The Money In The Nuffnang Account

The money in the Nuffnang account – Whose is it?

Article Lifted From November 9, 2007 Ignorantsoup Opinion, Randomlicious Permalinks

Just a few days ago, I commented in a blog to say that I am disappointed that Nuffnang does not have this policy to give the money to someone who have decided to leave Nuffnang. The boss at Nuffnang says that he is working on a policy that allows one to use the “money” as “points” to win something. I do not think that policy is great. Someone commented that if they allow people to take 25 dollars out (instead of the usual 50), there will be no end to such requests.

My point is: Does arguing that there will be no end to such request justify not doing it? Just because people are going to withdraw money, does that mean you should not allow them to cash out when they cease to be members? There will be no end to customers complaints. Does that mean you as a company have to stop all customer feedback collection? This argument is flawed.

I have something to ask. The money that is there in your account with Nuffnang, to whom does it belong to? We can liken this as to a owner-agent-tenant situation. I have a house with an extra room (or space) and I let XXX company lease out my room to YYY tenant. YYY tenant pays XXX agent, who then pass me the money, after they take a slice of commission. Does this sound logical? In this case, we bloggers lease out space for advertisement. It may not worth plenty, but its worth something. We rent out our space for Nuffnang who links advertisements to us bloggers. In this instance, doesn’t the money in the account belong to us?

Now this question must be solved and answered. Its the key to everything. If the money is rightfully ours, why should we not be able to withdraw it out and spend it, no matter how little the sum is? Is it that money accumulated to $50 is considered our money, whilst money not accumulated to that amount is not? That is a wrong method of thinking. No matter how much the amount, it is ours and ours to keep. Nuffnang has already taken their slice of the pie.

Now that we have agreed that this sum of money is rightfully the blogger’s, then why should it be so that Nuffnang is keeping it, just because it hasn’t reached $50? Well, there could be policies for this and this is what I recommend:

1) Allow bloggers to cash out once they terminate their agreement with Nuffnang and stop the advertisement. This provides a relief to bloggers who are skeptical about Nuffnang and encourages others to try out their service.

2) Have a penalty system. Currently, if you reach $50 and want to cash out, Nuffnang takes $1 for postage and administration costs. Never mind that we wonder why the $1 is not in the slice of the pie that Nuffnang has already taken. Nuffnang can impose a fee of $5 for adminstration costs. Surely, it does not take that much time to write out a cheque? This acts also as a reward for people to continue serving Nuffnang ads till they reach $50 before they terminate their agreement. This also allows people who have less than $10 in the account to think twice before asking for the money, since the end sum is probably very little.

The main purpose of championing for this to be implemented is for those that have reached about $30 in their account. These people can enjoy the $25 that they get. They can buy a new cd or a new book and even pay for 1 year of domain name costs.

Instead of hoping that bloggers would one day rejoin Nuffnang to get their money back, Nuffnang should come out with ways to make it seem sensible to join Nuffnang. For Advertlets, people will continue to serve the ads because they see the money coming in day by day. Never mind that it takes a long time, we have time and we are willing because we see results.

Now, I wonder if Advertlets allow us to cash out before we reach the minimum withdrawal sum. Can Advertlets clarify on this? It will be a great PR strategy to announce their policy.

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What Nuffnang Can Do

There been much talks by many bloggers coming fast and furious on Nuffnang about the few boo boo that occurred within a short span of time. I am not going to repeat all that but you can read and know more from this blog here, TheBizWalk.com. It pretty much gives a good summary of what happened.

So now the question is what should Nuffnang do? This is a good case study for the many of us startups on what to do when face with this uphill tasks. Here are some of my personal thoughts and suggestions which by no means trying to belittle Nuffnang nor its founders.

Just what I will do if faced with such situation now. Note: again this is not to be taken as advises or taking pot shot against Ming.

——
All these blogs are damaging the reputation of Nuffnang as a service provider and as advertisers*, they themselves will also do their own homework to see if the service is worth using also.

If they see more of these negative posts, especially on Ping.sg or Tomorrow.sg etc … will run the risk of lack of confident in the company. Suggestion will be to clean it up real nice by going thru what bloggers are highlighting and really work hard to solve it.

For example, clear up the air real good on that S$1 admin fee. The damages are so much more than what’s S$1 can be. It is not telling others beforehand that pisses many off, so forget about the S$1 like Adverlets and do it off permanently as a goodwill too.

Dont forget that S$1 is also coming from the advertisers to the company, and without advertisers what’s the point of having a lot of bloggers? Ultimately it is the advertisers that pay the profit and commission to the bloggers. If the balance beam tilt too much one sided, everything will go haywire and not healthy for all parties too.

Turn those banners that do not run any other commercial ads into sales banners for partners. No, I do not mean running free ads for the existing advertisers but look into tying up with other partners to make use of all these ‘idle’ banners and let bloggers themselves earn some money too.

For example, tie up with companies that retail products online and anyone that click that banner and make a sales, bloggers get some commissions too. Everyone wins. You earn, supplier earns and bloggers earn. Bloggers also wont feel like taken for a ride with spaces allocated for the banners but nothing ever shown up also. Take a look at what Google Adsense is doing. No ads? Run charity message instead.

If all day all nite, advertisers see negative posts about Nuffnang the sales is going to be hit badly. And it opens the doors for other competitors cos the companies that are keen to advertise may have already budgeted for it and if I am the marketing manager, I will get Advertlets or some other service providers that have a good reputation and understand the needs of the bloggers better to talk to me instead. Why risk it all putting my head on the chopping board where not only bloggers are complaining about Nuffnang but also the high possibilities of no click thru also?

Yes it is possible. Think about it… with so many negative feedbacks will you still click ads run by Nuffnang ? Some yes and some no … but if you are the marketing manager will you risk it if you are the one paying to run ads and to answer to the management how successful it is? Ultimately, advertising is tied to ROI very closely too.

Tone down on bloggers gatherings … the people on the ground are now wondering … is Nuffnang really that hard up? Able to run gatherings at poshy places and yet still want that S$1 from us? It leaves a bad taste to many so toning it down will be a good start. Which in turn have lesser bloggers blogging about those fancy gatherings, food, locations they been.

There is nothing wrong to ‘reward’ bloggers or to create some market noise from such gatherings, hell even I do that with supporters of BAK2u BUT now this is different; members of Nuffnang are talking and blogging about the lack of customer service, technical support and on the other hands other bloggers especially celebrities bloggers are talking about how fun it is in the latest gatherings.

BTW, as for no responses best to place a note that on what is the maximum time the person will have to wait. For BAK2u.com, it is 48hrs but usually we replied within 12hrs (customers expect 48hrs wait and if you can do it at half of that, you gain some points. Otherwise, you can still ensure that the standard is maintained even if you answer only on the 48th hours wait)

But then again, there will be those that complained that we do not reply even if you had. Some just went straight to the spam (From BAK2u.com – Kindly submit your comments or enquiries via the following form. Please check your spam mails if you do not receive a response from us within 48 hours.) So what do we do? Save that money and resend that same email again?

Nah, I told the girls to just make a call over if available but do check on the time zone. You wont wanna call that fellow up at 4am when it is 4pm here in Singapore. Money will always be well spent even if it is an international call. Perceived value of your customer service? Will be priceless.

Lastly, identify who should be the PR guy from the company to handle all these feedbacks. It is not so simple to just reply and hope that everything will just rest down. It is really tricky as it is one person, one company against the entire internet ‘world’. They can swallow you up, wipe out everything that have been invested and built over the years. No one is perfect for this PR role, but take it as hitting the walls to learn something and then come back stronger. Learn to swim with the ‘sharks’.

Some are more forgiving and some are not. But if you are sincere and showing it out in actions, others will be more than willing to let it go. It is also an opportunity to filter out those that are just out for ‘blood’ only and not willing to move on.

Nobody can please everyone, move on for those that are willing to, and leave those behind that are still bearing grudges.

One last suggestion, for startup dont think yourself as some CEO, CTO, COO, director, founder or whatever stupid position title one may be holding. Titles aside and you can see things clearer and act better too. Sometimes these ‘invisible walls’ will create more problems than gain, inflating the stupid ego along the way.

Let others see you beyond those titles and know who you really are. Startup = the person that leads it, that starts it. When it grows beyond a startup, that person needs to detach from it and survive on its own under its own brand name. Too many fall into this trap that they are some big shots just becos they are some companies known around the internet or the world. So what? No one will give a damn.

http://tomato75.blogspot.com/2007/11/suggestion-what-nuffnang-can-do.html

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Is Nuffnang only about money?

Is Nuffnang only about money?

By ED on Nov 4, 2007 in Advertising, Blogosphere, Public Relations, Reviews

After I have written my post entitled End of Nuffnang, I received quite a few comments and emails which led me to transfer this topic into The BizWalk as a case-study of sorts. With this in mind, a more corporate manner of viewing Nuffnang is only natural.

Many comments and feedbacks so far pointed to one thing, that Nuffnang is not meant for everyone. It is not meant for everyone not only for the reason of content relevance. It is also not meant for everyone, if your site’s traffic is not among the top ranges. However, having “high site traffic” is also very controversial after Faddy’s comment in the previous post.

Let’s take a look at several other factors surrounding Nuffnang.

Just a short while ago, Nuffnang silently implemented the $1 surcharge for all payments to bloggers, which caused a stir. Following that, Advertlets took advantage of the situation just like any other competitor would and announced their undertaking of the necessary costs involved. But Advertlets wasn’t Nuffnang’s biggest problem still. The biggest problem is – the bloggers!

As bloggers began writing with doubts on Nuffnang’s implementation, Nuffnang’s founder replied rather unprofessionally. It was unprofessional in the sense that, there was an expectation for the bloggers to understand Nuffnang’s plight when there was little to justify just a move. As some bloggers speculated, Nuffnang had no choice but to bow down to public resentment. The obvious lack of appropriate PR handling of this saga saw Nuffnang being ditched in a pathetic state. This was what I conversed to Jeremiah as “the first blood drawn” from Nuffnang.

Over this time, we have also noticed that bloggers are not only looking at the money but also the “customer experience”. While some may argue that bloggers ain’t exactly “customers”, we have to take note that without the bloggers advertising engines cannot survive. It is upon the blogosphere and social sites that these advertising engines strive best in. Therefore, bloggers are still very much both customers and publishers.

Talking about “customer experience” with Nuffnang, it is a very interesting one. By now, quite a handful of PR & marketing professionals have taken both Nuffnang and Advertlets on a test-drive. Nuffnang’s response time is utterly disappointing, for most. I know some would say the PR & marketing professionals are more critical about response time and efforts, that’s why it is important to note that even the average blogger shared the same sentiment.

On the other hand, Advertlet’s responses are faster, more active and transparent. Advertlets has been able to provide that “personal touch” which Nuffnang has failed miserably. No doubt Advertlets seemed to be capitalizing on every mistake Nuffnang makes, which competitor wouldn’t? The recent saga over Google pagerank has seen PayPerPost coming up with a ranking system of their own. This is an unusual case, for the fact that Google and PayPerPost are not directly in conflict of business interests in the first place. What can we expect from direct competitors then?

It didn’t stop at that. Issuing a cheque without a signature may seem trivial but these days in blogosphere, such a minor mistake can still hurt the business.

Does bloggers care only about the money? Obviously not. By now it is evident that bloggers are not only wanting to earn a side-income with their blogs, but they want good customer service and response too. This is one department that Nuffnang has failed, and has not make any significant changes too. In our real world business, lack of communication or any acceptable customer service is extremely fatal. Customers not only want a solution these days, but also place great importance on how these services are delivered. In Nuffnang’s case, it can be suicidal to assume that bloggers care nothing except for advertisement incomes. In my featured post this month, pitching to bloggers ain’t really as simple as it is in reality.

Last but not least, how can we not talk about Nuffnang’s transparency and truthful representation of their advertising solutions?

By now, a lot of bloggers would have already started questioning on why advertisements are not served after waiting for months. In my previous post, I raised the issue of the indication of 20 unique visitors in their signup page. The comments and feedbacks so far tell us that even if a blogger does not meet the 20 unique visitors, they will still be able to sign up. Why does Nuffnang allows that?

Now, this is the catch.

The many blogs that are displaying Nike advertisements are good evidences of content mis-match. Hence, we can reasonably rule out the possibility that Nuffnang’s advertisements were chosen based on contents. What does that leave us with? The site’s traffic of course. The problem is still not visible at this stage, when selecting blogs according to traffic is nothing wrong. Here comes the doubtful part.

If advertisement placement is dependent on site traffic, then it is also reasonable that Nuffnang (or according to Nuffnang; advertiser’s selections) will frequently be looking at high traffic sites. In this case, it is visible that there wasn’t any intention to serve blogs with traffic in the lower bands. This is further reinforced by the “good news” that Nuffnang will be opening up to cater to all bloggers, not limited by the site’s traffic. That was in July, and we have yet to see it materialize. Under this light, if the lower bands of bloggers are not the intended category of bloggers Nuffnang is looking to serve advertisements in, why “entice” this category of bloggers into signing up and displaying their default advertisement?

“Enticing” a certain category of bloggers with no clear intention of serving them right from the start, looks very misleading and dishonest to me from a business’s perspective. For the longest time, I often preached how businesses should always be transparent and honest in their dealings. When a business is unable to meet these requirements, the eventual reputation can hit them badly. In Nuffnang’s instance, lower bands of bloggers are only required for free publicity usage since they are never part of the community intended to be served.

With the inconsistencies we have seen for Nuffnang, it is only reasonable that the lower bands of bloggers are required to be drawn in for free publicity and not for advertising purposes. Afterall, it is the site’s traffic that matters more than the content. I could be wrong still, given Faddy’s comment that sites with traffic lower than his are running advertisements, whereas he’s not. That being said, is another affirmation that the inconsistencies are very much visible if one looks hard enough.

Swift did a comparison too, but one serious flaw in his comparison was such that it was concentrated solely on the possibility of income. As we can see from so many examples, bloggers are not only concerned about income but also that “customer experience”. In fact, none of the above are related to making money online but business ethics.

The blogosphere has evolved over time, and it has become such an effective tool (and also a powerful one) for any campaigns. However, lack of transparency and integrity in business dealings can be circulated quickly over the internet, once spotted. In a way, it also led me to wonder how differently should technology companies behave in comparison to the real world physical business? Does being a tech-company means one should neglect the core basic skills of PR, or even honesty towards bloggers?

We have since witness how WidgetBucks was slammed for hiding links behind their widgets. We have also seen how the blogsphere has slowly turned against PayPerPost, with doubts towards the integrity and truth behind paid posts that are made to appear as though they are genuine product reviews. Is Nuffnang going to be the next?

Just like what Matt Goddard wrote… “Social media isn’t for everyone. If you are the type of company with enthusiastic customers, it might just be the type of content that you need – not only for R&D, but also to earn trust. If you are committed to innovation and customer loyalty, consider adopting some of the tools that we have discussed here. If you are as honest with your customers as they are with you, your products and services will only get better. So, Jeremiah, we think the corporate Website is as relevant as ever.”

When I was conversing with Jeremiah Owyang via email earlier on, one of his statements was crisp clear… “always be transparent with clients, especially bloggers”.

http://www.thebizwalk.com/advertising/is-nuffnang-only-about-money/

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Asian Blog Ad Network Leaves Some Bloggers Unhappy

Asian Blog Ad Network Leaves Some Bloggers Unhappy
Duncan Riley
20 comments »

The decision by Singapore based blog advertising network Nuffnang to charge a S$1 (69c) administration fee on payments is causing a bit of ruckus amongst South East Asian bloggers.

Nuffnang was founded in April to offer local advertising solutions to bloggers in Singapore and Malaysia. On the face of it, the company is not dissimilar to Federated Media, offering CPM and direct sale graphical advertising, yet on the other hand it promotes itself a bit like Pay Per Post, complete with blog meetups and sponsored parties. Current sponsorship partners include Nike, Citibank and Clearasil. It’s main local competition is a company called Adverlets, that caters to the same distinct market.

The S$1 administration fee my seem insignificant, but local bloggers are unhappy due to the way it was imposed: with no announcement and only discovered when they went to make withdrawals from their Nuffnang accounts (unlike Adsense bloggers can withdraw money from Nuffnang on request). A number of a prominent local bloggers have said that if they knew there was going to be a fee to withdraw money they may not run Nuffnangs code, and would have used Adverlets exclusively (who don’t charge the fee). There’s even a blog dedicated to why Nuffnang will fail.

Singapore and Malaysia may not be large markets in a global blog advertising sense, but the tale is of note when considering how even small things can cause a lot of damage in the new media age. All the money Nuffnang has spent on PR has meant nothing in the face of bloggers angry over a small administrative charge.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/03/asian-blog-ad-network-leaves-some-bloggers-unhappy/

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End of Nuffnang

End of Nuffnang

By ED on Oct 31, 2007 in Blogosphere, Reviews

As some of you would have noticed by now, the free advertising for Nuffnang has ceased from today. Despite all the hype built around Nuffnang, I must have appeared silly to do so.

As some bloggers came to know about me, I do not blog for money. Therefore, putting up these advertisements served only two purposes. The first is to create breakage between lines and lines of words, for cosmetical reasons. The second, is to have a go at these advertisements and see how truthful are the hype behind each of them. We will never know, until we try it right?

After talking to a few fellow bloggers, I began to realise that I am not the only one who was contemplating with this thought and also not the only one putting this thought into realistic action. Removal of Nuffnang that is. Of course, everyone of us have our own reasons for doing so. However, some of the reasons seemed to be a common one among all those whom have removed Nuffnang’s logo from their intended advertising place.

1. Waiting time
The waiting time is simply not worth the wait. Although Nuffnang carries a slogan of Asia’s First Blog Advertising Community, the experience I have had is far from that. Of all the advertising affiliates I have used as you can see in my blog, Nuffnang is the ONLY ONE in my blog with such a long waiting time without any deliverance of advertisements. Any other advertising affiliates do not come with the hype Nuffnang has enjoyed, but they surpassed Nuffnang in one simple area. Immediate deliverance of advertisements!

Never mind if Adsense displays irrelevant advertisements time and again, never mind if Amazon widget looks nice without anyone actually purchasing a book, never mind if Advertlets is reportedly slow in chalking up income. The point is, they delivered the advertisements! What’s an online advertising affiliate – without the advertisements!?

Even if someone says I am eating the sour grapes because I get no advertisements, bloggers whom have recently been paid also agreed that it takes some time for advertisements to appear.

2. Minimum traffic required
The minimum traffic indicated in Nuffnang’s signup page is 20 unique visits. I ought to be very thankful and touched by their kind gesture to allow my blog with very humble traffic rate to sign up, but truthfully I am not. This requirement is like a white elephant sitting there, with no realistic indication of how that will help advertisers and publishers.

Does Adsense require a minimum traffic to your site? The answer is obvious. Does Advertlets ask for a minimum amount of traffic to your site? The Advertlets advertisements flashing in my blog tells you the answer. Therefore, Nuffnang can set it at 20 unique visitors, 50 unique visitors or even 100 unique visitors it will not make alot of difference. It’s only a matter of how many people will be able to sign up, and the amount of people signing up does not equate to the same amount of bloggers who will be publishing advertisements. The minimum requirement also does not automatically mean you will be “pushed” for advertisements.

3. Numerical beauty
Asia’s advertising affiliates seems to be caught up with the obsession behind the numerical game of signups. In Nuffnang’s blog, it was reported that the Singapore community has breached the 4,000 membership mark. Impressive aye!?

One question remains, how many of these 4,000 members are actively serving advertisements? For Adsense & Advertlets advertisements, I see them everywhere! If I am an advertiser, I think I will worry about the kind of exposure I can get from Nuffnang compared to other advertising affiliates. If you have 4,000 memberships and all 4,000 memberships are active with advertisements then I will say that is something very impressive indeed.

The first Nike Advertisement campaign had only 13 blogs selected reportedly. Now go figure.

4. Recommendation of blogs
If you bothered to look into the Advertiser signup page, you would have realised the last step in their process is recommending a list of blogs for advertisers to choose from. That’s meaning to say, if your blog is not among those recommended you are plain wasting your time.

Of course, certain requirements goes into such a list. It can be anything from your site’s traffic to contents of your blog. One reason why you failed to see advertisements on your blog could be due to advertiser’s selection. You may not be the kind of blog advertisers want if you are writing about sex or celebrities caught nude all the time. The other reason is, you are not even recommended in the first place. Hence, you can display the Nuffnang logo (Reminder: publicity for FREE~! for as long as you don’t see advertisement) for three months and you can still get no advertisements.

Of course, what is truthfully going on behind the scene, we will never know. I bet they will get cursed and swore at if they showed anything that says zero recommendation done for any blogs registered to their advertising platform.

Meanwhile, I will let Advertlets and Adsense fill up the slots with immediate (or almost) advertisements served. Adsense took about 4 days before the advertisements appeared and it is gradually stabilizing with more relevant advertisements. Advertlets on the other hand, is looking pretty with their advertisements. The advertisements are more relevant to our countries unlike Adsense, and again it is the deliverance. I am definitely keeping Advertlets because the advertisements look so pretty instead of looking at an unpaid logo. Don’t you feel the same?

No amount of media coverage or publicity can cover up for the lack of deliverance, in my blog at least. If any more friends (especially those with unique visits lesser than mine) ask me about Nuffnang, two words – FORGET IT!

I preach again… DELIVER DELIVER DELIVER!

*initially posted in my personal blog*

http://www.thebizwalk.com/blogosphere/end-of-nuffnang/

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Entrepreneur’s Reply To Ming

Entrepreneur | October 7th, 2007 at 8:28 pm

Hi Ming,

Considering the amount of bad press Nuffnang is getting in the small blogging world of Singapore, you should really consider getting someone to help you with your PR.

Explaining the charge of S$1.00 doesn’t make anyone happy. I don’t understand why you say there is a 50 cents charge for every cheque processed, that’s ridiculous and I don’t know how you came up with that. An envelope also doesn’t cost 20 cents, where do you buy your envelopes?

If you want to charge $1.00, don’t tell people its because of this and that, just charge it against their earnings. No one, except you, know how much they are making anyway. So why make the charge visible and risk the ire of the community? Consider that so many of the bloggers carrying your banner are giving you FREE advertising and at the same time giving you the means in which to make a living (without them you have nothing).

Justifying what you have failed to do, are not good at, have messed up in, really isn’t doing you any good.

Just do better …

http://www.putraworks.com/2007/10/06/nuffnangs-shocking-news/

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Enuffnang from me

Category: Online Advertising, Make Money — Ades

My first advertisement with Nuffnang.com had ended (on 9th June) but I am yet to see the earnings for this campaign. If you are new to Nuffnang, it’s a publisher program for Malaysian and Singaporean bloggers to earn money.

During the campaign, my blog became slow again. I had reported to Nuffnang about this earlier, but didn’t get a response, not even an auto-response. So I am not sure if they are working on it now. Thanks to Steve for letting me know about this, he was kind enough to test it and make sure that it was Nuffnang script that was making the blog slow.

Until this loading problem is solved, I have decided to remove the script.

I think Nuffnang should concentrate more on the system improvement and bloggers’ suggestions than organizing public events (another one coming up soon). Good PR can get you so far, but if the system is not functioning as expected, even worse if it is running with known problems (loading time, firefox problems). Then it will be a matter of time bloggers stop using the program completely.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against organizing public events or marketing. It’s just that, you have to walk the talk. And I think, Nuffnang has to make a lot of walking now (or even running 😉 when it comes to system performance and customer support. Because the talking part is already done. Also they are not in the monopoly market, to be able to afford to ignore system performance problems. There is a strong competitor for Nuffnang.

I hope if they read this post, they will take it as a constructive criticism and will come up with the system improvements soon.

http://www.adesblog.com/2007/06/12/enuffnang-from-me/

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Nuffnang Bugs

Nuffnang Bug #1
The first bug I’ve found on Nuffnang is the login. Whenever I’m on the main page and I click the login button. The floating panel comes up and requests for the email and password. The bug here is after entering the details rather than logging me in right away, I’m redirected to the page where it says:

Your session has expired. Please login again.

And I’ve found the Nuffnang culprit. If you were to try logging in with only the website address without the www prefix (http://nuffnang.com.my), then you’ll get the bug. If you typed in the full address, you’re okay. There is 1 way to fix this and that’s to make the website default to the address with the www prefix.

Nuffnang Bug #2
Next bug has something to do with the dashboard. I’ve really no idea why this is happening on Mozilla only. The ‘Add ads’ button disappeared. It pulls a Houdini on me every time I log in to the dashboard using Mozille Firefox.

Nuffnang Bug #3
The last bug I’d like to share isn’t really a bug but a good proof in concept why web standards helps improve website usability. When a lengthy website address is noted in the ‘Came From’ area, it stretches the table causing the layout to break. Development in CSS could’ve actually prevented this from happening.

http://www.dannyfoo.com/blog/2007/08/nuffnang-bugs-report/

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Nuffnang prediction that came true

My Nuffnang prediction that came true
Posted in Blogs, Marketing warfare, Uniquely Singapore by the(new)mediaslut on the October 16th, 2007

When Singapore SEO, Larry Lim, wrote how Advertlets was capitalizing on Nuffnang’s SGD1 misery, I made a comment the entry on how the competition is going to benefit bloggers.

My comments:

In this case here, Adverlet’s bloggers save on the $1 and this will force Nuffnang to reconsider their S$1 charges. Who benefits? The bloggers, of course.

Ming Shen Cheo, executive director for Nuffang, wrote in his email to Nuffnang members that “As a concession, we have decided to absorb this cost till October 31st).

See what competition does to the players involve?
5 Responses to ‘My Nuffnang prediction that came true’

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DK said, on October 16th, 2007 at 5:57 pm

Am abit disappointed that its just a 1 month waiver. Would be nice if they could waive the $1 admin fee forever.

Oh well…. I guess its better than nothing. 🙂
Larry Lim said, on October 16th, 2007 at 7:09 pm

Competition is good IF both companies are making healthy profits. But in an immature market and industry where the startup company is barely surviving, I’d rather forego the temporary gratification then to let them absorb the loss and risk going bankrupt …extreme though it may sound.

Then you’ll be left with one company, no competition and very little choice, except to follow their terms.
Email Marketing » Blog Archive » My Nuffnang prediction that came true said, on October 16th, 2007 at 9:03 pm

[…] the(new)mediaslut wrote an interesting post today on My Nuffnang prediction that came trueHere’s a quick excerptMy Nuffnang prediction that came true Posted in Marketing warfare, Uniquely Singapore, Blogs by the(new) … on the $1 and this will force Nuffnang to reconsider their S$1 charges. Who benefits? The bloggers, of course. Ming Shen Cheo, executive director for Nuffang, wrote in his email to Nuffnang members that “As a concession Posted in the(new)mediaslut ( 83 links from 65 sites) by themediaslut […]
Connecting News, Commentaries and Blogs at NineReports.com said, on October 19th, 2007 at 11:52 pm

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Princess Sabrina said, on October 20th, 2007 at 2:03 am

Singapore Slingers (Round 1) vs. Melbourne Tigers…

The night before last (considering it’s almost 2am and I’m still awake), I was invited by the one and only *drums rolling* themediaslut (or rather the(new)mediaslut) to watch Singapore Slingers at their opening game, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium,

http://www.themediaslut.com/2007/10/780

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Drop Nuffnang Ads

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4264077677217736628

Why I Drop Nuffnang Ads Instead of Advertlets?

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I’m registered for both Nuffnang and Advertlets about months ago. Actually, I discovered about Nuffnang first since it’s been quite a lot of exposure from the blogosphere. Based on my experiences, the Chinese community give more influences to Nuffnang Ads compare to Advertlets. While, Malay community keep control on the popularity of Advertlets.

Last week, I drop this Nuffnang ads because I didn’t get any advertisement from them. Before that, I emailed them according to my problem. Here the email’s detail:

Hi,
After more than one week I embedded the nuffnang code in my
blog, which is at http://www.hafreze.com, the advertisement still
didn’t appear. I’m still wondering why some bloggers also had the same
problem as me. Nevertheless, since nuffnang already abolished the
minimum traffic requirement, so the ads will appeared,
right?

For your information, I’m putting the Large Rectangle
(336X280) under my post. I hope that Nuffnang will take my complaint
seriously. thank you

Here is what Nuffnang had replied to me:

Hi Hafriz,

Basically, you have to achieve the minimum
amount of 20 unique visitors to your blog and maintain that minimum
number of visitors. After then, you can sit back and relax while our
advertisers select the blogs on which to run their ad campaigns on.
Should you be selected, you will be notified by email based on the
type and the duration of the ad campaign.

When the ad campaign
is run, your default Nuffnang ad will be changed to the advertiser’s
advertisement for the duration in which has been stated in the email
that you have received. You will then begin collecting earnings based
on the type of campaign which is either the unique number of visitors
to your page (Bands) or the clicks on your ads (CPC).

You will
only know of the type of ad campaign after it ends and is updated in
your earnings. This is in order to prevent click fraud as CPC pays
much higher than band visits. The amount of earnings along with its
rates will also remain confidential until it is released in your
earnings. However, you may opt to display the default CPC based ads on
your Nuffnang account in your “Add Ads” page while you are
not running any ad campaigns.

We hope that this information
should be helpful for you. Do feel free to drop us another email
should you require further assistance on this matter.

Have a
nice day.

Regards,
Lance Tan
Customer Service
Correspondent & Web Developer
Nuffnang Sdn Bhd

Apparently, my daily viewers were around 100-250 per day. Yet, although the figures does not really much compare to other, but it still above 20 unique visitors per day, and it keeps increasing!! But I give it a chance, I let the Nuffnang ads for more few days, and it seems 2 days after the email was replied, there’s no any change. Therefore, I decided to drop Nuffnang, Sorry!

My two cents,
Boss Stewie arr..give us some ads that clickable lor..otherwise, how come we can earn money? By the way, the public service ads from Nuffnang sometimes annoying my eyes. Why do they use the low resolution images for the ads? Are you agree with me?

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8 Responses to Why I Drop Nuffnang Ads Instead of Advertlets?

Khai

September 8, 2007 6:19 AM

ehehehe… betul tu.. aku dah lama pon drop nuffnang.. skit pon x dapat untung… hakhaks… advertlets yg kool!!

hafreze

September 8, 2007 11:32 AM

khai: tue laa psl..ekcelikan..klu die cam bagi ads..even click tue hanya bernilai 10 sen pn aku akan letak..psl bende ini akan jadi win-win situation laa..aku promotekan nuffnang, at the same time, nuffnang kasi aku duit..even 10 sen per click..psl aku nk support blog advertising asia..tp it seems, lebih byk public service ads muncul..membuatkan aku sakit hati..psl design die buruk sgt..ekeke..

Kay

September 8, 2007 11:41 AM

aku tak tau plak blogspot boleh buat custom ajax.. huhu.. cool… urmm.. aku pon pelik nape die ckp ko tak dpt… ikutkan aku nye blog tuh visitor die lagi rendah dari ko skang ni… dulu2 yer la tinggi… tp aku dpt je iklan nuffnang.. cuma aku tak penah dpt ape2 email dari dierang… pelik.. urmm.. earnings pon susah nak gerak.. aku bg tempoh sket kat nuffnang.. kalo takde, aku buang.. hahaha

syuxx

September 8, 2007 12:14 PM

eyhh..
pade aku, dua2 tak de ape2 punn..
i’ve use adverlets slama 4month lebih..still only o.58cent dlm my account..haishh..very poor ryte..

megat

September 8, 2007 12:52 PM

tu la pasal, aku pun ada add advertise nuffnang tp x de hasil :p

Afzai Afandi

September 8, 2007 11:43 PM

so far , mine advertlets and nuffnang…ok jer

Slave

September 11, 2007 5:13 PM

LOL!! if you are using nuffnang .. u need to have luck!

they ar not runningg global program like adverlets!

so u need to have a niche article.

SOmething this blog
http://lets-earn.blogspot.com

hafreze

September 11, 2007 5:18 PM

slave: haha..tq for ur advise..I’m thinking on putting the ads back..since they already send a email explaining why/what about nuffnang at me..

Something to say?

Discuss this post in the Asia’s First Nuffnang Discussion Forum

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Nuffnang operational cost?

Putraworks was blogging about Nuffnang imposing a SGD$1 transaction fee for all cash out recently. Nuffnang claims that the $1 transaction fee is for postage, cheques, materials, and handling cost. The entry created quite a big hoo ha and was the most popular post of that day in ping.sg.

Ming, co founder of Nuffnang, saw that article and replied in the comment box, giving more details on how they derive the $1 transaction fee.

I understand this is an unpopular decision, but in the face of significant costs which I will now break down and reveal to you, this decision has been taken by the management in consideration of long term viability.

The main bulk of costs comes in the form of cheque processing. This is something you can openly verify. UOB as with every other bank now, is charging 50 cents per cheque processed.This is in addition to the cost of the cheque book which they also charge for.

In addition to this there is the postage fee, which by 1st local is 25 cents each (for a stamp). The envelope costs 20 cents each. This brings it up to 95 cents, which means 5 cents for the paper, ink and labour. Labour includes time taken to print out the letter, verify the amount, pack it, and send it off.

Labour is more or less subsidised and free in this instance.

One mistake I will admit to making and can rectify immediatly is that we did not give any lead time for implementation. As a result, this action will be delayed till november. I will update all nuffnangers in the next community update.

I look forward to your continued support.

Am glad that Ming steps out and explains the $1 fee. But as I was reading, I felt that something was wrong.

Lets breakdown the $1 transaction fee first.
$0.50 – Cheque processing fee
$0.25 – Stamp
$0.20 – Envelope
$0.05 – Paper, ink and labour

Ming is correct to say that the operational cost has gone up recently. With effect from 1 Oct 2007, UOB charge $0.50 for every cheque processed. The first 30 cheques will be waived. But lets just assume that Nuffnang have their own bills to pay too and used up the 30 cheque quota every month.

But the rest of the items are existing operational cost. Stamp, envelope, paper, ink and labour charges have been there since day one. They are nothing new. Was there an increase in prices lately? If there isn’t, then these items shouldn’t be added into the new transaction fee. In fact, when deciding the payment structure, these items would have already been put into consideration. Why is Nuffnang passing these charges to bloggers now?

So technically speaking, the increase is only $0.50. How much additional operational cost is that? Currently, there is a total of 2500 Nuffnangers. Assuming 10% of the Nuffnanger cashout every month, the increase in operational cost will be just $125 per month. Surely a company of Nuffnang size is able to absorb this little increase in operational cost.

And if you really think about it, do they really have 250 cashout every month?

The saddest part of this whole incident is not about the $1 transaction fee. It is the mentality of the management. $1 is a small amount and I’m sure everyone can afford it. But when operational cost goes up, instead of finding ways to cut cost, the management decides to pass the additional cost to consumers.

Well, passing the cost to consumers is easy. That’s what our public transport companies always do.

Posted by DK on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 at 11:15 AM

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Actually, they didn’t pass the cost to the consumers, they passed it to their “staff”. The nuffnangers are the ones who “sell” the ads for nuffnang.

In my opinion, they should have raised the advertising rates to their clients instead. I don’t think their clients would notice the slight increase in rates.

Or, they could have used Internet Bank Transfer instead. That way, they totally cut down the use of stamps, envelopes and cheques. More environmentally friendly and convenient too. Instead of using paper, it is only an exchange of electrons.

Posted by Cobalt Paladin |
10/09/2007 11:39:00 AM  

Well stated, my thoughts exactly. Nuffnang has a serious PR problem.
Serious community backlash.

They really need to handle things better. It’s not about the $1, its the justification (which is lame, they might as well say that it costs 10c for the light used during that time, 20c for the desk usage, $2 of time spent for the person writing the cheque, 10c for signing, etc.), the lack of transparency, and the inability to handle the complaints raised.

Nuffnang can do well- but it really needs to hire someone who knows how to get the message across well.

Posted by Entrepreneur |
10/09/2007 11:42:00 AM  

Cobalt Paladin: You got a point. Nuffnanger are staff, not consumers. Haha.

I don’t think raising the advertising rates is a right thing to do. It might scare away their clients.

Anyway, there are many ways to counter this increase in operational cost. Its sad to see that they decided to pass it to bloggers.

Posted by DK |
10/09/2007 11:57:00 AM  

Entrepreneur: Agree with you that Nuffnang have some serious PR problem. But hiring someone to deal with PR is going to push up operational cost again.

The justification only managed to explain 50% of the $1 fee. The rest are existing cost which Nuffnang decides to use this opportunity to pass to bloggers.

Posted by DK |
10/09/2007 12:01:00 PM  

Hey Dk: Understand your concerns, but then if you think about it, we never has any money before nuffnang or any other blog advertising community came about. Adsense didn’t give s jack shit.

Agreed that it’s not about the $1 and you’re upset about the management passing on the cost irresponsibly to the bloggers, but maybe if you look at it from the flip side, we all can be a bit more appreciative.

I think they’re working hard on their end as well, no?

Posted by eStee |
10/09/2007 12:19:00 PM  

Cobalt is right.

People always get things wrong. Bloggers (Nuffnangers) are NOT the consumers nor are they the client since they don’t pay anything to Nuffnang, it is Nuffnang that PAYS them.

Not to mention, Nuffnang is the one that creates a value on our blogs advertising spaces. Lets be frank, before Nuffang hundreds or thousands of bloggers will never have seen the lights of a Citibank campaign running on their blog.

I think Nuffnang delivered the message across very well on the transaction cost rather than keep quiet about it. However, some bloggers nit pick on everything and are foolish enough to keep trying to kill the ‘Golden Goose’.

Before Nuffnang, there were no free movie screenings for you to go for, no blogger gatherings of the scale that Nuffnang plans them and much less opportunity to earn from local ads.

I like Nuffnang… maybe it’s time people learn to appreciate them too and this is coming from me.. someone who doesn’t even have a blog to enjoy the benefits of their existence.

Posted by wong |
10/09/2007 12:25:00 PM  

Dear all,

First off, let me say I appreciate all your comments. I can’t lie and say it leaves a good taste in my mouth, but it is my duty and to my benefit that I listen to all feedback and evaluate my own perfomance.

The prime reason why I revealed the breakdown of costs, is because my core philosophy in doing business has always been transparency. It leaves you open to attack and critique alot more, but at the same time, I believe it makes the world a better place in the long run.

Truthfully, if I were to be brutally honest, there are a whole host of other costs that are not apparent to the blogger which we have assumed.

Take for example our community program. Every event we hold costs us thousands of dollars. Lots of effort and time go into planning such events. At the end of the day, we still get good and bad comments. People who say thank you, and people who say should have done a better job. It is impossible to please everyone, and we move forward with whatever encouragement we recieve, and plan the next event (Also bearing in mind that we can improve).

If anybody thinks that Nuffnang is making a pile of money off the backs of bloggers, and laughing all the way to the bank. They are sadly mistaken. We are growing, and it is looking good, but we are a startup. Both myself and timothy are not being paid a cent. Of course the developers and team is, and without family support, so many things would not be possible.

Let me give you an example. And allow me to take a personal aside to this. The weight on my personal shoulders everyday, is that whilst my peers are making money in comfy jobs in banks or consultancy firms, I have to rely on my family to support my mobile phone bill. Taking an allowance at the age of 24 is not exactly my cup of tea, but I have chosen this course of action, because I believe I am bringing something of value to the larger community.

Whilst our vision has always been to enrich others. Reality is not built merely upon dreams. Everything has a price tag out there The only people fully aware of the costs of doing this business are me and timothy. To stay afloat, unpopular decisions have to be made and taken.

Passing on costs to advertisers is not a good idea. Especially considering how difficult it is to sell online media space to them in the first place! Today only 2 percent of adspend goes online. Nuffnang is trying to grow that, but we have to make the medium as accessible as possible. Passing on $1 to them is not going to make a difference, but there are a whole host of other costs to consider.

I am of the sincere hope and do believe that most Nuffnangers do feel they are better off with Nuffnang in the picture.

To all our doubters, and critics, thank you also for keeping us alive and on our feet. We would not improve without your comments.

After the launch of NN2.0 we will almost certainly be looking at other means for you to cash out. The last thing we want to do however is to implement new systems without evaluation and planning.

Best regards,
Ming
Co-Founder
Nuffnang.com

Posted by Boss Ming |
10/09/2007 12:49:00 PM  

Estee: I’m not upset over the $1. (It doesn’t affect me since I’m not on Nuffnang). I just feel that it wasn’t justified and am writing my comments about it.

If every business were to pass additional operational cost to consumer, then we are all doom.

Posted by DK |
10/09/2007 01:06:00 PM  

Wong: Right. We keep confusing the relationship between bloggers and Nuffnang.

Since Nuffnang pays bloggers, are we right to say Nuffnang is the employer and bloggers are the employees?

So how would you feel if your boss tell you that he is going to deduct $1 from your paycheck every month from now on because the bank has raised their transaction fee? Not quite good right?

I’m not killing the ‘Golden Goose’ here. I doubt I’m capable of anything near that. Just voicing my comments on this issue, hoping the management would do something about the increase operational cost and not pass it down to bloggers.

Posted by DK |
10/09/2007 01:12:00 PM  

Ming: Thanks for your comments. Sorry for disturbing your lunchtime.

I understand the pain of being an etrepreneur. It is never easy and it will never be. That is why not everyone take the plunge and start their own business.

I understand that there are tons of operational cost. Community events are marketing for the company and will pay back eventually.

The reason why I raise the issue is because:-

1) The actual increase in operational cost is only $0.50. The remaining $0.50 are existing cost which in the past has been absorbed by Nuffnang. So why is the transaction fee marked at $1?

2) Instead of passing this increase to bloggers, has Nuffnang explored other methods to cut down the cost?

Posted by DK |
10/09/2007 01:24:00 PM  

Nuffnang is crap. Google has better ad yield.

Posted by Anonymous |
10/09/2007 01:53:00 PM  

Anon: That is a very subjective comment.

Posted by DK |
10/09/2007 02:23:00 PM  

dk: I feel that it is bad PR to pass on cost to your “consumers” or “clients”. People are always sensitive to cost issues no matter how nicely it is said. Then again, I am not about to cash out from nuffnang anytime soon at the rate I am earning so it does not really matter to me 🙂

Estee, anon, wong: Like DK, I think whether or not nuffnang or google ads or advertlets gives better yield is totally subjective. If you never get ads from nuffnang then your yield is totally ziltch. I have already mentioned that before in my blog about the cost of nuffnang vs others.

Posted by arzhou |
10/09/2007 06:25:00 PM  

I was wondering what’s the problem here. $1 is just a small matter. If you don’t like it seriously don’t use it. Nobody force you people to use ads on your website.

I’m not trying to be a wet blanket. But if your site is in good quality with good amount of traffic, you be earning more. $1 will be just a token of appreciation for giving us a chance to earn online.

It’s already bad that some people are struggling with programs like adsense, adbrite and others. Here a local company trying to help you and all they get is complain. For example, if you hate public transport, buy your own goddamn car.

Nobody force you. Hate your work, quit! Nobody force. Don’t like the $1 fee. Remove it. Thank you very much. *rants*

By the way, I myself not using Nuffnang, cos since I don’t like it, I don’t use it.

Posted by Anonymous |
10/09/2007 07:18:00 PM  

Ming, nobody care about how you startup or not taking money, that will be for another time when when interviewed. The issue here is that nuffnang didn’t tell others BEFOREHAND about the $1 and only when others make noise about it, THEN you come in to justify and still you didn’t answer the 50 cents different.

So there you go.

I repeat, it is not that others don’t appreciate but on not knowing the charges. At least paypal is upfront about it that there is a charges when payment is received. If you don’t like it, can use others like worldpay but in this case, NO, there isn’t any notification at all.

That is why pissed others off.

Posted by Anonymous |
10/09/2007 07:32:00 PM  

Thank DK.

Ming had learn from his mistake of implementing something and not informing us ealier through email.

We just hope Nuffnang improves in the future.

Anyway, I didn’t care much of the SGD$1 as my blog is working for Nuffnang, not me. I just put the ads and collect money.

One more thing, I didn’t put my eggs in a single basket. Current my blog is earning more than 10 Ringgits Malaysia everyday from Advertlets. I also have TLA ads that is giving me money every months.

PutraWorks.Com

Posted by Putera Emas |
10/09/2007 10:26:00 PM  

hmmm i don’t know the full story but theres 1 thing I noe for sure…

Nuffnang sure does have a very very bad PR going… Just on ping.sg along, over the past 2 mths, there are about 4-5 post in top10 talking bad about nuffnang…

I think they should improve on this…

all the best…

Posted by jl |
10/10/2007 01:20:00 AM  

Arzhou: I thought you got quite a number of Ads on your blog. Still can’t cash out? hmmm….

Anon1: If you notice, I’m also not using Nuffnang too. 😀 Like I said, its just my personal comments on this issue.

Anon2: I guess the whole issue wasn’t handled well.

Posted by DK |
10/10/2007 02:37:00 AM  

Putera Emas: RM$10 daily from Advertlets? WOW. You have lots of traffic on your site.

jl: Yeap. Lets hope they will improve.

Posted by DK |
10/10/2007 02:41:00 AM  

Food for thought… Did anyone thank NN when they reduced the cash out from 100 to 50 bucks?

Posted by eStee |
10/10/2007 04:36:00 AM  

@estee: why should we thank them for letting us get our money earlier? It is like thanking the government for letting us withdraw our CPF at an earlier age…

anyway I think it’s a small issue, but maybe they could implement it after our first cashout?

Posted by chillycraps |
10/10/2007 06:56:00 AM  

Estee: No. But likewise, do you thank Robbinson when they having sales?

Chillycraps: Yeap. Its a small issue. I guess it can be better managed if they don’t just simply pass everything to bloggers.

Posted by DK |
10/10/2007 09:09:00 AM  

Hi all,

You are right in saying that the increase in cost is 50 cents. However,this does not change the fact that the total cost is above $1 and we have been absorbing it throughout.

The community is growing at a phenomenal rate, and today we have 4,000 bloggers in SIngapore and 5500 in Malaysia (Your figures were obtained from my last community update).

The rate of increase has not slowed down, and we expect fully to get to 10,000 bloggers in each country, which would mean a significant cost to us everytime somebody chooses to cash out.

With regards to lowering of cash out, I think people neglect the dynamics of this. The simple fact of the matter is that there are payment terms for advertisers. Most of the time, it is 60-90 days after campaign (They drag it on).

A significant proportion of our 4,000 bloggers get to cash out pretty quickly, which means that we are paying them out of our own coffers first before having recieved any money from the advertiser!

This is a fact with all the payouts so far. Whilst the bloggers have all recieved their cash outs, Nuffnang Pte Ltd to date, has not recieved payment for any of the campaigns we have run. This is not a discredit to the advertiser, but something that is written into the arrangements.

Cashflow in business is important, but we also believe in lowering it to $50 we are giving bloggers a world class service. NO OTHER network has this treshold.

Best regards,
Ming
Co-Founder
Nuffnang.com

Posted by Boss Ming |
10/10/2007 09:46:00 AM  

Nuffnang’s Shocking News – Part 2 -> http://www.putraworks.com/2007/10/10/nuffnang%e2%80%99s-shocking-news-part-2/

Posted by Putera Emas |
10/10/2007 10:33:00 AM  

I’m not an NN publisher but I’ve been on other affiliate networks for a while, e.g. Google Adsense since 2005.

I think NN’s handling of the issue (i.e. being transparent) is laudable. They seem to treat bloggers as “partners” and not mere “affiliates”.

Compared to other networks like Google and Adbrite, their commission’s as high as 30% and you’re unlikely to get explanations from their management.

Just remember that before NN, they’d been no one to help monetize your blog.

Posted by Larry Lim |
10/10/2007 11:18:00 AM  

Ming: Congrats on hitting 4k members.

Having more members does push your operational cost up. But at the same time, the profits should be increasing at the same rate (if not higher). So if Nuffnang is able to increase their profits the same rate as their membership, then there shouldn’t be any problems already. Right?

But if Nuffnang is unable to increase their profits at the same rate as their membership, then I think even the $1 transaction fee isn’t going to help the company in the long run.

Is having more members pulling the company down?

I notice a lot of Nuffnangers promoting Nuffnang to their friends. Instead of being rewarded for promoting your company, they are now being slap with a $1 transaction fee because Nuffnang grew too big.

Something isn’t quite right here. Don’t you think so?

Posted by DK |
10/10/2007 11:23:00 AM  

Putera Emas: I have enough shock already. I’ll skip this one.

Larry Lim: Yes, I’m really glad that we could debate about this issue here openly.

As for monetizing blog, I’m sure there are other companies out there that does the same. Take Advertlet for example.

Posted by DK |
10/10/2007 11:31:00 AM  

Discuss this post in the Asia’s First Nuffnang Discussion Forum

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---

Enuff of Nuffnang

November 2, 2007

Lifted from http://blogsreview.net/2007/04/18/i-think-ive-enuff-of-nuffnang/

When I first signed up on Nuffnang, the Malaysian based blog advertising community, I listed two web sites to place my Nuffnang banners. They are located on my personal website as well as this site. I was told that the banners are supposed to be prominently placed as advertisers would prefer their advertisements to stand out when surfers visit the blogs. So, I placed the banner on top of my post contents in my personal blog and over here, just below the Title of this site but above Google Adsense ads.

However, I ran into trouble with PayPerPost in respect of my personal blog because they dislike the big banner which appears at the top of the post contents. Since I was making more through PayPerPost compared to Nuffnang (which I still have yet to earn a single cent till todate), I decided that Nuffnang should be sacrificed. This is not the end of the Nuffnang story.

On 12th April, 2007, I received an email from Nuffnang informing me that this blog has been chosen by an advertiser wherein the campaign date will run from the 15th April till the 5th of May. Great. Finally I’m going to see some money coming in. 15th of April came and so did this computer gibberish message in replacement of the banner. I wrote an email to Nuffnang’s marketing department (well, email says : marketing at nuffnang dot com dot my) on 16th April informing them about the error but that email was bounced back undelivered because the routing to timothy at netccentric dot com failed. I then sent the same email to timothy at nuffnang dot com on the same day but I have yet to receive any response.

Something is wrong somewhere. And I don’t think it’s on my part here. I really do not like to see that computer gibberish right up there on this blog. It is ugly and it does not flatter Nuffnang as well. Perhaps by the time you read this, the issue has been resolved or I may have removed it altogether.

I know that Nuffnang is new (it was afterall, recently launched on 27th February, 2007). I know that there are many things to improve and the team is working hard to iron out all issues which cropped out. However, not all bloggers / publishers or advertisers may be as patient, especially when emails are not responded within reasonable time. Even a “I am away and will get back to you as soon as possible” email would at least do some damage control. There are many advertising programmes out there jostling for business and customer service need to be given first priority – whether they be the bloggers or the advertisers. If I were Nuffnang, I would be embarassed indeed to see the advertisement on my blogger’s page turning out to be “Not Found – The requested URL /adsprovider/adsprovider/imgadscenbust.php was not found on this server.” message with Nuffnang Ads immediately at the bottom. What would advertisers say about this? Mine may be an isolated case but it is still one damaging case. Since no one from Nuffnang could respond to me, I have to reach out to them through this blog.

If they can respond to me within 24 hours and get this thing sorted out, I will remove this post of mine. I know they need to look after their rice bowl and I am willing to forgive. I am not unreasonable. So, over to you Nuffnang.

Lesson to learn : Do check your blog regularly to ensure that all the links or banners are working.

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Oh Nuffnang, Why Are Thou Found To Be Wanting?

November 2, 2007

Oh Nuffnang, Why Are Thou Found To Be Wanting?

I finally got to cash out from Nuffnang today as my earnings hit the big (actually the minimum) FIVE-O. This paltry sum is a culmination of 17 ad campaigns inthe period between the 25th of March 2007 to the 6th of October 2007, and it practically sucks.

The local ad provider with the tagline Asia’s First Blog Advertising Community seems to run Cost Per Unique Visitor ad campaigns on member blogs on a weekly basis. However, gaps when there were no such ads do occur. There were no Cost Per Unique Visitor ads for the following periods:

• 15th April 2007 to 21st April 2007 (1 Week)
• 29th April 2007 to 12th May 2007 (2 Weeks)
• 20th May 2007 to 2nd June 2007 (2 Weeks)
• 15th July 2007 to 28th July 2007 (2 Weeks of CPC Ads!)
• 29th July 2007 to 4th August 2007 (1 Week)
• 5th August 2007 to 11th August 2007 (1 Week of CPC Ads!)
• 19th August 2007 to 1st September 2007 (2 Weeks)
• 16th September 2007 to 22nd September 2007 (1 Week)

A total of 16 weeks out of 28 weeks were with Cost Per Unique Visitor ads. If I were to calculate with an average ad earnings of RM 3 a week, 28 weeks would have brought me RM 84 ringgit instead of that sorry sum you see earlier in the post.

The method used here is abit unorthodox but surely you can see that despite the moniker “Asia’s First Blog Advertising Community”, there’s a certain feeling that they lack advertisers and campaigns to go around. And I’m not talking about CPC ads.

Google Adsense has that covered in my case, I make more in a day then what Nuffnang makes for me (in terms of CPC ads) throughout the entire March-October period.

And as my fellow video game blogger in arms has mentioned, I definately make more in a month from my Play-Asia ads (around USD 50 to 60). I don’t blog for monetary gain but at least that is helping fund the games, figurines and other video game related items you see on this blog and dear Nuffnang, you are no help at all.

So the question now is, do I go the way of Advertlets…or put up with both. I’m a one woman guy, but I don’t think I want to pursue the same philosophy when it comes to local ad providers.

http://nineoverten.blogspot.com/2007/10/oh-nuffnang-why-are-thou-found-to-be.html

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Nuffnang sucks?

November 2, 2007

Say’s who?

I said so!

I have been using Nuffnang as part of my online monetization tools on one my high traffic blogs for quiet some time now and I am not at all happy with it! 😦 I can’t believe that I only earned a pathetic Malaysian 0.30 cents from it. It is utterly ridiculous! I even made more money from Advertlets! I made the decision to totally remove my Nuffnang ads from my high traffic blog a few days back.

What about you readers out there? Are you making good money from Nuffnang lately?
Give me your thoughts on Nuffnang. I would love to hear them. If you guys made money out of it, I would reconsider my decision.
Thanks!

http://homebiss.blogspot.com/2007/09/nuffnang-sucks.html

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Why Drop Nuffnang

November 2, 2007

Why I drop Nuffnang

I’ve been using Nuffnang on hongkiat.com for quite some time, probably since the launch and now I chose to skip; nothing personal, just that when ads do not generate revenue we have to let go and give way to better. Here’s few reason that drew me to this decision:

CPC on Image Ads

Bloggers who make money from blogging should know image ads are poor on Cost Per Click (CPC); that’s probably the main reason why most image ads out there are offering as Cost Per thousand Impression (CPM), affiliates commissions, cost per month, etc. I do understand advertisers could be requesting for CPC on their image ads so they maximize from what they’ve paid for, but bloggers should also have the choice to choose if they are interested to accept CPC image ads. CPC image ads appear on blogs without notifications and I think that’s bad. Bloggers only come to know that they are actually running a CPC after noticing a downfall in ads revenue.

Prime Areas on Image Ads

Prime areas are noticeable areas on your blog before a scrolling; they are precious spots as these areas usually get most attention on any visits. It’s best that we make good use of them. Some prefer putting high pay ads, some insert top blog content. In a nutshell, prime areas are expensive areas. I’ve been using Nuffnang on Sidebar prime areas, mainly as being supportive and also earning money from it But if it’s a CPC Image ads that don’t convert,
I’ll have to drop it.

Ads are static

I totally understand that both our local ad networks are new and there are only limited amount of advertisers for the time being. Limited advertisers also mean limited variety of image ads. That’s fine if image ads are running on CPM basis. My point is, when a new CPC image ad comes in, there is a high chance that user will click it. And when user clicks, you earn. But when the exact same ad is being displayed again and again, no one will click it again and when no one clicks your earning will stop until the entire campaign is over. Still, it’s a CPC image ad problem.
Here’s a little suggestion, ad network can suggest advertiser to come out with series of different banners for the same campaign. At least it gives a fresher look instead of displaying same old banner again and again.Ratio of my local visitors Hongkiat.com reached 4.2k unique per day but it’s recorded around 3k in Nuffnang. That’s okay as tracking might be lead to inaccuracy from many factors. The explanation I was given when I do not have ads served is – my ratios of Malaysian readers are low. Personally, I think that’s quite arguable. Say I have 4000 unique/day with ratio 1:5 – Malaysian readers : International readers. This means I still have 800 unique Malaysian readers/day. Aren’t these Malaysian readers counted?
A reversed question: If the ratio of my traffic is 5:1 and I’m getting 3.2k Malaysian readers and 800 international readers on daily basis, will these 800 International readers be taken into considerations for ads serving?

Geo-location targeted ads are probably the best solution here but I’m still getting the same reason and it’s sad.What’s your say?

The reason I’m writing this to you is because I owe him a lot of guest post ever since I’m made a guest blogger here and entries in hongkiat.com have been pre-scheduled until this sunday. I must exclaim again that these are only from my personal point of view and I have no intention to influence nor defamation, Nuffnang might do well on your blog (I know it did quite well for some blogs). It’s nothing personal, just doing what’s best for my blog. Maybe I’ll start a personal lifestyle blog and will again become a Nuffnang publishers I know its long, but I’d really like to hear your opinion and your experience on earning with Nuffnang.

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