Solve Media: Making Money With Sponsored Captcha

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Earn Money With Anti-Spam Technology?

Just stumbled upon this new revenue stream recently and I have to admit that the idea is interesting if you don’t hate captcha as much as I do 🙂 Captchas are those little boxes which normally contain distorted letters which are usually intended to block malicious programs or spammers to restrict access to things like comment forms, registration forms, contact forms, etc.

recaptcha money

Many webmasters use this form of security specially to avoid spammers to leave non relevant or useless comments for the sole purpose of obtaining linkbacks or backlinks. The problem is that many people find this form of security annoying because it can be difficult to read and is another step towards achieving an objective, this being, as an example, to leave a comment. In my case, I find having to register first to leave a comment, more annoying than having to type-in a captcha code.

Solve Media Introduces Sponsored Captchas

Solve launched what it calls a Type-In ad platform, which puts ads and brand messages in the captcha space, instead of trying to read those difficult distorted letters, and type them in. Their proprietary TYPE-IN™ is branded CAPTCHA (human authentication), which places relevant brand messages where users are already engaged. According to Solve, these provide value for Advertisers, Publishers and Consumers.

antispam captcha ie

This type of advertising in my view is mainly geared towards establishing or strengthening a brand. The ads that replaces the captcha space require users to engage with them, by typing in the names of brands and products. And it just does that, deliver a message, because it won’t do anything beyond that. They won’t trigger a video, take you to another Web site or anything else. As an example, instead of a complicated words, the ad can be Microsoft’s “Browse Safer” slogan.

How Does It Work For Publishers?

For publishers, this is a completely new revenue stream and one that doesn’t require creation of new content. Signing up is easy (at this time) and integration to your website is also easy. Modules and plugins for many popular programming languages, web frameworks, and software packages are available. For an easy and fast integration, Solve supports several plug-ins: media wiki, dokuwiki, WordPress, Drupal, disqus, vBulletin, phpBB, SMF, Pligg, IP.Board, and Joomla!.

Once installed, you will have to enter three unique keys to get it activated. After that set it up by selecting the available options. One cool feature is that you can turn it completely off and just use it as a security measure (not recommended – makes no sense if you want to earn something), or turn it off for registered users, site contributors, authors and more.

solve_media_captcha

According to Solve, they charge a fee of about 25 cents to 50 cents for each form that is filled out. The company then splits its fees 50-50 with the websites where the ads are placed. Solve is backed by venture-capital firms First Round Capital, New Atlantic Ventures, AOL Ventures and others investors.

Solve in 101 seconds:

While it is still too early for me to give you an in-depth information about how this program performs, I figured that it is something that many of you might be interested in. I have signed up for it and doing a test run on one of my other website. I will be monitoring this and give you an update as soon as the revenue cycle is complete. If you interested, you can signup here (not affiliate link).

What do think? Is this something that will interest you? What are the pros and cons that you see with this form of making money?

DiTesco

DiTesco is a Business and Inbound Marketing Consultant, and founder of iBlogzone.com. iBlogzone's main objective is to help startups and small business owners achieve success in their online ventures. | More About Me and my Digital Marketing Services in SP Brazil.

18 thoughts on “Solve Media: Making Money With Sponsored Captcha”

  • I have run across this on some big name sites already, and it is interesting. The captcha code is embedded in a video which forces you to kind of watch a short advertiser commercial.

    It would probably stop me from leaving a comment on a blog, but some of my companies where I pay bills are doing the captcha just to make payments or do certain transactions which is annoying.

    • Hi Justin. Agreed. I do not believe that installing it for the sole purpose of making money on comments is interesting. However if you have a site that requires added security, such as a membership site, etc., then I think it can be a good choice to use Solve. It provides anti-spam feature while making money with it, not bad 🙂

  • I haven’t heard of this before. I am one who sometimes finds it hard to read the letters when filling in the captcha! I understand why some blogs have introduced it when I hear about the amount of spam some site owners are having to deal with. Thanks for sharing.
    Patricia Perth Australia

    • You are welcome Patricia. There are still many people who prefer to use captchas for security purposes (blocking spammers). In this case, it is a good alternative because both are achieved. Anti-Spam and earn some money 🙂

  • Wow, this is very interesting. I was considering adding captcha to a few of my contact forms because the spam is getting outrageous – perhaps this could be a solution to that. I don’t think I’d add to the regular comments though – don’t want to run people away 🙂

    • Hi Kiesha.Very interesting indeed and adding it to some of your contact forms may seem to be a good and non annoying way to leverage on it. I also agree that it might not work well on comments but as I said, I am giving it a test run on other websites and will see how that goes. Good luck and thanks for stopping by.

      • Adding it to a comment form is a great idea! Although don’t think it would get the same amount of attention you would if it were within the comment system. And if the point is to make money with it…

        Seems like a neat option. It also drives me crazy to fill out Captcha’s but if it’s needed then I definitely see how this would be a great option … and kill two bird with one stone (make $ and deal with spam at the same time =).

        Definitely let us know what your findings are DiTesco… I would be very interested in knowing what your final take on it is.

        Thanks for sharing! =)

        • It is indeed a great option for those who for some reason likes to use captchas as a means of preventing SPAM. I have been using it in one of my websites and so far it is too early to say how its performing. Will definitely provide an update n this once I get more meaningful stats. Thanks for stopping by

  • This is kind of intriguing. Although, it might not be right for bloggers. I wouldn’t want to discourage comments. This is exactly why I went with akismet instead of captcha on my blog.

    • Hi Richard. True that captcha can be annoying and more so if you have only one or two websites to use it. Akismet is good and there has been a new alternative to that as well. You might want to check out GASP 🙂

  • It seems definitely like an interesting idea. First of all it will be interesting for companies because as you mentioned it will help them to build brand awareness. But obviously it will also be interesting for publishers since they can earn a little bit of income for not doing a whole lot. I guess the success of the program depends on how much it makes it harder for readers to navigate or whether they are less likely to fill out the captchas. Nice article DiTesco

    • Hi Julius. Good to see you here. True about the branding awareness. For publishers this is almost like a passive income stream as the only thing you have to do is install the plugin and hope that your visitors will still leave comments without being scared away. that’s really the catch about it. There are those who simply hate captchas no matter how nice they look. My test drive so far looks good. We’ll see. Thanks for stopping by.

  • I like the idea and it’s useful but again I personally hate Captcha..Since that annoys reader and I have once tested by installing simple Match captcha plugin and my comment count lowered down after that…
    Though if any one is using captcha plugin for comments they might like to try this and add some more money into their account.. (-:

    • Hi Harsh. Good to see you here. You are absolutely right. For people who like to use captcha’s as an anti spam, Solve can be an interesting alternative as it has the best of both worlds. I have installed it in a couple of less commented website I have to give it a test drive and it works. I won’t be installing it here though.. Thanks for stopping by

  • Great reading and post has some good amount of information in it as it seems that using a sponsored captcha could do more than just making spammers out of the site…. By the way thanks for the useful post…

  • I have been using this on a few of my blogs and am not to sure if I like the results or not.

    So far I have earned a big fat zero….
    My stats are not big, like 80 completed captchas and about 500 impressions. My total revenue is a bit fat zero so far. If it was at least one penny for each completed captcha I would at least have eighty cents.

    Not sure how much longer I am going to keep using this.

  • Mike – are earnings supposed to be updated daily?

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