A couple of weeks ago I thought I’d take a stab at advertising through Project Wonderful.  I’d seen it on a few sites and was really interested - because it was about bidding to get your ad seen.  How cool was that!  LOL.  So I signed up and was ready to advertise in no time.

I added my advertisement to my profile and realized that it wasn’t all that easy to get around once I was logged in.  That could have been a momentary “me” moment - but it wasn’t exactly easy to understand.  There was the buy ad and the campaign part of the site and I didn’t know where my ad was and it was a confusing… but I managed to find my way out of that dilemma and work on getting  my ad seen on sites listed at Project Wonderful.

My budget… $5

Yup, I’m the best of the big spenders.

I didn’t really want to shell out more than that to start, because you could get on some pages for as little as .20 cents (some even less than that).  So I thought it would be a way to test the waters so to speak.

I bid on ad spaces on a couple of sites I recognized.

I was accepted for the first one - and I was stoked.  It was easy enough to do.  No worries.

Then I went looking for my second ad space.  This time it wasn’t so easy - I put a bid in on a site that had a higher buy in and almost instantly I was outbid.  I guess it had to to with the max bid option on the site.  So I thought I’d try a little higher and eventually I was able to have my Ad seen on that site.

It was a little dis-heartening… only because I thought I’d get that spot for CHEAP.  Which is awesome and everything, but I ended up biting the bullet and putting more on it and my $5 was quickly on the way out the door and into the pockets of the sites that I’d scored ad space from.

Some sites on there were going for a crazy amount… crazy for me - maybe not so bad for you.

The one big thing that completely drove me crazy was that on those sites I’d placed my ad - it kept bouncing me on and off the slot due to the bidding.  I’m sure I could have changed that if I had a bigger budget.  But if you’re like me and you’re low-balling to test it out… this is maddening!

Did I get anything from the advertising.

In a word.

No.

Not a sale.  Nada.  It could have been the fact that I didn’t advertise all that long.  It could have been the sites I was advertising on… maybe paying a few more dollars would have been worth it and I would have gotten a better ROI.  As it was - it wasn’t a good scene and now my $5 is gone and I’m not sure I’d want to go that route again for advertising.   I think the idea of bidding on ad space is great… it’s the bouncing on and off the ad space due to the bid structure that almost drove me to drink.

Would I try it again.  Possibly.  I would only attempt this if I had more a budget to throw around.  As it stands - with the small sum I have… I’d pass.  It’s just too frustrating for me to see my ad go on and off a site in a few hours, doesn’t really work for the branding/people clicking - when it is there and gone.

I’m going to stick to the pay weekly/monthly idea of advertising on blogs/websites.

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