Problahgger » monetization

Earn Money Online: CPC vs CPM vs CPA

Matthew Boyer — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:01:46 +0000

As you start down the road of blogging and earning money online you’re going to be confronted by a lot of acronyms. A few of the most important ones when it comes to online revenue are CPC, CPM, and CPA.

CPC – Cost Per Click:

Cost Per Click (CPC) ads pay you, wait for it… , per click received. The biggest example of this ad type out there is an ad system like Google Adsense. You may have 1,000,000 impressions (each appearance on a page view), but if no one clicks the ad then you get $0.00. Not exactly the way to make it big as a blogger.

The good news with CPC ads is that the proper placement and relevance to the topic can result in very high returns. CPC ads inserted into the middle of your post, right where readers are looking, will have a high CTR (click through rate) while the ads put off to the side and away from your content are likely to be rarely discovered and clicked.

CPM – Cost Per Thousand:

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) – the ‘M’ comes from the Roman numeral for one thousand, but you can just remember it for “iMpressions” – ads are not based on the amount of clicks but rather the size of viewership. You can think of this more akin to newspaper ads because there’s no interaction required for you to get paid. Of course, if the advertiser sees very low CTR then they are likely not to renew with you.

You can find a great method of CPM ads through Value Click Media.

CPA – Cost Per Action:

Cost Per Action ads are typically referral operations. You promote a product or service, someone clicks through your links, signs up or whatever the required step is, and you get paid. The CPA ads can be very profitable if you find the right niche to target. The important idea behind these is that the ads must be relevant to be successful. If your site is about sports and you’re promoting baby clothes then you may pick up an occasional random referral, but you’d be better off referring sports event tickets.

Along with having sidebar ads for CPA systems you can go the route of making personal recommendations. But beware, if you’re trying to promote and sell something that’s not very good then you risk your reputation with readers. If the product or service is great and something you use then I’d say you’ve found a good item to recommend.

There are many great methods to monetize your website, but don’t stop with just one. In an upcoming post I’ll tell you how to “stack” ad systems to make sure you’re getting the most out of your website.

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Earn Money Online with Value Click Media

Matthew Boyer — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:57:30 +0000

Now that I’ve shown you ways to earn money online with CPC (cost per click) ads like Google Adsense and dynamic, in-text ads like InfoLinks I’m going to show you a great option for CPM (cost per thousand impressions).

Value Click Media is my recommend entry-level provider for CPM ads. With CPM ads you are paid a scaled amount based on how many pageviews you can generate on your site. With CPC methods like AdSense if you have a million pageviews but zero clicks then you earn zero dollars. CPM shifts the burden of performance from you, the publisher, to the advertiser. If you push 100,000 pageviews in a day and earn $1/CPM, that’s one dollar for every thousand impressions (pageviews), and you have 3 ad placements on your site then you would earn $300 that day.

I recommend Value Click Media to beginners and early-stage bloggers because of its relatively low traffic level requirements of just 3,000 pageviews a month. That might sound like a lot of pageviews now, but if you keep following my blogging tips you’ll be getting that many impressions before breakfast in no time!

Once you’ve been blogging for several months you may be ready to graduate up to higher tier CPM ad networks like Tribal Fusion. The benefit there is when you can push more ads you’ll have the chance to push ads from higher tier advertisers which pay more money. So let that be your goal, but start now with Value Click Media.

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Earn Money Online with Infolinks

Matthew Boyer — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:16:49 +0000

Dynamic text links are the new in-thing to earn money online. Sure, those double green lined links that change each time you refresh the page have been around but just recently have they been options for entry-level bloggers. I’ve tried several of them and can tell you which is the best for dynamic, in-text advertising.

Initially I started with Kontera when it made the great move to let in low-traffic generators like I was several years ago. As time wore on I was disappointed with the low eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) rates and even more troubled by the adult-themed ads they’d run including ones for meeting adulterous wives. Seriously.

Next I moved on to Vibrant IntelliTXT which was exciting because this was the first high-traffic tier advertiser I had the chance to join. If you’re running less than a half-million pageviews a month then they’re not too interested. Vibrant worked out great for awhile, but then payout rates completely tanked. Apparently this happened across the board and so, like many other publishers with them, I left for greener pastures.

InfoLinks approached me as that opportunity for greener pastures and after over a year I’ve been incredibly satisfied. High pay rates combined with excellent control over your account and really fast publisher support has made InfoLinks my favorite dynamic, in-text advertiser system.

InfoLinks‘ system now allows you to group multiple websites under one account with the flexibility to control the ad appearances and subject focus on each site individually. This is important in case you’re trying to cover polarizing topics that don’t overlap between sites. InfoLinks also provides monthly payout via PayPal and bankwire transfer so you won’t be waiting long for the money you’ve earned.

I highly recommend InfoLinks for expanding your blog income. Register here.

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Earn Money Online with Google Adsense

Matthew Boyer — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:07:06 +0000

Once you’ve set up your new website you’re probably anxious to start earning money online. Well I’ve got some good news and some bad news.

First the bad news: many money making options require careful reviews and applications consisting of an inspection of the age and quality of your site. Without a steady, developed traffic source you’ll be initially declined by most ad systems. Those will come with time though so let’s look at your better options.

The good news is that Google Adsense is just about the easiest way to earn money online. Getting started is easy and you can be up and running with ads almost immediately after setting up your new blog. Adsense has no traffic requirements to join and for the most part will only inspect your sites to insure you are not creating MFA sites. MFA sites are “Made For Adsense.” These are spammy sites with nothing but scrapped content and Adsense ads on them.

To get started with Google Adsense you can register here for your account.

I’ll have a lot of suggestion for the best ways to implement Google Adsense on your site, but that’s a topic for another post.

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