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I've recently become a fan of JohnChow.com and I wrote a little bit about how I got inspired to get sell my own ads. Should be an interesting read for you webmaster types.

So basically I decided to get rid of all ad networks from my site (accept one google link that does well for me and I'm working on getting rid of the ads in the preview button). You might ask why I would get rid of all the ad networks and you will find my experiences with various ones I dabbled in below.

I agree that most ad networks taking a 50% cut (the most obvious reason not to use them) is crappy but my biggest reason for taking network ads off would have to the QUALITY OF THE ADS. Here are my experiences with various ad networks that I have tried (this is only my opinion is only based from testing on my site).

Adsense:

Pros: CPC can be really high and link ads seem to work well for me while taking up little space.

Cons: “ads by google” display looks ugly and in my opinion makes visitors think less of your website. Testing positions and colors takes a really long time with little difference.

Adengage:

Pros: I have gotten checks from them so they aren’t scammers. Ads can be completely customized (great for those who like to blend or trick click).

Cons: Most of the websites in their inventory (if you want to be and advertiser) are complete crap quality (ex. Lots of game websites from Turkey that look like a 5 year old kid designed them). As a publisher, it gets even worse. The ads are nothing short of idiotic (ex. Dog owners forum, win something offers). I would highly recommend you stay away if you want returning visitors.

ValueClick:

Pros: You don’t need clicks to get paid because most advertisers run CPM.

Cons: The CPM can be $3 one day and .60 cents the next. Lots of crappy advertisers added everyday that need to be blocked (I personally don’t have time to everyday go through their very slow loading dashboard). Only worth ad on their site would be the 300x250 size. Everything else pays way too little.

So now you can see that I came up with way more negatives than positives. So, I’ve started selling my own ads (today). I even made my own banners to promote my first week for $2 campaign. I hope it works and any feedback or suggestions from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Oh, if you want to take a glance at the site, it's at link removed
Thanks for the read,
Paul
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