A great tip that many newbie advertisers miss out on is daisy chaining your income.  Nearly all ad networks i have worked with have the option of displaying a third parties ads if there is spare inventory.  By connecting a series of networks together you can maximise income and minimise the unused inventory.

Google adsense for example shows Public Service ads if nothing suitable is available, but you can insert a url for a third party e.g Chitika and show their ads instead.

You need to monitor the performance of each network regularly as each will have different advertisers at different times, and if applicable change the order of the daisy chain to ensure that the highest paying network is first in the chain.

I have found that this approach increases income by around 10%, and changing the order of the chain can do the same again.

Popular networks I can recommend are; Burstmedia, Chitika, bannerconnect and of course Adsense. There are hundreds to choose from.

One potential pitflaw to watch for is a minium level of views, as some networks particularly the premium ones, require a number of impressions per month to remain in their program.  The order of the chain may have to be flexed to ensure you don’t get excluded.  Remember that advertisers come and go and a seemingly poor provider can have a period of overperformance so you need sometimes to take a long term view.

Tags: Daisy chain, income