While the king of internet publishing advertising networks remains Google’s AdSense, there are other ad networks that can make you more money. You should not only optimize the design of your ads, but also the network serving them.

You should test and retest different advertising networks (like AdBrite, Adsense, YPN, etc.) until you find that you have optimized your EPC (earnings per click). Once you’ve done that, test and retest again. Don’t just assume that you are going to make the most money using AdSense . . .

Use YPN if Your Audience is from the USA

YPN is still not paying publishers for clicks outside the US, so if your site concentrates on an international audience, it is probably not the network for you. If you do have a sizable concentration of viewers in the United States, I highly suggest trying it out.

Here’s one reason why:

This weekend I removed my AdSense ads from one of my blogs and replaced it with YPN ads. Although traffic was slow (happens on the holidays), my advertising revenue for the blog was over twice that of an average day while I served AdSense. I have many months of data to review, but the numbers speak for themselves. I’m going to obviously continue to watch the blog and see how things continue.

My Complaint with YPN

The only problem I’m having with YPN, and one of the reasons why I believe the network is not respected by the online world yet is that there still seems to be a lack of advertisers. I’ve noticed the same 5 ads running on site each time I’ve visited. This can certainly get old to our viewers. I hope that Yahoo can get their act together and start competing with Google; right now, they are not even in the same league. I think it is time for a radical restructuring; Yahoo needs to target publishers and give them a reason to switch over, or they should consider selling off their ad network to someone who can come up with some fresh ideas to compete with Google. At this rate, sadly, it looks like they are going nowhere and fast.

Why AdSense?

Like I mentioned earlier, while my Google ads are not paying as much as YPN ads, there is a much greater inventory. I have a feeling that the increase in revenue I’m seeing from YPN will be short-lived. As my readers find that the ads have grown stale, they will stop visiting them. The benefits of greater inventory, in my mind, will prevail over the long term for this reason.

Making money with your website is easy, provided you’ve got good content and some traffic. I wanted to create a list of the various advertising networks you can use to generate some cash from your site or blog.

Top-Tier Pay Per Click - PPC

• Google AdSense
• Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)
• Microsoft AdCenter - Advertisers only???

Blog Advertising Networks

• BlogAds

• CrispAds
• Performancing Partners

Broad Networks

• Blue Lithium - CPM, CPC, CPA - Top Rated Network

Advertising Inventory Management Platforms

• 24/7 Real Media

• Advertising.com

Interactive Product Merchandising Networks

• Chitka

• ClickShare

Text Link Ad Networks

• AdBrite

• Text Link Ads

Top Tier Cost Per Mille Networks - CPM

• BurstMedia

• Casale Media
• ClickBooth
• ContextWeb - Contextual CPM
• CPX Interactive
• TribalFusion
• ValueClick - was FastClick

In-Text Advertising Networks

• IntelliTXT

• Kontera

Affiliate Advertising Programs - Cost Per Action (CPA)

• Amazon
• Azoogle
• Commission Junction - One of the best and most reputable
• IncentaClick
• LinkShare
• ShareASale

Secondary PPC Networks

• Pulse 360 - formerly Kanoodle

• Miva - formerly FindWhat.com

Additional Ad Networks - Untested and Unknown

• BidVertiser - bidding based ad marketplace

• BlueFN - CPA Network for Finance-Related sites
• Clicksor - contextual CPC network
• Directa Network - ads for Latin & Hispanic Marketplace
• eType USA - “premium” ad network
• ExpoActive - ad management network - CPC, CPM
• FluxAds - CPA (cost per action) a.k.a. affiliate network
• HyperBidder - Advertising trading marketplace
• - PPC contextual & trargeted
• InterClick - CPM ad model
• Mirago - PPC contextual - Based in Britain
• Oxado - Contextual ads - based in Paris
• Quigo - Seems to work with large publishers only
• Real Tech Network - CPM & PPC
• RevenuePilot - PPC & PFP (pay per performance)
• RightMedia - “transparent ad exchange” network
• SearchFeed.com - PPC
• TargetPoint - PPC - contextual ads
• TMP Express

If you’ve got any more, let me know. I’ll try and keep the list updated as new ones come around.

There are quite a few ways to increase your revenues using Google Adsense ads, and we’re going to focus on one in particular. First, I wanted to mention two articles by Darren at Problogger, How to Position AdSense Ads and How to Design Your AdSense Ads. Both articles look at place and layout of your site in relation to your ads. They cover past and present trends, and should be helpful to anyone who is just learning about positioning.

Eliminate MFA Advertisers

In addition to where and how you place your ads, your advertisers themselves will have a large effect on your total revenues. Many people make money today by creating MFA (made for adsense) websites, advertising them, and hope for enough clicks from those visitors to make this “arbitrage” profitable. These sites typically have low-paying ads, and by removing them as potential advertisers, you can increase your revenues. In addition, you also build your site’s credibility because your readers won’t get sent to crappy sites when they click on your ads.

How to Find the MFA Sites and Other Low Paying Advertisers

There is a great website called Ads BlackList that will let you plug in your site’s URL and keywords, and will return to you a list of MFA sites and other low-paying advertisers. They have a database of these sites that continues to grow and you can also subscribe for updates. While the blacklist will not get all of these sites, it is a great start!

In addition, by using an adsense preview tool, of which there are many, you can preview what ads may show up for a certain page on your site. DO NOT CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS TO CHECK OUT YOUR ADVERTISERS! Doing so can get you banned from the AdSense program, and is fraud. If you’re using a preview tool, or are simply looking at the ads on your site, you want to remember the advertiser’s URL and manually type it into your browser. If the site is a MFA, you can bet it is not worth having around.

How Do I Eliminate These Sites Now That I Know How to Find Them?

This is the easy part. Now that you know how to find these low paying advertisers and MFAs, you want to be sure their ads don’t show on your site. Here’s what you do:

1. Log into your AdSense account
2. Click on the AdSense Setup tab at the top of the page
3. Click on the Competitive Ad Filter link in the blue toolbar
4. Start listing your unwanted advertisers in the box

You might also want to include some of your competitors sites here.

By properly designing your site, positioning your ads, and removing low-paying advertisers and MFA sites, you will be on your way to making even more money online! I have definitely seen results by removing these sites from my queue of potential adversers. I no longer see adclicks resulting in .01 revenues on a regular basis.

Remember that these sites are constantly signing up and you should always be on the prowl for new, unwanted advertisers.

Disclosure
I read a great post yesterday about increasing your AdSense revenues, but unfortunately, I made the mistake of forgetting to save/write down the source of the story. This article is where I found out about the Ads BlackList website, and was the inspiration for this piece.

The simple mistake of forgetting to quote your sources is something that I rarely do now that I’ve been blogging for some time, but it still happens to the best of us. That said, I just wanted to throw in here that it is really important to save your sources when considering writing an article.

One of my new favorite bloggers, John Chow, author of the internet’s biggest google whores, recently inspired a take off, the internet’s biggest affiliate marketing whores over at StrayGeek.

What’s so special about all of these “whores” that people need to make lists of them?

They are some of the leaders in making money online with web publishing - they are entrepreneurs who should inspire you - they are getting really RICH!

The list of affiliate marketing guys:

1. Jon - Wickedfire.com
2. Darren Rowse - Problogger.net
3. Kieron Donoghue - UKoffer.com
4. Jeremy Schoemaker - Shoemoney.com
5. John Chow - TheTechZone.com
6. Neil Durrant & Paul Knapp - Submission Technology
7. Andrew Salmon - uSwitch.com
8. Simon Nixon - MoneySupermarket.com

The Google Adsense dudes:

1. Markus Frind: PlentyOfFish.com - $300,000 per month
2. Kevin Rose: Digg.com - $250,000 per month
3. Jeremy Shoemaker - $140,000 per month
4. Jason Calacanis: Weblogs, Inc. - $120,000 per month
5. David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard - $100,000 per month
6. Tim Carter: AskTheBuilder.com - $30,000 per month
7. Joel Comm - $24,000 per month
8. Shawn Hogan – DigitalPoint.com $10,000 per month

This list is now several months old, and is likely many thousand dollars off, but it is inspiring! For all the details, read the full articles!

I went through some of the comments on these articles and added 2 more of these super marketers:

1. David Miles Jr. and Kato Leonard - Freeweblayouts.net $100,000 per month
2. Andrew Leyden - PodcastDirectory.com $30,000 to $40,000 per year.

I’m sure there are many others out there making just as much money. Lets all pay homage to these folks at the forefront of internet publishing, and maybe learn something from them!

Other Websites: Homeowner loans can also be used for debt consolidation

The site that was promised to us from two influential people in the blogosphere, Andy Hagans of Text Link Ads and Aaron Wall of SEO Book, ReviewMe, is now live! The announcement came in a simple email:

“Hey Guys, Reviewme.com has launched. Go check it out now!
- Roy”

So what is all the excitement about the company?
Putting it simply, advertisers pay bloggers to get their products or services reviewed.

It is like product placement in the entertainment business . . . anytime you see a product that you recognize on TV or the movies, it was intentionally put there.

Bloggers who have better traffic will get paid more money then a blogger who is green - reviews start at $40 $20.

As Wall put it in his blog:

Four elements which will work nice in our network to filter out bad products and bad offers are

* bloggers will disclose their relationship with the advertiser
* bloggers only review things that are interested in
* we encourage brutal honesty
* the comment sections on popular blogs will help keep advertisers and bloggers honest

Fraudsters and advertisers with junk offers will not want to risk paying people to write reviews that may expose their business flaws. But, if you have a good product honest feedback and conversation about your business should only help you.

One of the greatest aspects of this new “network” is that there is no pressure from advertisers to make the reviews positive. The advertiser is relying on the viral buzz created by these reviews to get some attention.

It seems like a great idea for both the bloggers and the advertisers - there is definitely money-making potential here! I’m going to sign up as a blogger . . . I’ll let you all know how it goes.