How 125×125 Ads Got Here and the Future with Performancing Ads
Author: MoneyNing | Categories: Make Money Online | Posted on July 28, 2008
How 125×125 Ads Became Popular
Google’s dislike for text link ads was made clear when they publicly announced that websites selling text ads will be penalized in terms of search engine rankings. Since then, the text link ad industry took a huge hit as many people pulled all text ads off their sites.
With the lost of ad revenue, site owners started looking at other advertising methods much more aggressively. At this point, the 125×125 ad started to attract advertisers from all over. Some of the reasons this type of ad was popular included (but not limited to):
- It fit at least 2 ads side by side on the sidebar comfortably, thereby increasing ad revenue
- Small enough so even novice graphic designers can design something that look good
- Loads fast enough so many can be populated without affecting site’s load speed
As more and more sites started utilizing this type of ad, bloggers who run popular blogs likeJohn Chow and Problogger started to notice. It was coincidental that both of these blogs were redesigned around the same time to include this type of ad, which created a huge buzz around the blogsphere on not only the importance of blog designs but also the popularity of 125×125 ads.
If those two blogs put 125×125 sized ads on the runway, Entrecard gave this type of ad the fuel it needed to jump off the popularity charts. This online ad exchange system’s model was based on traffic exchange through 125×125 ads. As Entrecard explored in popularity, 125×125 sized ads came along for the ride.
This is where Performacing Ads step in. Cutting through the bells and whistles, it is basically a middlemen that helps you sell 125×125 ads. Websites who want to sell ads sign up as a publisher and put the sites up for display; advertisers looking to advertise sign up to buy ads.
How Performancing Ads Make Money
As with all middlemen, they make money by taking a cut off your ad revenue. Performancing Ads is no different, taking at most 40% (meaning you keep 60%). There seems to be a tiered system where they will take less commissions if your ads are performing well but it is not documented well enough for me to explain further.
Thoughts on the Ad System
What I Like
One thing I like about Performancing Ads is that I can customize how many spots I want to sell and how many groups (called regions) of ads I have on each page. This gives me quite a bit of flexibility because I can sell 4 spots on the side bar and another 6 spots on the footer for example as long as I set it up that way.
Another benefit is that I can put my own ads up within the system, so if I have direct advertising relationships, I can use the system to put them onto my site without anyone taking a cut, which makes management convenient.
Installation
For those of us using Wordpress, it is very easy to install. After you activate the plugin which is downloadable off the website, all you need is to add a line of code at where you want the ads to appear. For example, my ad code was
perfads('regionid');
What Needs Improvement
Exchange Ads
When I wanted to book my own ads, I was asked to create a 125×125 ad. Once I was done, I booked it without problem. Then, I created two more ads in the ad exchange section for a total of three.
No problems right? However, when I click on exchange ads now, I only see two and not the one which I originally created!
Where the third one is stored is a mystery. Perhaps someone can let me know how this could be fixed.
Lack of Control in Managing Ads
In the brief time that I’ve spent using this system, I didn’t see an option to cancel ads. You can argue that this is done on purpose but I should at least be able to control my own ads right? I tried to see what would happen if I added the same ad in the system twice, and the results are self explanatory.
I’ve since contacted them to resolve this issue. I didn’t expect them to get back to me right away as I emailed them late at night but hopefully they can get this rectified in a timely manner.
Final Thoughts
The success of Performacing Ads will lie on its ability to attract advertisers, as new publishers will join the network if everyone in the system is having good results.
Despite the minor issues that I’ve found, this system is easy to implement and as 125×125 ads become more popular, Performacing Ads will be a good source of advertising stream.
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Nice review. The default ads and book a region features are something that needs worked on.
I contacted performancing about this directly and Ryan was good enough to talk to me via skype and explain that this is something they need to work on. They plan on improving this section in the future.
I’ve been looking for a solution like this so I hope they come through with it. Other than that I’ve been impressed with the ad service.
Kevin: Thanks for the heads up on the fact that Performancing Ads already know that’s something they need to work on.
Like you, I like the interface and I wish they’ve come up with this earlier
I’d say good luck to them because the more successful they are, the more money I will make with them too
Btw, can you send me Ryan’s sykpe info? I’d like to speak to him about things too.
I don’t pass on other peoples information but if you email them through the contact page and ask to speak to him via skype I’m sure he will email you his details personally
Kevin: That’s good of you to not pass it on. I will contact them for it.
I have three sites and I wanted to use this system on my sites, but i already have 125 ads and sell my own, but i want their interface set up, my question I guess is for a site averaging three thousand unique hits and over 5 thousand page views how much could I make off six ads? I also have two lower traffic sites.
I tried using project wonderful but their rates r ridiculous two cents for an ad, I sell mine for 5-15 dollars a site, I advertise 15 and will settle for 5 if the site I link to is decent and doesnt make my site look bad.
Peanutbuttertoes: There really isn’t set pricing. It’s all about building a case for advertisers on why they should buy from you.
Price is only one part of the equation. Things like traffic, value, brand, niche all play a part in all this. I looked into performancing ads and there are quite a few publishers and not enough advertisers. Hopefully they will attract some down the road.
For now, I’m happy putting my own private ads up and trying the system out.
I’ve recently added 125×125 capability to my blog theme. I’m not so much looking for income as I am ads that make sense on my blog, which is aimed at WRITERS of all kinds. I’d hope the ads would help build additional traffic.
I was assuming I’d track down appropriate ads with no trouble — but I’m finding it difficult to track them down.
Is there any kind of directory of 125’s that one can paste into one’s own blog?
Tom: Are you looking to serve ads or are you looking to buy ads? Putting 125×125 ads on your site is for revenue but putting 125×125 ads on other sites will drive traffic.
Please clarify so I can help further.
As for a directory, I’m unaware of one but you can look at what other people in your niche advertises to get an idea. Many ad networks will also have quite a bit of sites that have a 125×125.
In my blog theme, I have space for six 125×125’s. I would like, at this point, to place ads there that will be of interest to my readers, who are professional writers. One I know that is appropriate is Writers Digest Magazine. Another might be Giveaway of the Day, source of software.
So I’m looking for ads to place ON my own blog. At this point, I prefer to have full control of what those ads are, rather than turning the space over to revolving ads from a network.
Once I’ve got those up, I’ll think about making my own 125×125 ad, though I need to know more about how to control the cost to me as other sites use it.
THANKS.
Tom: I would start right away and track what the click through rate is as advertisers will likely want to know. You can also start putting some affiliate ads up to start off before you find the advertisers as not many advertisers will want to be the first.
As for costs of running advertisements, different websites will charge different rates depending on their size so you will have to look at each one individually. If you are concerned with cost control, just make sure you have an organized spreadsheet so you know where the advertising dollars are going.
Thanks for the advice — and for distinguishing between affiliates and advertising. I guess it is actually affiliates that I’m looking for at this point, rather than ads. I’ll go looking for some.
Regarding “click throughs,” I’ll do some study about that.
Tom: No problem. I’m sure there are tons of great affiliate programs for writing so good luck!
Also, click throughs are essentially the percentages of clicks your ads get. Obviously the higher the better.