Ok, this is a little bit of a rant. It sums up what I think is wrong with Internet advertising. Internet advertisers, in my opinion, for the most part have no concept of brand awareness and building a brand. I have a new advertiser on my site (http://www.brainbucketmag.com). I found this advertiser on DP. This client posted that they wanted high traffic banners on sites. I posted their thread with my basic #'s and then gave them a link to my media kit. The advertiser reviewed my media kit and we agreed on an advertising plan and the site that was going to be advertised. The transaction was made and that client's ads went live sometime early Sunday morning. Later on Sunday afternoon I got a message from the client asking me why there have been no signups or clicks to their site. The only click on the ads was by the advertiser. By that time, their ads had only shown 1000 times collectively. Since I had several advertisers on my site and cap the ads to 10 views per visitor 30 seconds apart, this was right on track for the ad views I committed to for the month. I drop my computer to check on my site(s) before I head off to bed and find another message from this client. The client accused me of ripping them off. The ads hadn't been clicked all day. Here's the stats for the campaigns since they went live. AdViews AdClicks CTR Leaderboard 1.309 0 0,00% Skyscraper 1.442 1 0,07% text ad 1.201 0 0,00% Total 3.952 1 0,03% In my opinion, it's too early to tell how their ads will do. They've only been running for three days. If I were promoting one of my own sites on Brain Bucket, I would be concerned but not sweating it. I would wait at least until 5k ad views had shown per campaign before pulling it. More than likely I would wait until 10k. But this advertiser's reaction to how low their CTR is is only indicative of what Google has done for internet advertising. Google and other networks that promote CPC or CPA ads or affiliate programs (BTW, you will never make a decent amount of money promoting affiliate programs via banners) have taught online advertisers that value is measured in traffic coming directly from the ads being shown. This is inherently wrong and only makes it harder for people to publish quality content. Let me give you another fine example. There's a rather large company that sells motorcycle riding apparel and accessories. We'll call them Company X. Company X has a affiliate program with CJ, which I participate it. I make money on that program by writing reviews of products I have used and linking to the site with the affiliate links. This BTW, is how you make money with affiliate programs. People read the reviews and click the links to find out more about the product. That traffic converts very well and I also get fresh SE food in the article. Company X also has a data feed program. You can set up a virtual store with their feeds. When people click on the links in your store, the end up going to Company X's site to purchase the product and you make money when they do. However, it's not completely seamless and the visitor eventually figures out where to buy the product when they're ready. The 30 day cookie is all fine if the visitor allows cookies. Most of my traffic isn't very web savvy, so they have that turned off for fear of spyware. So, now either 30 days has passed or the visitor never got the cookie in the first place. Company X also runs full page ads in all the major motorcycle magazines. When my visitors pick up the magazine, they may very well see the same product in that ad along with an #800 number. They can either call that # or order online at Company X's website. Then that same visitor sees another ad on say Google.com and they click on it. That visitor finally makes the purchase and Google gets all of the credit. Only thing is that visitor saw that ad three times before an action was made. It just so happens that it was on Google before thay made a purchase decision. In advertising there's this rule of three. A potential buyer has to hear your name or see your logo at least three times to remember your product or service. Both my site and the magazine helped build Company X's brand awareness. Now, here's the kicker. Company X has a full-time staff member devoted to finding quality affiliates. I got an email from this person, we'll call him Joe. Joe emailed me all about the outstanding money I could make promoting their affiliate program and their data feeds. I would run a store so to speak on my site for them. I would get hundred of new pages for the SE's and would make loads of money. Only thing is that having a store on my site isn't what my site's about. I really didn't want to do it that way. I explained to Joe that I would continue to promote the program with links in product reviews. If they wanted to advertise with me, they should look at my media kit. "We don't pay for advertising on sites," said Joe. I figured our talk was over. No, it wasn't Joe called and emailed me several more times after that. "Mike, your site is kicking in the search engines!" said Joe. "You could really make money with our program." But my site isn't about selling stuff. People don't find my site because they want to buy motorcycle products and accessories. They find it because they want to read reviews and news on motorcycles like the Harley-Davidson FLHX or keep up with the latest news on Billy Lane. I am in the business of providing content. Let my advertisers sell stuff. "But Mike, other affiliates with half your traffic are making $1000/month or more!" "If you're so confident I can make $1000/month or more, why don't you spend $500 per advertising with me?" "We don't buy ads on websites." This company is huge! They have a retail outlet. You can place your order by phone. You can also order online. They are well aware of brand image and how advertising with me will be building their brand. However, they know that they can get it cheaper elsewhere. That's why they think they can convince me to advertise for them for months hoping I will try my hardest to earn affiliate revenue. I am building their brand. End of rant. In all fairness to the client I mentioned before, I am closing their account and giving them a refund of all unused impressions. I don't want someone to feel like they've been cheated. Thanks for reading. Mike