Advertlets - More than a month on

Is it me or have you noticed that your Advertlets earnings have become rather anemic in recent times and their server is getting a little slow.

I've started using Advertlets, after dropping Nuffnang around in October and I must say that the initial amount of money coming in was really impressive. A month plus later, the flow has become a trickle, and now I'm even got 5 cents a day compared to the more than RM 1 rate that I enjoyed. Is this because of the Ad Display System Upgrade?

Anyways, I really like Nuffnang's new interface. It looks so yummy that if it was made out of chocolate, I couldn't help but to take a bite. If it weren't for the constant blue man and CPC ads that are irrelevant to my readers, I would put Nuffnang back immediately. I don't have much traffic, around 180 hits a day, but I do have good PR (4), can gimme some nice campaigns?

Do you know what Advertlet's "blue man" is? It's that kid holding up the envelope with cash (it's a cartoon drawing) with the tag line, It's time to earn more with your blog. I seriously cringe everytime that ad becomes the primary ad of the day on my blog, meaning the ad is there most of the time I visit my blog in a particular day. It's like an indicator that I'm gonna get 20 cents..again.

Anyways, there's still no Captcha on both local ad-providers. I know of one friend who had a blast spamming the registration process of both providers. Don't look at me, I don't know PHP. For Nuffnang, it's a bit of a bummer as they could have gone a little further putting in Captcha (how hard can that be) with their new yummy interface.

Sure, developers from both sides can argue that users have to go through a verification process, but you still have to put the user data somewhere, for a certain period of time. In the case of Nuffnang, it's 7 days. 7 days is more than enough for a determined spammer to fill your database (and your transaction log) with junk.

Definately got room for improvement for these two ad-providers and it's nice to see upgrades. By the way, I like innit. That's a nice touch.

Advertlets Review Round Three: No Bite?

I blogged about a specific bug in Advertlets' registration process several days ago, whereby anyone can just put in any email address, regardless whether it is well-formed or not, into the e-mail text box in the registration page and successfully register! Click here for the original post.

I thought someone from Advertlets would have noticed my post, given the impression that they scour Technorati for posts regarding their company. I probably should write to them.

And it's funny that unlike Nuffnang, Advertlets doesn't have a company address on its Contact Us page. Just a minor observation.

Advertlets Round Three: A Flaw With A Spam/Hack/Bot Friendly Disposition

"Go search la. Google" That was the response I get when I asked my friend whether he was kidding after he revealed that my blog ranked third for the search phrase "Advertlets Sucks".

It does sound abit sucky, considering that they are the only local ad provider on my blog at the moment. According to Josh Lim, the previous problems with Advertlets (the login bugs) highlighted in this blog have been dealt with.

However, here am I again bringing ANOTHER bug, this time a much simpler one but no less embarassing bug. Did you know that you can actually register with Advertlets with an invalid email address? You can key in a string of garbage WITHOUT the domain name or @ and still register succesfully.

Normally, any programmer with some common sense would add in a regular expression check to make sure that the e-mail address entered is a well-formed one. And also, any tester with some common sense would make it a habit to actually test the system on whether it checks on badly formed e-mail addresses.

This flaw, coupled with a lack of Captcha, means that it really is an open invitation for anyone with half a brain to create bots to spam Advertlets' registration process. Coincidentally, Nuffnang doesn't employ Captcha as well.. so go figure on the possibilities.

Why am I writting this? Some people might say, don't sweat the small stuff but with taglines such as "Asia's First Blog Advertising Community" and "Asia's Better Blog Advertising Network" (honestly, I think these are borderlining on hyperbole) along with "pioneer" status, it's the small stuff that gets noticed the most.

I believe I'm not the only one asking the following questions and there are other harder questions being asked as well.

Where's the e-mail validation? No Captcha? What about a HTTPS login? When are you going to release your software and DROP the beta moniker? Where are my ads? Why do my bands go up and down and why do they differ in value over a period of time despite being the same band?

More on the beta moniker. I noticed as well that despite claiming that they are in a beta stage Nuffnang includes a "NO WARRANTY" clause in its Advertisers' T&C but leaves out mentioning the BETA part. This is the opposite of the Publishers' T&C whereby in addition to a "No Warranty" clause, there is a Limitations of Liability clause with mention of the program being in BETA stage. Do Nuffnang's advertisers know what they are getting into?

Advertlets has the word beta plastered to its logo, like some sort of badge of pride, they even have version numbers added to it. Almost similar to Nuffnang, I don't see Advertlets stating that "this software is in beta stage, we are still testing it (and you are helping as well) and not a commercial release, use at your own risk but do report the bugs back to us and if it screws up, you are screwed and there's nothing you can do about it..but we'll fix the bugs..kthxbai" prominently... that is what the term beta software is, in a nutshell.

I don't see why is it so hard not to come up with a BETA software agreement or T&C. It's like calling a spade..a spade.

Note: Someone actually suggested that Josh Lim should pay me a fee for testing out Advertlets, or at least contribute to my Xbox 360 fund. I don't mind the latter but I would prefer the money well spent on better testing teams as they are indispensable. This piece of advice goes to BOTH of our local ad providers.

Advertlets - A Review..With A Big Login Bug Among Other Things and No I'm not paid to do this...

Today I decided to drop Nuffnang and put up Advertlets ads on my sidebar. Some of you might ask, why not put both instead, but just in case you didn't notice, there's simply not enough space on my sidebar for the two of 'em and Adsense together.

Anyways, I guess this is the start of my review of Advertlets. Do take note that they are not paying me anything for this, not even a contribution to my Xbox 360 fund.

First up, I like the entire look and feel of the main page and the dashboard. The main page isn't sparse, but not too "busy" either. However, I did find out a bug or two. Here's the sequence of events:

1. Enter Advertlets site at http://advertlets.com
2. Login with my username and password
   
3. Browser redirected upon successful login to http://www.advertlets.com/publishers/dashboard
4. Use the back button or the mouse button on my Intellimouse or backspace to go back to http://advertlets.com
5. No indication that I've logged-in
6. Login again with the same username BUT key-ed in the wrong password
7. Successful login despite the wrong password, and browser is redirected to http://www.advertlets.com/publishers/dashboard

As a programmer and a project manager, I would most certainly give my developers a strongly worded dressing down if they can't get something simple as login, done right. The flaw even happens when you key in the wrong username (or even a blank password) for step 6, it will show a successful login for the previous succesful login attempt.

The dashboard is something you get to see once you have joined Advertlets. It shows your accounts (earnings) balance, profile, blog html codes, earnings and stats. These are pretty standard, but as a former Nuffnang user, I really miss the Analytics page, whereby visit information is logged down. I think it would be an indispensable addition to the dashboard.

In case you are wondering what does the "Stats" page holds. Well, it contains demographic results from the polls conducted by the Advertlet ads on your blog. To me, this is rather gimmicky, Internet advertising is supposed to be seemless and not disruptive to the entire user experience.

I wouldn't want to be polled at Kotaku.com asking what gender am I, etc, etc, for the sole purpose of being served better ads. This is the only reason why I chose the lite Advertlets ad, instead of the one with polls. I don't really want to bother my readers.

There's also a totally rubbish stats summary report which I don't know what to make of it.

This review does sound a little harsh on Advertlets, but here's one good point. I made 50 cents in less than 24 hours. Despite being slow, having money coming in at a steady pace is good, and as a bonus the ads do not look fugly.

In summary, Advertlets is walking a fine line between looking good and fulfilling its (and its users/clientele) needs. While some parts look really nice and the ads seem to function well, some parts feel like they are cobbled together by a caffeinated code monkey.. I know this because I have one in my office too.

Suffice to say that the login has a vote of no-confidence from me.

Buy, Buy, Buy..Thanks Timothy, Josh

I'm impressed so far on how the bosses of the Big 2 local blog advertising communities have re-acted to my post. Timothy Tiah used the comments box to say his piece while Josh Lim sent me an e-mail, which I've yet to reply (sorry Josh, was abit busy). I'd admit it would have been akward if the two decided to talk in the comments box.

In any case, I wish the BOTH of you all the best and hopefully the "cake" is big enough for both of you to have your piece. You guys might throw about large numbers (and maybe, think the world of them), but honestly for a small time blogger like me, I don't think I've benefitted enough to warrant an addition to my side bar...yet.

Back to games. I would probably get some free time to play Zelda on the Nintendo DS. I've been rather busy the past few days to pick up the game and after getting rid of Archaic Sealed Heat (which threatened to release histamine into my blood stream and trigger an RPG allergic reaction), amongst other things, I shouldn't have a problem doing so.

Here are the Top 10 best selling Nintendo DS games on Play-Asia:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
2. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
3. Jump Ultimate Stars
4. Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten
5. Oshare Majo Love and Berry DS Collection
6. Taiko no Tatsujin
7. Ouendan 2
8. Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
   
9. Nodame Cantabile
10. Ouendan
    

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.

Did Someone Turn Off a Tap....at Nuffnang? - Updated

I like receiving those Nuffnang e-mails with the subject line "Incoming Advertisement on your blog!". They came frequently when things just started, but of late, they kind of dried up..to a trickle.

All I have now is a little blue guy on my navigation bar stating "I serve Nuffnang ads". *_*" But at least it looks better than some of the weird CPC ads that Nuffnang had in place when there were no ad campaigns going on.

Curious, I decided to find out what ad campaigns some popular Nuffnang affiliated Malaysian (and Singaporean) blogs are serving. First up, Kenny Sia's. This guy has a double combo of Hitz.FM and Chipster. Nice.

A visit to ShaolinTiger's site revealed that there were no Nuffnang ad campaigns running and there's that familiar little blue guy stating that he "serves Nuffnang ads". I'm starting to think whether the little blue fella deserves the title of "Sponsor".

Kyspeaks.com seems to have better luck, with a Chipster campaign running. Kyspeaks' blog roll reads like a who's who of Malaysian blog-o-sphere (sans the political ones), so it was a click fest from there onwards, just to see who else was running Nuffnang ad campaigns.

There seems to be no escape from the lil blue guy and I got bored of listing sites. Want to play a game of guess the blogs? Click for a bigger picture.

Should I offer up my first Nuffnang pay-cheque to the first person (Malaysian of course) to guess all blogs in the picture above correctly (and in the correct sequence)? They say I've RM...wait a minute...RM 50.00 more before I get paid? Hey! I have earned RM 41.23 already laaa....

Tapenade...TA..PE..NA..DE.. People eat that!

Somewhere around this time last year, a couple of colleagues and I were put up in a rather posh hotel nearby the Mall of the Emirates, and within sight of the Burj. Coral Boutique Hotel...anyone?

The hotel, despite being rather new at the time (and having the distinction of being the first 5 star hotel in Dubai that DOES NOT serve alcohol), and having a rather limited menu, served up pretty good breakfast. The lunch and dinner items were good as well but imagine having like a handful of main dishes to rotate with for two weeks....you get the idea.

Anyways, back to breakfast. The hotel's cafe serves thin, hard bread and pastries accompanied with tapenade! Say what? Repeat after me... ta..pe..na..de. According to Wikipedia, it's a dish consisting of pureed or finely chopped olives, capers and olive oil.

It goes very well with the bread and until today, I'm still missing the feeling of eating tapenade. Maybe I should make a batch of that stuff myself. Now where can I find capers?

Speaking of the all things Middle East, my client from that region called up earlier. It was lunch time over there while I was already pushing 8 p.m. over here. I found out through our chat that the place she's located at hasn't seen rain since March. And we are having rather gloomy weather right here in Malaysia.

Now, on to things that are much closer to home, the kind people at Nuffnang (love the new logo) sent me 2 complimentary passes to Ratatouille! Nice, the only problem is it's a Monday to Thursday kind of pass, and I usually watch movies on weekends. But on a more positive note, I have two tickets, and you most likely don't, it does pay to be a Nuffnang exclusive blog eh? :)

With such a big blogosphere, I doubt any other recepients will be reading this lil' old blog of mine. Hehehe.

Site is Up, But Still Good For Some Laughs

While I doubt that the guys behind Nuffnang would kick a competitor (Adverlets) when the competitor is temporary down and out for the count, I certainly can't help but blog about it after being informed by Aaron (undebug.org) via MSN.

A: *Sends file (screenshot of adverlets site down, with quite an embarassing error message)
A: Open and see
J: Oh *censored*
J: LOL
J: It's still suspended!!!
A: LOL
A: hahaha
J: wats wrong with them wor?
A: duno
J: hahaha
A: http://undebug.org/omgwtfbbq/advertletscom-domain-suspended/
A: hahahahahahaa
J: ahahahha
J: eh
J: look at that adverlets poll on your blog
A: wat poll wor
A: lol
J: AHAHAHAHHAHH
J: that... is a good one

Anyways, the site is up again. Plenty fast, I must say. But there's a minor problem re-occuring though. Read my archived post about it. It's just about the same thing.

This is NOT a Nuffnang VS Advertlets Comparison Chart

I was telling a friend earlier this morning that on a personal point of view (read: personal), I find that Advertlets' comparison chart to be a bit childish, and mean-spirited. I've only seen Josh Lim once, during a presentation for one of Microsoft's events and he seems like a nice chap, but this is certainly not a very, well, nice way to present things to people, or to do business.

The problems described in the TenthofMarch blog (here, here) potray a rushed product which would have failed any decent usability test, and the comments do make for a decent read. Honestly, companies, especially fledging ones, shouldn't hide behind the BETA software moniker as an excuse to cover up software bugs and yes, this is a software developer talking from a user's/consumer's point of view.

I'm in favour of closed beta tests, and even if you chose to make your beta software public, be forthcoming with the bugs and be courteous to those who actually find them in the first place. The point where you decided to let your beta software out the door, is the same time where you let your ego die.

A simple: "I'm sorry, I'll go about and fix it. Thank you for your efforts, please help us to better ourselves to service you better", so on and so forth, makes for better PR than the comments in the previously mentioned blog, some of them being very caustic.

Having worked in the CRM/Timeshare industry for several years, the thought of actually comparing SalesForce's or SugarCRM's (both are competitors) logos to that of my company's product has never crossed my mind, nor does it sound like fun. So please, grow up.

Pirates of the Caribbean. Brought to you by Nuffnang

I just got back from Cineleisure, Mutiara Damansara, having attended a free screening of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End courtesy of Nuffnang/Exabytes (and thanks to Aaron for the ticket - do visit his site, he is starving for traffic).

Having never attended a gathering of bloggers prior to this, seeing so many (250) in one place was abit overwhelming, but I did get to see some familiar faces. Here are some of the typical questions normally asked during these kind of meets.

Q: Do you blog?
A: Yes I do.

Q: What's your blog address?
A: nineoverten.blogspot.com. Thats nine over ten... in letters

Q: Do you read so & so's blog? -> I heard this question being asked to someone else, and I suppose the answer below would be appropriate, if I were to reply in the negative.
A: Errr. No. Am I supposed to?

No talk about work or food or other things in life, just blogs, blogs, referrals, ads, ad providers, traffic, blogs, some reference to sports and more blogs. I write about my hobbies usually, and unlike most blogs, not my personal life (or commentaries about life), so naturally I was a bit out of place :).

However, enough talk about bloggers, the main highlight of the event was the movie. I thought it was abit indulgent (maybe convulated to some) on part of the screenwriters and producers, but it was not bad. Jack Sparrow and gang are abit funnier than the previous movie, despite the darker setting and captain is nuttier than ever (you might think he is schizophrenic).

As for the rest of the movie, lets just say that things don't end up the way you think to be and with all the craziness going on-screen, you would do well having some shots of Vodka, or a bottle or two of Heineken to accentuate the effect or help you through some long talk scenes.

A word on Nuffnang, I thank you for your effort in organizing in event, but I'm seriously considering moving the Nuffnang ad to the bottom of my sidebar. Reason being it takes too long to load and at its current position, it prevents the rest of my sidebar from being loaded properly. You guys can certainly do better.