Last week, I mentioned a client who lost her Google Adsense privileges and decided to use Adbrite. After a short week with Adbrite, I can tell you that she is ready to get back to Google ASAP. Adbrite did what it said it would - putting banner ads and text ads on her website that pay per 1000 impressions and per click.
However, they seem to have a limited number of advertisers and they cannot always put relevant ads on her website.
To give you an example, one of my clients' websites is in the the category of "alternative health." As of this moment, the ads that adbrite has on her website are 1) Personal Injury Attorney, 2) Buy Property Abroad, 3) Earn Income Now and 4) Massage. The last one, "massage" is potentially relevant, but the actual website to which it goes, is a shopping website that has nothing to do with massage nor alternative health. In short, Adbrite has put 4 ads on her site, none of which is contextually relevant to her content.
Most damning is the income. As a percentage, I would say that for every $100 that she would have earned with Google Adsense, she is earning $15 with Adbrite. That's a huge decrease.
She is going to get ride of Adbrite, but not completely. One of her websites, a consumer-review of electronics products, seems to be getting a fair return on the Adbrite advertising, so she will keep the ads there.
Take home message? You do the math: Keep Google happy at all costs, and don't do anything stupid or inadvertent that disables your adsense account! There is an upside if you are an advertiser - You may be able to get advertising at a much cheaper rate than you would get on Google.
I will keep looking for Google Adsense alternatives. Let me know if you see a network worth considering.
cheers - Ryan
