5 Ad Networks for New and Small Publishers to Monetize Your Site (No Traffic Requirement)

What most bloggers hope for...
Image credit: Pixabay

We all know that Google AdSense is the most prestigious of ad networks and every publisher on the planet wishes to acquire it in hopes of monetizing their site or blog. Unfortunately, Google has strict requirements (it has nothing to do with traffic) and their approval process is a bit long since thousands of publishers submit their sites every day in hope of approval. Yes, I have tried submitting my site and waited almost a month just to be rejected. I was excited when I received an email from Google that I was eligible to apply. I eagerly awaited their feedback and checked my email almost three times a day to see if my site was accepted. When I received my rejection letter and the vague "due to insufficient content" as their underlying reason, I shrugged my shoulders. Not the end of the world. But, it made me think that there must be other ad networks that give small publishers like me a chance to start monetizing our content. So, I went and did my research.

I actually had a difficult time searching for ad networks that have minimal requirements, who accept small publishers, do not have traffic requirements, and have a quick approval/rejection process. Most blog-how-to sites endorse ad networks that have similar requirements as Google AdSense and always show up in their top 10 list: Infolinks, Chitika, Media.net, MGID, Sulvo, BuyandSell, and Bidvertisor. What's worse is that they have a minimum traffic requirement per day. MGID, for example, requires a minimum of 3000 unique visitors/day. For new bloggers such as myself, it makes me feel very small beside established bloggers around the world.

It may have been difficult for me to find, but I did find ad networks that accept new and/or small publishers and the best thing is that approval/rejection wait wasn't long. Actually, these networks I will be listing, all of them approved my friend's site that only had 10 posts and the wait to be approved wasn't long. The longest he had to wait for feedback was 24 hours and even then, 24 hours isn't even that long a wait.

I would like to stress that with these ad networks there are no guarantees. These networks provide a start for new bloggers and small publishers to monetize their blog and actually, work in congruence with AdSense. What I mean to say is if you have Google AdSense and apply one of these other ad networks with AdSense, they tend to complement each other to increase a publisher's earnings. Without AdSense, it's quite challenging to earn with these ad networks. But, it's a start and everyone deserves to at least be able to start.

Try and test the different formats of ads that these networks offer to find the best way to monetize your blog or website. Needless to say, as small publishers, finding the right fit may be a bit daunting but, nevertheless you'll find what is right for your site.

1. PopAds

The most popular pop ad network does not disappoint anyone and accepts every publisher even adult sites to show their ads. As the name of the ad network suggests, PopAds specifically provides pop ads for you to add to your site which allows you to earn through CPM (click per mile/thousand). If your audience is generally from the US, UK, or Canada, you may earn as high as $6 per 1000 impressions. Unfortunately, if the majority of your audience is from third world countries, earnings are rather low- $0.60/1000.

Many people think pop ads a nuisance when they enter a site. In my opinion, if your blog or website is worth visiting, the pop ads won't be a problem.
They accept all sites even adult sites and approval of a site takes 24 hours. Then you can apply their code to your site once approved.

2. Propeller Ads

Propeller Ads is another known pop under network but, are now including other formats of ads such as interstitial and push up dialog ads for mobile aside from their popular on click pop-unders. Unfortunately, their banner ads are still in the making. This ad network provides an easy start and a quick approve. Once approved, it only takes 5 minutes to apply the codes on your site and you can start monetizing your site.

3. AdMaven (www.ad-maven.com)

AdMaven is a popunder ad network that also provides an array of other formats to choose from such as newtab, banners, lightbox, interstitial, and slider. They have been in the business for 15 years and their rates are competitive. According to their site, AdMaven can bypass all ad-block extensions and increase your revenue by 25%. Again, they have no minimum traffic requirement and their approval/ rejection wait is not long.

4. Adsterra (www.adsterra.com)

I guess you have seen their ads on Facebook. According to their site, Adsterra covers 190 geos, has 10 billion impressions per month, 20,000 successful campaigns and are on the rise. All you have to do is register as a publisher with a valid email address and enter a site for approval with an ad format that you would like to apply on your site. They suggest that a site owner should apply their banner sizes that mimic Google Adsense ads for better earnings. For each banner size though, you have to make another request for approval that may take longer than 24 hours from your first request. So, for your first banner that you choose to submit along with your site approval, make sure that it's a banner that you'll be happy with. The next ad format approval may take a bit of a wait.

5. Native Advertising Networks
Native Advertising isn't new...it's been around for some time but, has started to become a trend. Their ads blend in with your site, with catchy titles (in your country's native language), with animated or if you choose, erotic images, and appear to look like one of your posts. They also have competitive rates but, the downside is that they are usually double-click ads. Meaning that aside from clicking on the ad image/title that is on your site, your audience has to click on the product being endorsed for you to qualify to earn. No double-click, the ad doesn't count as a legitimate click and you won't earn. Some sites, such as Ayboll, offer native advertising that is CPA (Click-Per-Action), and if none of your users sign up, no earnings.
The good thing about them as I said is they offer competitive rates, they approve sites of new and small publishers without traffic requirement, ads are very simple to apply through a plugin/widget, and approval is within an hour. Simple, easy to understand ad application and an almost no wait for approval.
You can check out these Native Advertising Networks if you are interested:
Adnow Native Advertising
Ayboll (ayboll.com)

Worthy of Mentioning: Revenue Hits (www.revenuehits.com)
Revenue Hits is a fairly new and self-service ad network which is operated and owned by Intango, an Israel-based ad technology developing company. They are partnered with Propeller Ads, ClickAdu, Lead Wave, and Link Shrink. Revenue Hits accepts all websites even adult sites and approval is almost instant depending on which kind of ad format you choose. If their ad format that you choose to apply to your blog fits, approval is instant with the appearance of the code on your dashboard. All you have to do is apply the code to your site as a widget or plugin, and voila! You can start monetizing your site with Revenue Hits.

Revenue Hits does not operate through CPC (Click-per-Click) but, more on CPA (Click-per-Action) meaning an ad will count as an earning if, a user signs up, installs, downloads, or clicks on a video whichever the ad requires. I've heard that Revenue Hits ads are successful for TECH sites or blogs with a tech niche. If you write about tech, you may want to consider Revenue Hits for advertising.


I hope this post is useful for all of you new and small publishers out there. I wrote this post because someone from my blogging group asked for suggestions regarding ad networks which she can use to start monetizing her blog. For bloggers, do keep this in mind, to earn from blogging, you have to provide your users/audience content that they can learn from, utilize, or incorporate into their lifestyles. These are articles that will be the foundation of your blog.

As of recent, I have received emails from the various pop ads and pop-under ad networks saying that Google will be coming out with the new Google Chome 64 Version with a new ad-block feature on January 23. All sites using so-called "intrusive" ads will be restricted from opening new windows and/or displaying some ad formats. New ad formats are now being done by these networks which are compliant with Google's standards. Stay tuned.

Happy Blogging!