Google Adsense may be the best online money-making program right now, but Filipino publishers looking for an alternative or complementary means to make more money need not look further.
Asia Century Multi-Advertising, Inc. or AsiaCenturyPH.com is a Philippine-based online advertising network that is very similar to the Google Adsense program. Like in Adsense, a website owner registers his site in Asia Century’s affiliate site and, when approved, can start placing ad codes on his site. The site publisher earns whenever the ads deliver a click, a lead, or a sale.
Here is our initial review of Asia Century after trying the program for one week.
First impressions
We first received an invitation to join Asia Century in June this year. We took a look at the site but back then, we were not yet ready to entertain other advertising networks. But Asia Century’s CEO Anders Barris was persistent. Almost every other week, the email invitations kept on coming. And so last week, we decided to give it a try. We thought, what’s not to like if it’s going to complement our Adsense earnings?
We signed up and in a matter of minutes, PinoyMoneyTalk.com was approved and the ad codes were ready to be placed on the site. We logged in to the affiliate site and, interestingly, the interface was very similar with another affiliate management site Commission Junction (CJ).
The CJ-like interface works for Asia Century’s advantage because it is familiar and easy to use. The main difference, of course, is that Asia Century’s ad campaigns are targeted to the Filipino public and well, sadly, offer lower payouts as well.
Still, those looking for a complementary money-making program won’t be disappointed. More than 34 affiliate programs are running right now, with varyings offers such as free music streaming, free TGIF gift cards, and a games site that gives away free cellphone load (sample ads can be seen at the bottom of this blog article).
Ads have various formats that can suit a site such as text links, small banner ads, big banner ads, and, yes, bigger banner ads. We noticed, however, a few campaigns that do not offer any ad unit so we wonder how a publisher can promote that campaign.
One good thing is that most offers don’t necessarily have to generate a lead or a sale in order to generate income. A click on the ad normally would suffice, and the income from one ad click may vary from P0.50 to P0.70.
Another plus point is the comprehensive earnings report which details which ads made money and when the ads were clicked. These information surely help site owners determine which affiliate programs should be highlighted and which ones should be terminated.
Needs improvement
As a new player in the local online advertising industry, Asia Century is definitely not without flaws. One major problem is the slow loading of the affiliate login site. Actually while writing this review, it took us 3 minutes before we were able to log in to our account.
We also noticed that the Affiliate Login field in the AsiaCenturyPH.com main site doesn’t work. It looks like a JavaScript problem but we’re not sure if the problem is with our PC or with the site itself.
Regarding the ad campaigns, having more ad format options won’t hurt, and we’re not just talking about the size of the banner ad. Alternative ad colors or new ad content can help publishers select which ad formats they think will generate more clicks on their site.
It also would be good to have a search function that can filter campaigns depending on how a publisher can earn from the offer, i.e., per-click or per-lead or per-sale.
Of course, constantly adding more merchants and affiliate programs is a must and, if possible, increase the commission rate as well to attract more publishers. We think the per-click commission of P0.50 might be too low but we’re extremely satisfied with the per-lead payout of up to P100 per successful lead.
Conclusion
A week of trial with Asia Century earned us a total of P40.00. Asia Century is definitely nowhere near the caliber of Google Adsense in terms of higher payout but why complain if you can earn by simply adding a simple code to your site?
If you’re looking for an alternative or complementary way of making more money online, you should take a look at Asia Century advertising network.
Next to test: receiving payment from Asia Century. Hopefully, it won’t be a problem to cash out the earnings from them, unlike other affiliate programs in the past that turned out to be scams.
