[madcoderme]

> I looked into a half-dozen or so alternatives, but all the other companies were either simply Google ads re-sellers, which is an ecosystem I don't quite understand, or were extremely sketchy, and had reviews complaining about how they trick people into downloading malware and such.

This is so true. I have tried to monetize my tools with ads quite a few times before, and the only way was to use Adsense. It's actually crazy how there is literally no quality alternative.

[jokethrowaway]

Funnily enough some Google resellers are paying more than Google.

I have no clue how, they must be burning investors' money

[chillfox]

They provide curation to the ad buyers. Basically the marketplace is broken for both sides.

[fikama]

Could you elaborate please ? You got me intrested but I can't make anything of what you mean by "curation".

[chillfox]

If you only want your ads next to quality content or on sites that are not drowning in ads so your ad is more impactful, then Google won’t help. But a third party can provide that through their curated list of sites.

Basically they are in the business of providing human curated targeting parameters instead of the algorithm based that Google supplies.

[fikama]

Thanks :)

[unkulunkulu]

Why couldnt they be “sudsidized” by G to uphold monopoly? If they bring in clients that otherwise are not going there? they simply cost more

[gregw134]

Doesn't Microsoft have an ad network?

[madcoderme]

Yes, but not as distributed as adsense

[conradfr]

AdSense also has semi-scams that trick people into subscription through their ceil carriers.

And they are hard to block as a site owner as they seem to constantly have new accounts.