How Kontera Works
80
Kontera is a PPC contextual in-text advertising provider.
- PPC = Pay Per Click. Advertising revenue is only generated when the actual ad is clicked.
- Contextual = Kontera's ContentLink technology analyzes the content on the page, extracts and ranks topics and keywords, and matches them to relevant advertisements.
- In-text advertising = specific words within the textual content of a webpage are associated with advertising content. A word is underlined (double-underlined to differentiate it from regular hyperlinks) and when moused over (the mouse cursor is placed over the link) an in-page window appears which contains the ad. Mousing over the ad does not constitute a click.
Cons
- They are contextual, much like Adsense. However while the keyword they link has something to do with the ad that is displayed, it doesn't always (in my case never) mean that the ad relates within the context of the whole article.
- If you earn under $5 in a month that money does NOT roll over to the next month. They keep it.
- They will only pay you out when you reach $100.
- This point pulled due to it not being verified.
- When an ad is clicked the target URL opens in the page that you are currently on. So that means unless the visitor uses the back button, you won't see that visitor again. That is the default (and only) setting for HubPages. But you apparently can change it in your own website.
- If people are clicking on Kontera Ads, they most likely won't have the chance to click on Adsense ads. Adsense, by comparison, appears to pay more for a click than Kontera.
- I've heard that you need 30 day notification to Kontera before shutting off Kontera ads on your site. Otherwise it is a TOS violation (and I assume all your unpaid revenue will be forfeit). But I am currently unable to find it listed in their Terms of Service.
Pros
- Nick Aviles thinks Kontera rocks! (Though he hasn't told us exactly why.)
In-Text Advertising Programs
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
What do you think of Kontera and their methods?
It has been observed that kontera is not interested in paying th earnings to their members.. they are deducting some amounts for unknown reasons and are also delaying the payment.. Most of the hubbers are now removing kontera from their Hubpages..
Thanks for the informative hub, I have been curious about how Kontera works and how it compares to adsense. Thanks!
Thanks for providing a layman's terms translation of how tricky their payment structure is/works. I've heard a few rumors in the past about Kontera, I just never bothered looking much into it until a forum post sparked my interest.
I just discovered their method of payment, and while I'm not expecting to make a lot of money to start with, I also am not about to hand it to them on a silver platter just because I havn't made enough to warrant a paycheque.
Thanks for letting us in on their methods...I for one am not using it.
Good somebody wrote this hub as it needed to be addressed....Kontera is really not good as an incentive to keep writing.
What a mess - I disabled them a while ago and now I will point anyone who asks to this hub - good one darkside thumbs up from me
I am doing the work on this topic but you made my work very simple...again good topic chosen........
I can't find the requirement to give Kontera 30 days notice before removing them in their TOS either. But it doesn't matter to me personally. I have not joined their program and I never will. Great job writing this Hub, so others are forewarned.
Whitney mentioned the 30 days notice. I'm assuming she was told that by someone at Kontera HQ. It's probably already policy and they'll add it to the ToS when they feel like it. :p
I thought Kontera was confusing months ago and turned it off. Oh well, I am not upset about it, would just not go back to this service.
I did wonder how it worked, thanks for pointing out all the pitfalls , there doesn't really seem an upside, dont think I will bother with them anymore.
Thanks for helping me to avoid kontera - I'd never set up for them and won't be bothering now.
You confirmed what I had discovered - this will be a great hub for newbies on HP - a warning not to use Kontera.
I emailed Kontera about payment terms, got an answer in one day and would like to point out that some of the heresay that you are reproducing here is not accurate to how they are actually operating.
Hi Relache, the only hearsay is points 4 and 7. In point 4 I am going off what I saw in the email Whitney was sent (which has since been removed from the forum). Point 7 I am still waiting further clarification.
According to the email that I got from Kontera, they are very unhappy that not only did a "hub author" disclose confidential emails, but misstated what was said in those emails. Point #4 is inaccurate to the TOS document they sent me. That document states that Kontera will now pay US publishers when the account reaches $75 instead of $100 if the publishers elected to get EFT payments. There is NOTHING in their TOS that says you have to earn $75 in one month or payouts won't be disbursed. I have received four payouts from Kontera since HubPages implemented their service and I have gotten paid when my total reached $100 but my monthly total for the last month that achieved the payout goal was less than $75.
BTW, point 7 here does appear in the publisher TOS, stating that you need to give 30 day notice of shutting off their ads. It's one of the very first conditions stated.
I'm unhappy about Kontera for their lack of support. Maybe they're quick to respond to someone who is a proficient earner but they quickly abandoned the support thread they had in the HubPages forum.
And while the 'under $5 is taken by us' bit might be legit, due to it being disclosed in the ToS, imagine if Adsense pulled that kind of stunt?
I'll pull point 4 until further verification.
This is great. I have wondered about Kontera myself, being rather new to all this. And, as you, I couldn't really see any benefits from it either. Looking forward to reading many more great hubs.
Your post is biased, and I'll have to disagree with you. Kontera has pros as well as cons. Just because someone can't make it to $5/mo it doesn't mean the program is bad. It means that they only want serious partners, not some kids who are trying to make $3/mo from them. I'm sure if you're trying to shut off their ads it means you're not making money with it. So you shouldn't have a problem breaking their TOS and remove those ads permanently. On the other hand, if you're making a fortune off of them, I'm sure you wouldn't want to turn off the service.
My point in this is, stop making biased posts. If you're going to make a legit pros and cons post, make sure you include both. Maybe you're not looking hard enough to see the pros of the program.
Learn to look at the cup as being half full.
Nick, there is no reason whatsoever that a program such as Kontera should feel the need to have to keep the money for themselves. They obviously made at LEAST the same amount of money. It's not costing them for a person to have made under the threshold. Adsense rollover earnings. And it's no secret that when a person (and there's a LOT of people in this boat) start with Adsense, it takes a while for the earnings to build up.
As for pros... I didn't see anything in your response that said anything in favour for them. Except for "Kontera has pros..."
Also, look at my point #1. Kontera suck at being contextual. But guess what, Infolinks are even worse. So I guess that's a pro for them.
And before rejoicing at a cup being half full, check and see if there's a crack in it that's stopping it from being all full.
Thank you to Nick for linking to this hub, despite the fact that when you quote someone, you really shouldn't put links to your own masked redirection on words in those quotes, because... funny enough, if you quote someone, having those links makes it appear that I had those links in the original post.
For whatever reason, you've taken my opinion about a compnay to heart, and then made it personal in the way you've dissected and described me. And after all that ranting and raving you STILL haven't given any fact, figures or a half decent opinion that looks remotely like a Kontera Pro.
And I checked out some of your other blog posts. Call me a newb, but why the hell do you link to the same page from within the... same page? Visitor annoyance = high. SEO impact = zero. nickaviles.com = blogger fail.
I've written an article about Helium where I outline a lot of the cons if you want to go and check it out and attack it. I could do with another hearty laugh.
dineane says:
5 months ago
I'm glad I gave it up not long after trying it. Losing that $4.99 for a newbie is very discouraging!