Fact #2: The higher your page ranks, the more Google traffic you get.

Conclusion: You need to test your website’s loading time and choose the fastest tools.

Confused? This infographic should clarify this SEO tip… and yes, it does say that Infolinks is the fastest solution of its kind. Hurray!

Source: Tipsotricks.com. Thanks!

New Google Search Algorithm

So, the Google team has rocked the boat yet again. On February 24th, 2011, Google announced a modification to their search algorithm which they referred to as “a pretty big algorithmic improvement” impacting 11.8% of the search queries. Aiming to lower the search ranking of low quality websites, Google now sends much less search traffic to websites that they find to be of low value add for users, copy content from other websites or that are simply not very useful. The change was first launched in the USA only but recently, on April 11th, 2011, it was rolled out globally to all English Google users.

The Big Google Traffic Drop

From inside information from the Infolinks in-text advertising network, which is now a giant network of over 300 million unique visitors, and from conversations with several major publishers, it is now clear to me that many big websites were hit by the Google change. In fact, they have seen a massive drop in visitors from Google searches. On the first couple of months this drop in traffic was in the USA only, as it is clearly obvious in this graph taken from Quantcast – notice the drop in the Orange area? These were US based visitors to a major articles website. Once the algorithm change is rolled out globally (and in all languages) we can expect the change to be similar in all geographic markets.

Lower Online Advertising Revenues

Some website publishers that monetize their content through online advertising and contextual ads like the combination of Google AdSense and Infolinks report a drop in revenues since this change occurred. Moreover, while a certain publisher told me he lost 32% of the US based traffic, the decline in advertising revenues was much steeper - over 50%!  The reason for the bigger drop in revenues is that those visitors who arrive through Google search from the USA are the highest earners for many websites. They tend to click more on ads and generate above average revenues. When they stopped visiting, they took the potential ad revenues with them elsewhere. But where to?

Higher Online Advertising Revenues?

But surprisingly other publishers report the opposite effect. They see an increase in Google traffic and AdSense and Infolinks ad earnings. Analyzing the situation, this should not come as a surprise at all. Assuming the volume of Google searches hasn’t changed, these visitors should land somewhere online. So one website’s loss is another website’s gain. The online advertising pie is just spread differently. At Infolinks, where next to major publishers we also work with numerous long-tail websites, we see this effect widely.

How Can I Earn More?

The natural question then is that now, after Google has rocked the boat, how can we land our websites on the positive shore?  While none of us has inside details about the algorithm change, we can still control our fate. At least partially. From Google’s announcement it is clear that they prefer websites with original content that yield real value to visitors. Obviously, no mathematical algorithm can provide this accurately, but the Google team is trying hard to do so.

If you want your website to get more visitors from Google search and earn more money from AdSense and Infolinks, think about your visitors. Forget about the technical SEO tips and tricks, abandon misleading links and methods to manipulate your visitors into clicking on ads. Abandon mechanic content with empty meaning. Be positive. Provide original content that helps readers. Hopefully, the smart people at Google will learn to recognize this content as adding value to readers. At any case, you will feel better about your work which is a very good start.

So much has been said and written about the importance of your website for your business efforts that it seems pointless. Yes, we all know by now that optimizing your landing page with multi-variant tests to reach the highest conversion rate is basics for online marketing ans sales. But do we actually execute? I have to admit that at least in my case, it took some time. In fact, it took a lot of time to realize that our company’s website is actually our storefront and it can’t be neglected. And I’m talking about an Internet company so I can imagine that in other fields the situation may be even worse.

The Initial Website

Every big development project has stage one and stage two. In real life, stage one is other words for what we’re going to develop and get stuck with, while stage two stands for our dreams never to be reached. This is also true about the company’s website. Our initial website was developed by genius developers who wrote the core of our in-text advertising algorithms. But let’s face it, Web user experience and graphic design do not interest them and the initial site reflected that.

The copy? We wrote the content of the website as we went along adding patch upon patch. Then came SEO requirements that changed everything. And then new features. And then Facebook. Patches.

And this initial website became our Stage One of the website project and stayed with us for three long years.

The New Infolinks Website

Online Siesta is my professional blog. I try hard to leave Infolinks out of it, but I can’t always help it. Also, since Infolinks has become a major player in the in-text advertising world, I think big news from Infolinks is of interest to the wider industry. So here it comes… we finally launched the new Infolinks website. Today. We proved – especially to ourselves – that Stage Two is not a myth and we managed to turn it into a reality.

Many people were involved. User experience experts, Web specialists, graphic designers, brand consultants, copy writers, developers, quality assurance teams, product managers, marketing people, translators. We’re going to thank them all separately in the Infolinks Blog (which also has a new look). It wasn’t an easy project, but it’s finally done. Well, at least stage one of it… we did leave many issues for stage two.

In Text Advertising: Publishers and Advertisers

Was the effort worth it? Time will tell. The new website finally addresses both publishers and advertisers. For a long time our focus was on recruiting publishers online while reaching out to advertisers offline. We assumed that while publishers could get to love in-text ads and join the network interdependently online – which happened and happens every minute of the day now – we assumed that for advertisers it’s going to be more difficult. But time has passed. By now, most online advertisers know the benefits of In-Text ads and want to include them in their media mix. It was time for us to offer self managed services to in-text online advertisers and we included this in the new website… check it out yourself or wait for the next update to come.

For now, I’m just happy with the newest website in the In-Text advertising industry. Congrats!

Does Microsoft have an answer to Google AdSense? The two New World giants have open fronts in almost any field they operate in. From mobile phones through browsers and on to office applications. It’s a battle. But the golden egg is still online advertising and Google’s ability to grow fast and fight Microsoft on so many fronts is based on advertising revenues coming from the Google AdWords platform and its distribution through Google AdSense. If Microsoft wants to stand a chance in this battle of giants, it’s the online advertising distribution that needs to be targeted. And there’s no doubt that it’s on Microsoft’s map, but the focus on Search through Bing is not the only possible answer. There is another one.

Google still controls about 80% of the global search market. This is a major distribution channel for advertising and it’s Google’s main source of revenues. Microsoft has invested tremendous efforts in establishing and promoting Bing, with hopes to gain search market share, but this is and will continue to be a tough front. Changing the way people search is not easy. Google’s second distribution channel for online advertising is AdSense and it is there that it stands relatively alone as the leading contextual advertising platform. It is also exactly where Microsoft can fight back.

AdSense Alternatives Fail

There are quite a few AdSense alternatives that also offer contextual advertising units for website publishers to include on the verge of the actual content. None of them comes close to AdSense. In fact, in 2010 Yahoo has shut down the Yahoo Publisher Network which was a direct competitor to AdSense. Why do all AdSense alternatives either fail or suffice with meager leftovers? It is because they are not real alternatives. From the publishers’ point of view, the AdSense unit yields the highest advertising revenues (except for complicated direct sales). Publishers would only consider alternatives when their Google accounts are suspended, which means they have low quality or fraudulent traffic, or as additional units where Google wouldn’t allow them to run AdSense. No wonder then that they fail to gain market share.

This mountain would be too high to climb, even for Microsoft. It doesn’t seem reasonable for Microsoft to run a direct competitor to AdSense where many failed before.

Fight Back with In-Text Adertising

And yet, there is a real way for Microsoft to fight back – In-Text advertising. The rapidly growing method of double underline links that open an ad bubble upon mouse hover is unique in its positioning within websites and alongside AdSense. While Google dominates contextual advertising surrounding the content, In-Text ads run within the content where the readers focus their attention. And since these In-Text ads do not interfere with the reading flow they are much less intrusive than animated jumpy banners within the AdSense units. Publishers love them as an additional source of revenues on top of Google AdSense.

If Microsoft would have leveraged its advertising marketplace with flexible In-Text advertising technology, it could have placed ads within each and every website that has Google AdSense today. And guess what, In-Text ads have a much higher click through rate (CTR) than AdSense, which means they will be in position to present real competition. At Infolinks, the fastest growing In-Text advertising network where I work, we’ve managed to engage many thousands of websites placing billions of ads with many millions of clicks in multiple languages across the globe utilizing the newest In-Text advertising technology. Combined with a major advertising marketplace like Microsoft’s, it could do wonders.

Now, personally, I have nothing against Google. I’m a big fan. Also I don’t have any interest in Microsoft. But as a citizen of the world I’m looking forward to seeing a competitive market shaping a free and fast Web not dominated by one giant. If not Microsoft, there are a few other candidates that could also fight back and challenge the online advertising services to become even better. I know we’re trying.

How complex has it become? The once rather simple online media plan has now become a monster. And considering the fact that it is just a fraction of the largest all encompassing advertising plan, it’s simply mind blowing.

After the competitive research, campaign goals discovery, audience targeting, geographic distribution, and all the other necessary steps… Only then comes the media mix which in all template plans includes sponsored links, sponsored search and SEM, banners, rich media advertising… And then each of these is further analyzed according to the ad delivery method, be it direct placement, online ad networks, ad exchanges, and so many more. By the time I’m writing this new terms are being added to the ever growing glossary.

Does Your Media Mix has In-Text?

So this is a rather simple question – have you remembered to add in-text advertising to your media mix?

I can’t detail here a full online media plan and I don’t plan on lecturing about its desired structure. However, I believe I can safely say that if you’ve forgotten in-text ads, you’ve made a mistake and harmed your campaign.

While sponsored search leads to highly interested clickers but in low volumes, traditional display ads yield very low click levels with varying interests, and social media ads initiate demand but usually do not bring potential customers with specific needs, in-text advertising has a unique contribution to any advertising mix.

The In-Text Ads Advantage

In-text ads only display their content upon an active interest display by a potential customer who hovered over a double underline link. At this stage they already support branding efforts. Then, visitors to the advertiser’s landing page arrive only upon a click, which means interest has been shown twice – the visitor has given permission, twice, to be exposed to the advertiser’s message. Clearly this should lead to higher conversion levels.

In addition, the click through levels on in-text ads are 10 times higher and more than the CTR of display ads. When building your media mix, in-text ads blend the branding efforts with actual click based traffic.

Millions of Clicks

I’ve recently discussed in-text advertising with a major advertising agency and was amazed to learn that not all media plans include in-text advertising; at least not knowingly (some get it indirectly).

From my experience at Infolinks I can tell you that there are many many millions of clicks on in-text ads just waiting. The prices are still relatively lower than other ad delivery methods and the potential is huge. Drop me a note if you need more details and at any case – let me know how it worked for you.

Good news for in-text advertising: Website Magazine has ranked in-text advertising networks among the Top 50 viable advertising and affiliate networks to consider using in 2011. It seems that the double-underlined links have finally become standard for Web content monetization. I was personally happy to find Infolinks (#39) as the highest ranked pure in-text advertising network. I take this opportunity to post here an article I wrote for Website Magazine (originally published in July 2010) hoping to start the New Year with a good vibe. I would be looking forward to feedback and in the meantime I wish you all Happy New Year!

Hidden Treasure in Every Website: In-text Advertising

By Tomer Treves

Websites like Squidoo and Britannica already monetize with in-text ads, earning effective CPM measured in whole dollars, not cents. It is time to reconsider in-text advertising.

When contextual ads first appeared and were placed on early adopters’ websites, they were frowned upon. According to detractors, the delicate borders between editorial content and advertising were at stake. Several years later, Google AdSense seems to be an integral part of any website where the publisher seeks to keep quality content available for free. Just like any advertising method before it, contextual ads have gone through the typical cycle — from absence, through protest and on to legitimacy. In-text ads (also called inline ads) are now going through the same cycle and on the verge of becoming standard practice.

In-text ads can now be found all over the Web – those double-underlined links that, upon a mouse hover, open a small bubble holding an advertisement. The leading in-text advertising networks now rank high in all relevant lists and together cover billions of page views and generate millions of dollars in revenue.

Making the Case for In-text Advertising

Typically, advertisers are in a quest to win the attention of potential customers. But in a noisy world, this task has become very difficult. In the online realm, advertisers have been forced to increase the amount and level of interruptions to get the same level of attention. As a result, advertising units become louder — with Flash animation, video and sound, taking over large parts of websites and disturbing the balance between good content and advertising.

The secret to the success of in-text ads is found in what Seth Godin coined a decade ago as “Permission Marketing.” In essence, in-text ads fulfill the circumstances in which potential customers willingly choose to be exposed to advertising messages. As such, they yield high return on advertising campaign investments and offer website publishers strong monetization opportunities.

With in-text ads, visitors to a website are not interrupted in their reading. There are no animated banners or video characters walking across the screen. The double underline links merely signal to readers: there’s more here. But the ad will not appear unless called for. When an interested reader actively hovers over a double-underlined link, he independently decides to be exposed to an advertisement. If the permission stops there, the reader can move the mouse away and the bubble will disappear. Only if the reader is interested enough to click on the ad is he redirected to the advertiser’s landing page and a charge to the campaign is made. At this point, the website publisher also gets paid.

This double-action process means that the potential customer has given his permission, twice, to pay with his attention. Advertisers find that such visitors are good candidates for their messages and many publishers have found that readers are much less frustrated with these ads over their traditional counterparts.

In the last two years, online advertising and monetization experts have seen in-text ads start as a means for bloggers to cover their costs. But soon after, these ads were also placed on major publishers’ websites, such as Squidoo. Furthermore, despite initial concerns, well-established brands have incorporated in-text ads in their business models; including traditional publishers such as Encyclopedia Britannica. Remarkably, in-text ads are now served to an estimated number of more than 500 million unique users every month – and this number is growing rapidly.

Why Not In-text Advertising?

Questions still linger about placing ads on top of content. Some publishers argue that the underlined links can be mistaken for regular links – content usually endorsed by the author. Other objections come in the form of usability. One argument is that a wayward mouse hover interrupts reading and causes distractions. Some even argue that in-text ads disrupt navigation.

One major publisher told me that his editors were reluctant to use in-text ads because they disrespect their writers. I immediately sent him a screenshot of his homepage featuring a display banner with a naked woman inviting readers to find “intimate opportunities” in their local neighborhood. This was disrespectful.

Should you decide to utilize in-text advertising, most providers make the process of integration quite simple — usually a simple copy and paste of a short JavaScript. Within 24 hours the publisher has access to his earnings; which can be significant and much higher than many popular display ads. To make the introduction of the new ads easier and mitigate any backlash, publishers can offer visitors the ability opt-out of these ads, and control the number of links and their graphic appearance.

The online publishing business is mostly an ongoing struggle of providing good content, which carries real costs, while keeping it available for free. We don’t put ads on our websites for their beauty. We use them to finance operations and keep our visitors happy with free content. In-text ads are subtle and less intrusive than many other formats of ads that are frequently used across the Web.

Do you remember the time when you considered adding Google AdSense or an equivalent program to your website? It’s time to give the same consideration to in-text ads. You might just find a hidden treasure.

***

Tomer Treves is the CMO of Infolinks, an ad network that specializes in contextual in-text advertising. He also writes a blog about in-text ads at http://OnlinseSiesta.com.

PPC Advertisers with Google India

When using Google India from an Indian IP address, search results are covered with AdWords advertising from local online advertisers. Insurance, investments and financial services, traveling, Internet related solutions – you name it. And as we know well, Google charges AdWords by the click on a Pay Per Click basis (PPC). This means that companies and marketing departments are spending online advertising budgets through this model.

CPA and CPL Online Advertising Networks in India

But when I speak with advertising agencies and ad networks in India – it’s a different story. It’s all about performance advertising, meaning that they pay only for customer acquisition (known as Cost per Acquisition or CPA) or at a minimum for detailed leads (Cost per Lead or CPL). Performance advertising is flourishing through affiliate networks since they are protective for the advertisers.

However, performance advertising methods shift the risk from the advertiser to the publisher. While this may work in certain industries, and mainly for gambling and gaming, it is problematic in other cases, since the information resides with the advertiser. As publishers, we can deliver quality clicks on specific terms using In Text Ads, but then the conversion depends on the advertiser’s ability to present an appealing offer through an effective landing page. Low conversion rates are best handled and improved by the advertiser and not by the publisher who doesn’t control the visitor after the click on the ad (I wrote more about PPC and other In Text Ads business models here).

Where are the PPC Advertisers in India?

So, where are they hiding? From the Google AdWords ads on search results it’s obvious that the Indian market is well accustomed to Pay Per Click advertising budgets. But other agencies and ad networks don’t seem to have such budgets. Can someone please explain this? Can it be possible that the PPC market in India is fully owned by Google and perhaps Yahoo?

One possible explanation is that the advertising agencies do charge the advertisers per click but pay the publishers only per conversion. If this is the case, it is very much different than what I know anywhere else, so I have to doubt it. A more reasonable explanation is that I’m missing something… and that’s why I’m posting this question here: What am I missing… How can I reach the media buyers of PPC online advertisers in India?

Please share your insights here by posting a comment for others to enjoy as well, or contact me directly through the About Page. Thanks!

In order to better understand in text advertising, some technological background is required. I’m not going to dive into the code structure here; in fact, I’m not the right person to attempt that… but I do think that some basic clarification could help when considering this method. Also, the leading in text ads networks utilize different technology and the following analysis may be helpful in choosing the right partner for you.

The Magic a Little JavaScript Does

When you integrate in text ads on your website, all you’re required to do is insert a little piece of JavaScript code. This invisible code, when run by a browser, calls upon a bigger script to run on your website and identify your website to the in text ads provider.

The first job for this code is to analyze the content of the page and determine if it’s suitable for in text ads. Sometimes, if there’s not enough text or if the text is not suitable for advertising, the process will stop right there and no ads will be placed. If the page is suitable, the code will then analyze the page’s content and identify the terms which get the highest score balancing the contextual relevancy and the potential for advertising. The top terms will be highlighted as double underline links and will serve as hooks for advertisements.

As explained before, if a user is interested to learn more about a highlighted hook, he can hover over it with the mouse and a bubble would appear with a relevant ad inside. The code’s brain here is asked to match the ad to the reader and to the term in order to maximize the chances for a click. If a click was made, the code now needs to send the reader to the advertiser’s landing page and monitor behavior in order to charge the advertiser and credit the website publisher for the ad’s current price.

All this magic begins with that little piece of JavaScript code, but of course it requires a robust and smart system behind it. This system has several key differentiators among the leading in text ads providers.

Timing of the Load

When the JavaScript is loaded and the bigger code is called into action, the browser has some work to do. Therefore, the timing of the load is important. If this work is done in parallel with the loading of the page, it may slow down the loading of the actual content of the page. Such slowdown may result in visitors getting frustrated and leaving before the page completes its loading. The natural conclusion is that it’s important to make sure that the script that you’re using only runs after your page has completed to load the main content.

These days, with the numerous types of widgets and other scripts that run on a page, there’s another timing factor to consider – the timing of the in-text script among other scripts. The best example would be the common Google Analytics script, which runs in order to count the visitors and monitor their behavior on your website. Since the Google Analytics code may take some time as well, if you place the in-text script after it, the ads may appear a little later. The same goes for other widgets. It’s up to you as a publisher to determine which code should run first. My recommendation is to place the in-text JavaScript just after the actual page’s content, but before other scripts that are not money oriented.

Dynamic In Text Ad Placement

The most challenging aspect of in text advertising is matching the best ad to the visitor and the hook. This process of ad placement requires analyzing many factors, including the context of the page, the content category of the website, the known characteristics of the user, the highlighted term within the hook, and the available advertising campaigns at that specific moment. Since the Web is very dynamic, some of these factors may change every minute or even within a given minute. Most important, available ads and their prices are mostly handled through open markets and they change all the time.

Some in text ads providers do not use dynamic ad placement. I won’t point them out, but it’s quite easy to check if the selected hooks and the shown ads change when you hit refresh. Ad networks that have a relatively old technology may find it difficult to dynamically match the ads, and they actually place the ads beforehand, without maximizing the revenue potential. In fact, some of them even choose the hooks for highlighting manually, and therefore would not deal well with dynamic content found in blogs, forums and news websites.

Automation Level and Organizational Structure

From my own experience with Infolinks, we’ve put automization as a top priority. The smarter the algorithm and the more automated the in text ads placing process is, the higher is the effective CPM for the website publisher. There are two reasons for that. First, automated processes are more sensitive to changes in the market and to dynamic content; they simply get better results. Second, automated processes allowed us to manage the system with minimal staff, focusing our human resources on customer service. When the highlighted hooks require manual content analysis, the organizational structure would have higher costs that will limit the organization’s ability to share most of the revenues with the publisher.

Again, this is from my own personal experience, and I’m sure other networks are striving to do the same. When we set up our system to require minimal manual intervention, we’ve actually saved costs and enabled our organization to offer higher revenue share to our publishers. This is a good example for technology differences that have an immediate influence on the publishers.

IT Infrastructure

Another example for technology differences is hidden within the IT infrastructure. Anyone who’s worked for a Web related company knows that sometimes the IT costs – that is, the prices of computers, servers, and network – climb so high, that they become a major factor in the company’s finances. Placing in text ads dynamically requires real-time analysis of content and real-time matching of ads in rapidly changing market conditions. If the system is not built taking IT infrastructure into consideration, then the IT costs can make it impossible for the company to share most of the revenues with its publishers.

In Text Ads may Look the Same

While in text ads may appear to work as magic with a little piece of code, it turns out that there’s a lot of work behind it. Also, while most in text ads may appear to work similarly, there are major differences among in text ads network and understanding them may help you choose the right partner for you. If you’re looking for deeper insights into the technological process, drop me a line and I will try to do get you an answer from someone from our own tech team; and if you need more help in understanding the business implications of these technological differences, well, I might even try answering you myself.

And the winner for Best In Text Ads Network is… well, did you really expect that it’s going to be that simple? While I can easily name the nominees for Best In Text Ads Network Award, and also detail the important aspects to compare before choosing your provider, there’s only one name I can put on the winners pedestal with sound mind, but I can’t just write it here.

As I stated before, I work at Infolinks and this is where I collected my experience about in text advertising. If I would have recommended a single company, it would have been Infolinks, especially if I wanted to keep my job… So, instead of doing that, I would keep my writing more professional and avoid a direct recommendation. I will, however, try to point out the important issues and help you in making your choice.

The Top 3 In Text Ads Networks

The top 3 in text ads networks are Kontera, Vibrant Media, and Infolinks. Each of these providers has proven stability over time and you can count on them all to deliver ads around the clock and pay you on time every month.

Kontera holds the title for being the first in text ads network. While there were other companies dealing with in text services before Konetra, this company was the first to offer a commercial service that was based purely on in text advertising. Being a direct competitor, I can’t really dive into details of how good they are and what problems their service has, but the objective facts are that they were the first out there, but their growth has slowed down when competition arrived.

Vibrant Media started offering their in text ads services after Kontera has already established a strong hold in the market. Nevertheless, they have managed to bypass Kontera as far as it goes to big publishers and this has become their focus. While Kontera paved the path for in text ads into the hearts of many publishers, it was mainly Vibrant Media’s contribution to turn this method into a legitimate advertising format by penetrating larger websites.

Infolinks was the third to join this triple headed race, but with the fastest growth rate, it has gained a very positive reputation among publishers who have compared earning results between the three providers. It seems that our team’s efforts in monetizing more pages than other providers, achieving top click through rates, and gaining higher bottom line revenues didn’t go unnoticed, and the faster growth rate and blog posts with comparisons attest to these advantages.

In light of the above, choosing either Kontera, Vibrant Media, or Infolinks would be a reasonable choice. As far as I know, both Kontera and Vibrant Media require an exclusive committing 12-months agreement at the point of entry and don’t accept smaller websites, while Infolinks offers a much more flexible contract to all websites with an option to try the service, modify it and even leave it at will. If not for me working at Infolinks, this would probably have been my base for recommending Infolinks if you’re new to in text ads. If you already work with an in text ads provider, then you can simply compare results and ask around the Google planet.

Non-Focused In Text Ads Providers

A few online advertising networks added in text lines of service to their existing display and textual offers. Networks like AdBrite, Affinity, and Chitika include in text ads as part of their offered services. However, as far as I can see in the market, these services didn’t pick up and many publishers who work with these networks for their banners or widgets still choose to work with one of the top in text ads providers. The reason for that seems to be focus. When a company’s focus is elsewhere, you can’t expect much of its other services. Therefore, unless a publisher finds an enormous advantage in getting several services from the same provider, most won’t choose a non-focused in text ads network.

Small and Niche In Text Ads Networks

Seeing the success of the top in text advertising networks, a few startup companies jumped into this market as well with in text offers. Writing a script that highlights terms within existing content is no longer a major hurdle to climb over. But in text advertising has a lot more to it and it’s not as easy as it may seem. Building an in text ads network requires much more. Analyzing content to find the most relevant terms, then matching ads that will gain a high click through rate and yield high eCPM and real revenues, all this while withstanding substantial traffic in real time, take a lot of knowledge, execution and resources.

Some of the smaller entrants have already closed shop, like MediaText, and this could unfortunately happen to others. I still haven’t seen a report about a small in text ads network that managed to provide a stable service that got close to any of the top in text ads networks. But, as my entrepreneur heart has a soft spot for new startups, I do hope that some of them would rise to the top. At this stage however, I can’t really recommend any small network and trying them is a risk that you should consider for what it is.

There are a few attempts to take over a specific content niche that other providers don’t specialize in, or won’t enter. The best example would be adult oriented websites, which neither of the top in text ads network would accept. The two networks that do allow adult oriented websites – and let’s be frank here, they even accept hard core porn websites – are Clicksor and AdBrite (under their Black Label that isn’t really separated from their core business). If you’re in that kind of business, one of these networks would probably be your choice for in text ads.

International and Foreign Languages In Text Providers

If you operate a website in Polish, your only choice to monetize your content with in text ads would be the Polish brand Smart Context. As far as I know, this is the only in text provider that works in the Polish language, and since my Polish is a little rusty, I can’t really examine their service and either recommend or criticize it. If your website is in Spanish, then Infolinks should be your choice for in text ads monetization, as it is the leader in this market. And if your website is in German or French, both Vibrant Media and Infolinks can help you with in text ads monetization. With time, I’m sure that additional languages will be covered by solutions from both the leading networks and new entrants.

The international market is not only foreign languages. Most English websites have many visitors that are not from the USA, and I don’t mean Canadians only. Whether visitors from English speaking countries like the UK or India, or from any other country in the world, all of them represent good potential for monetization. From my experience, out of the top three in text ads networks, Infolinks is the only provider to offer ads to all international traffic. While the expected CPC in these markets is lower, there’s still money to be earned there, and if you have substantial international traffic, this is a major factor to consider. My recommendation here, again, would be to simply ask the provider about international coverage or try and compare.

As much as I like in text advertising, I’m not sure that in the long term there will be justification to run networks solely for in text ads. As an immerging new advertising method, I find it very important, and in fact crucial, that in text services are provided by unique players. These focused efforts are the power behind the penetration and market trust. However, as this method matures, it will join other types of online advertising, and as such, consolidation is almost visible at the horizon. This happened before in other industries and with other types of online ads. It is not unlikely to assume that the giant players in the online industry would want a piece of this fast growing and proven market. When they do, the wisest step for them would be to use the experience the existing in text ads networks gained, and then other giants would follow. When would this happen? Who knows…