I’ve been a part of the Yardbarker Network for a month now and have been testing out their ads on my site. For the first 30 days I only had one skyscraper up and that generated a little over $10 in revenue. Surely nothing to jump up and down about, but it is ad revenue without the hassle of seeking out advertisers.
I am curious what type of results you guys are having? Is the $0.91 eCPM I have good, average or bad? Do you think these ads the most effective way to monetize the real estate on our sports blogs?
Let me try to extrapolate this Ad Network’s potential a bit to start the conversation off.
What the spreadsheet shows is an estimated $1.00 eCPM. Then a section with potential unique visitors per month. The sold impressions are calculated by multiplying the unique visitors by 1.65 (the average pageviews per visitor on my best blog). You can only have a maximum of 3 Yardbarker ad units on your blog so the rest of the spreadsheet projects the revenue for the blogger based on the number of sold impressions times the estimated $1.00 eCPM, then broken down by the number of ad units.
What I am wondering is, how, if at all can you increase your eCPM? These ad units are BIG and take up a lot of space on a blog. If you have little traffic it’s near impossible to find private advertisers. But you won’t make much of anything through this ad network either with little traffic or a low eCPM. But as you can see when you do drive some serious traffic (20,000 uniques) if the eCPM doesn’t increase significantly 3 Yardbarker ads would only net you $100 a month. Then it becomes hardly worth dedicating that space for those ads, right? So at what point should a sports blogger abandon this ad network and focus on selling private ads with a much better eCPM that you have direct control over?
Thoughts?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
kellex 06.11.08 at 5:33 pm
It’s a great question…
I’m not sure if it’s worth it either, but while the Sports Dollar is new, it fills an ad space and makes me some money while I establish the blog enough to seek out private advertisers.
I do know that the more of their ads you run, the more money you make. Is that really worth it though? These ads are big, ugly and take up way too much space on a blog if you ask me.
I’ve only been a part of the network for a month and a half now and haven’t had a chance to fully test them. So I should be able to answer your question maybe at the end of next month.
I will say that I’ve heard of others that are a part of YBN and make a couple hundred dollars a month and their stats aren’t 20,000 visitors a month by any means.
Dannie 06.11.08 at 9:39 pm
Kellex - Right you can put 3 ads on your site max, but the strongest revenue multiplier is eCPM not even impression and I am not exactly sure how to increase that. I am actually going to send the Yardbarker Adify account manager an email right now and ask.
I wish whoever you heard that from would come enlighten us because the math just doesn’t make that seem very likely.
James 06.11.08 at 9:53 pm
Hey all - I use adify, backed up by Google Adsense and/or Linkshare ads when the adify ads aren’t served (most of them have daily view caps, so it’s smart to use the “manage unsold inventory feature). I receive about $150 a month from Adify… the key is getting good traffic and click through rates in order to get good “media buys” or ad purchases. Dos Equis beer had a $2.60 eCPM ad during May that was really nice, and Pontiac had a $1.35 eCPM ad. You’re right though, most ads are in the .50 to .83 range.
I find adify’s earning potential to be good for a starting or maturing blog, as it is good, steady revenue, although for a mature site there should be a better option - be it private advertising or something else.
Eddie 06.11.08 at 10:41 pm
In the first couple of months I was in the YBN, I made about $12/$13 each month. Last month, I didn’t really have that great of a month traffic-wise, but I actually made a little more than three times that. Still not a ton, but it’s a noteworthy improvement all around, with clicks, earnings, and sold impressions.
Placement is a big factor, since they tell you to have them all above the fold, and I think you’re also not supposed to have any other ads above theirs.
I think my issues with them involve variety and the fact that it somewhat limits what I can do theme-wise, if I have all three on my page. If they had more available sizes, that’d be great, and might be more effective for a lot of bloggers.
All in all though, it’s a nice way to get exposure and make a little extra money, though I’m still running other ads.
Joe M 06.12.08 at 8:49 pm
I personally haven’t been apart of the YBN network but from the feedback I have received from other bloggers I think they are giving good returns. You are probably maximizing your earning potential by having a leaderboard at the top of your site and having a medium rectangle on your top right position. I would think the only other way to make more money is find a better vertical sports ad network. Seems like Yardbarker is your best bet. As big media realizes there isn’t a difference between advertising on ESPN and on sports blogs on a network, smaller bloggers will be able to make better CPMs. This is something I am hoping to help solve in the future.
cuzzy 06.16.08 at 5:55 pm
It was not until my traffic took off that I saw some real money. Now it is easily the top way my blog pulls in money each month. I have 2 ads up and have been really happy with them.
That being said it would be great to ramp up the eCPM rates.
Dannie 06.16.08 at 7:00 pm
To my question - How can I increase the eCPM of the ads on my blog? This is the response I got from the account manager for the Yardbarker Network at Adify:
“If you accept any campaign that comes through, you will increase your overall revenue, as fewer impressions will go unsold. Also, strive for high-quality content and drive traffic to your site. This will increase its value to networks and to advertisers and will help to increase your eCPM and site revenue.”
Dannie 06.23.08 at 6:16 pm
Cuzzy what do you consider “real money?” I have just over 100K paid impressions this month and I am hovering around $80 bucks through Yardbarker. My eCPM $0.80 and my click through rate sucks at $0.034%.
What type of results do you guys get?
Bobby Hurd 08.31.08 at 11:34 pm
I agree with Dannie!