Belchfire Search Engine Marketing

I noticed in the last few months that FastClick’s inventories for some campaigns, or at least the one’s I still use, have been dropping. As of today, there are a total of just 19 ads representing a mear 13 advertisers in their InVue medium. As a result, my revenues from FastClick have dropped. This brings up a point many overlook - the old adage ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’.

Now, I’m sure this is drop in Fastclick’s inventories is just temporary. I’m not party to the happenings over at Fastclick. This could simply be seasonal, or to do with the impending aquisition of Fastclick by ValueClick - who knows. The point is, if were only using FastClick as the sole source of revenues for my site(s), I could be in trouble. Thankfully I am not. Just as in the financial world, it’s a good idea to diversify your revenue streams amonst several ad networks and mediums to insulate you from inconsitencies in performance, impressions, inventories and of course, fluctuations in earnings. I think back to recent browser updates and the plathora of add-on toolbars that block pop-up banners. What if tomorrow your revenues for a given ad format dropped to zero? Diversifying allows you to expand your available mediums, take advantage of each network’s individual expertise and unique formats (Google does context targetting better than anyone, but doesn’t offer pop-ups, Casale doesn’t offer intersticials, etc, etc.). Plus, it can help to moderate fluctuations in overall earnings when something unforseen occurs.

If you opt to receive payments from your ad networks by cheque, it’s not uncommon for a cheque to be lost in the mail (or inadvertantly discarded), a payment to be cancelled (yes, both have happened to me) and so forth. If you rely on earnings from ad networks to finance your labour of love (read: web site), any disruption in your revenue stream can be highly disruptive - perhaps even requiring that you take down your site for a time (possibly further effecting potential revenue earning in the future) or force you to pay out of pocket for your hosting.

So I recommend that you maintain accounts with at least three ad networks. By doing so, you minimize the impact of a poor month or payment issue on one network as you would continue to receive revenues from the others. It is highly unlikely that you will have a bad month on all of your accounts. I personally have accounts with FastClick, Google, Clicksor and Casale. When I have a bad month on FastClick, it doesn’t effect me because I still get payments from the other networks. And in many cases, a bad month on one is offset by a good month on another.

One other suggestion that just came to mind is to not change networks frequently. Generally revenues are paid out net 30. So from the time you start on a new network to when you see your first cheque is usually going to be a good 60 days, if not longer. Think RRSPs or mutual funds. You’re in it for the long haul so don’t be quick to jump ship if you see a minor drop in earnings from one month to the next. But, be mindful of trends and know when it’s time to drop a poor campaign or replace it with one from another network. Relating to maintaining at least three accounts with various companies - if you do need to replace or move campaigns around, because you can shuffle things around if/when necessary between networks that you have accounts with, it won’t effect or delay payouts because you’re not starting a brand new account, if you get my meaning. The revenues are just re-distributed between your accounts but the end results and payments remains reasonably consistent.