Google AdSense is a popular tool for making money online via your website or your blog. For a long time, Google AdSense has been the go-to for all marketers for Ads and monetization of various platforms. Judging by its 10 million users, it is a hot choice for marketers and advertisers.
Even though it is an excellent choice with many benefits, it is not the only option out there. Whether you had issues with approving an account or if you just want to diversify your income, there are many options out there for you to explore. Most of them offer great features and allow you to make an additional income other than the mainstream sources.
Most Ad networks use an automated system to place different advertisements in a specific area of your website. When users engage or click on these ads, or even view them, you get a small share or a commission because you are providing them an incentive with your reach.
During your research for the best network, you always come across a million options other than Google AdSense. However, most of you are too scared to check them out, as they are not very popular. This blog aims to help you discover and explore some other options that are providing some real benefits for monetizing your website.
First, let us see why you need an alternative or an additional source of income.
Nothing in the world comes without a handful of disadvantages, which is sadly true for Google’s AdSense as well. It is a brilliant platform for monetization and is extremely user-friendly, but it has its fair share of cons as well. Here are some very valid reasons for exploring some other options for monetizing your baby blog.
Google AdSense is like an exclusive club, which has way too many requirements for getting a membership. It requires your website to hit a certain number on the metrics before you can become a partner.
If Google will not approve of you as a partner, you would need a more lax ad network to support you and at least start making money. Due to the platform’s click fraud, your account might also be disabled. It can happen if you place an ad that you should not have or if you unintentionally click on any one of your ads.
It is easy to violate Google AdSense terms and conditions if you are paying very close attention, which is why you might want to look into a more forgiving route.
Even though Google AdSense pays a competitive rate of 68% of the total revenue generated by the ads, some ad networks pay an even greater share. You would need to show your work as well in terms of a highly competent, steady, and high-quality-generating website, but it is all worth it if you cut.
Some ad networks offer full creative freedom to tailor the look of the ads on your website according to the theme so that they fit more naturally with the content that you offer on the blog. The level of customization is set by the service in the initial agreement.
Many let you select the size and the color so that is more flexible than Google AdSense.
A network’s minimum payout is the amount of money that you need to make before you can withdraw from the platform. AdSense’s minimum payout is $100, which is a little on the steep side as compared to the other platforms.
If your website is small or is only partly established, then you would take a long time to reach $100. You might want to look into alternatives that provide a lower minimum payout.
Instead of replacing the whole ad network, you can also have a companion network that you can use alongside the AdSense so that you can diversify your payments. There is nothing wrong with that if you can stay within the terms of service for both platforms.
If any of these cases are true in your case, then you can explore many worthy alternatives for your good. Let us see the best ones out there.
Typically, any website can register itself for an ad network, if you are fulfilling their terms of services. However, there are some better suited for the ad network than others are. Here are the top contenders:
Therefore, to summarize, any website that has more traffic than average is best for ad networks.
As we said, there are multiple other advertising networks that can get the same job done as Google AdSense. However, it is quite complicated to find one that fits our needs and has a good enough offering to stick to it. This is why we are listing the top ten alternatives that you can use.
AdMaven offer a variety of monetization methods, including push notifications, popunders, native banners, interstitials, light boxes, and more. What sets AdMaven apart from other ad networks is their advanced targeting capabilities. They allow you to target by country, technology, browser, OS, and more. This ensures that your ads are seen by the people who are most likely to convert. AdMaven also has an excellent reputation. They are known for being reliable and paying their publishers on time. They also offer 24/7 support in case you have any questions or problems.
AdMaven is a great choice for publishers who want to maximize their earnings. They have some of the best targeting options available, and they offer competitive rates. If you're looking for a top-notch ad network, AdMaven is definitely worth considering.
Media.net is the leader in contextual advertisements for years, which is a service by Bing and Yahoo. Since it is by a search engine, it is one of the best out there after Google AdSense, and is, therefore, a go-to alternative for AdSense.
Media.net offers $5 per 1000 impressions, and you can place up to 3 ads per page. This figure adds to a very sum, which is why you should check it out. It offers multiple types of display and native ads for both the mobile and desktop versions.
If you play smart, you can make a good amount from these Ads. Media.net has a set of requirements, which are similar to Google AdSense. Your blog should offer high-quality traffic along with a clean and professional outlook.
Their main requirement is to have most of the traffic from first world countries, such as the US, UK, and Canada.
To summarize, if you are looking for the closest alternative, then media.net is the answer. It is highly competitive with AdSense in terms of payout, the percentage of money that you receive, and even the quality and features.
It has a payout of $100, which is the same as AdSense. You can sign up on their website; it takes almost 5 days for your application to come through. You can use PayPal for payouts.
Harsh Agarwal from the shout me loud blog uses Media.net for advertisements on his website and he was happy to share that the ad network is absolutely brilliant, as he made $342.83 in a month via it.
He further tells that he is very happy with the dashboard and the overall management features of media.net.
Info links are another good option if you are looking for comparable rates and customization. Info link is for in-text advertising, which means that it searches for keywords in the content that you place on your websites. Content can be in the form of blog posts or even the landing page text. In short, it will skim through everything that you put on the website and pick out the focus keywords.
It would then automatically generate an advertisement for your blog with relevant keywords and text snippets. When the visitor hovers over the special text, the ad would appear right next to it.
If you are a blog owner, this is your best bet at making good money. Why? Simply because there are more words on your web pages than there are on any other forum. Money words mean more opportunities for relevant ads. Win-win, no?
Since your audience is already interested in what you have to say, they would click on the links that direct them to similar stuff. The ads are displayed something like this:
The platform also has very basic terms of services, which means that most of the blogs are eligible for it. There are no minimum traffic limits or page views, so you can implement it as soon as you want. They also have a dashboard so that you can keep a check on your earnings.
There are raving reviews on the internet about Info links and rightly so. Here is a proof of income from the website that shout me loud blog shared on their website, before they switched to Media.net, they were working with Info links.
Infolinks pays via PayPal, Western Union, and Payoneer, which means that if your country does not support at least one out of the three, then you cannot use it. They also have a surprisingly low payout of only $50. Their payment is $2 per 1 000 impressions.
Propeller Ads is one of the fastest-growing monetizing platforms that offer opportunities for both new and old websites. It is mainly famous for pop-up or pop-under ads that load behind the browser window and appear when you minimize your main window. Therefore, they do not disrupt your content at all.
If you think that this is something that your audience will most likely ignore, then they have a special package for you. They have a targeted and non-targeted ad-option for desktop websites, which includes native ads, banners, and video ads.
Propeller Ads has a brillant set of features, including global coverage, clean ads, adblock bypass, and a huge publisher community for support.
They also have different packages for mobile websites and even offer the option for push notifications for mobile users.
Similarly, like InfoLinks, they do not have any minimum requirements for signing up for their service, but that comes at a price. They offer $2 per 1 000 impressions for websites that have been around for some time and $1.5 per 1 000 impressions for new blogs.
However, if you want a service that has a low payout, then this should be your number one choice, as their payout is only $5 through PayPal and they offer monthly payments.
I am sure that you must be familiar with Amazon as a search engine, but do you think that they have a native ad program? Amazon Native Shopping Ads is a leader in native advertisements and is a division of the Amazon Associates program, which allows the bloggers and website owners to place a native Amazon product listing on the blog pages.
Since Amazon has a huge range of product categories on their website, they have a different commission percentage for each one of them. Here is a chart that will help you out.
They are usually very well infused in your content and are also customizable in terms of size and colors, so they will not disrupt your theme. As they are targeted ads, they usually revolve around the content on your page. Here is how the ads look on your website. Since the screenshot talks about tennis, the advertisements are on the same topic as well.
When a visitor clicks on the ads and buys a product from Amazon, you earn a commission from the purchase, so it is more like an affiliate program, but you do not require a dedicated website for it to work. Thanks to Amazon's capability of selling millions of products per day, you will generate a healthy stream of money through the program than other competitors.
Amazon pays on a bi-monthly basis, so you receive a payment after every 60 days, and their payout is only $10 via a direct bank deposit.
There is no fixed payment for 1 000 impressions or something like that, as they pay on a commission basis, which is 4% to 8% depending upon the product listing.
Revcontent is another platform for native ads, which are customized according to your website so that they do not stand out as much. They further enhance the blog content by blending into the look. These ads are highly targeted ads, which blend in seamlessly and offer different formats, such as desktop, display, mobile, and video.
Revcontent has exceptional reviews from both clients on the publishers and the advertisers, as they have amazing customer service. They collaborate with companies that are more likely to generate a higher amount of hits on ads, which makes it attractive for advertisers to pay higher commissions.
The only catch here is that they are highly selective and rightly so. They have amazing customer service, high-paying clients, and they are native ads. To apply and for your application to go through, you must have 50 000 monthly visitors on the website and you should have a regular and frequent posting schedule.
They have almost all basic features, including customizable font, fast page loading, emails and newsletters, Google AMP, and video ads.
They have a high rejection rate, but the benefits are worth it to apply. They have monthly payments via PayPal with a payout of only $50. They have a rate of $4 to $40 per 1 000 impressions, so your chances of making good money are very high.
RevenueHits is a relatively new monetizing platform in the industry, but it is steadily gaining momentum as a reliable platform. RevenueHits boasts of its highly functional optimization tool, which studies your ad performance, and suggests the best place for you to place an ad.
As they are a new platform, they have no minimum monthly visits criteria, which means that you can join as a new website as well. However, they pay on a performance basis instead of pay per clicks, which means that you need to put in actual efforts to earn.
To generate revenue your audience needs to click on the ad, and then complete the action that the ad leads to. These actions might vary based on the nature of the ad, such as purchasing an item, subscribing to a list, or watching a video.
Stream SEO reviewed RevenueHits and posted his impression stats:
Iftiseo is another blogger who cannot stop himself from praising the network. Here are his stats:
RevenueHits pays on a monthly basis via either PayPal or Payoneer, with a minimum payout of $20. They pay $0.5 to $30 per CPM for 1 000 impressions.
Bidvertiser has a different mechanism than most of the other ad networks, as they work on a bidding campaign system. Rather than placing ads via an algorithm, Bidvertisers sell display ad space and whoever pays the most is the winner, like exactly how bidding or auction works.
They have five different ad formats, including native ads, push notifications for mobile users, direct navigation for desktop users, pop-under ads for desktop, and XML.
There are both advantages and disadvantages to this system. If your site brings in good traffic, advertisers will pay more for your space, and you would make much more from the auction than you would from the actual AdSense.
On the opposite side, if you do not have enough traffic on the website, no one would bid for you. This is why you should explore the blog categories that Bidvertiser offers, to see if the bidding system will work for you or not.
If it does, then you can take full benefit of the Bidvertiser easy-to-use customization tool, payments from both conversions and clicks, and zero restriction on the approval. Their payout is only $10 with payments via PayPal.
They offer high-quality services with complete transparency, targeting, and optimization.
Bidvertiser has a variable pay-per-click rate ranging from $0.1 to $1 per click depending on what their advertisers are willing to pay at that time. If the leads from your link convert to customers, you make $10 for signup.
Adcash serves more than 200 million users and has almost 850k downloads on its app each month. Truth be told, these stats are amazing for an alternative. They have a vast variety of ad formats, starting from premium units, such as native and pop-under ads to the standard ones, such as banner ads.
The platform is also incredibly user-friendly, the ads are customizable, and it comes with a real-time ad performance panel. It is a dream come true for all publishers because not only it pays a good amount, but also provides insights on how the ad is performing with the content.
It uses a pay-per-click model for payments with $1 or $2 for tier one traffic per CPM. They have a very low payout of only $25 via PayPal, Skrill, WebMoney, and Payoneer. Adcash has an added perk of NO minimum traffic requirements.
Buy-Sell Ads is your number one alternative if your forum or blog generates consistent high traffic. Buy-Sell Ads is highly exclusive and you need a minimum of 100 000 page views per month for approval into the platform.
It also has a language barrier as only English websites with high-quality content are approved. Your design should also be crisp, creative, and highly professional. If you can build such a blog, then you enjoy a 75% commission rate of Buy Sell Ads, which is higher than Google AdSense and almost all other alternatives in the market.
The payout is as low as $20 via PayPal. It includes a variety of ad formats, such as text ads, RSS feed, banner ads, email ads, native ads, and content sponsorships.
Unlike other alternatives, Buy Sell Ads does not have any targeted or automated ads, which means that the publisher is free to allocate their ad space to whomever they want.
Skimlinks is famous for affiliate marketing, which makes it the odd one out in our list. As the name suggests, it skims the text on your website and picks out the links for other websites on it. If the backlinks and the hyperlinks on the website are from one of their clients, they would turn that link into an affiliate link, which makes you eligible for a commission on each sale or impression.
Whenever a visitor clicks on the links, you receive 75% of the commission, which is an excellent rate. You receive an additional commission if the affiliate link leads to a purchase. Skimlinks is ideal for review bloggers, as it increases their chances of making money with ads.
Skimlinks sends out a payment after every 90 days and has a payout of only $10. You can opt for either direct deposits or PayPal payments.
Conclusion
AdSense is one of the best ways to monetize a website and is fairly popular. However, Google AdSense is not the only way out there to go about it. A high-quality AdSense alternative will allow you to secure an additional revenue stream that can inspire you to work more on frequent and quality content.
When making the choice, do not just go for the first one that you try out. Instead, take your time and test out different options over a set period.