Same Tier Alternatives to VCM

[MaxS]

Hi Guys,

So here's the deal, one of my sites is doing fairly well traffic wise; it's at about 150,000 pageviews / 15,000 unique visitors a day.

With all this traffic, I hate wasting it on VCM. Looking at the CPMs from 6+ months ago makes me nostalgic.

I doubt I'll be able to get into Tribal/Casale simply because a large majority of the users are from social networking sites and blogs (well actually, that's not true - about 65% of the users come from SEs, but they're social networkers). I don't want to apply to either until I get more traffic, so that I'll have a better chance of being accepted. Burst will only let me in their 'Burst Direct' program, which may be even worse than VCM.

What are my alternatives? I've briefly looked over lower tier networks such as Banner Connect, Right Media, etc...what would you suggest?

Right now, with VCM, I'm getting these rates:
728/460 Banner: $.27c eCPM
160/120 SkyScraper .20c eCPM
Medium Rectangle .32 eCPM

Anyone? Thanks for the help.

[Chris]

Try the rich media exchange direct, its an easy way to join like 8 lower pay networks at once.

[MaxS]

Do you mean Right Media Exchange? Thank you, I'll give that a shot.

Edit: I already had an account with RMX (I forgot about it, of course). I just applied to the networks. Interesting concept.

[MaxS]

Just as a follow up: RMX is amazing. The concept is very simple, and I would be surprised if most of you don't do this on your own; It places the networks in a chain and displays the highest paying ad (of all the networks) first.

The only flaw is, many of the networks in RMX are small (compared to VCM) and therefore have a horrible fill rate.

[Westech]

What kind of average cpm's are you seeing from RMX (if you don't mind sharing)?

[MaxS]

Of course I don't mind.

For 300x250 ads, the average CPM (excluding VCM) is $0.45. Here's the thing, that only represents a small fraction of the ads being served on my website (as the fill rate, even with so many networks linked, is pathetic).

What ad size are you interested in? I'm testing it out at the moment, so I don't have much data.

[Westech]

I'm interested in checking them out for 300x250, 728x90 and 160/120x600. I'm wondering how they'd do for my remnant ad inventory (mostly international). I guess I could always sign up and try them out, but I've wasted so much time trying out smaller networks that I was hoping I could get your take on RMX before going to all that trouble. :)

[MaxS]

Sure, no problem. If you give me another day or 2 (as I only have about 24-36 hours of stats w/ them), I'll be able to give you a better idea.

[MaxS]

Sorry for the late reply, Westech.

I've decided to disable all networks within RMX direct aside from CPX Interactive and Right Media. Since I push millions of ad impressions a month, if a company can only fill a few hundred a day, it's not worth waiting 2-3 months to meet the minimum payout, even if the CPMs are great. Right Media/CPX Interactive are only filling a few thousand impressions (until the eCPMs go below VCM's).

Here are some statistics from yesterday:

300x250
CPX Interactive - $.36 eCPM
RightMedia Network (Remix Media) - $.35 eCPM

160x600
CPX Interactive - $.26 eCPM
RightMedia Network (Remix Media) - $.25 eCPM

120x600
CPX Interactive - $.24 eCPM
RightMedia Network (Remix Media) - $.24 eCPM

Sorry, I don't have any stats for 728x90. Hope that helps!

[Westech]

That's very helpful info. Thanks a lot for saving me the time of signing up! :)

[MaxS]

No problem :)

[john190]

Try the rich media exchange direct, its an easy way to join like 8 lower pay networks at once.

What's the url for this service. I tried typing it in and it doesn't exist so I guess I typed in the wrong url or something.

[Westech]

https://direct.rightmedia.com/

[john190]

I still don't quite get this program though. Do you just signup to RMX Direct and then you are already in the other networks or do you have to sign up to each CPM ad network first and then get approved and then ad them in RMX.

Also, do you get one check from RMX where all payments from the individual networks are consolidated into one larger check or do you just get individual checks from each network.

Also, using this, does it mean that RMX will take a little percentage of your earnings from each network?

[panfro]

I still don't quite get this program though. Do you just signup to RMX Direct and then you are already in the other networks or do you have to sign up to each CPM ad network first and then get approved and then ad them in RMX.

Also, do you get one check from RMX where all payments from the individual networks are consolidated into one larger check or do you just get individual checks from each network.

Also, using this, does it mean that RMX will take a little percentage of your earnings from each network?

Hi John:

1)To sign-up, just go to
https://direct.rightmedia.com

2)You must apply to each of the 9 networks separately. But you do it from one login. Reporting also is in one place: stats from all your networks.

3)Currently, Right Media does not cut you a check. We have ACH (wire) /PayPal payment options so you get paid from each network in a timely fashion. You can also choose the check option.

4)This is free to website publishers -- you don't pay a thing.

Hope that helps!

Vince Panero -- Community Education Manager
Direct Media Exchange

[Westech]

Hey panfro, welcome to WebsitePublisher.net! I've been checking out RMX Direct and hope you don't mind answering a few questions for me.

From looking at the RMX Direct page, it looks like in addition to offering the bidding service between the 9 networks, you also provide some ad server type of capabilities such as geotargetting, frequency capping, etc, and that you allow other networks outside of the 9 pre-selected ones to be used. Do you allow Publishers to use RMX direct as an ad server solution even if they choose not to run any of your 9 pre-selected networks?

[john190]

So do you get a percentage cut of the ad revenue for offering this service? Also, when you say you don't cut a check, but you have wire and paypal, does that mean you gather all of the revenue from all of the ad networks that I would have earn't and pay it via on large amount?

Oh, yeah.

Nearly forget to say, welcome to these great forums.

[MaxS]

Panfro, good to see you here. I'm a RMX publisher.

John: As far as I know, it's the responsibility of each network to pay you. After browsing the RMX Direct forums, there are a few networks who are notoriously late.

[john190]

It's odd that some affiliate programs pay late. At the end of the day it is hard enough to get good affiliates using your affiliate program to earn money for themselves and you so the better you treat them the more chance they will stay with you and not move to another network.

I just don't see why they would want to irritate their affiliates / publishers so much.

[Chris]

Hey panfro, welcome to WebsitePublisher.net! I've been checking out RMX Direct and hope you don't mind answering a few questions for me.

From looking at the RMX Direct page, it looks like in addition to offering the bidding service between the 9 networks, you also provide some ad server type of capabilities such as geotargetting, frequency capping, etc, and that you allow other networks outside of the 9 pre-selected ones to be used. Do you allow Publishers to use RMX direct as an ad server solution even if they choose not to run any of your 9 pre-selected networks?
another benefit, I believe, is that if you run other networks through them (not their native networks) they scan said ads for spyware etc, which would in a way insulate you against problems like what adbrite had recently.