Microsoft adCenter

Normally we talk about Google Adsense here.  That is not the only fish in the sea, and Microsoft adCenter is a service that enables publishers and advertisers to work through Microsoft's version of AdSense.  Microsoft is not an original in this market, they rarely are.

That doesn't mean that you can't make money working with their advertising services or even make money as a publisher running their ad content on your site.  The trick is, if you run Microsoft's adCenter on your site, you cannot run AdSense at the same time unless you happen to have a rotator program, that will only show AdSense or adCenter adds alternatively.

So if you have multiple locations on your website where those types of ads are running, you need to ensure that they rotate entirely off the page while the other service is rotated on the page.

Note Microsoft does take the time to send you lots of direct mail materials for their online advertising service. And is that Search Master Steve Guy a relative or a rip off of the Verizon Wireless Guy?

One of the specialty items about the Microsoft program, is that they enable a more targeted approach to Internet surfers based on the information that Microsoft has about their usage of Microsoft products.  This enables Microsoft to a limited extent to understand who's actually looking at the ads, how old they are, what sex they are, and maybe even where they live.

Google is working to catch up in this area by capturing users information from all of the different Gmail like accounts that Google offers.  But they don't have the reach that Microsoft has in this area yet.

I've only used Microsoft adCenter to a limited extent.  I do plan on using it more especially in my own advertising campaigns.  In some niches it can be cheaper and more effective.  Plus it never hurts to understand how a competitor works so that you can get the best deal on whatever it is you might be advertising from baby clothes to computer memory.