I’ve Added Kontera to My Sites
February 23, 2008 Posted by Tyler CruzIn an attempt to maximize profit and increase my blog’s eCPM, I added Kontera to my blog a few days ago.
After adding it, I braced myself for the onslaught of negative comments that would inevitably arise. But strangely, that onslaught never came. I waited a few hours… nothing. I waited a day… still nothing. I’ve now had Kontera running on my site for a few days and haven’t received a single comment or e-mail about it.
When I post a paid review or link to an affiliate URL a few times, I usually get hounded with negative comments, which is fine with me – I can understand the frustration some readers have, and so I was very surprised that nobody brought up the addition of Kontera.
Kontera is invoked via Javascript and HTML, meaning that only visitors who visit my blog through their browser can view it (RSS readers don’t see the ads), but I still receive decent traffic to my blog daily and didn’t get one negative comment.
Therefore, I’m going to assume that people are fine with the addition of Kontera ads on my blog. Although, now that I’ve brought all this up, I’m sure I’ll receive a lot of feedback…
But for the most part, I think that readers are used to inline text link ads from networks such as Kontera and IntelliTXT. I’m certainly not the first blogger to use them… John Chow has been using Kontera for ages.
Running Kontera on Forums
Before adding Kontera to my blog, I decided to test them out on four of my forums first. One of the perks of owning more than one website is the ability to use the other ones as guinea pigs (or to leverage them to gain your acceptance into an ad network in which you can then use on your other site which would normally get declined. ValueClick Media and Google AdSense are two good examples).
I added Kontera on Movie-Vault.com’s Forums, MovieForums.org, MMAForums.net, and CookingForums.net on January 8th, so they’ve been running for 6 weeks now.
Since generating revenue from Kontera is dependant on the amount of actual textual content there is, content-rich sites such as blogs and forums generally perform the best. It makes sense: the more written content there is, the more opportunity for keywords to be linked.
One of the nice things about Kontera is that users are actively reading the content… in fact, the ads are part of the content. This differs greatly from the traditional banner model where banners are placed on the top of sides of websites, away from the main content.
The screenshot below shows Kontera on MovieForums.org. The yellow double-underlined links are Kontera ads:
When the cursor is placed over one of the Kontera links, a small information window is instantly displayed. This is done to make sure the end-user understand that it is an ad and was not linked by the author. Publishers only get paid if the user clicks on this window.
The screenshot below, taken from CookingForums.net, shows the window that is displayed when the cursor is over the link:
Kontera vs AdSense
Anyhow, I added Kontera to my forums first to test how it performed before adding it to my blog. I decided to compare Kontera to my AdSense income since I run AdSense on each of the forums as well.
The screenshot below shows my AdSense stats since Kontera was implemented on my blog. You’ll notice that I divulged MovieForums.org’s AdSense income during this time. I’m running a sitewide top 468×60 AdSense banner, a sitewide footer 468×60 banner, and and an inline 728×90 AdSense leaderboard banner which displays below the first post on every page, so there is certainly a fair amount of exposure to my AdSense banners:
The screenshot below shows my Kontera stats (Don’t pay attention to my blog CTR as it had only been running about a day). You’ll notice that MovieForums.org has a 1.29% CTR compared to the 0.48% CTR from AdSense, and an eCPM of $1.20 compared to the $0.40 AdSense gave.
The actual revenue is less than AdSense because Kontera naturally displays less impressions due to the fact that is does not always display ads. In the end, Kontera brought in 75% the amount that AdSense did. To me, this was a great result; I almost doubled my forum income by adding Kontera.
Kontera did not perform as well on my other forums, but did average out to about 1/3rd of AdSense’s income. Yet, it is doing very well on MovieForums.org. This is an important thing to note about Kontera: Kontera will run amazing on some sites, decently on some, and absolutely horrible on others.
How Kontera will perform is dependant on a number of things including niche, format (forum, blog, standard website, etc.), demographic, and implementation. The only real way to see how Kontera will perform for you is to try it out. It didn’t do so well for me with 3 of my forums, but did great with one of them.
Personally, I believe Kontera is great for forums due to the way forums work. First, forums are built upon community discussion, so there is a lot of content for Kontera to link to. But the other reason I believe forums are conducive to Kontera is the range of topics. Even if a forum is focused on a specific topic such as cooking, there are many different threads since members create their own threads. Different discussions mean new keywords for Kontera to link to.
The screenshot below shows some of the various URL’s of MovieForums.org threads that have had clicks on them:
A website author may never use certain words, or write about certain subjects, and is missing out on a lot of potential Kontera ad links. Forums are generally very hard to monetize, but Kontera seems to be a good option. Again, Kontera doesn’t always perform well, and in many cases performs rather poorly, but it’s one of those things that’s worth trying. For me, Kontera is a welcome addition to MovieForums.org.
But really, Kontera is catered to any content-rich website, so blogs are certainly a good candidate, which is why I’ve added it to my blog.
Signing Up
Generally, Kontera has fairly strict publisher requirements, usually wanting publishers to yield at least 500,000 page impressions per month. However, this is not written in stone, and if you have a high-quality website with less traffic, you should still apply as you might get accepted.
None of the sites I applied with generate that much traffic. Kontera wants to keep its network on a pretty high standard in order to cater to their advertisers better. If you generate a lot of traffic, Kontera can set you up with a premium payout.
I`m using Kontera on my blog and i dont see why people should have a problem wit it at all. After all they dont have to move there mouse over the highlighted text. And it does`nt stop them being able to read the articles.
Great post Tyler! This is very helpful to many of us forum owners. Keep up the great work! I’ll try it out on one my several forums next week after some testing.
Is it me or does it mostly just link to shopping sites? It is not that offensive to me at all.
The reason I haven’t implemented Kontera on any of my forums is because I know that on at least one of them, my members would complain about me directly making money from the content they have produced.
I know, as a community owner, that I already make money from their content by way of banner ads, text ads and affiliate links – however the direct nature of Kontera shows members and posters just what members and what content is generating revenue (they just look for that double underlined link).
When it comes to a blog, this is less of an issue – but for certain forums, members may not appreciate the direct way Kontera shows what posts and what members are generating the website revenue (unless they are receiving a share themselves, of course!).
– Martin
Some forums only show the kontera type ads to guests. That may help you out.
I have seen people made a lot of money through Kontera.
So, just wanna wish you good luck! 🙂
I am not the type to complain about things like this, but since you are writing about it I will put in my opinion.
I am all for monetizing a site, but overdoing it can really kill your blog. I have zero respect for John Chow because his whole entire site is filled to the brim with ads…..yours is not far from that. It makes the site look cheap, and makes the readers feel as if they are being used a bit, rather than you offering the value that you should be offering because you want to share expertise and generate a name for yourself.
These Kontera ads are the lowest of the low….compromising your actual content for a few extra bucks. They are annoying, and completely make the reader feel as if you are trying to force a click. I have only seen these ads on sites that have no standards or are run by money-hungry webmasters.
I think that you are teetering on the edge of ‘selling your blogs soul’ for a few bucks……not to mention, $20 or $30 a month? Wouldn’t you rather keep your credibility?
Lol You make a post on how you made $23 with a blog. Dam man u really suck. you stay home and run a site that makes $23. dam go get a job at mcdonalds and TRIPLE your income. Or better go back to school and take some grammar and spelling courses.
Nice spelling and grammar you complete hypocrite.
Raj has the intelligence of a “piss ant”.
Fuck you Cam go suck tylers 0.00001 mm penis if you can
I’m all fine with your monetization of your blog. I personally don’t use Kontera or any inline text ads on any of my sites just because I know it does annoy many visitors who don’t run their own websites and don’t understand about inline ads.
Besides, I use AdBlock+ so I don’t have to see them or any of your ads to begin with… 😉
Hopefully, you can make enough from this to back off on some of the paid reviews and give us some quality content. In reality, that is what we are subscribed for – even those who complain all the time keep reading because they indeed look forward to that next ‘real’ post.
I for one support you and your efforts. If you choose to make a blank white screen, it’s your choice, would your readership go down, most likely, but your choice nonetheless. Since I use Google for my feeds, I read who has made a post and then I click it to goto the blog itself, making sure the visitor impression counts. If the mouse hovering over the ad had the popup balloon get in the way of my reading, I’d probably slow down, if it still bothered me, I’d consider not reading. The only way you’ll know is to see your traffic and rss subscribers, did it change? Good luck man.
*Remember* I’ve got AA in the hole.
Your forum is pretty much dead buddy.
Currently Active Users: 7 (0 members and 7 guests)
Total members that have visited the forum today: 6
Perhaps you should become a little less obsessed with money and work more on your forum.
Congrats with your earnings. I’ve grown used to seeing Kontera ads and now I don’t mind them at all.
I think John Chow has a program with Kontera where you can join under John. The only requirement is that you should have 25,000 page views a month, compared to Kontera’s normal 500,000.
We use Kontera on one of our sites, but I’m a little disappointed with the ads that they return for our readers. It’s obvious that they don’t have many advertisers in the sports niche – But rather than tell us that up front and reject our application, they continue to serve random ads to our readers, which 99% of the time have no relevance to the highlighted term.
I’m just waiting till we hit the first payment threshold (should be in the next few weeks, at we’re already at around $90), and then we’ll stop using it altogether.
Man, That is complete bullshit…You work your ass off to run these websites and produce quality content. I know that because I do it too. Who gives a shit about what all these haters say…Oh so you aren’t aloud to make money from your own website now? Giving these douche bags good content that can help them for free isn’t enough? You have to run an add free site as well?
You are doing just fine…Anyone that has a problem with you putting any kind of adds on YOUR site is an idiot. Worry about your own little piece of shit blog, and quit hating. Marketingrockstar.org? That is the gayest shit I’ve ever seen.
Well, it sounds like you are pretty upset about this. “Quit hating”? Funny coming from a hater like you, and it seems your a coward too,considering you won’t even link to your own sites, and you are judging my site when you won’t even link to yours.
Do you always go around to other people’s blogs and get all upset over nothing, defending the blogger? It doesn’t seem like you are the type to have anything better to do.
No actually, I didn’t link to my site because none of them have anything to do with the “make money online niche” because I am not one of the 10 thousand people trying to make a blog about making money online.
Im defending the blogger, because it is absolutely ridiculous that people actually get upset because the blogger is putting adds on HIS blog.
As for your site?…There is nothing there. Ive seen the same site probably over 1000 times; except the only difference is that most of them actually have experience with what they are talking about.
I’ll tell you what though, as soon as I start my own “Make money online blog” Ill be sure to let you know so you can go comment about how I shouldn’t make money from it. OF COURSE JOHN CHOW is going to monetize the shit out of his site you idiot…That is what his blog is all about.
Thank you for your observations on my blog….I just launched it yesterday.
Definitely let me know when you launch your blog….I can’t wait to see what your writing is like 🙂
Keep up all the great work buddy!
Corry shut the fuck up. You are just a pissed off loser going around trying to mess with people. At least this guy is doing something with himself, trying to make a good blog. What do you do? Only fucking losers go around attacking people for no reason. Stop complaining like a bitch and go back to whatever stupid little sites you own.
umm Tyler I m pretty sure you can cant show your eCPM and CTR with GooGle, You can however shoe your page impressions, and earnings. So you might want to edit the pic.
Also if you like kontera you defintily need to check out adbrites inline ads they pay MUCH better, and optimise better as well, try it out and you will see the difference.
Sounds like you’ve had better results than I did with my forum.
Have you tried IntelliTxt yet?
I actually just wrote a case study about the battle between Kontera and IntelliTxt that you may find interesting.
Kontera vs IntelliTxt
You make a good point about how well mixed the results can be for Kontera. My goal is to just reach their 1,000,000 page views a month minimum to get a standard rate per 1,000 impressions.
I say Kontera doesn’t work too well on blogs, but works VERY VERY well on other sites (not blogs).
-Mike
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I just added Kontera too, hope it works well 🙂
I am now using Infolinks and I can get more earnings through it, because their payout rate is more than Kontera. But Kontera ads balloon is more beautiful than Infolinks. 😉