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WidgetBucks – A New Advertising Option for Your Blog

Posted By Darren Rowse 2nd of October 2007 Advertising 0 Comments

Earn $$ with WidgetBucks!I’ve just heard about a brand new advertising option for bloggers by the name of WidgetBucks that is launching as we speak. I’m yet to test it live on my sites as it is brand new – but from my initial looking over of the service I’d say that it has promise. The nearest thing that I could compare it to would be Chitika eMiniMalls as it is an interactive ad unit that flashes through different purchasing options for readers for different products. Here’s how one of their ad units looks (there’s another at the base of this post):


Widgets come in a range of sizes and can be customized to different colors. They will also let you target 13 different categories (each category has sub categories) if you choose to manually set them – but will let you run it in a ‘contextual’ mode (called ‘MerchSense’).

How Do You Make Money?

You make money on a ‘per click’ (CPC) basis and WidgetBucks claim that those who’ve tested them are getting $3-$6 CPM. Payment is via Check but you need to hit $50 before you trigger your first payment.

$25 SignUp Bonus

In fact this is actually easier than it might seem as they start every publisher off with $25 in their account as a signup bonus so all you need to earn is another $25 to get a $50 check.

WidgetBucks will allow you to run as many ads on a page as you like and you can use this system with AdSense according to their FAQ.

Tracking is on a Widget by Widget basis and the reports page looks pretty good.

What I like about WidgetBucks

Keep in mind that I’m yet to test it out and am writing this as a first impression review

  • I like the ad units – they are very clickable
  • There is a good range of colors and ad unit sizes to choose from
  • Reporting looks good
  • Reported CPM is reasonable considering you can run multiple ad units and other ad systems on your page
  • This strikes me as being a good system on ‘product related blogs’

What I’d like to see Added

  • My experience with these types of ads shows me that the more targeted the ads are to your content the better. If you’re writing about a particular model of MP3 player you want to see an ad for that MP3 player served. When Chitika made this available in their system my earnings skyrocketed – I hope that WidgetBucks has a way to do this shortly.
  • Referral system (which I’m using in this post) – it pays $5 when the person you refer earns their first $25. While this is ok – it is nothing in comparison to other referral systems that payout a % of the earnings of those you refer. While there is some incentive to get some sign ups there’s little incentive to help those you sign up to increase their earnings once they are signed up. update – great news, they’ve taken notice of this complaint and have increased this to 10% of earnings for 10% (something I’m proud to say that I suggested to them!).
  • The smallest ad unit is 468×60 – while the 5 units are pretty good to choose from it’ll be good to see if they add more later – particularly smaller ones.
  • I’ve never really been a fan of ads that have lots of animation. These could be annoying for some blog readers.

I’m sure I’ll discover more that I like and dislike about WidgetBucks as I test it more – but overall it looks like a system worth testing out to see if it works well on your blog or not. I’ll be giving it a go in the coming days and look forward to hearing how you find it too.


What do you think of WidgetBucks?

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. RemodelingMySpace: I have more or less the same results, but it is the first day so maybe some freeway should be given?
    My stats show about 1/4 of what they should be, also with no click counts (well one, but that should be mine) but no earnings, will try it out for another week and see how it preforms…

  2. Wow,
    Its impressive the number of people that will “give it a day or two”. I didn´t get to making 14k a month on the internet by giving anything a day or two. People, It takes weeks for things to work up to speed!

  3. I hope widget bucks in better than chitika eminimalls. Thanks for the info.

  4. I have just signed up. I’ll have to see what it’s like over time.

  5. I’ll give it a try.. but it sure does scroll too quickly!

  6. anyone know what the story with the stats is there today? nothing reporting.

  7. We’re getting some questions about reporting.

    The adoption of WidgetBucks has been fantastic! We are collecting all of the view, click, and revenue data continuously. Each type of data has it’s own delay, based on the data source and the processing required to display it.

    The views and clicks reporting is currently running a 12-hour delay. We’ve brought additional machines online, per plan, to handle processing, and expect to reduce that delay significantly.

    Currently the revenue reports get published on a 48-72 hour delay. This is the result of an auditing process and some delays in reporting we receive from our feed providers. Once the data has been processed, then it will populate to the corresponding day.

    Unfortunately this means that users are going the first couple of days of use without having a perfect picture of how well the ads are doing. We’re working with our feed providers to reduce that delay, because we understand our partners need this information as close to real-time as possible to manage their business.

    Thanks for your patience and for using WidgetBucks to monetize your site.

    Sean

    === === ===

    Sean Crotty
    Vice President, Product Marketing
    Mpire Corporation

  8. Sounds fair enough Sean.
    Good luck with the updates.
    However, I would suggest that as soon as there are delays with the reporting or anything else that you post updates on the WidgetBucks blog, I had no idea what was happening with the ads I display for most of the day today and with no mention of the issue on your blog, it all looked a bit iffy to me…

  9. I am happy with widgetbucks so far, although it slow down page.

  10. Hy…I’m from Croatia ….I earned 2 dollars…on my own blog….with my own clicks….Now…one question….
    Will I be paid for my earned money without matter who’s clicking it???? Thank ‘u ….

  11. I forgot……I earned that 2 dollars in 2days with my clicking….if I countinue with own cliking and over 50 dollars will I be paid for that???

  12. I like widgetbucks.
    I can make 1-5$ per day.
    It very good.

  13. AGLOCO – How you make money….with own clicks or you mustn’t make money with own clicking….tell me…pleaseee….and how i got my earned money???

  14. I’ve just signed up but i didnt’ recieve email for activate. Should i do it?

  15. Yes, you should recieve it…….teeyai555 – you are from???

  16. I think they have to implement some improvements pretty
    urgently in order to cope with the membership expansion.
    The site loads way too slowly.
    The widget ads also slow down my site’s loading significantly
    (as much as twice the time before I put in those ads). I guess
    I have to take out one of the 2 widgets.
    Stan

  17. Kristian – I don’t click my widget.
    I put widget to any my site.
    More site = More traffic = More click = More money

    http://www.thailand-agloco.th.gs
    http://aglocoworldnetwork.blogspot.com
    http://japansunshine.blogspot.com
    http://www.agloconetwork.th.gs
    And more …

    But some day I can get $0.4-$0.9 only.

    Impressions=2154
    Click=151
    RPC=$0.15-$0.48

    Today I have total 63.56$

  18. today widget very slow load on my site.
    But I put 2 widget ads per page.

  19. day by day i see these ads on more sites. it’s nice to see new things.

  20. Agloco – tnx…..I’m beginner…so help me to understand some things…ok???…

    Did you received any checks, your earned money???

    Will I receive it too???

    Bye….we’ll be in touch still…..see ya…tnxxxx

    P.S.: I’m from Croatia….in Europe…if you didn’t know….

  21. This month I can make only $1-2 per day.
    CTR 1-4% per day
    Click 3-8 click per day
    Impression 200-500 per day
    RPC $0.43-0.45

  22. this is my widgetbucks earnings

    Impression 2500 per day – 10++ clicks

    i hope they pay us webmasterss

  23. Widgetbucks is a scam and so is Agloco lol. I don’t see anybody been paid by any of these two pieces of craps

  24. Thanks for the link Mr Problogger, i’ll koin up now mate.

  25. Recently I don’t see people use Widgetbucks on their blogs. I think because of they pay lower.

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