Monetizing your BlogIf you are a Blog Author or currently manage any type of authority website and you’re looking for ways to monetize your content, the first option that comes to mind is Google AdSense.  Unfortunately, for some strange reason, Google is becoming stricter with their terms and conditions and a large number of AdSense accounts have been canceled or banned with no further explanation.  One of those canceled accounts was mine, just a few weeks ago.  After asking Google several times why the account was canceled, all I received was a template email reply citing their Terms and Conditions with a bunch of links for me to review.  The funny thing is that I only made $100 from old websites that I had forgotten about over a period of 6-7 years… hardly the type of hacker revenue that would cause an account to be cancelled.

Fortunately, for me the whole situation is just a laughing matter and no more than an anecdote, but since my account was canceled, I’ve learned of several other entrepreneurs whose monthly income depended on Google’s ad revenue, suffer greatly as a result of Google’s whim.

The good news is that Google AdSense is no longer the only game in town.  In fact, there are several other ad networks available that are growing very rapidly and that can easily be used as Google AdSense alternatives if you want to monetize your Blog or website.

After completing my own research, I’ve compiled below a list of the ones that I consider more relevant.  The list is in NO particular order.   Also, I have NOT used or tested all of them, so I definitely recommend that if you plan on using any of the below services, you do your own research as well.  The ones that I’m using now, are indicated below, although it’s been only for a short period of time and can’t report long term results yet.

Chitika

Chitika is known to be the leading alternative to Google AdSense not just in revenue numbers but also because of the size of its ad network –currently 200,000+ active publishers worldwide.  This Google AdSense alternative is very popular among new bloggers because of their low minimum payout which is just $10, so, you don’t have to wait for months or years to get your payments. Chitika also provides you with complete control over your ads. Chitika also uses its proprietary “Click Prediction” technology to show select ads when there is a greater chance they will be clicked on. This is obviously a great way to improve your revenue.  I started using Chitika just a few weeks ago.  View Chitika >

B4PSAds.com

Despite their unusual name, B4PSAds.com is another great alternative to Google AdSense advertising if you’re looking for ways to monetize your Blog.  B4PSAds.com offers a complete advertising solution offering Pay Per Click (PPC) and Cost Per Action (CPA) to publishers and advertisers alike. That means that you can get revenues not just for the clicks but also for the conversions that happen after the click itself.  They also have a very easy approval process, and it most cases, it only requires verification of the email address. B4PSAds offers payment via Paypal or Direct Deposit. Minimum payout is just $50 and payment is on a very unusual Net 5 terms. For example, on the 5th of each month your earnings from the previous month will be reviewed and posted to your account ledger and available for withdrawal. This is the second service that I’m using now replacing my old Google AdSense account.  View B4PSAds.com >

Infolinks

Infolinks is fairly new however, it has rapidly become one of the most popular and widely used in-text based ad network. Their system indexes your Blog page looking for keywords and phrases that are not currently links and converts them into advertizing links. Their minimum payout is $50 making payouts also quite frequently, especially if your visitors come from western countries like USA and Canada. When a user places his mouse over the text link a box opens up showing the ad. If they click on the link you get paid. It is very simple and works very effectively.  You can also use Infolinks in conjunction with an existing advertising campaign on your website.  For example you can show banner ads from Chitika and show text links with Infolinks. View Infolinks >

BidVertiser

Another great way to monetize your Blog is BidVertiser.  BidVertiser is basically a mix of of PPC and affiliate marketing. What this means is that you get revenues for every valid clicks on your ads plus if any of the click gets converted to a sale, you will also receive an affiliate commission. The minimum payout is $10 increments via PayPal or $100 by check.  As far as the design of the ads, you can define the look and dimensions of your text ads. BidVertizer also offers the opportunity to block unwanted ads. View BidVertiser >

Clicksor

Clicksor appears to be one of the preferred Google AdSense alternatives for new Blogs or websites with little traffic.  Their approval process is quite simple too being much more flexible than Google and most websites are approved right away (at least for now).  Clicksor supports different types of ad formats like In Text, Contextual, Popups, etc. The contextual ads are very effective as your visitors will only be exposed to ads that match the keyword search that took them to your site in the first place, thus increasing your potential click through rate.  Clicksor’s payment schedule is also much better for the small site owner. In any pay period in which your earnings exceed $50.00 ($20.00 with PayPal), payments are made either by check or instantly through PayPal ($20.00 minimum for PayPal). View Clicksor >

Intellilinks

Intellilinks ad network is very similar to infolinks (mentioned above) but they have an integrated feature to sell links on your site/blog. Intellilinks specializes in placing organic text links across an ever-growing network of websites in order to build rank and traffic for advertisers and increased revenue for publishers. You can either allow to display ads automatically on your blogs or manually review them and place them yourself. The best feature about intellilinks is that there is no payment threshold. They split revenue 50:50 and make payments monthly by  PayPal no matter the amount earned.  View Intellilinks >

Skimlinks

Skimlinks provides Bloggers with a very automated way to monetize all of their content regardless of the Blog’s particular niche.   In addition to the more traditional way of monetizing phrases on your site by automatically converting them into affiliate links, they also offer a more unique monetizing option.  Skimlinks can take regular links on your site and redirect them through their affiliate servers. So, for example, when you add a product link to your Blog, Skimlinks automatically turns this link into an equivalent affiliate link when a user clicks on it by redirecting briefly through the Skimlinks servers.  All of this process being completely invisible to the visitor.  Each time a user clicks on a product link that Skimlinks can re-direct to an affiliate, you earn a commission.  View Skimlinks >

Media.net

Media.net is not as commonly known as the other options above, but it’s still a viable option to monetize your blog is you want to find an alternative to Google AdSense.  It’s also relatively easy to get approved by them.  They are part of the Yahoo!-Bing network and give you instant access to a large number of markets and keyword-targeted advertisers.  Their payment plan is similar to AdSense, meaning that they pay only when your account accumulates a minimum of $100 in revenue.  Media.net offers content ads, search targeting, and mobile ads that add revenues to your account when web visitors click on those ads. View Media.net

Kontera

Kontera’s system is similar to Infolinks above.  Kontera is extremely easy to use. All you have to do is add a few lines of code to the end of your webpage and within 24 hours additionally links start showing up on your page that serve Kontera Ads. This service does not provide you with a complete replacement for all your ads and they do not provide banner designs.  Their ads are based on text links that are related to your content.  Some bloggers love Kontera because they seem to have one of the best payout options.  However, from the user stand point, you will see a lot of web visitors extremely annoyed by these types of contextual links.  So it could be a balancing act between maximizing your revenues and alienating your Blog or website visitors.  Kontera uses PayPal for payments and their minimum amount is $50. View Kontera >

Buy Sell Ads

Although this happens to be the last Google AdSense alternative on my list, it actually happens to be one of the best options to monetize your blog as well.  The only caveat is that is your Blog is brand new or if you don’t have a decent amount of traffic, you probably will not qualify.  Once you are approved though, you can list your Blog or websites in their marketplace.  Then when one of your ad spots is sold, you get 75% of the total and they keep 25% as a commission.  In other words, they assist publishers (you) sell their ad space directly to advertisers, which is much easier than you approaching individual advertisers on your own. The minimum amount that can be withdrawn from your account credit is $50.  View BuySellAds.com

So there you have it!  If you’re looking for Google AdSense alternatives that are also very viable ways to monetize your Blog, the above ten are a great start.  And yes, there are other options out there but I wanted to limit this list to the ten alternatives that I think will work best for most of you.  Like I said, I’m already using a couple of these myself although it is too soon to provide any type of results.

If you are using any other monetizing option or would like to expand and add more information about any of the ones that I’ve listed above, please do so.  I would love to hear from you and I’m sure other readers would too!

Until next time, this is +Manuel Gil Del Real (MGR)