Hi John,

Quick question, I was using Marchex and Miva to drive traffic to my adsense sites, my traffic soared and I was disabled by adsense for invalid clicks, does Marchex or Miva use tricks to boost their own revenue? My account was about 3 years old and never had a problem until I started using PPC to drive traffic to my sites

In your opinion, what is the best alternative to Adsense for making money with websites.

Thanks,
[Edited]

First of all, don’t feel too bad.  You are not the first who is in this situation and you won’t be the last.  Google has gotten pretty strict on driving paid traffic to MFA sites.  Driving PPC traffic to MFA sites is how I got started in affiliate marketing.  Heck, I even got banned from Adsense around the time Iron Man came out.  But by then I had moved almost everything from adsense to real affiliate revenue (leads, people actually buying something, etc) and not just clicks.  I do still have one or two sites that generate revenue from clicks, but I do not focus on them at all.

Personally I am not a fan of Marchex or Miva.  (Miva’s precision network is kinda ok, but it is really spotty)  Using these guys is fine if you are doing leads or purchases, just plan on your conversion rate being at least 1/3 to 1/4 of what you are used too (maybe even less).

If you work at it you can beat any adsense revenue by running product or lead gen campaigns (who do you think was paying for the adsense ads in the first place?)  Now you get to move up a level in the internet marketing foodchain.

Look at who was advertising on your adsense slots.  Can’t do that? Then look who is advertising on google, yahoo, msn for your targeted keywords.  See what they are selling.  Try selling that…

My conversation went something like this.

8:55:46 AM Me: on another note, there are a few campaigns I am getting some traction on.  wondering if I can get a payout bump on them?
8:55:52 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: of course
8:56:00 AM Me: <private cool stuff>
8:56:08 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: you name the campaign and i’ll name the payout
8:56:15 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: <private cool stuff>
8:56:28 AM Me: this one
8:56:29 AM Me: <private cool stuff>
8:56:31 AM Me: and
8:56:36 AM Me: <private cool stuff>
8:56:38 AM Me: that one
8:56:40 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: ok
8:59:21 AM Awesome Affiliate Manager: ok, on the <private cool stuff> i can go to <private cool stuff>
8:59:30 AM Me: cool
8:59:48 AM Super Affiliate Manager: and the <private cool stuff> 2.70

So now instead of 2.50 it is 2.70.  If the campaign sustains (if anything I should be able to get higher volume) that is ~90 * .2 * 365 = over 6500.  In less them 5 minutes.

I usually don’t ask for a payout bump unless I am providing a decent amount of volume and I know I can keep it up.  Nothing lamer then getting a payout bump and then dropping the campaign.

Affiliate Managers using CJ seem to lean on a high EPC too much. So if an affiliate with a high volume of traffic but low conversions comes along, it can skew their averages and lower their EPC. They think that this will cause them to lose out on new affiliates because no one wants to work with a loser.

There is some truth to this. So what do you do? Well first of all make sure you have a relationship with whoever you are running a campaign for. Make sure there is a real person behind that CJ offer. (I admit I am guilty of NOT doing this from time to time) But if you can build that relationship up, you can find out what kind of traffic and people they are targeting. I personally like to talk to them on the phone, a 5-10 minute conversation can yield plenty of useful information.. what has worked for them, what hasn’t and where they are trying to go. It gives you direction when targeting their offer(s).

Seriously. I get the weirdest emails. But sometimes I get absolutely great emails from Affiliate Managers.