Making the Most of Pay-per-Click Programs
This first article focuses on helping you decide which pay-per-click programs to join. There are a variety of factors to look at when evaluating pay-per-click programs to determine which are best for your site, and which are going to have the best site-generating-income for you.
There are several main factors to evaluate before signing up and adding banners to your site:
1) How do they count click-throughs?
2) What do they pay and what is their payment history?
3) What are their payment terms?
4) What other tools or features do they give you?
How do they count click-throughs?
This is an often overlooked factor of pay-per-click programs, since it is usually not highlighted and often is only mentioned in the fine print of the program's operating agreement. Most programs are set up to pay you one time for each unique IP address that generates a click in a 24 hour (or longer) period.
The reasoning behind this is simple: it prevents the program from being cheated by an unscrupulous affiliate that makes it their full time job to click over and over again on their own banners.
However, this method of preventive action also poses a threat to your ability to earn a fair income. Since many ISPs, especially larger ones, assign IP addresses dynamically, it is entirely possible that a large number of clicks would not be counted since they are coming from different people, but using the same ISP, and therefore the same IP address. Also, clicks from the same person, in a 24 hour period, even if they came during different visits to your site, would not be counted.
What do they pay and what is their payment history?
What a particular vendor or network pays is perhaps the most obvious factor for judging a pay-per-click program. This is simply what can you make per click you refer from the program. Pay-per-click programs range from paying $0.01 to $0.20 or more per click. However, many webmasters sign up for pay-per-click programs without researching whether or not the program has a solid history of paying their affiliates.
A general rule of thumb is to avoid programs that offer what seem to be too large of a payout to webmasters.
Just be aware that the programs that offer to pay the highest are not always the best. If they offer $0.30 per click but never pay you, you would have been much better off accepting $0.10 or $0.15 from a trusted network.
Also, avoid programs that pay under $0.01 per click, since they are generally not worth your time given the number of clicks you need to refer to make a decent income from your site.
What are their payment terms?
This is another factor that is often overlooked by webmasters. Many programs have strict criteria on when they make payment to their affiliates for click-throughs. Be aware of the minimum amount you must accumulate in commissions before they will mail a check to you.
Generally, a pay-per-click program should send checks when between $25 to $50 in commissions have been accumulated. Less than that is preferable of course, but be on the look-out for programs that require higher conditions to be met, or which combine high minimum with low per-click payouts.
What other tools or features do they give you?
An additional factor of evaluating pay-per-click programs is to determine what other tools or features they offer you to assist in generating the most income from your site. Some programs give you online tools to easily manage your account and to allow you to easily determine which ads you would like to host, and which you would like to block.
Other features include giving you the ability to earn additional income by referring new webmasters to the program. For certain types of sites, this can be an excellent additional source of income, however most sites will not see a high enough volume of referrals to make much of an impact.
There are several main factors to evaluate before signing up and adding banners to your site:
1) How do they count click-throughs?
2) What do they pay and what is their payment history?
3) What are their payment terms?
4) What other tools or features do they give you?
How do they count click-throughs?
This is an often overlooked factor of pay-per-click programs, since it is usually not highlighted and often is only mentioned in the fine print of the program's operating agreement. Most programs are set up to pay you one time for each unique IP address that generates a click in a 24 hour (or longer) period.
The reasoning behind this is simple: it prevents the program from being cheated by an unscrupulous affiliate that makes it their full time job to click over and over again on their own banners.
However, this method of preventive action also poses a threat to your ability to earn a fair income. Since many ISPs, especially larger ones, assign IP addresses dynamically, it is entirely possible that a large number of clicks would not be counted since they are coming from different people, but using the same ISP, and therefore the same IP address. Also, clicks from the same person, in a 24 hour period, even if they came during different visits to your site, would not be counted.
What do they pay and what is their payment history?
What a particular vendor or network pays is perhaps the most obvious factor for judging a pay-per-click program. This is simply what can you make per click you refer from the program. Pay-per-click programs range from paying $0.01 to $0.20 or more per click. However, many webmasters sign up for pay-per-click programs without researching whether or not the program has a solid history of paying their affiliates.
A general rule of thumb is to avoid programs that offer what seem to be too large of a payout to webmasters.
Just be aware that the programs that offer to pay the highest are not always the best. If they offer $0.30 per click but never pay you, you would have been much better off accepting $0.10 or $0.15 from a trusted network.
Also, avoid programs that pay under $0.01 per click, since they are generally not worth your time given the number of clicks you need to refer to make a decent income from your site.
What are their payment terms?
This is another factor that is often overlooked by webmasters. Many programs have strict criteria on when they make payment to their affiliates for click-throughs. Be aware of the minimum amount you must accumulate in commissions before they will mail a check to you.
Generally, a pay-per-click program should send checks when between $25 to $50 in commissions have been accumulated. Less than that is preferable of course, but be on the look-out for programs that require higher conditions to be met, or which combine high minimum with low per-click payouts.
What other tools or features do they give you?
An additional factor of evaluating pay-per-click programs is to determine what other tools or features they offer you to assist in generating the most income from your site. Some programs give you online tools to easily manage your account and to allow you to easily determine which ads you would like to host, and which you would like to block.
Other features include giving you the ability to earn additional income by referring new webmasters to the program. For certain types of sites, this can be an excellent additional source of income, however most sites will not see a high enough volume of referrals to make much of an impact.
posted by patihnambi at 12:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home