocation. That means happy advertisers, satisfied readers, and more revenue for publishers.”

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: -
Unique Visitors Per Month: 10,000
Average CPM $Not listed
Cut: 30%

Federated Media

“At FM, we believe great voices attract great audiences. We’re in the business of supporting those voices by connecting them to great marketers, as well as providing a suite of services that lets authors focus on what they do best: making compelling media. In doing so, we’re creating federations of respected voices that prosper on their own terms”

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: No number listed (250,000 - 500,000 is what it looks like)
Unique Visitors Per Month: 10,000
Average CPM $20 for large size ads (300×250 / 160×600)
Cut: 40%

Gorilla Nation

Gorilla Nation™ is committed to developing comprehensive, strategic solutions that meet the needs of Web Publisher partners. We have created advertising and marketing strategies that include everything from increasing advertising revenue, to software and service solutions that satisfy all of our Publishers’ advertising, marketing and technology needs.

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: 5,000,000
Unique Visitors Per Month: 250,000
Average CPM $Not listed
Cut: ?

Tribal Fusion

“SMART PUBLISHERS. The quality and reach of the sites we represent is the key to building successful relationships with our advertisers. We strive to maintain pure, relevant content in each of our channels, and accept only a small percentage of publishers who seek representation.”

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: -
Unique Visitors Per Day: 2,000
Average CPM $3-8
Cut: 45%

Vantageous

“The Vantageous Advertising Network targets an audience of professionals in design, and related creative industries.”

Criteria for Consideration
Pageviews Per Month: ?
Unique Visitors Per Month: ?
Average CPM $20
Cut: 40%

Other Networks

Coudal’s The Deck
A different approach to advertising. Not currently soliciting new publishers.

The Anybody Networks

Yahoo Publisher’s Network
In beta, but taking applications.

Google Adsense
The Old Standard… just about anyone can use Adsense, but the income potential is pretty slim. (shadier characters seem to do quite well with Adsense though.)

AdBrite
An auction style ad network.

Link Advertising

Text-Link-Ads
Adbrite

Basic Criteria for All Networks

• Traffic cannot be generated by utilizing any of the following methods: listings on newsgroups, unsolicited bulk commercial e-mailings, instant messenger postings, chat room postings.
• Traffic cannot be generated by engaging in fraudulent methods including: robots, spiders, auto-spawning browsers, auto reloading, meta refreshes, or any other form of fraudulent or artificial traffic.
• Websites must be hosted under a root domain.
• Clean and professional design, with quality content
• No adult content including: adult photos, adult language, suggestive or provocative photos, sites with decidedly adult themes/subjects.
• No Affiliate or Referral Sites, Only sites with real original content.
• Original Content ONLY. Sites that have been ripped or copied from existing sites will not be accepted
• No non-English language sites

*Disclaimer* Information has been gathered to the best of my ability, some numbers may be slightly different and you should check with each network for specifics. If you have more accurate information or want to suggest another network, please let us know.

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