Kontera was the first In-Text Advertising solution I ever used. Because of that, they are first up in my analysis and are also referenced on our Make Money page. I began using Kontera on one of my movie websites on July 8, 2008. Applicable keywords and phrases were automatically double underlined and highlighted in green once their code was put into the footer of my website.
Income results for one week (seven days)
Since I had used Kontera the longest and traffic levels had changed, I used a week where the traffic was similar to the traffic level now as apposed to the beginning of its usage in 2008. This was done so that data comparison were relevant and fair. The data below is directly from my Kontera account.
After seven days, the Kontera ads on my movie site received 141 clicks, earning me $8.09. This total made Kontera the second best money maker out of Kontera, Infolinks, and Vibrant on my movie website. Note: All of the In-Text advertising tests were conducted on the same website.
Ad Targeting
Kontera displays generic ads for specifically underlined words, such as a movie stars’ name or a film title. Many of the results were a search engine pop up (one that the end user most-likely has never used or heard of before) asking if they would like more info on the particular topic. Other pop-ups displayed an ad of some kind for a deal or sales item that was irrelevant to the word underlined.
Payout
The new payout threshold for Kontera is $50, recently lowered from $100. Once it was lowered to that and I selected my payment option, I choose check (they offer direct deposit as well) and I received all the money that had accrued in my account (over the $50 limit) within a week.
Strengths
Kontera’s strength is that no matter if the keyword is bold, italic or hyperlinked, Kontera would underline it and use it as an ad. This is very advantageous to the movie website owner that cares about SEO as well. Bold keywords and SEO issues in movie website content was discussed here, here, and here. Vibrant and Infolinks ads do not activate on bold, italic or hyperlinked words, which is unfortunate. What is fortunate for you, the reader, is that since we have used Kontera for such a long time, we have a list of movie website keywords that have gotten the most clicks (been the most profitable) through Kontera. If you use Kontera, might us it in the future or have a movie website, consider subscribing to us so you do not miss out on that post and the other posts in this series.
Recently the ads on Kontera have improved. I would say in the last two months or so. I have seen ads for AT&T, Yahoo, and Comcast, to name a few.
Kontera allows you to choose the color of your links and allows you keyword, advertiser, and topic control.
Their referral program offers different banners and buttons to advertise it.
Weaknesses
As I mentioned in Ad Targeting section of this review, the majority of In-Text ads generated by the Kontera algorithm simply do not match the keywords that produce the pop ups and are the lowest in post/content relevance next to Infolinks.
Kontera also does not have targeted and specific code for specific types of sites like Vibrant does. More on that in the Vibrant Review.
In Conclusion
Kontera is the everyman solution to in-text advertising. With everything else held as a constant, with more specificity (partnering with Google might help), Kontera could be the premiere in-text advertising solution. As it is now, Kontera is a good starting point if the others are out of your reach or inclination. For making money with your movie website, Kontera came in second for me. For ad relevance, it dipped into third more times than Infolinks did.
What have been your experiences with Kontera? Share them below.
