In an ongoing effort to pay for pizza night around here, I've looked into a few ways to make money blogging. Like its name might suggest, Google Adsense generates a few cents here and there, and I get the occasional $0.33 commission from Amazon Associates
Anyway, when I heard about another way to monetize--based on page views, not sales--I was dubious but interested. Maybe this could bump us up from microwave cheese to pepperoni & black olive from Papa John's? Wouldn't hurt to look into.
The concept is called NetAudioAds, and my first impression, based on the interest-grabbing page was less than great. However, the explanatory page had more credibility. And when the ad company got a blurb in the Wall Street Journal, I decided to take the plunge and give it a shot. The WSJ:
Starting Feb. 1, San Diego-based V2P Communications is offering five-to-eight-second audio ads, called NetAudioAds, that will automatically play when a visitor lands on a blog or Web site. Publishers sign up for the free service and V2P then lines up advertisers, who bid on rates they will pay to have their ads played on a given blog. Bids generally start around $14 per 1,000 plays. Blog publishers get a 25% cut of the ad revenue.
About 25,000 publishers have signed up so far, says Michael Knox, V2P's co-founder, and several large companies and 2008 presidential campaigns have expressed interest in becoming advertisers through the service. A site that gets 2,000 unique visitors per day with an advertiser paying $14 per 1,000 plays might earn $28 a day, or $196 a week.
Pros:
Simple, cumulative blog revenue based on page loads, not sales commissions.
Install a piece of code, and you're done.
Reputable companies are involved.
Five seconds is not a very long ad.
Cons:
It's an audio ad.
Audio seems more invasive to me than print advertising, but there is an obvious workaround: turn down the volume. All this to say, I'm going to give NetAudioAds a shot, and see how things go. The ads will start playing in February--feel free to send me a note with your impressions. If you think they're awful, let me know.
The alternative is that NetAudioAds may be a legitimate avenue for bloggers to make a little on the side. Personally, I'd like to be able to afford some decent pizza.
[If you'd like to give NetAudioAds a shot, you can find out more here--or just take the plunge and sign up here. Don't sweat it, though: Nothing will happen until you actually install a small piece of code on your site. Full disclosure: If you do sign up, I'll get a small finder's fee, but it won't come out of your earnings.]
2 comments:
Works for me... I never have my audio turned on. ;)
Of course, it might be worth turning my audio on just to hear a Viagra commercial while I'm trying to read a wonderfully spiritual post on C.S. Lewis and KU Basketball ;)
When that happens, I'll know it's time to pack things up and call it a day.
The ad company emphasizes how contextual their ads are...so if this blog get Viagra ads, I'll know the world has gone crazy.
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