Is Media.net an alternative to Adsense?

[jficarro]

I was recently contacted about placing ads on one of my sites. It's not that uncommon. But afterward it turned out to be a company called Media.net which appears to run an advertising system very similar to Adsense/Adwords.

I signed up and am tempted to do some testing because I've already learned it's best not to have all your eggs in one basket. But I'm wondering if anyone has had any experiences with this company.

I get the impression that they are somehow connected with yahoo and bing, and are taking on the publishers that have under 1 million uniques a day. But, I may be wrong.

I'm asking because it looks like a great system and I like to spread my risk around (but not on things that are weak or thin). The one thing that bothers me is they don't even give a hint about how much a click is worth (at least you get a general idea with Adsense).

I was tempted to put this in the product and services review forum, but it seems more appropriate here as so many people have asked me over the years if there's a good alternative to Adsense - and I usually have to admit that unfortunately... there isn't. Or is there?

Anyone use media.net yet?

[DarrenHaynes]

I swapped over to media.net from adsense on one of my blogs and made more money with it that adsense. I cannot remember the figures of the top of my head but it was about 15% increase on adsense. Needless to say I was very happy about that.

If I remeber correctly I was making about $3500 a month with adsense, and then I was making about $4200 a month when I swapped to media.net. And yep, that was for the same amount of visitors.

I have however seen other have less success and actually more success than me. What your niche is, is a strong factor for if you will do better with media.net than adsense, from what I have seen.

My site is in the recipes/nutrition/health niche. One guy I know did great with media.net for his site that was in the finance niche. I think the most popular topics are the best choice for media.net.

I would definitely recommend giving them a shot and see how they measure up.

Oh, and another thing I like is that they blend the ads nicely, they don't stick out like a sore thumb like adsense does, which is good thing when done correctly.

As an extra note - you have no control over the colors and fonts of the ads, you only choose what size goes where, and they do the rest of the testing.

[jficarro]

Originally Posted by DarrenHaynes

I swapped over to media.net from adsense on one of my blogs and made more money with it that adsense. I cannot remember the figures of the top of my head but it was about 15% increase on adsense. Needless to say I was very happy about that.

If I remeber correctly I was making about $3500 a month with adsense, and then I was making about $4200 a month when I swapped to media.net. And yep, that was for the same amount of visitors.

I have however seen other have less success and actually more success than me. What your niche is, is a strong factor for if you will do better with media.net than adsense, from what I have seen.

My site is in the recipes/nutrition/health niche. One guy I know did great with media.net for his site that was in the finance niche. I think the most popular topics are the best choice for media.net.

I would definitely recommend giving them a shot and see how they measure up.

Oh, and another thing I like is that they blend the ads nicely, they don't stick out like a sore thumb like adsense does, which is good thing when done correctly.

As an extra note - you have no control over the colors and fonts of the ads, you only choose what size goes where, and they do the rest of the testing.

That's very encouraging. This will be especially helpful with personal networks as it may provide a way to monetize beyond CPA (which can get kind of boring for the readers).

[DarrenHaynes]

I am always surprised that there is less talk about media.net, because they are a serious company.

The only reason I heard about them is that they contacted me also.

Their barre to entry is above that of adsense and other networks, so this is probably why they are less known.

I assume that you site is pulling in decent traffic if they contacted you?

[mediagerms]

This is going to be my first post in a series of posts about different Google AdSense alternatives. I don’t have any set schedule for writing about each one…basically, once I’ve had a chance to try it out and gather an initial opinion, I’ll write about it!

In some ways, I actually like Media.net more than AdSense, although that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t gladly give up my Media.net account if it meant getting back AdSense.

[DarrenHaynes]

In some ways, I actually like Media.net more than AdSense, although that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t gladly give up my Media.net account if it meant getting back AdSense.

Personally, if I had to choose, I would keep media.net. But I don't need to choose

[jficarro]

Originally Posted by DarrenHaynes

I am always surprised that there is less talk about media.net, because they are a serious company.

The only reason I heard about them is that they contacted me also.

Their barre to entry is above that of adsense and other networks, so this is probably why they are less known.

I assume that you site is pulling in decent traffic if they contacted you?

Yes, it's a popular site.

But the strange thing is how they contacted me.

The email seemed as though it was from a private company that wanted to purchase ad space. But then when I responded that I would consider it after getting more info about them and what they were promoting, I got an email about "applying". Out of curiosity, I applied and it was approved. Then I logged in and discovered what they are.

I guess there's nothing wrong with that, but it initially sent up red flags because it seemed a bit less than transparent.

However... now after you guys have been saying that it's a good company, I have added it to my lengthy "to do" list.

Long time ago... my young teenage son was looking at one of my sites at a friends house and was generally interested in an ad on the site. He clicked and I ended up loosing the Adsense account. There was a LOT of money that had been built up that month and I lost it all.

Ever since then, it freaks me out to have such a large part of my business dependent on one company that can pretty much do whatever they want. I don't know if any of you have ever tried to contact Google support - but good luck with that.

Anyway. Thanks to all who have contributed to this interesting and important thread.

[DarrenHaynes]

The email seemed as though it was from a private company that wanted to purchase ad space. But then when I responded that I would consider it after getting more info about them and what they were promoting, I got an email about "applying". Out of curiosity, I applied and it was approved. Then I logged in and discovered what they are.

Right - I almost didn't bite for the exact same reason.

I looked at the email address it came from and typed media.net into my address bar to find out more. The site looked professional, but when I did some online searches to get more info it seemed that nobody was talking about them, which made me a little suspicious.

The fact that Yahoo uses them is the main thing that gave me enough confidence to actually give them a try. I was glad I did!

I certainly think their marketing efforts could be better. However, I get the feeling they like to keep a lower profile, and prefer to contact people than to have 1000's of owners of crappy sites trying to sign up and then having to sort through them. This at least gives the advertisers more confidence in the quality of sites that their ads will go on.

[GlobalTrader]

I am definitely going to apply and try them out - thanks Darren for posting your experience with them!

Adsense "used" to be a reliable source of revenue but over the course of the past two or three years it has steadily decreased to nothing more than McDonalds money.

[Outsourcingnerd]

Originally Posted by DarrenHaynes

I swapped over to media.net from adsense on one of my blogs and made more money with it that adsense. I cannot remember the figures of the top of my head but it was about 15% increase on adsense. Needless to say I was very happy about that.

If I remeber correctly I was making about $3500 a month with adsense, and then I was making about $4200 a month when I swapped to media.net. And yep, that was for the same amount of visitors.

I have however seen other have less success and actually more success than me. What your niche is, is a strong factor for if you will do better with media.net than adsense, from what I have seen.

My site is in the recipes/nutrition/health niche. One guy I know did great with media.net for his site that was in the finance niche. I think the most popular topics are the best choice for media.net.

I would definitely recommend giving them a shot and see how they measure up.

Oh, and another thing I like is that they blend the ads nicely, they don't stick out like a sore thumb like adsense does, which is good thing when done correctly.

As an extra note - you have no control over the colors and fonts of the ads, you only choose what size goes where, and they do the rest of the testing.

Sounds like an interesting Adsense alternative. Perhpaps people in general are getting "banner blind" when it comes to Adsense...

Are you able to target your site when signing up? I mean sometimes Adsense shows some completely off topic ads.

[DarrenHaynes]

Originally Posted by Outsourcingnerd

Sounds like an interesting Adsense alternative. Perhpaps people in general are getting "banner blind" when it comes to Adsense...

Are you able to target your site when signing up? I mean sometimes Adsense shows some completely off topic ads.

As with adsense you have zero control of the ads that show up (well, actually with adsense you can block ads).

The upside of that is that you do get a personal representative that works with you, and they do seem to put more effort into testing ads, colors, backgrounds, fonts to get the best CTR.

Media.net is way more personable than adsense.

[Bambu]

I gave Media Net a spin on two of my blogs. One in the tech niche and the other video games. In both instanes, my earnings were 1/10 of what I make with Adsense. In their favor their account reps are awesome. They are very responsive and will customize ads for our site. A negative is that they dont show epc, only epm. They paid me on time.

[karismasand]

If you are not from US they will ban your account when you reach the payment amount. This is what happen to me. I have a site (EMD) for an american keyword sow the traffic was 99% organic from US and they ban my account with reason that my traffic has low quality ...LOL

I would stay away from media.net and I would go with infolinks.com

Good Luck!

[paulgl]

I've said it before, many times.

If you think there are real alternatives to adsense,
then a sponge is an alternative to chocolate cake.

Instead of looking for alternatives to adsense, look
at other ways of utilizing a site to its fullest potential.
From backlinks, traffic funnel, selling your own stuff, etc.

I assume people are looking for another pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow, but there's only one adsense.

If people stopped wasting time looking, they might actually
work themselves into success.

Paul

[DarrenHaynes]

Originally Posted by paulgl

I've said it before, many times.

If you think there are real alternatives to adsense,
then a sponge is an alternative to chocolate cake.

Instead of looking for alternatives to adsense, look
at other ways of utilizing a site to its fullest potential.
From backlinks, traffic funnel, selling your own stuff, etc.

I assume people are looking for another pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow, but there's only one adsense.

If people stopped wasting time looking, they might actually
work themselves into success.

Paul

Have you tried them?

[anwar001]

Originally Posted by paulgl

I've said it before, many times.

If you think there are real alternatives to adsense,
then a sponge is an alternative to chocolate cake.

Instead of looking for alternatives to adsense, look
at other ways of utilizing a site to its fullest potential.
From backlinks, traffic funnel, selling your own stuff, etc.

I assume people are looking for another pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow, but there's only one adsense.

If people stopped wasting time looking, they might actually
work themselves into success.

Paul

Sorry, I don't understand what you want to say. Can you be more clear and specific?