Advertiser Networks vs. New Blogs
A small new blog applying at giant advertiser networks. It’s really a tale of David and Goliath. Although David’s chances in this match-up are far slimmer than in the original.
Advertiser Networks
There are several advertiser networks that will match advertisers to publishers (bloggers and other people with websites). They have the advantage that they have a bigger mass than the average blog on the internet and are able to publish advertisements to a much larger audience than a single blog can do.
They are the middle men. Now the term middle men may bring up all kinds of negative feelings, but that’s not necessary. Sure they get take a (large) cut of the advertisers paycheck, but they do provide the service of finding advertisers. Or of advertisers finding them, but that’s kind of like the same thing. Advertisers will not find you if you’re a small new blog, like Scraping Pennies is right now.
Signing up as a new blog
Last night I tried to sign-up for three rather well known advertiser networks:
Text Link Ads
Text Link Ads sells text links in several forms and shapes. As links in a sidebar, beneath a single post, in RSS feeds, or even within the content of a post. Google isn’t particularly fond of them, but advertisers are. So for Making Money Online it’s an interesting alternative.
Signing up was easy. The account was set up in a matter of minutes, but that doesn’t mean you’re taken into the inventory of publishers automatically. TLA reviews the submissions (mostly automatic I assume), and it didn’t take long (less than 24 hours) for the rejection to hit my mailbox. As a consolation I’m enrolled into the affiliate program. Yay! I’ve got a banner now.
ReviewMe
ReviewMe is a site that pays you for writing blog posts with reviews about blogs, products, books, services and more. You’ve got the liberty to choose what you review, so you can review the things you like and discard what you don’t. That is…if you’re allowed into the program 
They let me fill in all the forms, and declined my application automatically and instantly. Not enough traffic and inbound links (that’s not surprising). “Try again in a few months.” Okay, that’s not nice! I understand it of course, but please let people check their eligibility before they fill out the forms! Or wait 24 hours before telling them like TLA does. That at least gives the appearance that you gave it some thought.
And why is there no affiliate program?
Kontera Content Links
Kontera provides a system that scans your content live to find words that they have advertisers for. If they find these keywords, they turn them into recognizable links. Hover over the links and a small pop-up appears with the site or product from the advertiser. If visitors click on the link inside that pop-up, you’ll get a share of the revenue.
Signing up here was easy as well. But they warn you beforehand that you need to comply with some (not so stringent) program terms. Again, I’m not admitted into the program instantly. They need to review my application. Oh boy. No answer yet, but I can guess what it will be.
UPDATE (2008-05-13): I actually got approved into the program. That was highly unexpected, but a nice surprise nevertheless!
The giants win…for now anyway
I did not expect that I would excite the advertiser networks with my new unknown, but soon to be very famous blog. I mean, they probably get a lot of applications like this on a daily basis.
The reason I applied for the networks so early was to report the experiences here. When you’re starting out as a new blog and you intend to monetize, you should focus on getting traffic and links. This little experiment just showed you why.
No traffic and no links, and they drop you like a brick. So it’s time to create some buzz around Scraping Pennies!
2 Pennies' Worth Of Thoughts Here!
A Penny For Your Thoughts:
If you don't put your two cents in, how can you get change?
Here’s another one to add. At my wife’s blog, we’ve just finally been approved for BlogHerAds, after the second try. They’ve got a 4-week approval process, after which you have to give them a pint of blood, a urine sample and something about a firstborn or an eteral soul or something. If you’re approved, it’s 2 more weeks before they release Ad code to you.
Haha. That’s a classic Bob!
I just checked their site, and I must admit they are pretty clear in their message:
Sounds like a tough one. I hope they’re worth the trouble!