Run your very own google adwords style ad network by selling ad space on your websites… serve millions of page views a day using this bullet proof ad-serving software.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
For years I’ve been using a program called openx to serve ads on my network of sites… hundreds, even thousands of websites served by a free open source software call openx.org (actually, it has changed its name at least 4 times in the last few years).
And it has never ceased to amaze me… it truly is an enterprise class piece of software capable of serving billions of ad impressions per month without breaking a sweat… and it’s free.
Here are just a few of the way I use it to run my own online business… and how you can use to run yours:
Maximize your income by only showing the best performing affiliate ads (cj.com, linkshare,etc) on your websites – openx tracks the number of clicks on each ad for you so you know exactly which ads you should keep showing… and which ones you should stop showing because nobody is clicking on them.
Quickly and easily track how much traffic your websites are getting from one central location - just look at how many page impressions your ads are getting on each of your websites and you’ve pretty much figured out which sites are getting the most traffic. Much easier than trying to analyze each one with google analytics.
Sell ad space on your websites to other people and control everything from one central location.
Sell text links on your websites and control it from one central location – build your own “google adwords” type network.
Test your most effective ads and text links by showing your test ads on your own network – track the clicks on the ads and you’ll easily know which ones are the most popular.
We even test our own affiliate program banner ads and text links with openx – whenever an affiliate produces a banner ad or a text link using our affiliate resource center our system actualy produces an opens tracking link for them… and then we get to sit back and see which of our affiliate banners or text links are getting the most clicks on our affiliate partner’s websites… that helps us design better ads for our affiliate program… better ads equal more sales for us and more sales for our affiliate partners.
Here’s a post with an audio recording that goes into more detail about how I use openx to make more money
I guess that’s enough “here’s what you can do with openx” so let’s get to the “here’s how you do it” part of this post…
My guys put together a very detailed process map for you… it shows you how to add new publishers and zones to your openx installation.
step-by-step openx process sheet
Enjoy!
Jeff Johnson
Join My Mailing List
Brett T. Smith // Jun 11, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Hey Jeff,
Very cool…
I have never heard of openx but it sounds really cool.
Thanks for sharing!
~Brett
http://www.FreeTrafficBigProfits.com
Oliver George // Jun 11, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Hello from OpenX!
Thanks for writing such an interesting article and sharing your experiences using OpenX.
I think your process map showing the steps for adding publishers and zones will be very interesting to new OpenX publishers.
kind regards,
Oliver George
OpenX Limited
Dave Jackson // Jun 11, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Jeff – I immediately jumped on this the first time you mentioned it a while back and the people at openx are wonderful to deal with!
This makes great sense and again a no excuse tool to use.
And thanks for the MAP!!!
Kind regards,
Dave Jackson
http://www.NetDominate.com
Mark Krusch // Jun 12, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hey Jeff,
Very cool program and map! Thanks so much for sharing this with all of us!
-Mark
Mark Hester // Jun 12, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Very Cool, Jeff.
I had no idea you could even do this — much less with FREE software. I will certainly give it a try when your “traffic getting” methods put my new Webcomics Site on the map.
Thank You,
Mark
Bill McIntosh // Jun 14, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Hi Jeff,
It’s cool that you’re sharing such good content.
Another use for OpenX is to run your AdSense through them. I often rotate AdSense against affiliate ads or in house ads to see which one is working better in certain sites or locations.
What do you think of this idea?
Bill McIntosh
http://www.billmcintosh.com
Jeff Johnson says: that’s exacltly what we do… we rotate adsense, amazon, cj.com, and other network ads and generate earnings reports every few months that tell us where we are making more money.
Then we go back and adjust the types of ads that are being show on each particluar site.
phillip // Jun 16, 2008 at 6:52 am
Hi Jeff,
Your write-up confused me further. Where or when will I receive the free software etc
Thanks
Ed // Jun 19, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Thanks for the link. Will try it out.
I was using *another* ad server on my sites and noticed that “G” search engine traffic dropped within a couple of weeks.
I then removed the ad server code and traffic went back up to normal.
Thinking that this was only a co-incidence, I put the code back on the sites and, blow me down, traffic dropped by 50% again.
I again removed the ad server code and traffic went back up.
My conclusion (right or wrong) was that “G” perveived my ad server as a rival and penalized my site.
As a result, I have been hesitant to return any kind of ad server on my sites.
Call me paranoid, but does anybody else have any thoughts about this experience with ad servers and G
Allan Plain // Jun 20, 2008 at 1:14 am
Hi Jeff,
I am an all time admirer of your entrepreneur experiment and knowledge sharing.
Openex is a feather to your cap.
Great job…..
Allan
Lorne Leahan // Jul 8, 2008 at 5:49 am
Great job with the instructional videos in module 3. I found them easy to follow and had openx up and managing several Adsense in a matter of a hour.
Looking foward to the other videos and modules.
Regards,
Lorne
BodySupps – Australia
Claude // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:40 pm
This is a great article for openx. I’m part of your membership site and this is close to what you teach. You going doing your thang man!!!
Vochud // Jul 27, 2008 at 9:06 am
Keep mapping out the success it is working!
Carl Vanderpal // Aug 1, 2008 at 3:19 am
Had openX installed in no time at all…and started serving ads to multiple sites within the hour..
Thanks for the instructional videos they really helped also.
Affiliate Commission Blueprint // Aug 26, 2008 at 5:45 am
thanks jeff, finally i can serve and manage ads on my own.
the process map make it even easy to implement. Thanks.
Revathi // Oct 30, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Every time I visit your website I learn something new. Thank you very much for the instructional video.
http://www.littlegemsworld.com
Laura Simmons // Nov 12, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Hi Jeff,
I was just thinking a few weeks ago how neat it would be to get a report that shows the clicks on each individual ad so that you know which ones are working best. And wowla! Here you shared one. Wonder why no one else has shared this.
Thanks
Money Ideas // Nov 25, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Very nice info, thank you.
William // Jan 14, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the info, I’ve actually been looking around for something like this and didn’t know it existed.
William
snipurl.com/prepayhome
sreevisu // Mar 6, 2009 at 11:43 am
i want google in this email
Samir Perez // Mar 9, 2009 at 6:23 am
Hi Jeff:
I have actually seen OpenX since like two years ago when it was still called OpenAds, but never before did I have the courage to try it out because the documentation on the site seems a bit confusing, but you have put together everything in very simple steps and explained how to make the best use of it.
Really thanks for sharing your experience!
Samir,
http://www.sumaqperu.com
Increase Website Traffic // Aug 19, 2009 at 9:12 am
Your blog is like an encyclopedia for those who want to know more about this. Thanks for the interesting information.
Glenn // Oct 3, 2009 at 8:27 pm
This is truly great information Jeff. Thanks so much.
ignacio // Oct 10, 2009 at 2:04 pm
HI Jeff. I’m not very tecnical ,but I understand much more when you explain how to install stuff
in wordpress,can you explain how to intal openx in wordpress?
Thank you.
Jeff Johnson: I don’t have a public tutorial on that, but all you need to do is insert the iframe tags in your WP theme. Trial and error should be fairly simple.
Website Traffic // Nov 9, 2009 at 8:51 am
Wow!!! thank u very much for all this information. Keep on supplying such useful information. It really is interesting.
LN // Dec 2, 2009 at 2:59 am
Can you use OpenX to create your own ad networks? Like what if I have my own advertisers for my blog, and I want to create an ad network for them with similar blogs?
Jeff Johnson: Most definitely. In fact, Microsoft just announced an ad distribution deal with the openx community because it’s such a powerful tool.
The Transilvanian // Jan 4, 2010 at 6:12 am
Hello Jeff
Yes, Yes, Yes!
I’ve been looking for a ad serving program for a while now, found some but could only display ads that were part of their affiliate network advertisers. Not bad, but I needed to show my own ads and affiliate ads of my choosing.
I haven’t heard about openx until now so
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
Crush your competition with banners that get you more clicks nd more traffic by Jeff Johnson | Qmini Internet Marketing News // Jan 7, 2010 at 6:32 pm
[...] He also discusses how to use FREE ad server OpenX for add rotation and CTR tracking. Also check out Jeff’s free tutorial on OpenX. [...]