Oxado


As regular readers will know I'm always on the lookout for viable alternatives to AdSense for those who have had the misfortune of falling foul of Google's rules or have a site with prohibited content. One great alternative that I've come across is Oxado.

I have been using Oxado in various places for more than a year now and I have to say I am quite satisfied with their service.

What is Oxado:
Just like the other contextual ad networks Oxado serve ads based on your site content. This means your visitors see relevant content-related ad units and are more likely to explore them by clicking.

What types of site does Oxado accept:
Oxado accept pretty much any type of site. Unlike most other pay per clicks they will accept adult sites. When a publisher signs up to Oxado they have to generate new ad zones for each of their site(s). Oxado checks and approves all of these zones, generating a unique ad code for each one. Publishers can easily submit new ad zones for approval if they wish to use Oxado on additional sites.

How do Oxado publishers earn:
Oxado publishers receive a small payment, typically 5-50 Euro cents, each time a genuine visitor clicks an ad unit on their site. What makes Oxado slightly different from other pay per clicks is that publishers also receive commission if their referral subsequently goes on to make a purchase - a system called cost per action in the industry.

Which countries does Oxado cover:
Since its inception in 2005 Oxado has been adding new advertiser markets to its portfolio meaning that they now serve ads relevant to most countries around the world. This includes all of Europe, North America and Australia.

How does Oxado pay:
Responding to publisher feedback Oxado has also improved its payment options to include PayPal and Moneybookers in addition to the long running bank transfer system. Payment is made at the end of the month in which a publisher accumulates 100 Euros in their account. If they don't earn 100 Euros then their balance is rolled over to the next month.

Something else that Oxado do is send publishers a monthly itemised break down of ad zone earnings. Of course publishers can sign into their account and check their earnings at any time.

Is there a referral program:
Publishers earn 10% lifetime on the earnings of anyone else they refer to Oxado. This is very generous compared to most other PPC referral programs.

How to join Oxado:
If you've found this guide to Oxado useful then please consider trying it yourself. We'd appreciate you using our referral link: Try Oxado Now

Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo! Bid

Microsoft has finally admitted defeat in its takeover bid for Yahoo! after shareholders rejected an offer of $33 per share.

Microsoft has taken its decision after three months of increasingly fraught negotiations. One Microsoft source is alleged to have said that Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang had unrealistic expectations about the transition of control. Yahoo! also thought that the $33 per share offer was greatly undervaluing the business - the board were holding out for a $37 per share deal.

The decision is expected to wipe billions of dollars off the value of Yahoo! share come the start of trading on Monday.

Microsoft is battling web giant Google for a larger share of the rapidly expanding online advertising market.

Blogger Overzealous on Spam

I'm getting rightly pissed off with Blogger at the moment. I thought I'd make myself a few review blogs - the idea being that I'd write reviews on different things in very much the same way as I do in Soapbox Jury. After only one day of existence the petty bastards at Blogger have locked 3 of my 5 nice new blogs. Two of them didn't have anything on and the third, Gravitas Reviews, had an original and unique post about one of my favourite webmaster forums, Web Talk Forums.

So how can 2 blogs, which had only been in existence for about 5 or 6 hours and didn't have any content on, be classified as spam? It's Blogger's overzealous spam algorithms working over time with their spurious interpretation of what spam actually is.

To me spam is when someone makes dozens of blogs full of scraped content and hundreds of duplicated links all pointing in roughly the same direction. I think most people would agree with that definition. But Blogger's automation means that any blog where one post is similar to the next could be automatically classified as spam and blocked from use for up to 20 days as the issue is resolved - or not. I'll give you an example: suppose you have a blog about acrobatics and you start each post with the same safety disclaimer. If Blogger misinterprets that as spam, as it's increasingly petty algorithms often do, then you've probably lost a totally legitimate blog.

It's times like this when I realise why Google has so many critics and why hosting your own blogs is such a good idea.

Blogger in Draft

Just thought I'd fill you all in on Blogger in Draft.

Basically it's a mirror of the normal Blogger site where the team test out new features before releasing them to everyone.

One feature they're testing out at the moment is future-dated posting. What you do is sign in to Blogger in Draft, compose your posts and set the publish time for sometime in the future. This allows you to write several posts at once and have them added sequentially when you're away on holiday or whatever. Very handy.

If you're a Blogger user then head over the Blogger in Draft and have a play.