Google Ads and Failure
posted on march 30, 2004, tag: site
Note: Since people seem to think this entry is meant to guilt them into clicking ads, I've edited it to be more clear. This entry is about how my Google Adsense experiment on the site is failing. That is all. See this entry for details.
I've been running Google's Adsense ads on this site for just over 30 days. The ads appear on the archive, plugin, xPad and a few other miscellaneous pages at the bottom of the sidebar. You might not have even noticed them.
The experiment has not been successful. The goal was for the site to pay for its own hosting for one year. I've made a total of $22.05 in 33 days. The unfortunate thing is, if I stop using the ads now, I'll never see the money I've made so far (that is, not until the end of the year). Google only pays out when you reach $100.
I'm going to leave the ads up until they make enough money for a payout. It will probably take a while, so I might end up removing them before that. Since the ads are relatively invisible, this shouldn't be a problem for people visiting the site. It depends on how long I can stand seeing them.
Comments
There are 9 comments, comments are closed
Kevin on 03/30/2004:
The ads appear on the archive, plugin, xPad and a few other miscellaneous pages at the bottom of the sidebar. You might not have even noticed them.
Well, there's your problem. Make them a bit more prominent. The act of bringing it to a noticed place on your blog brought them to my attention. It might have been most opportune to have brought the ads "above the fold" when you realized macosxhints linked to your page.
You've got a great clean aesthetic here, but you've organized those ads on the site and on the selective pages they're on in a way that's seamless and almost invisible.
I clicked through because I like the web site, but I think guilting people to get you the money is a bit weak. Like I said, the ads aren't intrusive to experiencing the site. They're just not annoying enough for the user to want them to go away. Not to say that I want them big and ugly. On the contrary, I think they look retarded on any site in any size. I just wanted to point out why your good ads venture might not have succeeded as well as you hoped.
All the luck to you.
Tomas on 03/30/2004:
I didn't even realize you had ads before you mentioned it just now (although I remember you mentioning it before too, now that I think of it). They're probably not prominent enough for anyone to find them. You could try putting them between the post and the comments section, unless that's too prominent for you.
Personally, text ads don't bother me the least bit. I say keep them, no matter how little revenue they generate, at least it's something. And something is always better than nothing, just lower your expectations a bit (or make them more prominent).
Jon Gales on 03/30/2004:
Bah. You will see the money at the end of the year no matter how much you made. Though that is 9 months away. :)
They work better for sites that have targeted traffic, such as my site MobileTracker. It doesn't hurt that there are a ton of advertisers for mobile phones.
Richard on 03/30/2004:
Doesn't xPad pay for the site? Why not feature it more and be done with adsense?
kreg on 03/30/2004:
You know, this post is just disappointing! You are pissed at us for not clicking on your ads?! Are you kidding? Maybe, if you spent more time developing your xPad product, you would reap far more benefits in the end. What is going on with that product anyway? Are you still on track with the timeline?
Garrett on 03/30/2004:
First of all, I'm not trying to guilt anyone into click any of these stupid ads. When I first put the ads on the site, I said it was an experiment and that I would only run them for a short amount of time. This post is not to complain about not making enough money.
It's true that the ads are not noticable. That's the point. I don't want annoying advertisement on this site. I don't really even want the Google ads either, but I figured I would give it a shot to see if the site could pay it's own way. It can't. No big deal—it means nothing in the grand scheme of things.
I knew after reading what I had posted that people would say I was guilting them. I also knew, however, that that wasn't what I was trying to do. I wrote this entry after checking my Adsense report and thinking to myself, "This is definitely not working."
Richard—technically, yes, xPad has paid for this site.
Kreg—I'm not pissed at anyone for not clicking ads.
Lisa Clarkson on 03/30/2004:
Whoa, take a breath. It seems Kreg was responding to a misunderstanding of your original post; you've clarified that now, so allow some room for your readers to respond (and be calmed by) that clarification.
And it is acceptable for a customer to demand things, and your right to respond positively, negatively, or not at all.
[I've removed my comment —Ed]
Tomas on 03/30/2004:
First, you say:
"The experiment has not been successful. The goal was for the site to pay for its own hosting for one year."
Then, you say:
"It's true that the ads are not noticable. That's the point."
Do you not realize that for anyone to be able to click on them, they have to notice them first?
Garrett on 03/30/2004:
Tomas—valid point.
Comments closing, this is all unnecessary—this was just supposed to be a point that the ads weren't working. Not worth all this fuss.