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WidgetBucks Update – Speeds Up Loading Time, Removes Backlink and Removes Non English Sites From Network

Posted By Darren Rowse 26th of October 2007 Advertising 0 Comments

Logo3-1WidgetBucks today emailed publishers using their system with a note to let them know that they’ve been working on loading times for WidgetBucks ad units. This has been one of the major complaints of publishers about the system.

The upside is that they’ve found a way to decrease loading times for publishers – the downside is that you need to update the code on your blog for the changes to come into effect (see below for instructions).

The other benefit of the update that they didn’t actually mention in the email is that the new code no longer has a backlink to WidgetBucks in it (something that has been criticized by many). Andy Beard has more on these changes and makes some suggestions on other changes they need to make.

Here’s how they said to make the update:

You will need to update code of your existing widgets for the speedier load times to take affect on your site, blog or network. Know that changing the code will not impact earnings for any of your widgets.

Here are the two steps you’ll need to follow:

1. Sign-in to http://widgetbucks.com and go to My Widgets

2. For each active widget, simply edit and re-copy the code block into your site or blog (the same steps you went through when you created the widgets originally)

Update to WidgetBucks Policies Regarding Non English Sites

Also announced today by WidgetBucks is that they’ve updated their Policies to exclude Non English sites in their program.

They explain:

“As we’ve continued to evaluate impression, click and conversion data during WidgetBucks’ first 3+ weeks, we’ve observed that a majority of non-English language sites are delivering a consistently low conversion rate. With our merchants and advertisers predominantly based in the U.S., this is not a surprising phenomenon. And as an advertising network, we have a responsibility to our merchants to deliver quality traffic that has the highest likelihood of conversion to sale.”

This is going to hurt for non english sites and already I’ve heard complaints – understandably so. Some have complained that they’ve seen good conversions on their non english sites. My response would be that by ‘conversion’ I suspect WidgetBucks is not talking about the ads getting clicked – but about the ads converting for advertisers. I suspect that the reason for this change is that advertisers complained that they were paying out for traffic that didn’t actually buy from them.

It’s a pity that WidgetBucks didn’t foresee this problem and learn from the pain of other ad networks who had the same issue.

PS: I’d be interested to hear whether others are noticing faster loading times. My initial feelings are that it’s marginally faster – but still slower than I’d like. I wondered whether it’s my location impacting speed and have put in an email to WidgetBucks to see.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I can’t see the difference… it’s still slow … especially when you have plenty of hit at the same time….I live in Canada… maybe it is a bad location too……

  2. I only just started using WidgetBucks, but it isn’t for me, slow or fast. I just don’t have a website that will work well with WB :)

  3. I received this e-mail this morning and since I have just started a gadget related blog, I placed it in my blog. I noticed that it is faster than some blogs who haven’t had their widget updated yet.

    WidgetBucks is a ad platform that is publisher-friendly rather than advertiser-friendly. They make people sign up to publish their ads because of the PPC rate and not like any other shopping platforms that uses a CPA rate.

  4. I’m not sure about the loading time. But the hidden text link is now gone in the new codes. Good move for widgetbucks.

  5. I’d actually removed WidgetBucks from my largest blog due to the loading times. I’ve reinstalled after receiving the email, but it’s still very slow. The actual widget loads fast enough, but it seems to hang my site for up to 10 seconds when making a call to img.shopping.com. It’s better than it was, but not great.

    I’m persevering due to its good click through rate and cpc for now.

    Mark

  6. florian says: 10/26/2007 at 4:39 pm

    it would have been better to get somes advertisers outside the us. there is so little competition of ppc ads in non english speaking countries.

  7. I had Widgetbucks running in a slow pace as an alternate ad for my other neworks…

    I had it – no longer – because when I logged in yesterday to check stats the widgets were gone in my impressions were 0 – and even earning were 0. And I am sure I had some stuff there before including a few $.

    I sent then an e-mail asking what happened, and they couldn’t even bother answering that.

    So I guess it’s time to discard bad customer service and go back to the tested and true services, not this half baked thing.

  8. No Darren, Andy Beard also mentioned that the widget loading times hadn’t improved. Its a good thing they are making updates though – its a positive attitude.

  9. James says: 10/26/2007 at 5:28 pm

    The load times are still horrible, and so are the payouts. It’s right up there with auctionads as one of the worst ad programs I’ve used.

  10. Still slow loading and the lowest CTR of any ad network I’ve tried to date. I was going to give them another month but the hidden links thing was the final straw.

  11. I’m not noticing any change with loading time. I think it will cost them a lot because competition is growing very fast (ttzmedia, shoppingads)

  12. I don’t think the speeds have improved much either, at least not enough to use on a site yet.

  13. still the load time is slow. when I scroll down my page, it will pause or freeze for a second or 2.

  14. I don’t really think WidgetBucks is slow…It has good interface but it still more faster than the flash based ads (and the video Ads!!)

  15. The hidden link was removed. The widgets still slow loading.

  16. I learned about this website @ ur blog. I hope this website has made some serious changes in their services. I am also planning to join them.

  17. John Chow did a post yesterday on his blog that tells of how WidgetBucks got banned by Google and that could possibly happen to those of us that run the widget on our sites. I emailed them my inquiry regarding this- no response back yet, but it has not been 24hrs as the auto-response email indicated it would take.

    However I am very interested in finding out if they indeed did get banned, why and if our Google indexing is in jeopardy. Do you have any knowledge of this Darren?

  18. That was one of the main turn-offs for me when I first discovered WidgetBucks. I might give this one another go again.

  19. The returns ($0) just weren’t worth the real estate the widget took up, and the ads/products were only an o.k. fit with my site. Bye bye, WidgetBucks. Too bad, because it was publisher friendly.

  20. Darren I see, when I enter my member area, loading is faster, and the loading ad unit after Update is better 3 second.
    Hay! every body is it good ?

    Actually I need more faster as other ad unit in my other program. Adsense still no#1 he..he

    Thanks
    Syaifudin zuhri

  21. I replaced the code AND increased the memory in my PC (for unrelated reasons) and that thing is still a slow-loader.

  22. As for me, since my site is no more than a week old, and still seeks for traffic. it loads faster compared before the changes.

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