Start Working From Home
Search Twins of Tech
Join our Weekly Mailing List
Recent Stories
- Google launches customized results- Bashing bloggers without a cause
- A one year review of WidgetBucks
- Weekend link love
- The nerve of some people
30 day Article Challenge
- Day 0: Starting the challengeFreelance Friends
- ProBlogger- Entrepreneurs Wealth
- Life Evolver
A one year review of WidgetBucks
By Alex on August 16th 2008 - 0 comments
I was going through some of my old writing and I found a few stories I never posted, and this is one of them. A sort of "guest post" by the old me. I am expanding on it as well to include current and relevant information.
WidgetBucks is a new advertising company that was launched back in October of 2007. They've exploded onto the scene faster than any advertising company in recent memory, so much so that they exceeded their 6-month goals in less than one month. At a time when AdSense is reducing their clickable areas, webmasters are looking for new sources of income. The question is, will WidgetBucks live up to the hype?
Like most people, I was hesitant to replace AdSense and private ad sales for WidgetBucks positions. I didn't know if they would actually pay better, or if I would even get paid. I replaced one ad unit with WidgetBucks half-way through October, and a week later I had replaced two or three AdSense units with WidgetBucks units on a few different websites I run.
I heard a lot of people complaining in the first two months. They said things like "they pay too much per click, I bet nobody will get checks, it's a scam" and "They banned me for earning too much money and now they won't pay me, scam". Needless to say, this didn't make webmasters feel very secure in switching over to WidgetBucks. I had my doubts, but I was never worried about not getting paid. Two months after I joined, I got my first WidgetBucks check for over $1,000.
The reason people were complaining about WidgetBucks being a scam and being banned and such, is because they abused the service. AdSense would have banned them for using the same tactics. These webmasters probably knew that, but decided to go black-hat with a new advertising company. Then they complain and call it a scam when they get banned.
My personal results for October were a lot better than I expected. The clicks and the CPC were high, and usually very steady. And even though I started using WidgetBucks halfway through October, I still earned as much as I earned with AdSense the entire month of October. This means I now had the potential to (at least) double my income.
Unfortunately, as the months progressed, WidgetBucks made changes to their algorithm. Clicks that earned me 50 cents in October were only earning me 30 cents by January, and those same clicks continued to fall in value over time. Three months ago, I finally started replacing my WidgetBucks units with CPM advertising companies. I still have one WidgetBucks unit on every one of my websites, but I only earn about $100 from WidgetBucks today, down from over $1,000 just a year ago.
If you've never tried WidgetBucks before, there's absolutely no reason not to try it. The widgets tend to do better on certain websites, and you might just have one of those websites. When I signed up I thought I might make an extra $100 or so a month, but it started at over $1,000 a month. But even if it was only $100 a month, that's money you wouldn't have made with AdSense.
My suggestion is to sign up with WidgetBucks and add one unit to your website. Test it for a month and see if the extra income is worth the extra ad. Don't let my lack of results discourage you. If you have a niche website related to WidgetBucks advertising categories, this could be a gold mine for you.
Sign up for WidgetBucks, just click here.
No comments yet.