frob was being antagonistic and it was completely uncalled for. My original question was open-ended because I was trying to solicit others to share their experiences. I have been asking around at other places and have found people who helpfully responded to the original question, without feeling the need to be unnecessarily derogatory.

I'll boil down the key points of what I discovered for anyone who is legitimately interested in this thread:

* Google is the market leader in internet ads and are thus in a position to charge more for keyword search marketing.

* I found that for our campaign, Yahoo's competing product is 60% cheaper and is delivering 3 times more conversions per ad dollar spent.

* We briefly experimented with bargain-basement targeted keyword CPC dealer AdOn Network. We paid them $100 for 900+ clicks, but got zero conversions. We were unable to confirm the clicks from our web logs - their reporting may be suspect. Would not recommend.

* Google keyword search boasts higher volume, so if you wanted to send a massive amount of traffic to your site, it's perhaps the best way to go (rather than maintaining multiple accounts elsewhere).

* If you assume a moderate impression-to-clickthrough ratio (like 200:1), negotaiting for ad space at specific sites can be the best deal of all. We'ven't followed through on this yet, but I've gotten prices and impression estimates from several sites that lead me to believe this is the case. $100 for 200k impressions is the going rate.

"Tel" wrote:

>frob was being antagonistic and it was completely uncalled for.

No, he wasn't. He merely showed you a better way to get the information you were seeking. He was being HELPFUL to you. Not in a way that made you happy, is all. Well, not all life's lessons are enjoyable.

>My original question was open-ended because I was trying to solicit others to share their experiences. I have been asking around at other places and have found people who helpfully responded

Maybe you asked your question in a better way in all those many other nice places (as opposed to this lone solitary evil place). If you wanted others to share their experiences, why didn't you just simply say so?

>I'll boil down the key points of what I discovered for anyone who is legitimately interested in this thread:
[Genuinely helpful points omitted for brevity]

There, now. That wasn't so difficult, was it?

Maybe I will make my next article about advertising. There isn't much I can say about it though.

The simple fact is good visitors cost good money. It isn't necessarily a question of how many visitors can I get for my dollar, but WHO those visitors are.

If the rates found on google, yahoo, adbright, or the CPM rates on website X are "too high" then your first problem is you're not targeting the right audience yet.

If you ARE targeting the perfect audience and its STILL too high, the answer is your product isn't good enough. Sometimes you have to come to that conclusion, that your product doesn't sell well enough on its own for ads. There are ways around that, like having more than one product, or making the game better.

In your case I dont really see a direct revenue model, so I am not sure what you are measuring.

So, there's your answer. I have plenty of experience but the fact is I can't tell you anything beyond "If your game is good and you put an ad in the right place for the right price, you can earn a profit."