Another Day, Another Blog Ad Network
AdVolcano is offering flat-fee text ad placements on small sites and blogs.
AdVolcano is offering flat-fee text ad placements on small sites and blogs.
From Blog Ads to IntelliTXT to Google AdSense to ReviewMe, there’s a bountiful array of ad revenue streams for smalltime bloggers and site publishers. Enter yet another: AdVolcano. The online ad marketplace aims to complement the growing auto-ad options; in fact, it’s using some of those similar services to promote itself.
In the past week, about 80 publishers signed with AdVolcano to allow advertisers to buy text ads on small sites on a site-by-site, flat-fee basis. Publishers with any amount of traffic are able to set ad costs and determine sizes and placements. The firm calls its ad pricing model cost-per-term, and takes a 25 percent cut of ad revenues from publishers.
“We’re really renting out ad space on publishers’ sites,” said AdVolcano VP of Business Development Jason Rodriguez.
To get the word out to potential site partners, the company is using another revenue generator for blogs, ReviewMe, the service that lets advertisers pay bloggers to write about them. So far, AdVolcano has agreed to pay $100 for the privilege of having self-proclaimed “Dot Com Mogul” John Chow review the new network offering.
The blogger is no stranger to running ads; he already features Google AdSense ads and Intellitxt hyperlink ads on his site. And, not surprising, he’s added AdVolcano to the mix. “I always say never just depend on one network, don’t put all your eggs in the Google basket,” Chow told ClickZ News, noting he belongs to ad networks offering a range of pricing models.
Chow, who runs a comparison shopping search firm TTZ Media Network and is editor-in-chief of Tech Zone, is charging potential advertisers $500 to run a standard run-of-site standard banner for one month on his JohnChow.com blog.
Now that the AdVolcano publisher side is built up a bit, it’s time to attract some advertisers. Beginning next week, the firm plans on running display ads on “targeted properties,” according to Rodriguez, who declined to mention specific site names. The company also hopes paid cost-per-click search links tied to “industry buzz term” keywords will do the trick.
Still, even AdVolcano calls CPC-based buys click-fraud prone, and considers its flat-fee model — similar to that of the first blog ad network, Blog Ads — an antidote. The firm also believes allowing publishers to set their own rates and offer custom ads will engender better relationships with those site partners, in addition to fostering better relationships between publishers and advertisers.
“Part of the strategy is, around Q2, our product will develop into more of a collaborative atmosphere between publishers and advertisers,” said Rodriguez. Future offerings may include content integration and display ad opportunities.
Video tutorial site LearnVisualStudio.Net has an ad running through the system on product review site whatsthefuss.net, and will begin running an ad on Chow’s site soon.
“You’re going to see more advertising networks that cater to small sites and blogs,” said Chow. “Right now it’s a wide open market.”