The Woes Of A Publisher.

Choosing the right network to partner with for adserving will help you get a lot more from your website.

Ever since I started this blog, there have been a couple of questions that have always been on my mind.

How to partner with the right networks in order to bring relevant ads to the topics discussed here.

How do I choose which network to join.

To begin with, I have been toying with quite a few networks that brings the advertisers and the publishers to the same platform. However, this is where the problem starts. Most networks don’t really have a classification in place which is exactly place your website in the right section.

So many a times, the publisher is left in a rather broader category of say ‘Internet’ Now Internet could definitely have further clasification in terms of ISP’s, or Internet Business, if you get what i’m saying.

The problem with this model is that it leaves the Publisher with not much choice but to go ahead and put up the ad code on their site. From the advertiser’s point of view, they too don’t get much value since they are targeting a segment which if dealt with indepth, has it’s own sub clasifications.

The end result of this being that most of the times a publisher wouldn’t really have much to do in terms of optimizing the ads on their site, and many a times you would see a publisher having accounts with more than 2 or 3 networks. And this pretty much translates to a few cents or perhaps a few dollars short of reaching the benchmark amount that would trigger your payment.

This brings me to my next question. How do I choose which network is right for me.

Let’s face it, gone are the times when marketing was specific to just one geographic location. Well, while it does exist to this day, in most cases companies would like to have a wider reach for their products and the Internet provides just that.

Below is a few check list which I think will help the publisher to optimize their site.

Don’t just sign up because of the marketing hype. Take time to check the potential network thoroughly before making your choice.

Read the terms & conditions carefully. Many a times, this is skipped because of the matter in there, however some of things which would crop up at a later point in time would be already listed in the T&C’s. Do your homework.

The sign up form. Don’t just blindly sign up, rather take time to read through the sign up form. Most of the times, it is here that you pretty much decide on the next big step. Networks that restrict themselves to a geographic jurisdiction is a strict No, unless you happen to be located there.

Payments. Be sure to have the right information. Most publishers sign up with the negativity that they will not reach the benchmark amount before the monthly accruals can be paid off. Needless to say it often ends up in too little too late. Fraud is an important concern for any network/company and something as trivial like this will definitely raise a red flag. Also be sure to know the local laws of taxation. As mentioned earlier, read through the site before signing up.

It is always good to partner with not more than 3 networks.

This gives you the edge to know the kind of ads that are being served and gives you a chance to rotate the three networks and also you would get a fair idea on how to tweak them.

Lastly, analysis is an important factor for those who are serious about this. It always pays to have a comparision of the statistics from the 3 networks you partner with and help you do more.

After all, you just cannot have a website and flood your audience with ads that make no sense and expect to recieve a huge payment towards the end of the month.