You may recall that only last week I posted that I was testing Kontera.

Well, today I’ve taken the decision to remove them from Money Blogger.

I really don’t like removing potential sources of revenue, but Kontera just had to go. Here’s the main reasons behind my decision:

  • The Javascript was slowing down page loading times to an unacceptable level. While my content appeared on the page quickly, the browser was indicating the page was still loading – sometimes for up to a minute. This is unacceptable.
  • The links look spammy. The arbitrary nature of making random links into ads looks cheap. And while I can distinguish Kontera’s double-underlined links from “real” links, others may not be able to, and more importantly, I don’t have full control over how and where ads are placed.
  • Their affiliate scheme sucks for the average user. They require that you send them an email if you want to join the scheme. Then when you get a response, they send a rather terse email telling you the scheme is only open to those making over $100/month (amongst other requirements). That’s a figure that’s going to exclude the majority of bloggers from promoting Kontera.

    I have no idea why they would want to prevent people from promoting them. Maybe it’s to give them an air of exclusivity. But for such a spammy looking product, that’s just never going to fly.

  • They require you to email them if you want to add new sites to your account. This is just stupid. It should be automated – even if they want to approve site manually.
  • Earnings are too low. The 1-2 cents per click I often see mean that Kontera just isn’t worth it for me.

Overall, Kontera is difficult to use, slow, low paying and ugly.

But it was having to send emails just to add a new site or find out that I wasn’t eligible for their affiliate program that was the kicker for me. For all I know, the Kontera people may be lovely, but technically speaking their service is poorly implemented, and the whole system is poorly documented.

I will continue to experiment with Kontera on my personal blog (assuming they don’t shut my account after seeing this negative review!), but unless and until things improve substantially, I won’t be using them on Money Blogger.

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