Hello startrekdude,
First I want to start off by giving you an idea of how I think you
could best manage building advertisements into your application
WITHOUT being intrusive to your users. If you are not interested in
this, skip down to where I start linking to the affiliate networks I
have selected. I have had some experience working for small to medium
sized websites and trying to keep them afloat and/or profitable with
advertising. It can be tough, but is definitely possible with some
hard work.
The best way for you to manage your advertisements (without committing
yourself to one company) is that you should imbed a few HTML pages
into your application so that when you change the HTML on your server,
the advertisements get updated on the application. You can put
advertisements on the top or bottom of game selection, network status,
latest news, etc. If you use this approach, (instead of giving another
company complete control) you will be able to use a combination of pay
per click, per lead, commission etc. You will be able to remove and
add advertisements as you see fit (based on their performance) and use
as many advertising networks as you want. This will also enable you to
sell advertising DIRECTLY to other companies, which will remove any
percentage taken by the middle companies.
Many of the companies below will require that you have an active
website with an active user community and a working program before
they will approve your application. I recommend that you wait before
you have at least an active website that is getting a minimum of 100
hits per day before applying to any of these. (Make a website with
some forums so users can post messages while waiting for your
application to launch. Having a few contests usually works to increase
hits as well.)
To get through the application process you will need to have, at the
very least, a website. If you do decide to go ahead and apply before
you have everything working, it is critical that you submit your
applications being as professional as possible (spell checking and
proper grammar) and that you portray yourself as being part of an
organization (instead of an individual). I am not sure if you have
already registered your company name, but you probably should do so
before going live and applying to any of these networks.
You have to decide yourself if you want to use companies such as
Cydoor and Web3000 (which pays per installation), which basically take
over the advertising for you. The choice is yours on whether you want
to use a company like this, but my suggestion to you would be to use
more than one of the companies below and integrate the advertisements
with the content of your website and application (and in weekly opt-in
emails sent to your users.) This will be much more user friendly and
will not install software that your users do not want (spyware) or
provide content over which you have little control. If you want a good
idea of what I am talking about, take the time to download the MSN
Gaming Zone ( http://www.zone.com ) (and subscribe to some of their
newsletters) to get an idea of how advertising in an application can
be done in a non-intrusive manner. In my opinion, as soon as you add
third party software to your application which is installed when your
application is installed, you are putting yourself in danger of being
blacklisted by many people and your program will quickly be labeled as
containing spyware.
Note that for the following companies, you will still have to screen
certain advertising to meet your needs. Some of them might make
pop-ups after the user clicks on the advertisement, so be sure that
you carefully select the advertising. After your application gets
approved, you can contact the company directly to request permission
to include their advertisements in your application… I do not see this
as being a problem, especially if you imbed HTML pages and have the
ability to update the advertisements as you see fit (because most
advertisements are only live for a few months and then they have to be
replaced.)
One final thing before I list the companies: Do not be afraid to try
the results approach (clicks and sign-ups instead of page views) in
the age category you are talking about. Advertisers often prefer this
model because they pay for results, and not simply for impressions.
Sure the demographics you listed are not as likely to have a credit
card or have a desire to be spending money online, but you will be
surprised at how many attractive offers are out there that do not
require purchasing something online, while having excellent payouts.
There are countless companies who want to distribute information about
their products and do so through contests, information requests (one
of your users signing up for a weekly email from a certain “cool”
company targeting your website’s demographics can earn you $1.50).
Here are some of the companies that I have selected based on the
information you have provided:
Websponsors.com
http://www.websponsors.com
Link to apply: http://affiliates.websponsors.com/cgi-bin/joinnow.cgi
About Them: I do not believe that they pay for view, but they have
offers where you can get paid high amounts when your users sign up for
their offers, many of them which are free (contests, etc.) They allow
you to co-brand contests and offers so that it looks as though you are
offering them (which you really are anyway). You can get paid anywhere
from $0.65US to $1.25US when your users sign up for a free contest
(winning a 2002 corvette or a Lexus GS300). Some of their payouts go
into the $80+ range (but these generally require that you sell
something). You get an account manager assigned to you who can answer
any questions and make recommendations. Not an easy network to get
into, but when you make it they can be one of the best. Very reliable
payments for the last 3+ years which are sent out as promised on their
website without failure. They will actually work with you personally
to ensure your website is optimized to get the best results possible
from them.
Direct Response
http://www.directresponse.com
Link to apply: Click on Publishers and then
About Them: One of the top companies and you can choose how you want
to get paid based on what advertisements you host. Per click, per
lead, per sale, per impression or per redeem. Tough network to get
into but if you are well established and professional you will make
it. Need a minimum of 3,000 unique page views per month and a top
level domain.
CyberBounty
http://www.cyberbounty.com
Link to apply: Click on Signup from the main page. You need 750 unique
visitors a day but this is a fairly easy network to get into. Click on
Sponsors from the main page to see what you will be paid. As you can
see, they have a limited selection of offers, but this might be a good
company to get 1 or 2 offers from.
LeapHound
http://www.leaphound.com
Link to apply: http://www.leadhound.com/join.html
About them: I do not know anyone who uses this company, but they
appear to have a good track record and pay via Paypal in various
currencies. They also appear to have a fairly good reputation among
various forums online but you will have to check out this company
yourself as I cannot vouch for them personally.
FastClick
http://www.fastclick.com/
Link to apply: http://www.fastclick.com/join.html
About them: Need more than 100 page views per day. Good reputation,
good payouts, usually easy to get into if you meet the 100 page per
day requirement and you have a decent website. You can contact them
directly after making it into their network to see if you will be able
to add their advertisements to your application. They pay for
impressions (not many companies with a minimum of 100 page views per
day do this, most require many more page views) and per click.
Definitely worth checking out.
Commision Junction
http://www.cj.com
Link to apply: Click on become a publisher from their main page.
About them: Good network with a fairly good reputation. Many offers
based on pay per performance (not usually per impression) but still
worth your time. Had some trouble connecting to their website at the
time of this research, but know that this is a very easy network to
get into. When you make it in, you can look through the various offers
from advertisers, and APPLY to have their advertisements in your
application, website or emails. Once approved (by the advertiser
directly after they review you), you will be able to get paid based on
per click, per filling out a form, or per sale. You should apply to
see what this network currently has to offer you, especially if you
are having trouble getting into some of the other networks who require
you to already be well-established.
Lead Crunch
http://www.leadcrunch.com/
Link to apply: http://www.leadcrunch.com/signup.html?type=webmaster
About them: Fairly new advertising network that might be worth a try.
They pay per action (click, lead, registration etc.) and seem to be
well liked by webmasters who have used them.
Performics
http://www.performics.com
Link to apply: https://www.connectcommerce.com/secure/partner_app.html
One of the leading companies which sells advertising for some of the
largest companies online, as well as has their advertisements on some
of the largest websites. Again, they pay for results (not page views),
but have very good payout rates if you can get accepted to their
network. You should probably wait before being well established before
applying.
Amazing Media
http://www.amazingmedia.com/
Link to apply:
About them: Impressive client list (see
http://www.amazingmedia.com/website/AdVariantEnterprise.jsp .)
Including them because you wanted pay per impression, I cannot really
vouch for them, but did find some positive reviews for their network.
Their payouts vary, but I was unable to find a link that allows a
publisher to sign up. You might want to email their publisher support
alias: mailto:adsupport@amazingmedia.com to find out how you can join
their network.
Click Agents
http://www.clickagents.com/
Link to apply: http://www.clickagents.com/ca_join.html
About them: Good reputation, excellent advertisements (high click
through ratio of up to 1% average on some of their ads). Also good
payouts if you want to run a few pay per click advertisements.
All of the above companies are ones that I have either used directly
myself, have friends who used them, or have read several good reviews
about. There are many more affiliate networks out there, but hopefully
I have given you an idea of what some of the best ones are like, and
what to look for in an affiliate program. Please see the link below to
find more programs that might work for you. I have also provided some
links to webmaster resources (forums) so that you can get in touch
with people who have tried many of the companies above, as well as
others. Last but not least, don’t forget to have:
You own Advertising Program
Basically, you should have a link on your website that allows
potential advertisers to contact you directly so that they can sell
advertisements to you directly. Eliminating the company in the middle
can get you some excellent offers and payout rates, especially once
you are well established. Carefully review people who want to
advertise directly however, because some of these companies are
questionable as well. Make sure you have a reliable way to see that
impressions, clicks, sales etc. are reported fairly.
Some other companies you can investigate yourself:
http://www.linkshare.com/ (I was unable to connect to this website,
must be my isp acting up).
http://www.bulkclicks.com/ (not currently accepting new members, but
you can check them occasionally. They pay $0.05 per button, $0.04 per
text link).
If you want to investigate more companies yourself, here is a great
place to start:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/
Here are some webmaster forums where you can get more information from
people who are in a similar situation:
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/ (see their Affiliate Programs and
Affiliate Networks forum)
http://www.webmaster-forums.net/ (see their Advertising and Affiliate
Programs forum as well as their Internet Business Discussion forum)
http://www.geekvillage.com/forums/index.php (see their Making Money on
the Internet forums)
One final note before finishing up: Do not blindly believe all the
various websites online which review the “best” affiliate networks.
Their reviews are often based on which ones will pay out the best
commission for referring you to a certain affiliate program. You are
much more likely to get good, unbiased opinions in places such as the
forums above where people are often (but not always) prohibited from
posting links where they will receive a commission for recommending a
specific program to you. In forums, other people at least have the
chance to counter certain statements made by people who are interested
in selling you to a certain network, instead of meeting your specific
needs.
I hope this is the type of research you were looking for. I have tried
to carefully select the best affiliate programs for your situation,
but in the end it will be you who has to make all the decisions. If
you need any clarifications regarding this answer, let me know and I
will do my best to further assist you.
-tisme-ga
Search Strategy (that produced results used above):
advertising networks
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=advertising+networks
affiliate programs
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=affiliate+programs
pay per impression
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=pay+per+impression
pay per click
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=pay+per+click
"pay per"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22pay+per%22
webmaster affiliate forums
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=webmaster+affiliate+forums
Also used the “similar pages” feature from google on searches such as
“websponsors” etc. as well as directly went to websites I had
previously known about. |
