So many people complain about Adsense performance, why don't we try Private Ad Sales?

Just reading some of the threads posted recently in the Adsense subforum, there's been a lot of complains of "earnings going down" and such.

I've seen many blame it on the recession, and worldwide economic instability - obvisously that plays a major role.
However, recently we decided to open up "Private Ad Sales" over at Blogussion - and it's performed REALLY well.

In fact, Alex and I decided to write up a couple of posts - recommending bloggers (and website owners alike) to try private ad sales.

Why Are ‘Private Ad Sales’ Better Than ‘Google Adsense?’ these pointers found within the posts, are just 9 of the points we considered before opening Private Ad Sales.

Then we found this plugin for Wordpress that's just PERFECT. It covers everything from automatic advert submission to payment-handling; it's just awesome.

Anyways back to the issue raised here; I was wondering why the people that are complaining about the falls in Adsense earnings don't try Private Ad sales?

For those that are still earning the buck; congrats! Personally, I've seen a fairly significant drop in a few of my smaller projects too..
but the shift to Private Ad Sales on most of them have done wonders

 

You have a good point but it is very hard to get private sponsors, unless you have a hughe site you will not get the big advertisers, with adsense a very small site can make at least some money.

 

It is hard to get private sponsors, no doubt ~ but when it comes blogging - you need to talk to people and get your voice heard.

For example, Alex and my site (blogussion) we just entered our 2nd month since launch. With appropriate pricing we already have 3 dedicated sponsors

If you create a good readership, a loyal 'fan-base' so to speak and talk to a few people -it's not as hard as people might assume it to be

 

I tried out Private Ad Sales with my MMO blog a few months back. With the decent readership and traffic, I managed to make around 4 sales a month before I had to sell the blog.

 

That's such a bitter-sweet reply
Why did you sell it VccMatey?

Also, if you tried Adsense too - would you say the private ad sales brought more revenue?

 

Well.. Private ad sales can kick off well only after you have a decent user base .. For webmasters thriving on search engine traffic, AdSense still rocks.
Once your blog gains credibility, private ad sales can earn you more than any ad program. Take the case of John Chow, for example. He earns 70-80% of his monthly $25,000+ from private ad sales

 

Unless you have a really authority site(s), its quite difficult to make significant amount from private sponsors, not to mention the time consuming affair that it can be chasing after them. If you have a big site(s) then you should do both. But for millions of small sites out there, Adsense makes more sense as you would only need to install a snippet of code. But you are right, for authority sites, especially in certain niches, private sales can make up significant monthly revenue. I am not sure about John Chow's figures. I think they are overly inflated, as seem to be the case for many personal type blogs. Mentioning bigger figures on these blogs mean bigger traffic driving your way.

 

I had some family issues, I had to sell it. Wish I didn't because the new owner isn't doing a very good job with the blog.
Yes, I tried Adsense, I made around an average of $20/month. While the Private Ad Sales got me around $60

 

Interesting idea.

 

Sweet! So, Private Ad Sales were definitely better for you

Not neccesarily, because the site we made hasn't even been online for 2 months yet. Still we got 3 interested sponsors
That's without any 'chasing' as we call it, so either we were lucky or if you work hard at maintaining a good site, then sponsors can come in abundance.

 

Why do you think should the price drop only affect Adsense? Besides it seems to me that many people here just try to game the system and have very little to offer to advertisers.

 

Here I would like to mention one point (please note this is not to discourage you people), recession would not effect private ad sales?

 

That's a very valid point, in fact we can say that the recession effects everything. The difference is though, the recession will reduce your earnings (speaking in general terms) but if you can find sponsors for your asking price - then the recession won't matter

During the recession, they both get affected but to put it simply;
Adsense - You will earn less.
Private Ads - You will find it harder to find sponsors, but still you have a better chance of earning more/the same as you did before the recession

I'm sorry MoeJoe, I didn't get what you meant by your last sentence

 

Idea is very good. thinking about it.

 

I've been getting people contacting me for private advertising, which is great (since I don't actively search for one!)

I guess once your site gets popular, people will come to you

 

Thanks for dropping by Michael - and must say your blog's statistics are just pure awesome!
I've browsed through your website, and its easy to see the reasons behind it's success

No wonder your getting advert proposals without even chasing up an email
Keep it up man, and best of luck for the future

 

thanks
its a great idea
but its hard to get private sales for new ppl

 

It's all about the approach I reckon. A handful of bloggers are likely that their blog brings interested sponsors without any persuasion, but if your like majority - you need to reason and persuade appropriate potential sponsors to work with you.

It's always only a well-written email away

 

I HAVE to go with Private Ad Sales - the content of my site prevents from installing adsense..
so lucky everyone has open options

 

It is noticeable point but how can we get Private Ads easily ?