We have seen many AuctionAds publishers removing borders from our AuctionAds ad units, mimicking the popular Google AdSense optimization feature of removing borders to blend the ads within a site better.
Did you know that leaving the borders turned on might actually lead to a higher click through rather than a lower one? With our AuctionAds showing an image along with the text part of the ads, using borders can help define them, as well as help visitors quickly tell which picture goes with which text description.
Not sure which version if the best one for you? If you have an ad serving system, such as phpAdsNew, set up two channels in your AuctionAds account, and create two variations of your ad unit, one with borders and the other blended. Rotate them 50/50 for a couple of days and see which ad unit style has the highest CTR – is it the one with borders or without? Then chose that one as your standard ad unit style throughout the site. You can also use this to test out colors as well.
Don’t have an ad serving system on your site? You can do a quick and dirty version of the same by manually swapping the styles each day, and after swapping for a few, see which has the highest CTR. This won’t be as accurate, since daily variations in traffic can affect your stats, but it is a way to workaround if you cannot use an adserver.
If you do your own ad unit style testing, be sure to report back the findings of your testing, being sure to include the ad unit size and whether borders or blended was the best for you.
Ever wondered what kind of cool USB devices there actually are that go beyond the standard wireless mouse or USB phone charger? Wonder no more, because they can all be found at the site of the AuctionAds publisher of the month, GetUSB.info.
Greg Morris started a USB website because he was already hunting down new USB products daily, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to begin turning those findings into a popular USB product blog. What started as an online experiment to better educate himself on blogging and internet turned into a profitable experience too.
Greg started the site back in January 2006, and has used programs such as Google AdSense, Commission Junction, BlogAds, Chitika, among others, and found that USB ads just weren’t paying enough… especially Google AdSense ads, which were low in per click revenue. Greg added AuctionAds back in March, and found that because there is so much USB inventory at eBay, that “the commissions are much higher thus making AuctionAds the more profitable partner for generating revenue.”
“AuctionAds is currently my favorite advertising method. I believe it’s a combination of site content in conjunction with an excellent tool for generating ads. The beautiful thing about AuctionAds is the fresh content served up. You eliminate advertising blindness because what eBay serves up is A) consistently different with almost every page view and with B) different images, prices and descriptions. This is excellent because even with return visitors at GetUSB.info they always see something new for sale,” Greg says.
He has found that using four standard variations of USB combination keywords works best on the WordPress-based site. “On each page there are four ads running of AuctionAds. Each ad uses different key words. The combination of the 4 different key words along with the different content served up from AuctionAds makes for a very fresh list of products on every page view. It’s great that AuctionAds gives the web-owner the tools to create custom Ads for each page yet at the same time developed a product powerful enough to work when standardized. I’ve also started paying more attention to upcoming events, holidays etc and use that to my advantage and edit some AuctionAds on a week by week basis.”
Thinking about starting your own blog? We asked Greg to give advice to others who are just starting out and looking for a way to make money through blogging. “There are many tips and tricks I’d like to give. The most important is being consistent and posting on a regular basis – but everyone says that (although it’s true). Let me give you a tid-bit which isn’t mentioned that often – but valuable. I find unique sites that present content in a unique way and read their blog just to learn their method on how to present information. From how they phrase things, to using the block quotes, to emphasizing a certain point by incorporating off beat links/events to drive a point home. Very few bloggers/webmasters are training or educated in writing so this is a good way to learn what works.”
Have you ever done a search for anything USB related? If you have, you have seen Greg’s tips in action, as chances are good you have stumbled across one of his GetUSB.info blog post in the process, as the site ranks on the first page for most searches related to USB gadgets it has featured on the GetUSB.info blog, including the USB Circus Cannon which is currently his favorite USB gadget of the moment, with foam darts he can fire around his office using laptop controls. So next time you are thinking of searching for anything USB or are looking for that quirky USB toy, think of GetUSB.info
Want to be the next AuctionAds Publisher Spotlight feature? Let us know!
Did you realize that you can make money when visitors click on your “Ads by AuctionAds” link in your ad unit? AuctionAds offers a unique referral program where you will earn a percentage of all your referred publishers, meaning you can make a nice additional tidy sum of referral revenue on top of the money you make from the actual ads themselves.
Ever click on the “Ads by ___” link on some of the other ad programs? If you did, you would discover a landing page that would get new signups or advertisers for those programs but would leave the publisher high and dry when it comes actually getting any credit or revenue from those those signups. And not only are you not earning any money from those referrals, it is also a non-money-making leak where visitors can leave your site without you making a penny off of them. This is one area where AuctionAds strives to be different.
With AuctionAds, we don’t want you to worry about the loss of revenue caused by the branding we use to identify the ad units as ads on your site. So we have implemented a referral program that is imbedded right into your ad units. So anytime anyone clicks on the “Ads by AuctionAds” and signs up for the program, you will earn 2% of those new publisher’s earnings. Pretty sweet deal. This means every single click made from our ad units, even the clicks on the “Ads by AuctionAds” gives you the potential to earn money.
Do you have other ways you wish to promote AuctionAds outside of the ad unit itself? You can also generate referral links that do not have to appear in conjunction with your ad unit, so you can just include a link in your blog entry talking about AuctionAds, or include it in a sidebar of a blog or website. Just login to your account and you will find the code right on the front page.
And with AuctionAds being such a new program, chances are good that if a visitor likes your new revenue stream on your site, they just might click that link and sign up themselves. And since nearly all of those signups would have clicked on the links to see how they worked, you will still earn money from that signup if they also end up placing an eBay bid as well!
Wondering just how many people you have already referred to AuctionAds? The front page of your AuctionAds account shows the number of referrals you currently have, so you can see how many people have signed up using your link. And soon, you will also be able to login to your account and see your referral reporting separated out from your regular earnings, so you will be able to see just how much money you are making from your AuctionAds ads versus strictly the referral revenue. If you tend to send a lot of referrals, this will be especially handy for you.
Ready to start earning referral revenue from AuctionAds? Either use AuctionAds ad units, if you aren’t already, or simply login to your account to generate the referral javascript so you can create regular links for AuctionAds and start earning right away.
