Is anyone else using ads from Bidvertiser or another advertising company? If so, how are they working for you? And what is the minimum payout?
Im using a mix of Adsense, Direct Media Exchange (Adtegrity, BannerConnect, CPX, DirectaClick) and some campaings of CPA Networks for some countries (MillNicMedia, OurFreeStuff and FluxAds). I think that there is nothing better than adsense for the most of niches and general content, but you can combine it with some CPM network as DMX to increase your revenue, or get more revenue if you mantain updated CPA campaigns displayed for specific countries. My experience with Bidvertiser is not good, the CPM in my case was lower than with the CPM networks.
If you are not lucky with the adsense, there are other alternatives like bidvertiser, chitika, kontera etc. but they pay usually less than that of adsense per click. However, you can try some affiliates...
Having a second program ala adsense on the same pages as adsense is always a good thing to do. They pay less per click, and even if you feel that each click on their ad is a click lost on adsense, the visitors are presented other products so it can be a click won. The one in my signature pays from $10 via PayPal.
AdSense is the best choice and companies like Bidvertiser come into picture when you can't use AdSense. They don't pay as well as AdSense do but then you can't help it.
I just made a post HERE regarding the performance of a few of the top advertising networks. But it is important to remember that whatever works for another site, may not work the same for you - so you must test/try everything yourself.
Adsense is very easy and usually pays out quite well. However, for sites that are not specialized and more general other ad-networks (CPM paid ad serving) will outperform Adsense. Adsense is in fact no longer a real CPC-network, it's more a CPA network...
Selling private ads also more profitable if your site is popular enough. Adsense is just a good site income that pretty unpredictable. You shouldn't put all your e-eggs on your e-basket. Diversification is very important here. I usually mix CPA (copeac), affiliates (CJ, linkshare, clickbank) and CPC ads (adsense, chitika and kontera) together to get the maximum result.
The problem with Bidvertiser is they don't have advertisers as much as Adsense. If that's the case, some of your ads may not be related to your content if no ads matched the keywords. I don't know about their payout though.
I love Adsense and i truly believe they are the best option, BUT i started using CPA affiliates (tradedoubler) in some sites and they rock. The payment is way bigger than Adsense, but it's up to you to test it out mate
Thats very smart, private ads should be the most rewarding if you can market yourself face to face. That would mean, based on your topic, to go out and meet Businesses and sell them Advertising Space. However may be the hardest to do. I get call sometimes from companies, trying to sell me something and they were all very good and polished. Even had me close to putting down the cash :