Adtegrity is an ad network that boasts a 100% fill rate. And it does! It really lives up to that part of the bargain.  Most networks, ADSDAQ and Burst Media included, often have fill rates of only 5-15%. Even with those really low fill rates there, I made 3-5x more there when compared with Adtegrity. The problem is, a 100% fill rate often means (especially with a huge archive like mine) that 1 visitor might see the same ad 50 times over, if not more. This means there is no frequency cap, and that means the ad company basically loses money. If visitors aren’t going to click an ad the first 10 times they see it per user session, they’re not going to click it the next 40 times they see it.

All of this is leading to one important fact: a 100% fill rate means a REALLY LOW CPM. No one is going to pay well for ads without a frequency cap. So, if my average CPM at ADSDAQ was $2.00, and I had a fill rate of 15%, I made 3-4 dollars a day. At Adtegrity, with 100% fill rate, my CPM is often less than $0.10, which in my opinion, in unacceptable as a means to earn revenue from my comic.

Those of you looking to make money with ads: Adtegrity is good for the last link in your ad chain only! Never as your primary network. In one month of using them, I have never made more $1.50 a day, and far more often, make less than ONE dollar.  I’ve made as much from a single project wonderful as I make with 2 ad sizes filled by Adtegrity.

In my book, Adtegrity gets a 2/10.

They get 1 point for the 100% fill rate, and 1 point for really great customer service. You won’t turn much of a profit though!

Next up: Webcomic Networking Via Stumble Upon

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In lieu of the new and improved Advertising 303 article, here is Advertising 404: how to set up default campaigns. Setting up defaults leads to the creation of an ad chain. This article will talk about the pros and cons of chains, the placement of ad networks in a chain, and the concept of frequency capping.

I’m going to start by defining “default” and “ad chain” again. A default is the name given to a passed-up pageview.  Say that you get 100 pageviews a day, but your ad network only fills 60 of those 100, for whatever reason.  Those extra 40 are called defaults. They “default” to another ad network if you have one, or public service announcements if you don’t. You are not paid by a network for default views, but you ARE paid for default views if they are sent to another network.   If you set up one network to default to another, you have created an ad chain.  A chain may have multiple “links,” or in this case, networks.

Since ADSDAQ is no longer a viable source of income for webcomickers, I’m going to start with Adbrite. Adbrite is the first link in my ad chain because you can set a CPM price to beat. For example, I have it set to default every time to my NEXT ad network if the CPM of an ad Adbrite wants to show is less than $1.50. It doesn’t make much compared to ADSDAQ, so Burst Media has now become my first “real” ad provider instead of my second. I only have Adbrite first because you can set “the CPM to beat.”

How to set up a default in Adbrite:

1) log in to your “publishers” area.

2) click “manage ad zones.”

3) Set up a new ad zone if you haven’t already. You CREATE ad spaces based on the size of what ads you want to show.

4) Click “pricing options” (or “next” if you are just now creating your ad zone.) Select “yes” for “are you already using other ad networks?” Set your CPM to beat. If you a site with small traffic, keep it low, one dollar or under.  You can change the CPM at any time. You’ll want to experiment with different prices for a week or two to find your optimum range.

5) Okay, now you see that big empty box beneath? This is where you insert the tag code from another network. Copy and paste the ad code for the same size ad as the one you just created.

6) Copy and paste the ad code for ADBRITE onto your site. Now, every time that Adbrite defaults, it automatically is sent to the other network even if you do not physically copy and paste that second network’s code onto your site. Very simple, yes?

How to create defaults in Burst:

Burst is a little more difficult than most other networks because it requires a html or image redirect in place of copy and pasting code. I’m going to use screenshots here, because I’m told the Burst set up is confusing. I don’t find it so, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, I can see why it would be.

1) Go here:

2) Choose your desired size in the dropdown.

3) Click “add new default campaign” a gray button on the right.

4) This form will pop up:

Where it lists the “http://” part, you insert the address of a html page that contains ONLY the code of the desired default ad. Basically, Burst will only default to an iframe.

If Burst is your primary ad provider, you insert Burst’s tag code onto your site, and the code will automatically default to the iframe.

Frequency Capping:

Frequency Capping allows you to maximize your revenue per user session. Basically, you get to decide how often a specific default will get shown so that THAT default won’t default. Defaults only happen when ad providers either 1) don’t have enough advertisers to show on your site 100% of the time, or 2) realize that they are showing the same ads to the same users often enough (without good performance) that they are losing money, so they no longer show it.  So, if you set a frequency cap, YOU decide how often to show the ads, NOT the provider.  You can’t make it show MORE ads that I’m aware of, but you can make it default to other campaigns when you want to.

Not all ad providers allow you to set a frequency cap. You can on Burst, for your default campaigns, since you can have multiple default campaigns per ad size.  Here is what the form looks like:

Weighting refers to how often the campaign appears. Consider it a percentage, except out of 9999 instead of 100. Min CPM is the minimum CPM (cost per thousand views) you will allow to show through this default campgain. And then there’s frequency cap. Burst allows 0-10 views per browser session, or [up to] continuously for 2 hours. This is something you will simply have to experiment with, as the optimum cap changes from site to site.

I have 8 default campaigns set from Burst, 6 of which are free advertising for webcomicker friends of mine.  For these 6 “free advertising” campaigns, I have only weighting. I only set a frequency cap if I set a minimum CPM.  I know the difference weighting and frequency capping is a little hazy, but be aware there IS a difference.

The Order of Your Ad Chain:

Y’okay, so, if you have 2+ ad networks, you should have set up an ad chain. The question now becomes, what order do you make the chain? Always set it up by which one pays the most OR which one has the highest eCPM and fill rate (eCPM is average CPM).   For example, I have Adbrite first in my ad chain, since it will only display ads higher than my eCPM on Burst. I know this, because this is what I set in “pricing options,” as discussed in how to set up defaults on Adbrite.

How Long Should Your Ad Chain Be?

I don’t recommend more than 5, and that’s pushing it. The reason I don’t recommend more is because each default makes your site lag more and more.  It takes time for these networks to bounce back and forth to find an ad to display. Also, each network further on down the chain sees less and less pageviews, getting lower CPM ads.

I was just accepted into a place called Adtegrity, which guarantees a 100% fill rate (no defaults).  I’m going to try this and see how it works, and will let everyone know. I applied to Direct Media Exchange, which handles all defaults at once, from a single interface, which is extremely convenient. I however, was declined.

Advertising 404 did not get updated this week because I’m in the middle of an ad experiment. I went and joined up with 3 more ad providers, and one of them handles defaults FOR you while (theoretically) making you more money by increasing competition between defaults.  If this is successful, it will take the place of the original 404 article I had been planning, which mentioned only Burst and ADSDAQ. Getting it to work is a little confusing yet, however, hence the lag.  The new article (and a follow up a couple weeks from now) will go over 5-6 ad companies.

In other news, I’m still taking art and website commissions! You can find details on that on my commissions page (points up and to the right).

Advertising 202 took you through which ad providers to use and why.

Advertising 303 is going to take you through how to make money. Whoo! However, I’ve already touched on a lot of this in my previous articles, so I’m going to start out by repeating myself.

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The first way to increase revenue generated from displaying ads is to give the ads priority in your site design, whether those ads are served from ADSDAQ or Project Wonderful. I realize this goes against everything a webcomic site is supposed to be about (ie, you and your comic), and I don’t care, because I want to make money too.  By “priority” I mean placing ads before your site’s content, in this case, your comic. So, a leaderboard ABOVE your comic, a tower to the LEFT of your comic, and other ad sizes where available (example, a 300×250 box directly beneath your comic, not beneath your news area).  Ad providers generally offer two types of ads: above the fold, and below the fold. You get paid MORE for displaying above the fold ads, obviously.

Please keep in mind that even if these ads are given priority over your comic, people keep coming back FOR your comic, and no, ads will not make people stop coming back unless you completely overboard.  Mike, a commenter here, mentioned something called “ad blindness” a bit back, where internet viewers no longer even see ads.  It holds true. They see your content, and ignore the ads for the most part, which is EXACTLY the reason to get paid more, you need to put the ads before the content, so they [the ads] perform better.

What you DON’T want to do is place ads where people much scroll, either horizontally or vertically, to see them, unless they are specifically “below the fold” ads.  Sometimes this means you have to change your layout (DESIGN FOR THE ADS) or change your content (ex, no more wide-screen content).  What you also don’t want to do is allow “takeover” ads on your site, pop-ups, pop-unders, or ads that are expandable without hovering. These ads are a deterrent, and if you’ve got an archive of 50 or more pages, with these ads displayed on every page, NO ONE is going to read your comic.  Moderation is key, as well as taking care of your audience.  These types of ads can be turned off in your admin areas on Burst Media and ADSDAQ, and are obviously not allowed through Project Wonderful.

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The second way to make more money is specifically for context-based advertisers like ADSDAQ.  These companies read the text on your page and then serve you ads that have something to do with that text. If you have little text on your page, you don’t get many ads (if you have no text, your application will not even be accepted).  These companies are NOT INTERESTED in serving ads that have nothing to do with your audience’s interests, and why should they be? It’s lose-lose for them and the people advertising if performance is horrible! Which is why having readable text on your page is extremely important.

But the question then becomes “well, what text should I have on my pages?”

• Text about specific current events, politics, technologies, culture, or media RELEVANT to your audience.
• Text about specific places you visited, how you got there, what you bought, where you went, with what transportation service, etc.
• Text about specific companies, items, things you want to buy, gifts, holidays.

The key is being specific enough to get ads.  For example, let’s say I’m blogging about myself beneath my comic:

Hey guys! Yesterday I drove an hour to visit my friend and hang out with her. We checked out a bunch of things at the mall, but I didn’t buy anything.  We thought about seeing a movie, but decided instead to go out to eat. All in all, it was a fun day.

That is so vague that the only keywords I can find are “mall” and “movie.” This is not going to increase my fill rates much. Now, what if I transformed that into this?

Hey comic readers! Yesterday I drove to Rochester to visit my friend and have some fun at the local shopping mall called “the Medley Center.” We shopped for half the day, checking out stores like The Gap, Bon Ton and Dick’s Sporting Goods. I didn’t buy anything, but I found this fabulous athletic outfit that is just so cute! It’s Nike too (which was probably why it was so expensive! D:) We thought about seeing a movie at the theatre, perhaps the new James Bond flick Quantum of Solace, or maybe a comedy like Four Christmases, but decided to go eat at Outback Steakhouse instead. It was a great day, but wow, post-Thanksgiving at the mall is tough! I can’t even imagine what Christmas shopping will be like! It was still a lot of fun though!

This time, I highlighted the keywords for you (I went a little overboard, but I wanted to you get the general idea).  Mentioning CURRENT events/holidays gets you in on current ad campaigns that will shoot up your fill rates. This is why it is so important to write or update your text OFTEN. If you don’t, you get in on the new campaigns.  I mention specific places to get in on the “Travel” ads.  I mention specific stores to get ads related to merchandise sold there. Specific movies because when movies first come out, there are a LOT of ads going around. Etc, etc.

If you’re still confused, here is a screenshot of possible ad categories displayed on my site.  My next goal is to work on increasing specific ones.

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The third way to increase ad revenue is to join multiple ad networks and set up an ad chain (as discussed in Advertising 202). You can see in the above image of ad categories that I have a lot of default views because my fill rates are not 100%. My fill rate at ADSDAQ is on average 15%, which leaves 85% to send elsewhere.  I send it to Burst Media, where my fill rate is also 15%. I send the rest of the views to defaults of my choice, in this case, free advertising for comics I enjoy.  If I joined more networks, I would get paid for more pageviews, which is my goal!  I next would like to join Tribal Fusion, but my audience is not yet large enough.  Tribal wants 2k uniques a day. I’m about half-way there. :D

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The fourth and final way (that I use) to increase ad revenue is something again mentioned in a comment. I advertise through Project Wonderful to increase my total pageviews, and I make more money from the higher CPM of ads my site displays than I lose paying for the advertising itself. Make sense? PW prices are so awesomely low that just about every webcomicker out there can afford it, with average CPM being under 20 cents (in my personal experience.) In contrast, normal market CPM is 2-4 dollars, or higher.  Most of us don’t even think about our ads on PW being in CPM, we think in CPC and click-thru rates.  A good ad with PW will have a CPC (cost per click) of 0-3 cents.   If it costs more than that, as a webcomicker, you’re being ripped off!

I’m going to quote that aforementioned commenter, JGray, here, as he beat me to it:

“…people should consider at least one Project Wonderful ad on their site. If everyone uses PW and no one publishes PW there won’t be a PW to use. Plus, a good way to pay for PW is to use the funds they give you for publishing.”

This means more ads on your site, but it’s nice because it funds your OWN advertising through PW if you have a PW slot on your site.

This is the end of Advertising 303!  Next up: Advertising 404: The in-depth tutorial on setting up ad chains and default campaigns. When I can get to it, as it will require quite a view screen shots and coding quotes.

Most people in webcomicdom know, use and love Project Wonderful. This post is not about Project Wonderful. PW is AWESOME for the average webcomicker looking to advertise his or her comic on another web-page  (advertiser). It is not so awesome for the person trying to make money by publishing ads on his or her page (publisher).  In the rest of this article, please be aware that when I say “publisher,” I’m saying “person who publishes ads on his/her site.”

Some more terms:

CPM=Cost Per Thousand Ad Impressions (mille=thousand in French, guessing the acronym is related). This is the unit in which ads are sold through most publishers. You are paid by how many thousands of pageviews you provide. Normal market CPM is $2-4.00 US for webcomics.  In contrast, I’ve never advertised on PW for a CPM over 20 cents.

CPC=Cost Per Click. Some ad providers pay by the click. This directly relates to the performance of the ads on your site, obviously. It’s not recommended that you run CPC ads, as you will generally make less money than with CPM campaigns.

Fill Rate= # of ads shown/total # pageviews. Most ad providers do not guarantee a 100% fill rate, unlike Project Wonderful (if someone is bidding, they get that spot 100% of the time, until they cancel the bid or run out of funds).

Default= when an ad space is not filled on a pageview, it may be sent your default: either an image of your choice, or another ad network.

Ad Chain= you can set up different networks to default to other ad networks. When your fill rate is 10-20% per network, but you set up your ads in a chain, you make more money by filling default views.

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So, if I don’t champion Project Wonderful for the Publisher, what do I suggest?  There are lots of other advertisers out there that pay by CPM or CPC*  For this article, I am only going to talk about the ones I personally use, have set up for others, or have heard only praise for by others.  I am also going to stress that you should not take the step to applying to ad providers until your site is up to par! That means SEO, webcomic website must-have’s, should-have pages, reguarly updated content, and that’s just the beginning! You can find my articles on these things in the archives on this blog. Check the categories section in the side-bar!  If you do not do these things, your site’s application will be rejected, and you’ll have to wait a couple months to resubmit!

Okay, now that I’ve added my disclaimer, I can move on to where to go! I recommend starting first with ADSDAQ. This is a context-based ad provider, meaning it reads the text on your site, and serves you ads that have something in common with your readership.  If your site does not have a lot of readable text, your site will be rejected.  ADSDAQ is also nice because it provides you with simple codes to install on your site, as well as the freedom to set your desired CPM. This means that you may set a very high CPM (and have a lower fill rate), a very low CPM (and have a very high fill rate), or your perfect CPM (with a medium fill rate.)

I recommend ADSDAQ because it allows small sites to join. Webcomic sites, or any image-intensive sites, must be careful when applying.  Webcomics/graphics compete with ads on the page, so an application will be quickly rejected if competition is too high.

I personally make $40-50 dollars a month with ADSDAQ (more now that I’ve optimized my site) by displaying 2 ad sizes. That’s up to $600 a year, which ain’t a LOT, but it’s far more than I would make with PW at 50 cents a day.  I have a steady 15% fill rate at 2.00 CPM, and I get on average 100k pageviews a month. I’m trying to increase the fill rate to 20-30%, if not more.  The key to making money with ADSDAQ is increasing your fill rate, and it will depend on your site’s content, your desired CPM, and your total pageviews. I am currently experimenting with including more text about current television series such as Heroes, NCIS, CSI, etc, as well as new movie releases in order to increase fill rates. By doing this, I increase fill rates for ads that have more in common with my audience, for example, the Hellboy II campaign that was shown 2 weeks ago.

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After applying to ADSDAQ, learning the ropes of being a publisher, and optimizing your site even more, apply to Burst Media.  Burst is harder to get into than ADSDAQ, and is not context based. Instead, it allows you to choose which ads (and what CPM) you want to display on your page out of a list.  It also requires that your audience fill out a survey in order to determine your site’s demographics. You need a minimum of 200 responses to get better fill rates, so make sure your audience is big enough!

Since you’re in 2 networks now, you can set up an ad chain so that unfilled impressions are sent to the second network. Which ever network makes you more money should be placed first! (D’uh, right!?) I have ADSDAQ defaulting to Burst.  Before joining Burst, I had ADSDAQ defaulting to Project Wonderful. Be aware that when doing this, the PW stats graph DOES NOT INCLUDE PAGEVIEWS WHEN IT IS NOT DISPLAYED. However, due to misconceptions about this, PW default ads perform poorly.  People do not like to bid on them.  The one exception I know is the tower on Roza and the Horse Prince.

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After ADSDAQ and Burst, you’ll want to apply to networks like Tribal Fusion and Gorilla Nation.  These are the big guys, and they require a minimum amount of visitors, UNLIKE the previous 2 networks.  They are context-based networks also, GN more than TF.  My site is too small to be accepted here.  There are many other ad networks out there, but most, like Google Adsense, make zilch for the average webcomicker.  Since I have no experience with them, I won’t write about them.

What I HIGHLY recommend is advertising through Project Wonderful, and publishing through these other networks.  For a comparatively inexpensive price, you can greatly increase your pageviews, and make MORE money from publishing than you spent advertising.  I also know there are plenty of webcomics out there with significantly more readers than mine, webcomics that are simply better, but make no money.  THERE IS A WAY. If I can make $600 a year on a hobby, others can be making thousands, easily. This is entirely without merchandising, which is something I think webcomics should not pursue until they have a steady income though publishing ads. There is simply so much involved in designing good merchandise odds are you won’t do it right until you’ve had more experience in knowing WHAT SELLS, and that includes ads on your site.

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Up next: Advertising 303: Generating Ad Revenue and How it Relates to Content (and therefore, SEO).  I touched on it today, but tomorrow will include examples, screen shots, etc.

Ad placement directly impacts the revenue you generate as an ad publisher. It is only logical to think that, of course, an ad placed at the TOP of your page generates more funds than an ad of the same size placed at the bottom. Why? One word: Exposure.

The majority of internet users read left to right, top to bottom, just like reading a book. We look at the top left first, and the bottom right last. To gain the most revenue, whether through Project Wonderful or another ad publishing service, place your ad at the top of the page. People will bid more for this spot because it has the most exposure, and is not competing with other visual products (such as your comic.)

The second best place for an ad is to the left of your content. For example, a tower/skyscraper ad to the left of a webcomic page. Third best place is in the MIDDLE of content. For example, if I suddenly split up my paragraph right here with an ad:

It is in the middle of content, and therefore you are forced to read through it. You cannot completely miss the ad, as you might if I placed an ad on the RIGHT side of the page (as you can see in the sidebar.) To the right of content is the fourth best place.

Finally, the worst (and worst-performing) place to put an ad is beneath all your content, where most visitors will not even scroll. I see a lot of people complaining that their Project Wonderful ads are gaining very little revenue for them, yet when they are told it is because of ad placement, they do nothing to correct this. You really must think of your webpage like a realtor thinks of a property he or she is SELLING. You are selling space, and if you want to make money, you sell the best place.

(I would like to say right now that ad placement is slightly more complicated than I am presenting it. There is actually a spectrum for left, right and middle placement as you scroll vertically, but this blog is about the basics, so there they are.)

As with most aspects of life, moderation is often the best way to go. When placing ads on your page, you must remember not to go overboard. Too many ads not only detract from the reading/viewing experience (if you work is less enjoyable, less people will come back!) but also generates LESS revenue than less ads due to competition. For example, if I offered TWO tower slots on my webpage, the revenue generated from both would be less than if I only offered one spot, because of the laws of supply and demand. I supply more, the demand stays the same, therefore the price goes down. If the demand increases and the supply decreases, the price goes UP.

Please also be aware that if you are a member of publishing companies such as Google, ADSDAQ, Burstmedia, etc, there are RULES about where you may place ads. For example, the leaderboard I currently display on my comic archives may ONLY appear above the fold in a 800×600 resolution. The tower must appear within one scroll of a 800×600 resolution. There are restrictions, so that people don’t just go and put all the ads at the bottom, because you shaft the advertisers. So, read your Terms of Service!

Next Update: Advertising 202: Ad Providers Other Than Project Wonderful

Then: Advertising 303: Generating Ad Revenue and How it Relates to Content (and therefore, SEO)

Finally: Advertising 404: The Ad Tutorial: How to Make Money Without Merchandising.