Blogging & Ads - Google AdSense Advertising

[sapearl]

For those of you who use Google's Blogspot to Blog, have you also taken advantage of their Adsense feature to generate a little bit of revenue and improve your site's visibility and search engine rankings?

I'm always a little bit leary about linking to advertising, but this seems like a pretty decent "low risk" concept with modest rewards and reasonable benefits. Others on POTN have done it successfully and are very pleased. I've got a few questions though for folks who use adsense:

1.) Are the ads appropriate to your blog? Have any offended you?
2.) Do you feel the ads make your blog look more professional?
3.) Do the ads "mess up" your layout in any way?
4.) Are you surprised by how much/little the ads generate (I don't need to know specific financials unless you want to share that; this is private for a lot of people.)
5.) Payment: I believe this is handled by EFT - Electronic Funds Transfer - how do you feel about providing bank account info on the web?

Generally this seems like a good concept. You increase traffic to your site(s), improve SEO ranking and make a couple of bucks; I understand you don't get rich.

HOWEVER, I'm paranoid as heck about providing bank account info on the net if that's how it's done. Almost EVERYDAY there's something in the news about a financial DB being hacked or identities stolen. That aspect really puts me off. What do you folks think? Thanks. - Stu

[cosworth]

Google will send you a cheque.

[Gary Lindquist]

We have a few sites that use Google AdSense. Doesn't generate a whole lot of income, but easily pays the fees for keeping all of our sites online. They do pay on time and no problems have arisen as a result of using AdSense.

[sapearl]

That's good to hear Jason - for some reason I had the impression they wanted to deposit the checks electronically. Thanks :D.

Google will send you a cheque.

[djscrib]

As far as Googles DB getting hacked, I would imagine that one of the flagship products of a 160 Billion dollar company, would probably be a safer place to submit your bank account# + routing number, than any of the multitude of sites you routinely use to purchase things online.

[sapearl]

One would certainly hope so ;).

As far as Googles DB getting hacked, I would imagine that one of the flagship products of a 160 Billion dollar company, would probably be a safer place to submit your bank account# + routing number, than any of the multitude of sites you routinely use to purchase things online.

[New Hobby]

How about setting up another back account just to receive the payment? Some banks will do a 2nd account for free.

[sapearl]

I was thinking along those lines too - it would be easy enough to do, although Jason indicated that Google can send you a check too.

How about setting up another back account just to receive the payment? Some banks will do a 2nd account for free.

[Binning]

I use adsense on several sites. The ads are generally appropriate to the language on the web page in which they appear.

One thing to keep in mind is that if the ads appear on your photography site blog, they could be advertising local competitors. You won't know until you set up the ad codes and allow a little time for Google to propogate the ads based on your web page terms. Google does give you an option to block specific ads.

Whether ads make your page look more or less professional is probably more a matter of individual taste. I'm used to seeing them on blog pages, less so on a main content/service page of a professional business. The ads can work fine with most page layouts, presenting them as a strip either vertically or horizontally -- you will have options for the size of the ad and whether you want just text or graphics as well.

I used the EFT in my setup and it has worked without a problem. The signup was encrypted. However, everyone has a different comfort level and there is nothing wrong with accepting payment by check rather than EFT -- it just takes a little longer to recieve.

How much revenue the ads generate depends largely on the marketplace. Ad buyers bid on specific search terms for their ads. The more competitive the bidding and the higher the margin of their products, the more you will be paid. I've had ads that have paid as little as $.02 per click and some that paid $2.00 per click.

Google will pay adsense participants as frequently as once a month, but only pay when the balance reaches $100. It can be profitable if you have decent traffic to your site and the ads fit the audience.

Another alternative that might be of interest is an affiliate program. Amazon.com has an affiliate program that pays 4% for each sale. Their program has a great deal of latitude. You can select specific items you want to advertise on your site or you can build your own store. This might be a better option for advertising if you don't have a lot of site traffic, but those who do visit are very interested in your subject matter. You have better control of ads and your blog can reinforce the sale.

Tim

[Gujustud]

I got my first chq from Google from one of my sites I run. I only started adsense about 4 months ago. Brutal, I wish I had started much earlier.

[djscrib]

If you want to try some "black hat-ish" optimization for Adsense make sure that the text at the top of your page, and especially in header tags is using subject keywords towards something that is a high demand/price keyword.

Your goal is to get ads to appear on your page that have a high click-thru value, but are also relevant enough to your customers that you will have a high click rate.

Subtle changes to your text can result in an order of magnitude difference.

As an experiment on one of the sites I ran, I changed wording from being related to Windows Media Player, to Home Mortgages.

In 1 month revenue went from $130/month, to $3400 on the same traffic.

Of course google sniffed out my site had nothing to do with mortgages and I was trying to pump my revenue, and promptly cancelled my account, but it was an interesting case nonetheless.

[sapearl]

Sounds kind of risky to me - why run the chance of having your carefully crafted website or hard work of a blog cancelled for a few short term dollars. That kind of reputation tends to follow people - especially since folks are being investigated and indicted now for home mortgage scams :rolleyes:.

If you want to try some "black hat-ish" optimization for Adsense make sure that the text at the top of your page, and especially in header tags is using subject keywords towards something that is a high demand/price keyword......

As an experiment on one of the sites I ran, I changed wording from being related to Windows Media Player, to Home Mortgages.

In 1 month revenue went from $130/month, to $3400 on the same traffic.

Of course google sniffed out my site had nothing to do with mortgages and I was trying to pump my revenue, and promptly cancelled my account, but it was an interesting case nonetheless.

[djscrib]

Maybe a hair overboard their stuart.

I gave an extreme example of Black Hat optimization.

White Hat optimization is just good business sense. Is the first paragraph of your photography website about Aunt Millie and her cats? Well then your ads are going to be Cat Lover and Aunt Millie lover ads which generate no money, and no clicks.

Changing that paragraph to be about photography, which is the purpose of your site, would generate relevant ads that people would actually click because it benefits them.

Anyhow, I was just shedding some insight into how the system worked so take it or leave it.

[sapearl]

Overboard? Well, if you were in fact running a site or blog that discussed photography, and then intentionally gave the impression that you provided mortgage information just to make more money when in fact you did not, that is misleading.

Maybe a hair overboard their stuart.

I gave an extreme example of Black Hat optimization.......

[djscrib]

Actually the example I gave again, I noted was an EXTREME case.

I also did not advocate putting mortgage information on a photography website, I was giving and EXTREME example of tailoring your ads on your page.

As for how "fraudulent" it is, consider this. You've seen Google Ads. They are pretty clear about what each is.

"Click here to get Low Mortgage Rates".

So if someone clicks on that ad, it's pretty damn obvious that they were in fact interested in the end product. So exactly who is getting hurt in this process I may ask? The customer who visits an advertised website that THEY intentionally clicked on?

The reason Google frowns on this is for internal marketing reasons as they fear no one will bother displaying low-click-revenue ads unless they constrain you to a sandbox.

So unless you're a Google employee, I think the moral outrage is a little bit misplaced.

What I advocate, is doing some simple text optimization to make sure that if you have a photo website you are ACTUALLY getting ads related to photography. If you have your text set up wrong you can wind up with a photography website that you are using to generate ad revenue, that is displaying ads about diapers and potatoes and makes no money.

[sapearl]

My mistake then - I misunderstood the post. I thought it was something you said you actually DID with one of your sites. No, I am not a google employee.

Actually the example I gave again, I noted was an EXTREME case.

I also did not advocate putting mortgage information on a photography website, I was giving and EXTREME example of tailoring your ads on your page........