If you are a regular reader of The Work at Home Wife, you may have noticed the new ad in the sidebar this past month. This blog was part of the pilot program for IZEA Media. I have been pretty happy with this program, and it may be one of the few good AdSense alternatives to investigate if you are looking to make money online.
What is IZEA Media?
IZEA Media is owned by, surprise, IZEA. This is the same company that owns SocialSpark, PayPerPost and SponsoredTweets. This is a legitimate and well-known company that I have worked with for quite a long time.
IZEA Media is their newest venture. These ads are similar to what you will find if you have an AdSense account. The exceptions here are that these are all image ads, from what I have seen so far. And, the size of your image ads are limited. As of now, your choices are 300×250, 728×90 or 160×600. These are your standard medium rectangle, leaderboard or skyscraper ad sizes if you make money with AdSense.
Why I Like It
I like this program for a few reasons:
Even though it can be one of the AdSense alternatives to consider, you don’t have to choose between the two. IZEA assured me in the beginning that I could run both their ads and my AdSense account on the same site.
So far, the image ads have not been a problem. This was another big concern before I would put up their ads. Some AdSense alternatives I have seen are on the other side of scummy and scammy. I don’t want those on my blogs. The ones I have seen with IZEA Media haven’t crossed this line yet.
Did I mention guaranteed income? Unlike your AdSense account, where you usually earn from clicks, IZEA pays by pageviews. As long as you are holding up your traffic, you will continue earning money.
How to Apply
This program is found on the SocialSpark site. If you are not already a member there, you will need to sign up for an account.
Once you are in your SocialSpark dashboard, you will see a tab in the upper right corner called “ads.” You will then need to apply for the IZEA Media program.
Your blog will need to meet their qualifications. I’m not sure what all of these are, but another blog that I have in the SocialSpark network states that it isn’t eligible right now because of minimum traffic requirements – 5,000 pageviews per month.
So far, so good. It’s a good little program. It’s one of the few AdSense alternatives that I would recommend. Even if your AdSense account is in good standing and you are still earning money with AdSense, IZEA Media may be a nice little additional income stream each month if you are looking to make money online as a blogger or other website owner.
What do you think? Will you try it? Have you been running their ads already?
About Angie Nelson
Great information. I had never heard of Izea before. I will have to look into it.
Thanks, Kristen.
I have been really pleased with it so far, apart from the little hiccup where they made it a requirement to have an approved Social Spark blog. My blog had been rejected for Social Spark but I had already been running their ads, so when they made this a requirement, I had to resubmit my blog to Social Spark. Fortunately they approved it this time!
For anyone who is worried about getting their blog approved through Social Spark, a few things I had to do was add a chronological archive in my sidebar (not a big deal and I’m not even sure you have to keep it there after your blog is approved) and also make sure your blog doesn’t look too commercial. They want more content than ads above the fold. But so far, I have really liked this and it is making me money! Excellent, excellent Adsense alternative.
I have never heard of this company so thank you, right now, I’m having problems with my adsense acct and they are really getting on my nerves. I will be checking this information out.
Thanks for the info, I check into it but, I don’t think I’ll get accepted bog is too new. I’ll just wait a little while and apply again.
I have been using SocialSpark since last year, but just yesterday enable the ads to run on my blog. I like the fact that I get paid based on impressions, rather than clicks, so I am anxious to see what the payment will be after a month, or two.
Hello, I noticed that you are not running their ads anymore – at least on this site. Is there a reason for this that we should know about? I just started running Izea media on my blog http://pinchincents.com and so I was just curious.
Thanks a lot!
Hi, Victoria. I change my advertising based on what’s most profitable at the moment. Right now, I’m making far more with other avenues than with IZEA. There is nothing wrong with their ads, I’m just making more money elsewhere right now.
Thanks Angie for such a fast reply! I really appreciate it. That is understandable. No reason to do things that are not profitable at this time. Running a website is a lot of work and it is always nice to make a little from that effort. I’m so happy I found blogging. I just wish I had kept my site way back in 98 before things took off, ha-ha!
Love your site!
Hi I am confused with IZEA although I am qualified I haven’t use it because I don’t know wether I will get paid by just displaying it only I am bad with affiliate and I don’t like the idea of earning a commission by selling, please lighten me up on this
You are paid by impression, which means you will earn each time an ad is viewed. You do not earn by the click or sale with this one.
I have a small blog that I am just starting. I have adsense already is this something that can actually help me?
Hi, David. Whether IZEA Media will be a good option for you will be determined by your current traffic. You are paid a small amount for every 1,000 impressions.