Apr
WidgetBucks Was Fun While It Lasted
Another rant for you…
WidgetBucks launched in the fall of 2007 and it looked pretty sweet; I’ll admit to checking it out and liking the widgets. It got some praise, some hate, and a lot of people who kept asking “did you get paid yet?” after the ads had been running about three days…
Despite all the ensuing hatred, I tried it out in a limited run on some gadget sites and the payouts were pretty good. Then, once people reported they had been paid, I ramped it up and was certainly pleased – roughly 40-60 cents per click! (Compared to 10-20 cents per click with Adsense.)
Even when they switched to super-low CPM rates for international publishers, I was happy with my RPC payouts.
But then one tragic day my RPC dropped to like four cents per click!
Yes, one of my gadget sites was showing those cheesy smiley face ads instead of the widgets! And this was a USA traffic site!
I switched to better networks like Chitika and Adsense and even ShoppingAds, all of which worked better than the WidgetBucks CPM ads.
I was going to let this slide by, until I got a recent email from WidgetBucks with this statement:
CPC rates have have dropped significantly since this past weekend (March 29-30). We are working through those issues with partners right now and anticipate these rates will rise again within the next seven days. Incidentally, this drop we are seeing is not unique to the WidgetBucks network when it comes to shopping CPC rates right now; nonetheless, we’re working to get those CPC rates back to their week-ago levels.
See, my problems began long before March 29th. I was already getting just a few cents per click… If my payouts had dropped any lower, I would have owed WidgetBucks money!
[Stay tuned for more rants...]
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Click here to buy me a beer, because damn, I need to get drunk to forget how much internet marketing sucks!
This may have some to do with the downturn in the economy. Hopefully this won’t continue.
I doubt it. It has to do with widgetbucks overall suckiness.
I’m hoping that this problem will resolve immediately.
I have not seen a long term alternative to Adsense yet.
i get very very low cpc
I have given up running widgetbucks ads already months ago. They just suck! I am quite happy with chitika on my several blogs.
Same here. Have you gotten one of those “we want you back” emails from WidgetBucks? That was funny, it was like “run WidgetBucks again and after 10,000 impressions we’ll give you a $10 bonus.”
They will struggle to compete with Adsense, although it would be good to see a alternative
I’m all for someone offering an alternative, but they have to be a valid alternative – not a much less desirable alternative.
Hard to find alternative of Adsense…!
Adsense is not easy way to income. If your site have good traffic than some chances.
Adsense is a extra income of the site. Text link ads and advertise are good way of income to your site.
AdSense take like a bonus bugs…
Yah, there’s other ways to make income from your site.
viewer also get understands and clever they not clicks like before on adsense, so now adsense not much beneficial…
So many websites earn really good money from adsense. I will try it.
Adsense is still rocking the world.
Hard to compete with Adsense but not bad option, people always need future option.
I also get very low cpc from my blog.