Saturday, September 13, 2008

Project Wonderful

As I discussed in a previous post, I am exploring new avenues to rebuild my business. I joined Project Wonderful, which is the focus of today's post.

Unlike other online advertising, Project Wonderful, claims to have reinvented online advertising, as stated in their website: http://www.projectwonderful.com/:

" We've made click fraud impossible. We give advertisers the power to choose what sites their ads appear on - and publishers the freedom to choose what ads show up on their sites. We don't have absurdly high minimum-payout levels. We've made the entire online advertising experience transparent, trustworthy, and fair - as well as more profitable, for everyone involved! It's why our slogan is "Everybody wins."
Project Wonderful utilizes an auction system called Infinite Auction, "where anyone can be the high bidder at any time." The Infinite Auction allows members (advertisers) to place their ads on certain sites and by entering bidding information you provide Project Wonderful with the amount you want to pay and when you want to pay it. Therefore, if your bid is the highest at a particular time, then your ad is displayed on the site and you are only charged for the time in which your ad is the high bidder. It is the advertiser who determines sets the price of an ad.

As a member, you have two options:
  1. Advertiser (as discussed above)
  2. Publisher
As a publisher, you have the ability to:

  • Decide how you want ads to appear on your site
  • Where ads appear on your site
  • The type of ads you want (graphical, text)
  • Size of ads (banner ads, skyscraper ads, etc. )
  • How many of these ad spots you want on your site
Once you have added the html code to your site, advertisers can start bidding on your ad space, and as a publisher you can approve each individual ad or choose the "trust ads and advertisers" that you have previously approved. Since you contain total control over the ads, you can cancel any bid and at any time.

In addition, Project Wonderful claims that they won't "hold your earnings hostage!" As a publisher you can request a pay out as soon as your account has earned $10.00. They compare themselves with Google AdSense who completes payouts once an account earns $100. Project Wonderful even boasts that they will never claim "click fraud" and keep some of your earnings.

Setting up the account was easy, you have to create your ad and Project Wonderful provides you with specific size information. After you have added $$$ to your account, (I did so via PayPal), you can begin searching through their list of publishers. If you want, Project Wonderful even has a search that will assist you with finding publishers that meet your criteria. In addition, you can set up Ad Alerts to search by the criteria you create. Once you set up an Ad Alert, you can will receive email notifications when "hit or bid values" reach certain thresholds. Therefore when there is a new advertising opportunity that meets your criteria, you will know immediately by an email alert.

So will Project Wonderful be worth the time and money? Stay tuned...

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