There are many ways of improving a Web site in terms of design, traffic, revenue and so on. Generally, I am not one for refusing change and so like to try new things from time to time especially if it has the potential of being beneficial to this blog and its growing readers. One of the most recent programs (available to bloggers and Web administrators in general) that I tried on this site, whilst considering whether or not we should start accepting advertising, was Project Wonderful.
Project Wonderful is described as a way of “earning money, every second of every day”. The system works by promoting your Website so that advertisers can have a platform to see what is on offer and therefore buy advertising slots from participants. By dropping a customisable copy-and-paste code on your site, you can activate the program and “start earning”.
Sounds very easy – doesn’t it? I know. I registered as a publisher, although you can also participate as an advertiser, and enabled automatic adbox approval setting but must confess that my experience was rather disappointing. Prices on ad spaces (boxes) are determined by what advertisers are willing to pay and God help you if there are little or no bidders for your adbox because then the going rate to advertise on your site will be $0. After a few days of activating the code, I still did not have enough bidders to increase the rate and therefore had to “sell” my adbox for nothing to advertisers who were wise enough to book several days in advance without paying anything.
VERDICT
Whilst I do not know the experiences of other blogs with higher traffic (as of writing this article, TechSling has a Page Rank of 5, respectable Alexa ranking and about 1,000 visits a day), it is clear to me that Project Wonderful will not make you rich. Furthermore, using a system that allows people to buy ad spaces from you for nothing could be a deterrent to direct advertisers who will pay to advertise on your site. Therefore, I will not encourage running Project Wonderful and direct advertising simultaneously.
Talking Point
Please share your experiences of using Project Wonderful or similar systems here, if any. I would also love to hear especially from those whose experiences are different from the one described above.
Like you said PW won’t make you rich. Use it if are unable to sell the spots by other means.
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Thanks for sharing such a useful information. I am definitely going to use all tips.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Project Wonderful with us, it doesn’t wort it, selling an advert space on PR5 blog and about 1,000 visitors everyday for free. I will prefer to wait for direct advert till anyone come my way.
I think you need to look for better avenue to earn money from this great blog. I can’t believe they paid you $0 for advert placement on PR5 blog!!
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Thanks for this, I’ve been debating it too and won’t bother. Now I want to know what you think about entrecard. I did install that and notice you did too. I’ve noticed that blogs who have it have great Alexa rankings and am wondering if that’s just coincidence? I have a PR 4, Over 1500 visits/day but not the greatest Alexa.
Thanks for the scoop!
Clair
http://www.mummydeals.org
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Thank you so much for sharing this experience. I was looking around the net to see what is about this Project Wonderful and you gave the best review. Thank you so much
Thanks for your contribution guys. @ Clair: I find it absolutely strange that your Compete ranking is actually much better than your Alexa ranking. Usually its the other way round. Not v. sure what effect EntreCard has on Alexa but I noticed my ranking was increasing on a daily basis even when I did not have the drop box. I’m just going to observe a little bit more before reaching any conclusions about Entrecard.
Thank you for sharing information and experience this valuable. I’m looking for this information around the net to see how the project is Wonderful, I really want to know about this project. Advantages and disadvantages of it. I would like to receive information of this project from the earliest times to your blog. Now I have to work alone. Keep updating.
Project Wonderful is very popular among webcomic sites and it can work great for them.
I have used the free ads many times, so it would be rotten on my side to not give back and allow fellow webcomic creators to get a liitle free exposure. The free ad only lasted for the first day, then I got a few cents a day. It was after more than a ten days that I started to get much better bids. My ad at least covers my hosting expenses.
Sometimes sites with little more traffic than mine get several dollars a day and I feel a bit envious, but glad at the same time, because webcomics aren’t by definition a profitable business.
Hi,
You can define your minimum bid, so there’s no reason to place it at $0, although it’s mentioned on their website as to give advertisers an opportunity to try your website.
Well, if someone wants to advertise on my blog, then has to pay for it.
Project Wonderful hasn’t been my major source of income through advertising, since I reinvest what I gain, also in advertising through the same system.
There are indeed some websites that make some good money, but that’s like everything else: some people will make alot with Adsense and some won’t.
Although my blog doesn’t get zillions of visits, I do get a good number of advertisers, namely because my ads are well placed and I care for my advertisers, offering a decent CTR.
Kind regards,
José
Thanks for the comment Jose. I’m sure some of our readers will find it helpful.
The annoying thing as a publisher for PW is the ability for the advertisers to turn bids on and off during anytimes of the days. Make’s the bids on your ad boxes jump around a lot.
Hahah, for better or worse, you have just talked me out of using PW on my blog!
Most blogs of the size of mine in my niche go for $0.01.
And even less can we allow advertising for free…
Perhaps this will change as your blog’s popularity increases 🙂
Um guys the reason you would use project wonderful is because regular advertising is bad. duh!
Good article, people should recognise the need to stay up to date with IM techniques. Your experience of PW is similar to the other reviews I have read. Seems like affiliate,CPA or even local business ads should take priority.
There is a danger of paying too much attention to what Google ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and to some extent Bing are changing the rules. Automation tools and the convergence of mobile, television and web make many old SEO techniques such as keyword density etc appear quaint
I don’t think I have ever heard of Project Wonderful. After reading your blog, I did some research. Although it isn’t a make rich quick solution.. it is an avenue for some to use if they don’t mind getting a piece of a very small pie. Thanks for your insights.. as always.
It’s always good to know about different advertising for your site. I generally just use google adsense but is there a good way to get multiple advertisers to compete for your keyword bids? Just seems like a more efficient way but I’m not sure I’d know where to start.
I think right now best way is google Adsense and i’ve heard that facebook system is fine too.
I don’t think there are alternatives for adsense.. Adsense is the best way to make some moneys with your blog
Although adsense is good we all know that alternative advertising has to start somewhere. In the end we know that our website space is worth more than what adsense offers most of the time – especially on product reviews.
I remember reading about Project Wonderful but didn’t try it because I’ve been with Adsense. I’ve also been skeptical about this project because earning each second throughout the day can convey a lot of things. From what I’ve learned its not as successful as adsense, affiliate programs can be tricky but maybe its best to join and see the results.
I’ve been with adsense so long – but it seems the only thing that really makes money is CJ and other affiliate programs. Just my 2 cents anyway.
I have been with adsense a long time now also, and I also intermix CJ and Shareasale offers in my pages. There are so many options now for advertising and for publishers. It seems the Facebook paid ads are the latest, and it seems their ability to target their ads gives them an edge. Anyway, thanks for the heads up on PW. I think I’ll try it and see for myself.
That is ridiculous. A pr5 blog with 1000visitors a day should get a decent amount. But it’s probably not going to make you rich anyway.
There are plenty other ways to monetize a great blog like this.
And you are probably getting much more visitors now as well.
So what are you doing to monetize this blog?
I only see a small banner on top and your e-book.
I respect that you are not filling every open space with advertisement and affiliate stuff.
But are you sure you can’t monetize this better?
Maybe it’s time for a guest blogging contest, pull in some sponsors etc.
This is the first time I heard about Project Wonderful. As the name suggest, maybe this product has a wonderful effect to people who used this. I am still going to use this since I never tried this product.
I’m skeptical about Project Wonderful. I’ve never really been good at marketing ad space on my blog.The only advertising network I’ve signed up with is Adgitize.
I haven’t heard of Project Wonderful before, I’m curious to see if it works.
That sucks. Sorry you had to give your adbox away for nothing.
I am a Project Wonderful Publisher for around a month, at first I was annoyed how it works in my site because it always a blank for a week. I tried to use the rectangular adbox and notice that it goes around from $ 0.01 to $ 0.25/ day and gets improving as time goes by. I tried 5 rectangular ads and at present gains a lot although not so big but atleast there’s an income per day of atleast 0.50 USD and up! In general I project Wonderful and Adsense
Thanks for the honest review. I think i would use adsense instead. they have more people advertising so thier should always be some ads on the site.
I think it is fair to say that the issue of bandwidth is not really OnLive’s responsibility.