Yes, AdSense still works, and yes it should make you some money.

At the same time, however, no-one can seriously doubt that there are some serious issues that a website publisher should have with Google’s baby, and you should definitely not continue to use it without looking at the wide number and range of alternatives that are out there in the market.

For me, the best argument for looking at alternatives is the fact, that even when times were good, Google were never willing to tell their publishers what percentage of the revenues that they received were paid out.

The only thing that we have ever known for sure is that it has been a peanuts percentage and with times getting harder throughout the advertising industry, that is not a situation that is likely to improve anytime soon.

So, Google give you pennies on the dollar, whereas many of the networks highlighted in this book pay much higher levels, and are quite happy to tell you about it too!

Add that to the undeniable fact that AdSense is becoming less and less effective with every passing day and there can be little reasonable doubt whatsoever that, if you have never considered using AdSense Alternatives before, now is the perfect time to start doing so!

AdSense Alternatives – My Conclusion Adsense Alterternatives

The first thing to say is that you should not be mislead by the word ‘widget’ that is often associated with WordPress specific products. This is NOT WP specific.

What it is, however, is somewhat similar to the FavAds program that we looked at earlier, in that it allows you a great deal of flexibility to create ads for your own sites or any affiliate programs that you want to promote. The major difference is that WAG includes images in the ads that you create, whereas FavAds does not.

It’s like comparing ‘vanilla’ AdSense ads (no images) with the very similar looking AuctionAds ads that carry images that you saw highlighted earlier in this report.

This is not a free product, but if you go watch the videos, you will see that it does appear to be extremely flexible and usable, so it may be worth investing in if it seems right for your site.

AdSense Alternative: Widget Ad Generator Adsense Alterternatives

It is, rather, a good example of what is known as a CPM program, which means that an advertiser pays for impressions of their adverts shown on your blog or sites, rather than for clicks.

And, in the case of CPM advertising, this is specifically referring to a program where an advertiser pays per thousand impressions or times that their advert is shown.

There are several features of the WidgetBucks! site and program that would immediately appear to make it an attractive proposition for both advertisers and site or blog owners who are looking to make money from such ads.

The first thing that you would immediately notice is that WidgetBucks! is offering an immediate $25 sign-up bonus to both advertiser and site owners, which in the latter case would take you half way to getting your first pay-out check!

Secondly, WidgetBucks! have recently successfully enabled CPM ads for non-U.S.A or Canadian traffic, which makes them one of (if not the) the first organization to do so.

Here is how WidgetBucks! claim that this works.

When a user visits a page that is loaded with the advertising ‘widget’ that has been embedded in the site or blog being visited, then that widget will sense where that visitor is located geographically.

If the user is in the USA or Canada, they will be presented with the normal WidgetBucks widget advertising content.

But is the user is anywhere else in the world, the claim is that the system will know what country the visitor is from, and will show an appropriate country-specific CPM ad to that visitor.

What this extremely recently introduced innovation (12/12/2007) has done is go one very significant stage further than traditional geo-targeting has done before. Whereas before, you chose the geographical market that you wanted to advertise in, and then ads for that locale were shown, now the widget does the whole job for you!

Even before the introduction of this innovation, however, WidgetBucks! appears to have represented a very good CPM option for advertisers, as claim is that normal returns on their CPM ads are in the $3-6 range, compared to an average of $2.

Of course, the ads that are served in the widgets that the program places on your site or blog will be theme-targeted to match your site content, and they have a referral program, like most of the other programs in this niche.

And, if you want to run WidgetBucks! with AdSense, you can do so, according to what their website says. You also have the option of using the proprietary MerchSense software module that will automatically change the ads shown on your site every time your page content changes as well.

So, WidgetBucks! is giving you a $25 bonus to get started, and seems to provide better returns for advertisers than most comparable programs (which you would imagine might attract ore advertisers, which means that the ads that are served will stay fresher).

Add that to the recent innovation that allows the widget to ‘recognize’ where your visitor is from before serving up the most geographically appropriate CPM ads that they have, and I think that WidgetBucks! has everything in place to be a resounding success!

AdSense Alternative: WidgetBucks Adsense Alterternatives

And, just like the MSN AdSense rival, it seems to have been in beta-testing for ever and is still only open to website owners who have a US Tax Reference number! So, of course, YPN should be hugely successful but, as it stands at this moment, you can never get full details about YPN or find out whether it actually does work unless you are US based!

AdSense Alternative: Yahoo Publisher Network Adsense Alterternatives

This tells you immediately that you are dealing with a very transparent company and, if you are fed up of all the ‘smoke and mirrors’ that are a part and parcel of playing the AdSense game, then this is very refreshing change.

TargetPoint claim that their services:

‘are particularly publisher-oriented: You’ll have absolute control over the appearance of your ads, supervision over ad content, up-to-date statistics on your site’s performance and, most importantly, better bottom-line revenue’ and I see little that would in any way suggest otherwise.

Plus, you know from outset that they pay out 50% of advertising revenues received as well.

They are happy to consider any size of website or blog, and the whole site experience is clean, simple and easy to use, so if those are qualities you seek, TargetPoint is recommended!

AdSense Alternative: TargetPoint Adsense Alterternatives

The easiest way of describing this program is like a cross between AuctionAds (the ads that are served appear almost identical) and Chitika (in that the ads are from shopping sites, rather than eBay)

It’s obviously early days, so who knows how this will perform in a very competitive market place?

But, the ads that are served do look attractive, and I know from my own experience that Auction Ads really did take off with a massive bang, so this one may well copy it!

Bottom line, is, who knows where it will go, but it’s a slightly different angle on the PPC market (yes, you do get paid per click) so it probably merits a look.

AdSense Alternative: ShoppingAds Adsense Alterternatives

AdSense Alternative: Selling PPP Adsense Alterternatives

They also claim that the percentages of revenues paid out are amongst the highest available at between 60% and 70%, and hey make no ‘holds’ of monies due to you (as a safeguard against fraud) as some other sites do.

They claim during their very informative ‘fast guide free tour’ that many of their keywords pay $2 and up, and that their successful affiliates earn $5000 per week and more, which in itself suggests that they are doing something right somewhere!

They pay out every two weeks or monthly, as you want, and money can be sent either by check or wire transfer. However, minimum payments for a standard check is only $10, whereas for wire transfers it is significantly higher at $300, so you may want to stick with checks, certainly when you first get started.

In addition to the PPC ads that Search Anyway will show on your site, they also offer a fully modifiable search module that you can personalize completely in order to match your site. This gives you more ability to control your visitors searches.

Plus, when you want to embed the ads in your site, you can do so in advanced XML feeds, or in text, .php or Java script formats, so there is a good deal of intrinsic flexibility n the advertising materials too.

There does not appear to be any minimum visitors numbers required before you can apply for this program, and, finally, the website itself is ‘clean’ and very professional looking.

My overall impression of this one is that it is appears to be a very professionally run and probably extremely reliable program, without necessarily being anything especially outstanding or different.

AdSense Alternative: Search Anyway Adsense Alterternatives

Of course, like all PPC programs, it is set up to allow you to include the most appropriate and targeted advertising on your site.

But, you do not have to!

This is because RevenuePilot include a list of the best paying keywords in their Members area, and you are perfectly entitled to target ads using these keywords if you want to!

Now, in theory, you could, of course, do this with any PPC site that offers you a choice of the advertisers that you will or will not accept, but most would make it very difficult or impossible to know which keywords paid best.

Revenue Pilot actually tells you, so that you can focus on non- targeted but top paying keywords if you wish.

It’s a very interesting angle, and one that should encourage you to look at this program, possibly as an alternative to run on a few pages of your site, as a test of what approach to PPC actually pays better!

AdSense Alternative: Revenue Pilot Adsense Alterternatives

That may seem to be an almost impossibly high number until you realize that they are working with some very serious brand name companies like ESPN, The Fox Network and CNN.

They offer their advertisers the ability to target their ads in three different ways, by running ads only on top sites, by selected webpages or page section, or by keyword.

They are thus giving their advertisers the ability to be absolutely laser targeted, hence the attraction for some of the names that they are working with.

And for site publishers too, the Quigo network is somewhat different to most of the competition.

It is up to you and your site to attract an advertiser, and so you effectively ‘own’ that advertisers account once they decide to advertise on our site. Attract one of the big boys and you and your site would literally be made!

However, to qualify for the Quigo AdSonar program, your site must enjoy at least 500,000 or more monthly page views.

So, basically, if you qualify, Quigo is likely to be an excellent AdSense Alterative option for you, but qualifying is not going to be an easy thing to do!

AdSense Alternative: Quigo Adsense Alterternatives