One of the main methods of making Internet money is through advertising. Simply put, you allow ad networks to place advertisements on your website, and they pay you a cut of the revenue they earn from their clients. That’s pretty simple, right? Well, don’t be fooled: the world of Internet advertising is often murky, often confusing, and often downright dirty. Your first decision when entering this world is most likely going to be “which ad network should I choose?” In this article, we review three different ad networks which represent a large scope of the players out there. Which ad network you choose will ultimately depend on your site, your readership, and your own personal tastes and values.

The Giant – Google Adsense
“Do no evil” may be their motto, but the Internet behemoth that is Google has made its fair share of enemies, many of whom are suspicious at least (and downright scathing at most) of how the company runs its ad-sharing program. If you choose to use Adsense, you’ll be able to pick what sort of ads you want on your site – banners, imageboards, or Google’s signature text-box ads – as well as being able to customize the size, color scheme and even content of your ad displays. However, it’s often hard to determine the exact specifics of how you’re being paid. In particular, it’s difficult to figure out if the ads on your site are running on a CPM (cost per mille, meaning you get paid per thousand views of the ad) or CPC (cost per click, meaning you only get paid if someone clicks the ad) basis. Most ads on Adsense are CPC – which means extremely small payouts for low and mid-traffic sites, as well as a lot of flak against Google’s peanut-paying ways. Nevertheless, Adsense gives you a constant stream of ads which can be placed almost anywhere, and can be extremely profitable for larger sites with high traffic rates.

The Professional – Text Link Ads
Another thing Google has taken fire for is its surreptitious removal of a certain competitor from its search results, in what seemed to be a bid to kill off its rival’s traffic flow. Fortunately for webmasters, Text Link Ads (or TLA for short) is still doing its thing and has returned to the Google search pages as one of the premier providers of text-based and in-line advertising. TLA allows you to place ads anywhere you have text, whether it be using sidebar-boxes like Google’s or links to client-sites in your body text (also known as in-line ads). In general, TLA’s inline ads have some of the highest click-through rates of any ad provider – although they can get very annoying for your readers. A good pick for writing-heavy sites with lots of informational content.

The New Kid – Nuffnang
If you’re based in South East Asia, you may have already heard buzz about Nuffnang, one of the region’s most popular ad networks. Unlike the rather impersonal giants like Google and TLA, Nuffnang professes to focus on creating a sense of community amongst its publishers, often hosting parties and events which allow bloggers and webmasters to get to know each other. Canny PR moves aside, Nuffnang gives you some of the best CPM rates on the market while also allowing for customized ad placement and the like. The only downside is that sites only get ads depending on their traffic, so you won’t necessarily have an ad on your site at all times. Watch out for more networks like this springing up around the world: Nuffnang has plans to expand into the North American and European markets in the not-too-distant future.