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YPN Falling Short of Adsense

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Many–if not most–bloggers receive most of their advertising revenue from Google Adsense. The reason is simple: despite the program’s annoying tendencies towards secrecy (Smart Pricing), Adsense pays out far better than alternatives (usually). But there was one slight problem–we were all dependant on one entity for monetization. Umm, *eek!*

Which is why so many of us jumped for joy when Yahoo! finally announced YPN, their Adsense alternative. The program has been in BETA for a while, and I’ve tested it out on my own blogs. I’ve got to say, YPN is nowhere near to rivalling Adsense, and I’ll tell you why in one word:

Depth.

Adsense has it. YPN doesn’t.

Admittedly, many bloggers have noticed that the two programs pay out about the same. The YPN CTR is usually significantly less than Adsense (because it doesn’t target as well–due to less advertiser depth) but it pays more per click than Adsense (because it lacks ‘Smart Pricing’).

Now, Smart Pricing annoys me as much as the next guy, but in reality, it’s the only thing that makes contextual advertising sustainable. Ads on blogs are just not going to convert as well as ads displayed on Google.com search results pages. It’s that simple. When Google implemented Smart Pricing, it knew that EPC would fall across the board, but over time it would make that money back and then some by making it feasible for many more advertisers to enter the marketplace.

Their logic in “mathematical” form:

discounted clicks = more advertisers = more ads and keywords = better contextual targeting = higher CTR = higher long term revenue

My guess is that the advertisers participating in the YPN are not getting a good ROI on their current campaigns. And long term, this will prevent the system from having the depth it needs to be a success for both publishers and advertisers.

Aside from this depth issue, Google already has the first mover advantage. When you want to buy a used *something*, do you go to eBay, or Yahoo! Auctions? I’m guessing eBay. Why? Selection. They have a much larger critical mass of users. In an efficient global multi-marketplace environment, there tends to be one marketplace that’s larger than the rest, and further, this seems to be self-sustaining. Where do the buyers go? Where the sellers are. Where do the sellers go? Where the buyers are.

Don’t get me wrong: I am still bullish that YPN can make a good alternative to Adsense. But Yahoo has to address some of these issues or it will be doomed to be an also-ran… in that case, thank God for Chitika! 😉

Choosing a Niche and Becoming the Authority

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The all important first step of creating a blog is deciding on the niche. Choosing the right niche can makes things a lot easier, whereas blogging on a tired old topic may make success impossible no matter how good the content is. So what makes a good niche? And how do you become the authority?

Not all blogs have to be wholly original–if you want to create the next blog about Apple, there will probably be some hardcore readers who will want an eighth (80th?) Apple blog to add to their feedreader. And this type of blog could certainly be monetized. It’s just unlikely that it will ever be the authority in it’s niche.

Why is being an authority so great? Well, if you’re the authority, you’re the default place people talk about and link to when they mention your topic. For instance, when we talk about PVRs, we all usually link to PVRBlog, right?

This all becomes easier if you think about it before you even create (and name) your blog. Two options for becoming the authority in your niche:

1) Pick a topic that IS being blogged about, but you know you can provide better content than those blogs (example: Gawker wasn’t the first ‘NYC’ blogger, but she is now the most popular).

2) Pick a “micro-niche” where you will be the only person blogging (example: the Long Tail was the first [only?] to blog exclusively about… the long tail).

Personally, I prefer option #2, since I am lazy, and it’s “low hanging fruit”. But #1 can work for you too, if you truly can do better that’s what’s out there (and more importantly, if you can stick with it long enough to be noticed).

The Dao of Your Blog Content

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Not all blog topics are created equal. Likewise, different blogs will do better with different types of content. If you’re in it to make money, it’s worth taking a look at what type of content will earn your particular blog the most money–the Dao of Your Blog Content.

There are a million different aspects of content, and they vary across industries. But here are 3 of the most common tradeoffs I face:

At my own blog network we’ve fought with these issues, and decided to prioritize accordingly:

  • Quantity over quality (not that we ignore quality — but get up archives at all costs!)
  • Paraphrasing existing knowledge over being creative (after all, it’s much harder to be creative if you’re defining what a fixed-rate mortgage is)
  • Reposting over original ideas (it’s much faster–efficient–gets a lot of news out there for readers and helps us with search engines too)

This isn’t to say our methodology will work for everyone–it won’t. If you’re looking for your blog to land you consulting gigs, rather than just get you search engine referrals, you may want to learn towards quality over quantity, for instance. But if monetization through ads is your primary goal, you may go for quantity. With Adsense or Chitika, ‘transparent visitors’ (those from search engines) will usually be easier to monetize.

The point is, though, you should plan your content. Over the course of a year or two you will be writing a lot of it, so make sure it will achieve your business goals. Find your Dao.

Dealing with Writer’s Block

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Some bloggers seem to have a never-ending stream of loquacious verbiage to spew forth. As for me, I’m not a writer at heart–I just try to be. There are tons of things to write about blog monetization, but sitting down this morning I still hit writer’s block. How did I deal with it?

Experience told me I could have done one of several things.

1) Surf and find. Of course, the most common blog post is a repost of an entry you find somewhere else. But aside from reposting, sometimes other blogs will give inspiration and lead you on a tangent to another topic.

2) Write a tutorial. Over time, as you become an experienced in your field, you learn how to do things better. It may seem like second nature to you now, but your knowledge can still be highly valuable to your readers, who may or may not be as advanced in skill as you. Tutorials tend to garner a lot of references in other blogs, too.

3) Take the lazy way out. Make a post about not having any ideas at the moment. I selected option #3.

One thing I find helpful is to keep an ‘idea pad’, and scribble them down whenever you think of them (if you’re too busy to post on them instantly). Keep this in your desk drawer, and if you ever hit a wall, boom! Instant posting fodder. At least, this is what I would do if I had a pad.

What are some of the ways you beat writer’s block?

Product Blogs for Women — Amazing Profit Potential!

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With all the dozens of blog networks out there, sometimes I get a sick of seeing the newest gadgets weblog. But when I see a blog like Manolo’s Shoe Blog, I get excited again. Yes, it has a unique hook and good content–but what really excites me is the profit potential.

My first thought was *duh*, why didn’t I think of that? Quick survey of the girls I know: they all seem to be obsessed with shoes to one degree or another. They all spend a lot of money on their shoes. And they all have credit cards.

The genius part about a product-oriented blog is that your ads, or affiliate reviews, are your strongest content. The ads are the main reason readers come to your blog, so it’s no surprise that they convert better. Product-oriented blogs are just easier to make money with because of what they are.

Darren from Problogger obviously knows this angle–he’s perfected it with his digital camera reviews blog.

But Manolo’s Shoe Blog is just a dynamite business model. A couple of thoughts about Manolo’s monetization:

1) Diversity of revenue streams. On the shoes blog, I’m counting Chitika eMiniMalls, affiliate buttons (see the right sidebar), BlogAds (see the far right sidebar) and Adsense (see the Adlinks below Chitika). Four useful types of ads on the page. That makes me wet my pants! And all of these are well-placed. *update: just found a fifth type of ad, a link to a pretty book about shoes on Amazon.com (right sidebar). Five types of ads, is that a new record?

2) Credibility cannot be faked. If you’re picking last season’s purses to promote (or this season’s ugly ones), you will not win over loyal readers. If you lost your credibility, readers would not be as likely to click on the Chitika eMiniMall product choices or the affiliate links in your posts (since they would be targetting ugly items). But Manolo obviously knows shoes.

3) This is the perfect type of blog for Chitika eMiniMalls. The content is about products. The Chitika ads are useful, interactive windows to these same products. Targeting is high, reader interest is high, the pictures are pretty and clickable.

4) This is the perfect type of blog for inserting affiliate links into posts. If the readers are interested in the item you’re featuring, they’ll want a direct link to find out more about it, including price, sizes, availability, etc. In this post Manolo links to a particular product on Zappos.com (anchor text: “67% off of the usual price”. Manolo, I salute you).

Manolo is not the only one in this game: check out The Purse Blog (I’m sure there are others, too).

Postvertising?

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Admittedly, “postvertising” is probably the most annoying word you’ll ever read. I’m talking about the practice of getting paid to post on your blog to promote and link to a company or product. It isn’t new, but there are more sightings of this practice all the time. I think Duncan poses the question best: “Easy money or blog prostitution?”

The Digg Effect

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If there’s anything that running The Pope Blog has taught me, it’s that one mention in an A-list blog can you really turbocharge your traffic (in that case, it was Buzzmachine that did it). There’s the infamous Slashdot effect which used to bring down a lot of servers. And now there’s the Digg effect.

Digg has become quite popular lately, and as its readership grows, the traffic its sends becomes more attractive to bloggers looking to promote themselves (and make money!). Interestingly, traffic from Digg may not be as valuable as your “average traffic”:

1. Digg users do not click ads… In the short run, getting on the front page is more likely to cost you money than make you money if you are depending on ads for your revenue…
3. Digg traffic does not generate new users, comments, or posts. Digg users often comment regarding a site on digg itself instead of on the dugg website…
10. After a site is highlighted on the Digg front page, it will start showing up in the other social bookmarking systems soon.

Point 10 is important though, as getting on “the big one” can help a post or blog go viral.

High Ad CTR vs. User Annoyance

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My last post on Adsense placement received an interesting comment about users getting annoyed by ads on blogs. High CTR and earnings are no good if a blog’s ad placement turns many users away and prevents it from getting inbound links. The important question is: does prominent placement of ads always annoy users?

With some sites, there’s no question that the “whoring for CTR” annoys readers and discourages links (About.com comes to mind). On the other end of the spectrum are webmasters so afraid of backlash that they settle for .5% CTR when they could get 5% or more.

I think some people have figured out a sweet spot — see this Weblogs, Inc. blog for example. Yes, the ads are prominent — but they’re not in the ‘content area’ which is what regular readers will want. I’m of the opinion that you want to simultaneously avoid annoying regular readers, while maximizing CTR from your ‘one-time’ traffic (i.e., people who find you on a long tail search and who are not likely to make a return visit). The first group is the sustainable audience that will link to you, while the second will be your primary revenue generator if you use Adsense. It’s all about the balancing act.