Six Apart, Technorati, and Compete all Challenge Google

(MoneyWatch)  First, bloggers ended mainstream media's monopoly over content. Now, innovative ad networks are moving to loosen Google's domination of the blogger-ad market.

But, as every blogger knows, monetizing your blog is a challenge. Last month, Six Apart announced a new set of advertising tools for bloggers that look especially promising.

Their idea is to give more bloggers an option to Google AdSense. Bloggers using Six Apart's ad network will be able to choose which campaigns they run on their site.

Other companies building alternative blog ad networks include Federated Media, BlogAds and Technorati.

A few years ago, it seemed like AdSense held out some promise. Like many small-time bloggers, I happily cashed my first $100 check from Google rather quickly ( several months) after adding AdSense to one of my personal blogs. Not too much longer, maybe five months this time, the second $100 check arrived.

Over this period, that particular blog started taking off, relatively speaking, from an initial 10-20 visits a day, to 40-50, and some days, well over 100. Yet, my ad revenue plummeted. It's now been a year and, if you can bear to, look over these paltry figures from my AdSense account:

Visits Clicks CTR* CPM Revenue 15,737 76 0.48 $1.39 $21.87

With a *click-through-rate of less than one half of one percent, it may take another four years for that next check from Google to arrive.

It's that frustration that is driving bloggers not only to check out the alternative ad networks, but also to take advantage of a wave of new services, widgets, and gadgets. Many of these attempt to leverage Web 2.0 distribution strategies, i.e., placing a button or dynamic field into your blog or social networking site in order to cross-promote products and build new audiences.One of many that data-heads like me enjoy is the embedded link offered by Technorati of the real-time searches on its site. It's one way to help your readers keep tabs on the topics surging through the blogosphere.

Another is the usage data service, Compete.com, which provides "fast and easy usage data on various sites... particularly good for comparing sites," in the words of one of my industry insider friends. He's right. I compared three of the sites mentioned in this post --Six Apart, Technorati, and BlogAds -- and the results seemed more robust than what's available from the disappointing Alexa; and quite competitive with anything at Google Analytics.