I stumbled across something yesterday that I found interesting, and even though I my knowledge and experience with it is somewhat limited, I felt it was worth passing on.

EVERYONE is on the hunt for better monetization options…and many/most of us have tried all the various options out there: AdSense, YPN, AuctionAds, WidgetBucks, AdBrite…ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Some of these are great…some not so much. From extremely poor click-though rates to extremely poor payouts…from unwieldy ad formats to godawful ad serving (yes, AuctionAds & ShoppingAds… I’m talkin’-a’-you…), this monetization game can be very frustrating. And many of the problems are at the system level…i.e., beyond the publisher’s control. So I’m always on the lookout for a better mousetrap.
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There’s a new option for blog and web site monetization that’s just become available. It’s called WidgetBucks, and it just might be worth a look. Like AdSense (and Chitika and a few other options), it pays on clicks (CPC) rather than actual sales (CPA). Which model performs best on your site? You won’t know unless you test both options. I’m just starting my test, so I can’t yet report how well they perform…but I still have several observations at this point.
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If you’re a webmaster (as I am…), you’re aware that you’re probably not really doing your job unless you’re out scavenging up inbound links for your site(s). We all dream of the day that our sites will earn enough attention that we can forget about the business of acquiring links and focus exclusively on creating content to help people, etc. I’ve had the privilege of reaching that stage with a few of my sites…where they are ranking right at the top of the search engine results pages for their keywords and seeing a steady stream of traffic. But there’s nothing fair about the search engines. They are what they are, and they’re incredibly valuable. But you don’t get ranked because you’ve got a great site. You get ranked for a variety of other reasons…but mostly, because folks have discovered your site and linked to your site. This is the maddening scramble for webmasters…where to find enough links or at least, free traffic, to get visitors to our sites. It’s especially hard when you can’t justify buying ads for your site, because you don’t sell anything directly…and the economics of PPC advertising just don’t make sense.
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