Why I Had To Leave Kontera

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Rand Wilson

When I sent my written notice to Kontera informing them that I would not be renewing my contract and would soon be removing Kontera from GrownUpGeek.com, my account rep. replied with dismay – it seemed that she could not understand what would be driving me to make such an irrational decision. So not even taking into account or mentioning that fact that I had to notify Kontera in writing.. At least 30 days in advance before I could remove the Kontera tags from my site without repercussions (I know, I agreed to it, in writing – but that does not mean I like it), I replied that it was simple economics. The fact is, for about the last year or more, Kontera earnings have been on the downswing (read: earnings have sucked!) and I’ve grown tired of the assurances from my Kontera rep that “it’s just a temporary downswing across the industry” or “we’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up for the 2nd quarter – now hurry and sign your 1-year contract”.

It pains me to leave Kontera. Kontera has great customer support, and once upon a time the earnings were spectacular. But like I’ve posted here in the blog many times when discussing Kontera, it works great on some websites, and not so great on other websites – “if Kontera works on your website, use it! if Kontera doesn’t work, try something else..” … So, it’s time for me to try something else.

I’ve just began testing InfoLinks (first day Infolinks generated more earnings than Kontera has seen in 3 weeks) and after 30-60 days, I’ll give Vibrant a try.

I can say that so far, I am unimpressed with support from both Infolinks or Vibrant – Kontera beats them both hands-down as far as support and responsiveness is concerned.. But, support don’t pay the server bills – sorry Kontera.

Below are some graphs showing how Kontera has performed against Adsense and IDG Tech Network.

The first graph shows all three, Adsense, IDG Tech, and Kontera, Jan – June 2011:

As you can see above, Adsense is far and above a better performer than either IDG Tech or Kontera. Since it’s not even fair to compare IDG Tech or Kontera to Adsense, below is another graph, of just Kontera and IDG Tech, without Adsense to skew the scaling:

As you can see above, for the first 6 months of 2011, Kontera has lagged far behind IDG Tech virtually every day.

Now compare 2009 Kontera earnings (Jan thru June) to 2011 Kontera earnings (Jan thru June):

And finally – The average daily earnings of Kontera going all the way back to 2007. There have been some clear ups and downs, but for the last 8 – 9 months, the trend is in one direction: DOWN

Still confused and bewildered over why I would leave Kontera?

As I’ve already said – I’m not saying Kontera is bad, or you should not use Kontera. On the contrary, I think you should try Kontera on your site to see how it performs against the competition. Unfortunately for Kontera, it just no longer performs on my website.

Kontera, Adsense, IDGTech, & Affiliate Performance

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Rand Wilson

Back in March I gave an update on earnings throughout 2010 and the first month or two of 2011 so I thought I would post a quick update on the last two months or so.

Traffic: March and April 2011 were nearly identical to March/April 2010 at just under 1-million page-views

Adsense: At just under $10,000 for the 60-day period of March and April 2011, Adsense was up approximately 3% over the same 60 days in 2010. During the second half of April 2011 Adsense has been very close to breaking the $300/day mark. It hasn’t hit it yet, but it’s creeping very close.

IDG Tech Network: I didn’t get on-board with IDG Tech Network until late 2010, so I cant compare 2011 performance to last year. However, at nearly $2k for March & April 2011 and considering the fact that IDG Tech Network finally broke that magical $100/day mark (not every day, but several days, for the first time), I would say that IDG Tech Network is doing outstanding.

Affiliate Earnings: We only have a few affiliate links, on only a couple of pages, but those pages do receive a fair amount of traffic. In March/April 2010 affiliate earnings were approximately $120. In March/April 2011, those exact same Affiliate links on the exact same pages generated over $800. Note to self: If you have pages that get a lot of traffic and you can find an affiliate that makes sense for that page, use it!

Kontera: While Adsense and IDG Tech are measured in hundreds of dollars per day, Kontera coming in at nearly 50% less in 2011 than the same period in 2010, is floundering – In recent days not even breaking the $10/day mark. As much as I’ve touted Kontera in the past and as much as I love Kontera’s support-team, looking at those $8 earnings days are just too painful to continue and the time has come for us to part-ways. I have given the required written-notice that we will not be renewing our contract, and will soon be removing the Kontera tags/code from our site. I will then test other in-line text advertisers and report on their performance here in the blog. Of course I will test Kontera again at some point in the future and if it performs acceptably, I’ll be more than happy to dump whatever ad-network is lagging.

So overall, 2011 is going great. I’m curious how your traffic and earnings have been so far this year. Please post a comment and let us know if you are UP or DOWN.

MailBag: What about MY success ?

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Rand Wilson

Technically this isn’t a “Mailbag” question because the question was posted in a comment and not sent to me via email or my Contact Page, but it brings up a good point so I thought I would share the question and answer here for everyone to read. After-all, I can’t really go around preaching about how to be successful without mentioning my own success at least once in a while, right?

Longtime readers of my blog may remember that in the past I would post quarterly or yearly updates on earnings and traffic, but for various reasons I have done that less and less. Fortunately none of those reasons were because I (or my websites) were no longer successful – am I still proof that a little-guy that does not know much about building websites, SEO, or marketing CAN BE SUCCESSFUL ON THE INTERNET!

Anyway – here is the post/question by CPVR from VirtualPetList.Com:

… Are you going to do more things to your blog this year? It would be nice to hear about your earnings from last year to this year – and how well you’re doing with Adsense and kontera.
I used to remember checking out your blog and finding it motivating to see more success.
Or, also, have you thought about talking about Grownupgeek’s latest success? Like, how is it doing traffic wise?

Am I going to do more things to my blog this year? Probably not. The new (current) look should last me for another year or two before I get bored with it, and still no plans to add any advertising to the blog. That should make my blog one of the very few “make money on the internet” type blogs that does not have any advertising on it. (I hope you guys appreciate that – tell a friend!)

Over at my main website, GrownUpGeek.Com, Adsense, Kontera, and now IDG TechNetwork all did very well in 2010. Kontera had some ups & downs (aka, very bad months), and Adsense had some record-high months. I started using IDG TechNetwork in mid 2010 and it turned out to be the real surprise of the year. Although IDG TechNetwork earnings were slightly lower than Kontera earnings each month in 2010, beginning in 2011, IDG Tech has overtaken Kontera, and is now earning more than double what Kontera earns each month. Overall earnings for 2010 were right at $60k – that is more than double 2009 which was a record bad year for earnings..

Adsense was the highest earner in 2010 with approx 70% of all earnings. Kontera brought in approx. 15%, and IDG Technetwork brought in about 5%. Various affiliate sales (Comission Junction, Plimus, Chitika referrals, direct ad sales, ect) rounded out the balance with an approximate combined 10% of earnings.

Traffic in 2010 was slightly lower than 2009 – but just barely. 2010 brought GrownUpGeek.Com just under 5.5Million page views, while 2009 had a whopping 6Million page views. So far in 2011 traffic is 10% higher than at this point in 2009, so it looks like 2011 could be another record year.

Here is to a successful 2011 for all of us! (even if it is a bit late)..

Earn Money The Easy Way!

Posted on November 12, 2010 by Rand Wilson

Our newest Advertising Network, IDG Tech has three easy ways to generate income:

CPM Ads: As I posted a few weeks ago, IDG Tech’s CPM ads have been doing fantastic, and still are – my two test units are still earning over 10x better than Adsense units ever earned in the same locations. I again recommend at least trying the IDG Tech CPM units if your website qualifies.
If you are part of IDG Tech Network, they also offer referral payments for sign-ups to their IDG Tech Panel which pays members to take surveys related to the IDG Tech Advertisers. If you are already an IDG Tech Network member (publisher), ask your account manager about how you can sign up or contact me and I will forward the name and email address of the program manager.
As part of #2, anyone can generate money and/or rewards by completing the IDG Tech Panel surveys. Normally I would not recommend online-surveys to make money, but knowing that many of my readers are looking for any way to generate a few dollars – and after signing-up myself, doing a few surveys, making a few dollars, and seeing how easy it is, I’ve realized that someone with a few minutes on their hands every day could actually make more than just gas or beer-money each week. If you want to give it a try, you can sign up for your (free) account and start making some extra cash: Click Here To Join IDGTech Panel

Ad Networks: The Good, The Bad, And The Krappy

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Rand Wilson

In the last few weeks I’ve received a few emails/contacts/PM’s asking about which advertising networks I use and which ones perform the best. So instead of making a post about how well the different ad-networks perform (like every other blogger in the world) I thought I would simply post some pros and cons of the different networks I use or have tested in 2010.

Adsense:

Pros: The largest ad-network on the planet; largest advertiser inventory; easy configuration; very high eCPM for most websites
Cons: Sometimes difficult to get approval, especially in ‘certain’ countries; zero customer support for non-premium accounts (that’s virtually all of us); very little recourse if your account runs into issues; forget about ever dealing with a human being if you need help

Microsoft AdCenter for Publishers:

Pros: The merge with Yahoo could someday rival Adsense; good publisher support via private forums; excellent customization of ad-units
Cons: Very low eCPM (for now); access to the service is very limited and/or closed at this time; will remain limited to U.S. publishers only, for the foreseeable future

Kontera:

Pros: Excellent customer support including a dedicated account-manager at your disposal by phone or email; “in-text” ads do not take up any space on your pages and can easily run along-side Adsense and many other advertisers; potential for excellent eCPM for the right niche websites; good referral program
Cons: eCPM can vary wildly by as much as 75% day vs day; eCPM can be poor on the ‘wrong’ type of sites; low advertiser inventory; Contract is required which locks you in to using only Kontera for in-text advertising on your site xx-months (usually 1 year)

Chitika:

Pros: Decent customer support; multiple types of ad-types; very good eCPM on the ‘right’ sites; good referral program
Cons: low eCPM on some sites; low advertiser inventory

IDGTechNetwork:

Pros: Good customer support with dedicated account-contact; easy to use dashboard (AMP: Ad Management Platform); surprisingly high eCPM based on my testing
Cons: Restrictions on accepting new publishers; contract required that forces the display of the IDGTechNetwork logo on every page

Affiliate Systems (CJ, Plimus, Clickbank):

Pros: Easy to sign-up and create links for your pages; extremely high earnings potential if you can target traffic to the right offers
Cons: Zero earnings if you cant get high amounts of targeted traffic (requires much work, planning, SEO and/or marketing)

The bottom line with these and other ad-networks is that what works great for me may not work very well for you, and you should try out as many ad-networks as you can until you find the fit that is right for you. You may actually find that you are pleasantly surprised with the results.

What other ad-networks have been working well, or not so well for you? Post a comment and let us all know..

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