I've been an Adsense/YPN publisher for almost a year now, and quite frankly I have not been making as much as I feel I should be making given the amount of traffic my site gets. Currently I get around 20,000 impressions per day, with about 600-700 unique visitors. But on Adsense I'm lucky to make 5 dollars a day. With YPN its a little better, but still not where I feel it should be. I've read extensively into ad placement theories and I've bought a few books on how to maximize Adsense earnings so I know I'm doing everything I should be doing in terms of ad placement strategies. I've also done quite a bit of tracking to see which ad schemes perform the best. But my site has seen only a very average CTR, and a dismal CPC. On Adsense I found myself averaging just 5 - 10 cents per click, with YPN that number is much higher, but my CTR is much lower and I still don't make a whole lot more than Adsense. Which brings me to the idea of CPM ads such as TribalFusion, FastClick and CasaleMedia. I hear most of these program will give you 1 - 2 dollars per 1,000 impressions, regardless of if the ads are clicked or not. If that's true, I could be making 5 or more times as much as I am now with CPC ads. So, do any of you have CPM success stories? Have you gone from miserable earnings on CPC networks to great success on CPM networks? I'd really like to hear that there have been people in my situation that have benefited from CPM ads.
1-2 dollars per 1,000 impressions is a little optimistic. I believe that you will be earnings more in the region of $0.5 per 1,000 impressions IF you are accepted into a CPM network, which can prove quite difficult (especially TF). However, 20,000 impressions at $0.5 per 1,000 would equate to $10. Combine this with Adcents and you're up to $15, add in some Text-Link-Ads and you'll be up to about $17 and throw in some CPA programs(Commission Junction) and that should take you up to $20/day, if you've spent the time to target the correct ads at the correct visitors. I can't give exact figures, as I have only just applied for some CPM programs. Still waiting on a response.
Do CPM networks typically record all of your impressions? Like Adsense for example only records about half of my actual impressions.
If you use CPM ads then you will probably earn around $0.30 - $0.80 from using them. But even that will earn you more than $5 a day so that is a gain. It will not be much of a gain, but all extra money helps. Also, if you have more than one ad per page then it will increase your earnings as you are paid by CPM. But even though you are paid this way, quite a few networks still require you to meet a certain amount of clickthru's per 1,000 page impressions.