PPC:

Google Adsense: One of the two I am using at the moment. They pay, they look like they are staying solvent, they have never pulled any funny business with me, and they answer emails with some attempt at intelligence.

Adhearus: I have stopped using them since Google liberalized their rules. Their ads were very badly targeted, and I never got any clicks. However, that was a long time ago.

PayPerSale:

LinkShare: I once had a merchant rob me rather blatantly. LinkShare pretty much helped them, and refused to answer ANY emails on the subject, even the first. LinkShare generally refuses to respond at all to site owners. However, I have another LinkShare merchant with excellent communication between the merchant and the publishers, which helps a lot. LinkShare has also had a lot of downtime lately. The bottom line: LinkShare is pretty bad, but if you have a good merchant, things can go pretty well.

CJ: I used this before they set new limits to discourage sites with very little activity. I was perfectly satisfied.

Shareasale: I used them when they first started, I think. The owner made it clear that he considered affiliates garbage; only merchants were worthy of replies or common civility. Look at the oldest posts on his abestweb support forum itself, and you'll see what I mean. They also had a lot of technical problems. Judging by what I see on the abestweb forums, they have improved a lot, but I would still avoid them like the plague. The leopard doesn't change his spots.

That is quite interesting. I've never actually used any of these services before because I don't think it is necessary to place ads on my site. I tend to dislike advertising, and I almost never see them when using Firefox, Netscape or Flock.

Google AdSense is very popular, but you have to provide personal information to them in order for the checks to be mailed to you. That's what I don't like about these services.

Does google adSense allow a non-popup or otherwise non-obtrusive way to advertise??? it's the popups that really turn me off to these types of things...


Also -- I too have noticed many of these services are scams... I once signed up for Banner-Mania... I finally earned enough for a check, and then suddenly my user account failed to work and I received no further correspondance...


Also -- I think it's mandatory to include a SS# or EIN# in order to really receive money from anyone... although I think federal law is about $600 before required filing...