February 26, 2004 | View Comments (21) | Category: Web Business
Summary: Advertising options for the independent publisher.
I am sure everyone is well aware of Google's Adsense program and how it has rejuvenated the advertising market on the Web. Google's program allows independent publishers a chance to make money on their sites without being overly annoying to their readers. It is definitely a good feeling to know you can make a small amount for doing what you love. However, they are not for everyone. A major fault in people's thinking when they consider using these ads is that they believe anyone can make money off of them. If you wish to make good use of the program you have to have a site that focuses on a single topic or a small selection of topics. This way the ads become better targeted towards your readers.
Secondly, designers please understand that on a blog that discusses web design, the ads will not generate a lot of money for you. Just be aware of that. You might be fortunate enough to cover hosting fees. I guess we just write about topics that only interest our community and not the outside world. The good thing though is that there are alternatives which may be better suited for your sites.
There are two alternatives that I am currently aware of, but have no experience with and these are BlogAds and MarketBanker. I have only come across BlogAds on politically focused blogs and Nick Denton's Gawker network uses MarketBanker for their ads. The great thing about MarketBanker is you dictate how much you make by setting the price on the ads and there is nothing stopping you from putting ads on your site, unlike Google's policies of no personal sites. With Google you really have no idea how much you are making from certain ads or even from what sites.
Note: Trisignia is a possible future alternative.
If you started a site because you were interested in the topic and have a passion for it, be careful when you introduce ads into your site. The reason I say this is because what made your site so appealing in the first place was the passion you showed for what you do and ads tend to change the focus of the owner. Don't make the ads the content of the site. If you stick to what you love the money will come. Be it a little or a lot.
Off-topic: Lame Ass Job is not dead, but under major reconstruction so that I can at least have some pride for it existing :).
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sneaky trick... set up a google adwords account. test words to see what costs the most. post about those topics.
Not sure if that'd work or not.. but it might be worth a shot.
BTW, google relaxed its restrictions a few days ago... I think some personal sites qualify now.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Or you could go to Overture and click on the "Views Bids Tool" and checkout what people are paying for certain topics. Think that may be easier ;-)
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
The one thing I've always wondered about with AdSense and similiar programs is if you can control who advertises in addition to what is advertised?
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
yah, but it's not google specific. If you know that "Hosting" runs $9.55 a click at google (and it does, to be the #1 result displayed), you know the market on google for hosting is good and you can get a better return by talking about hosting.
Too bad they don't track which pages people clicked from... I bet you made some good money discussing dedicated servers. hehehe
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Also, do you get paid based on how many ads are viewed, clicked through, or clicked through with some interaction between the ad viewer and advertiser?
Or, is it varying levels of payout for all of those options?
-Sorry for the double post.
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Mark -
You can filter out ads by domain, I know... not sure what else offhand.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Yeah you can filter out ads. I think up to 200 of them.
Dedicated servers. Ummm, yeah, that brought in a little bit of money...for anyone not knowing what discussion we are talking about or the ads in question they can be found here: Dedicated Servers. I mean only if you are curious and would like to click on them to check out the sites. ;-)
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
The whole "guilt by association" thing bothers me.
These type programs seem to me a bit like someone asking me to refer them to where they might get a good haircut and then I pull a random name out of my butt.
But then, if they're paying 9 bucks for a click for a hosting ad - hair will always grow back after a bad haircut...
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Ok Paul.
Just to show I really do like what you're trying to do and to prove I'm not really as much of a horses ass that I might appear to come off as at times, I went back to the Dedicated Server post and clicked through to everyone of the ads presented.
Enjoy your referral check.
Mark Fusco (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
Thanks Mark. You get paid based on how many clickthroughs you get. If a company is paying Google $3 for an ad and you click on it, I will get a percentage of it, but Google does not let you know what the percentage is. Most ads come out to dimes and nickels.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
BTW, google doesn't like people discussing this stuff or encouraging people to click on the ads. So of course, you haven't done anything of the sort.
I had one day a week or two ago that had a bit over $9 in google income from just 3 clicks... wish I knew what had been clicked so I could click it again. lol.
Problem is the main site I use them on is private and google can't get in to read the pages so it goes off of the URL and not much else. Need to figure out how to let googlebot bypass the login process without having it cache the pages (that part's easy, just a header tag).
Ah well.
Oh, and I should clarify... that $8 whatever is the price you'd have to pay google to guarantee position 1.1 every time someone searches for hosting. MOST hosting ads are paying closer to a buck, tops.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Just an innocent discussion about advertising options going on here between 3 guys. 3 guys?! We would be better just exchanging phone numbers.
And Google REALLY doesn't like it when you say how much you make ^^^^^ :P
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)
sneaky trick... set up a google adwords account. test words to see what costs the most. post about those topics.
Not sure if that'd work or not.. but it might be worth a shot.
Not so sneaky, people have built a lot of sites around just that idea, and not just blogs.
When Adsense first began, you could even 'trick' the 'Adsensebot' by simply including a query string with your targetted keyword: "www.mydomain.com/index.php?q=expensiveKeyword, for example.
They closed that hole, but the beat goes on...
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com.com/sandbox/weblog/)
That doesn't make it any less sneaky, in the sense I was using it in (underhanded). It just makes it more prevalent. And obvious, really. I'm very seriously considering doing something similar.
I wonder how it'd work... I mean, it's supply and demand... but how does adsense relate to google adwords? It doesn't specify or even mention adsense that I noticed in my adwords account. Does increasing use of adsense dillute the field enough that the CPC will start going down? Or the reverse, since it's extremely targeted advertising and it is CPC, not CPV. Hmm.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I know, Paul, I know. I figured i could get away with it once. heh. It's usually much much less (lots of traffic, but since google can't read the page, nothing related to the content)
'sides, the link you posted by Matt mentions payments lots of times.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
I'm joining the discussion a bit late, but anyways...
I'm a member of BlogAds, and I've not had much (read: any) success so far. The thing is, they aren't contextual; advertisers buy space on individual sites. I'm no InstaPundit or Plastic (or Whitespace ;)), so being listed among the big ones doesn't look very lucrative. Then again, I've had very high click-through rates on my house ads... but they don't pay. :P
I signed up for AdSense about half a year ago, but my site was rejected due to it being on a subdirectory (since I host it on my own server sans domain name). That's about to change, however, so I plan to give it another go.
I've also seen textads.biz. Might give it a look. And perhaps MarketBanker.
Chris Vincent (http://dris.dyndns.org:8080/)
I definitely recommend that everyone focus on generating traffic before they consider using ads on any site unless you have an ability to generate traffic quickly. Any ad is useless if there isn't anyone there to see them.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/whitespace/)
One item to consider, Chris -
You only have to run one site by them, but the adsense account is good for as many sites as you run.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Hey JC, good luck if you do it. I mean, to get visitors you have to write decent content, which means your site could be an asset to the web in general. Which is why 'they' say pick a topic that you are passionate about!
While you are at it you could look into some other money making possibilities - You can run other things on the same page as adsense ads. Check out europeforvisitors.com for an *extreme* example of a content site that someone is passionate about!
As for 'but how does adsense relate to google adwords', what I do know is that advertisers can opt in or out of content sites. This works for some and not for others...
Mike P. (http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com.com/sandbox/weblog/)
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#1
Forgot to include this must read article by Matt.
Scrivs (http://www.9rules.com/whitespace/)