It’s been a few days now since I started running Ask Related Search and I am now anxiously waiting for my first stats to be available. I have no idea what to expect, but I have already heard from many other publishers that they are seeing much higher earnings with Ask Related Search over Google Adsense. I’ve even seen some articles reference to it as "The Adsense Killer!"… let’s not get carried away!… at least not until I see my stats!

What I really love about Ask Related Search is the ability to target towards any keyword. Once you have the keyword set, Ask Related Search will then show 5 to 20 related search terms. Should your site visitor click the search term, then click a "sponsored listing", you’ll earn a commission. It’s a bit more of a click process than Google Adsense, but one would imagine it would deliver higher quality clicks, which should also return higher commissions. Another great feature of the program is how you can blend in the search terms in your regular content. Like Google Adsense you have the ability to change colors, but you can also remove the logo, in addition to choose vertical or horizontal sizes, at any height or length.

Once inside the Ask Related Search admin area, you have a lot of options!

I just talked with Media Jump, the company that manages the Ask Related Search backend and they mentioned they were receiving some traffic and signups through this blog, which was exciting for me! If you have not applied for Ask Related Search, now is a great time to get in since they are not on many sites. When you apply, it would be greatly appreciated if you would post "www.zacjohnson.com" in the "REFERRED HERE BY:" section of the form. I’m not saying this will automatically get you accepted, but they are keeping any eye on referrals and aware of my demographic of site visitors. Should you have any questions or problems with your application or being approved, feel free to contact me and I’ll see what I can do.

I just recently read about Ask.com’s plans to announce out their own contextual advertising program to compete with Google and Yahoo. Since I’ve already had a ton of success with Google Adsense and Yahoo Publisher Network, I quickly went to apply for Ask.com Related Search (managed through MediaJump). Within 24 hours of applying, I’ve already been accepted! (I’m just waiting now for full access into their system as they need to check the tracking/html setup). Take a look below for a preview of their search box and top search terms ad layout.

I’m extremely excited about this new program. Yahoo Publisher Network was absolutely amazing when they first came out, and if Ask Related Search is anything like it… I’ll party like there’s no tomorrow! To say the least, I’m ridiculously excited about the release of this program and think it will be great! I’ll keep you updated on it’s performance and once I get into the main system. Right now it looks like they are being very picky on who they "manually" approve into the network.

Last month I did a lot of testing with AuctionAds. There was a lot of speculation on how the program would perform. I heard some people say it makes more than Google Adsense, while I’ve heard many others say it made them nothing. The program seems to perform best on shopping or product related sites, as the user would be more likely to make a purchase. How would AuctionAds compare to other network I run on my sites?

I don’t have any shopping or sales related sites, but I went ahead with testing anyway. At first I was seeing some very low numbers and wasn’t too thrilled about the program, but still wanted to test it enough so I would earn my first check with them. My target was to make at least .01 per click with the program. From my initial testing with only one 468×60 banner on one of my sites, I was pulling only .0037 per click. Unhappy with the results I decided to throw a couple more 468×60 banners and some new skyscrapers. I targeted the banners to show items ranging from funny tshirts, celebrities, games, ipods and more. I was able to push a lot more volume and the earnings per click jumped up a decent amount.

Play Around with Your Ad Targeting to Increase Clicks & Earnings

While the earnings above are hopefully still updating, they still give a pretty accurate average on how the month ended out. Total earnings for the month ended at $216.27, from over 3 Million impressions and 23,565 clicks… rounding out to just under a penny per click, at 0.0091. I would like to see a few more updates to last months stats (as they are delayed), and to push the earnings per click to at least a penny.

Auction Ads Earnings for May 2007

Even though the numbers from last month were low, I will still push the program this month because of the new higher payouts coming into effect this month. Also, I only started running Auction Ads on the 9th of last month. With the new higher payouts in effect and a full month’s worth of running the campaigns, I would really like to see end of the month earnings around $750 and a little more than a penny earned per click. If I continue to see a penny or less per click, I will have to play with the targeting more, or replace the campaign with better performers.