Qumana Launches Blog Editor and AdGenta Ad Network

By Mark Evans
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

One of the challenges facing many bloggers is finding ways to make some money from their work - an issue demonstrated by a recent U.K. study that found 35% of the top blogs have no Adsense or donation buttons. For many bloggers, the only route is Google’s AdSense program but for those who are less tech-savvy, it can be somewhat difficult to implement. Vancouver-based Qumana Inc. is hoping to provide a user-friendly alternative with the launch of a keyword-based advertising network called AdGenta. The service is a new feature to the Qumana Editor, which lets bloggers publish to multiple blogs in a Word-like environment. After playing around with QE for a few hours yesterday, I came away impressed. Using AdGenta is straightforward: you write a post in QE and then click on the advertising button. This lets you register for the AdGenta program and then it automatically puts an ad at the bottom of your post. The ad can be fine-tuned by using a feature that let you punch in your own keywords. As for the financial details, Qumana is offering a 50-50 revenue split with bloggers. It seems like a high “commission” given bloggers are the ones bringing traffic to AdGenta’s advertisers but I guess that’s the price to pay for access to a user-friendly advertising tool.

We Say: AdGenta is a nice alternative to AdSense but it faces several challenges: convincing advertisers to join the AdGenta network; getting bloggers on board and blog readers to click on the ads; and convincing advertisers the click-through rate is high enough to be a viable alternative to AdSense and banners ads.

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