Glenton
Glenton
I'm Sorry but Kontera Sucks, Don't Even Waste Your Time.
To be honest Kontera was never my first choice when it came to In-Text Ads, but after Vibrant Media turned me down there wasn’t any other company other than Kontera that look promising. I signed up with Kontera late 2007 and I added it to my music site Hip Hop Music Dot Com, It was up and running for about 2 months but then I ended up changing my theme and forgot to place the code back on my site, which was probably due to the earnings not being very impressive.
9 months into 2008 Kontera contacts me talking about joining there program unaware that I was already affiliated with them. I told them I already tried the program and the results were less than mediocre. They told me that there ad inventory had grown drastically since the previous year and that they had a special promotion going on. I decided to give them a shot to see what was up and I must admit the ads were most certainly performing better than before. I was averaging about 300 clicks daily and that’s along side my Google Adsense earnings which were not affected, From October going into December of 2008 the earnings were really good and started to think well maybe Kontera could become a long term income stream.
So When Did Kontera Start to Suck?
It started in January of 2009, as soon as the new year came around the earnings tanked, and when I say tanked I mean “TANKED!!”, I’m talking about getting an average of 200 + clicks per day and only having a $1.28 to show for it. What? That’s a waste of time to say the least, I decided to run the ads for a couple more months which was a big mistake, I should have removed them as soon as they were no longer profitable. So in May I had enough and decided to kick Kontera’s ass to the curve. I wasted 5 months of valuable ad space hoping that the program would come around and it never did. I was like a drug addict that experienced drugs for the first time and keeps on taking the drug trying to relive that first time experience.
So What Am I Using Now?
Well after browsing through a couple threads on the Digital Point forum I ran into InfoLinks, It turns out that I already had an account with them for quite some time but completely forgot about them. Most of the discussions in the forums side with InfoLinks as being a better In Text ad network. So on June 1st I decided to give them a shot, it’s only been 3 days so I can’t give you a real estimate of how well they perform but the first 3 days are far better than Kontera’s daily average. I’m going to test them out for thirty days to see if there program is worth the time.
What If Info Links Sucks As Well?
Well earlier I mentioned that I was rejected by Vibrant Media, well they have now approved me so if InfoLinks turns out to be Kontera’s retarded little brother then I guess I’ll give them a shot but then again I’m not a fan of Vibrant Media just for the simple fact that I had to apply 4 times before I was accepted, Nothing had changed with Hip Hop Music Dot Com so why was I rejected in the first place?
Is In-text Advertising Even Worth It?
From my personal experience, hell no, But maybe your topic or niche will do better with this type of advertising. To be honest it’s one of the most intrusive forms of advertising there is and it also goes against the principles of web usability. How do I know this? Well I just remember my wife browsing the web one time and I’m not sure what site she was on but the site had in-text ads and I remember her saying “these pop up links are so annoying”. I didn’t know she was referring to in-text ads at the time but that got me thinking, if I’m getting over 20,000 daily visitors to Hip Hop Music Dot Com how many of them are saying these ads are so annoying? So with that thought after this month I most likely will be done with In-Text advertising all together. You will never know if users are clicking on the ads because of relevance or because they just think it’s a link on your site. This type of advertising could hurt your site’s credibility and the only reason why my traffic hasn’t decreased on that site is because of the reputation I’ve built with my readers. That being said I might have lost future visitors forever using this type of advertising.
In Conclusion
So not only does Kontera suck but in-text advertising sucks all together, don’t waste your time on in text advertising there are much better monetization methods available…..Stay Tuned.
I enjoyed reading your post as I also tried both Kontera and Adbrite on my website. Since I explored Infolinks my earnings increased dramatically!!!
Let me guess your a Site Build It user?
Hi Glenton,
This is Jonathan from Kontera. After coming across this post thanks to your recent head to head review of our competitors, we looked up your account history, and I think your problems in January 2009 has more to do with advertiser patterns than any changes on Kontera's end.
The way it works at Kontera, and really at almost any advertising platform is that thanks the Christmas season, there's the most advertiser activity at Kontera during the Q4, and that's likely when you'll see your highest earnings. As Advertisers scale back their campaigns during Q1 for the slower Winter month, it's completely normal for Publishers to a proportional decrease in the revenue.
If you're worried about relevancy with your In-Text ads, Kontera is almost universally acknowledged as having the most relevant In-Text ads, thanks to our Contextual Technology, an algorithm that rather than just scanning for keywords, actually reads your webpages for meaning. This added level of targeting enables us to provide more relevant ads, which translates into higher CTR and better CPC results for you.
Additionally, because Kontera features premium, often Rich-Media ads from some of the most recognizable brands in the world, including Microsoft, L'Oreal, National Geographic, Sprint, Kmart, Dove, and more; our ads aren't viewed as annoying by readers. These ads pay the best possible CPC and are only available through Kontera.
My suggestion, if you're interested, is if you had been satisfied with Kontera in the past, why not give us another try? We're currently offering new publishers a 70% revenue share, which is the best rate in the industry, if you contact me via e-mail I'd be more than happy to hook you up with that preferred rate.
Thanks,
– Jonathan Cohen
Kontera Community Manager
[email protected]
Oh yes I believe they are annoying, I believe that In text advertising gets its Clicks because people are trying to get rid of them and end up clicking them. Every time i get into a website that has in text advertising i either try to disable them or just i stop browsing that website. they are just plain Annoying
have anyone noticed that infolinks earnings this week have been a bit lower."."
Actually this whole month has been lower than the previous months.
Adbrite is the ppc program that is second to adsense, i like adbrite~"*
Kontera pays well even if they do not pay as high as other advertisers~-,
Thanks for your article. I have Kontera on one site and because I only get a few visitors I don't make any money. $2.00 over 3 months I think. I'm probably annoying some people so I have to make a decision as to whether or not to use it on my other sites. I appreciate you giving me "food for thought".
infolinks is the best alternative for adsense, i use it and it also pays well–*
between Kontera and Infolinks, i would have to say that infolinks beats kontera“.
I hope you right, i'm beginner with Kontera, thanks for share.
i do not use adbrite because their pay rate is horrendously low compared to say infolinks .~,
both Kontera and Infolinks are great programs that can monetize your website, i earn much better on Infolinks *'-
I am using Konters ads for my site Relaxfuture.com.
My CTR is very high and my daily avarage earning is 1$.
should my CTR be high or less for more daily earnings
for same amount of clicks.
RELAXFUTURE.COM