You have the offers. You have Myspace, Facebook, Applications, other Social Networks. You have Google, Yahoo and MSN. What happens is you hit a wall or hiccup. Facebook gets worn out, Myspace gets worn out. Competition comes in heavy from monitoring you on Google. God forbid they are smart and track you down on Yahoo and MSN. If a redneck from Kansas can do it, better believe they can too. The thing is this. It doesn’t matter how long or how good you think you are. One of two things usually happen with an offer.

1. You wear your traffic sources out
2. You bore yourself because you dont know how/where to scale

Dont worry. It’s a block. Happens to every one. Stretch your mind for a bit and think about the mediums you are not hitting. There are so many people on the net and so many impressions being delivered that a 1 million dollar month advertising your favorite offer while it may make you happy could very well be barely grazing the surface of your potential earnings.

Here are some key points of what to look for in an advertising network outside the general realm of social and search engine marketing. While there are more, I feel these are the most important.

1. Site Quality - This is the most important. Ad Networks are quickly becoming a dime a dozen. I should know, I currently have plans of my own in opening one. I figure if I can open an Affiliate Network I might as well have the whole pie right? Anyway, site quality is crucial. Checking out the duration of how long an ad network has been operational will quickly and most generally give you an idea of what the site quality will be like. Some things to ask yourself:

• Is this company funded?
• Is this company new or old?
• What’s their track record look like? (Research that)
• How Professional do they really seem?
• How transparent are they really?

These things will help you quickly determine the quality of sites in their network. This is only a metric to use at gaging the quality. The real deal comes in number two.

2. Site Listings - Do they actually list the sites that your ads will appear on? I find this crucial. This is not a privilege folks, it’s what should be available to you. If they are going to hide the site list from you, I would proceed with caution. Typically a good ad network scam is this.

• No site list supplied
• No demographic or behavior documentation
• A deposit required -without providing the above two

If you see this it’s in your best interest to stop and not go any further. There is a way to in fact counter this and that comes right here in number three.

3. Responsiveness - If I was running an Advertising Network I would be busting my ass trying to answer any/all questions possible ESPECIALLY if I was in startup. Much like C2M’s Affiliate Network I take responsiveness as serious as humanly possible. Often times I simply cannot reply to all the emails, IM’s, PM’s and phone calls. Dont think that I am ignoring. Even though it may come off that way, it’s the total opposite. I can only handle so much communication in one day however I try to follow up as much as possible. Same applies to advertising network ESPECIALLY if they are a new player. Just because you didnt get an answer back the first time, does not mean they are ignoring you. Be persistent. However if you dont get an answer in a week, proceed with extreme caution.

4. Growth - Another important metric is to monitor the growth of the network. I typically will look at Alexa, Quantcast and Compete to gauge how much traffic their domain is getting. This is not a know it all or a specific answer to the question but it’s a good way to get at least an idea of how well they are growing.

5. Capabilities - How much traffic can this ad network get me? Is it even worth my time? An important metric to factor in your time and dollars spent compared to your return on investments.

• Reporting - How detailed or vague is their reporting feature?
• Target Options - How good are their targeting capabilities? Ages/Gender/Income levels?
• Representation - Is this network advertising exclusively or are they there to just broker your ads just to clear their inventory?

These are just a few things to look at and watch for when you think about testing an ad network.

What ad networks have you tried? How did it work for you?