Integrating Google Adsense into this Blog
February 24th, 2007 | Posted in blog 21 Comments »
I never thought blogging could be very profitable, but after listening to a podcast with Guy Kawasaki, who says he could make 25-30K a year blogging, and after reading John Chow’s blog, which shows him earning 3K a month, I decided to start integrating Google Adsense into my posts.
Google Adsense allows you to integrate Google’s ads into your website or blog. The ads displayed match the categories you’ve set up and the keywords of your posts.
Google has some restrictions about the way you display and reference their ads. For example, I cannot encourage you to click the ads in my posts, nor can I provide special incentives for doing so, because while it would certainly throw some change my way, it would violate the Terms of Agreement and misrepresent the effectiveness of Google’s ad program. I am also limited in the number of ads displayed per page.
It’s remarkably easy to sign up for Google Adsense, even though the sign-up process requires you to complete an electronic tax form. Each month, you can have the money deposited directly into your bank account or mailed to you as a check.
To integrate Google’s ads, I’m using the Deluxe Adsense plugin. It allows me to modify my template tags with a big of code and thereby have ads show up on all posts, rather than inserting the ads manually into each post (such as with Inline Adsense).
I’m also using the Adsense Earnings plugin to keep tabs on my earnings to date inside my dashboard.
I have not yet decided to go the Pay Per Post route, although I just might some day. Pay per post is a service that pays you money to post about certain topics. You disclose that you’re being paid to post about it, and then it’s not so controversial.
My only hesitation with Pay Per Post is that the products and services I might be paid to blog about may have nothing to do with the theme of my blog. However, I haven’t explored this yet. My wife also asked what happens when I promote some crappy product for money and then lose my credibility. So there’s that too. (I’m assuming you don’t receive payment from a company for a bad review of their product.)
I bet there are some people out there, though, who post often enough and write quickly enough that they maintain a sustainable living from blogging. If you could jack up your search engine optimization skills, target the right market, and post about 10 times a day, it might actually work. Do you know any “professional bloggers” out there?
(By the way, I photoshopped that image above. I haven’t earned anything yet.)
3-19-2007 Update:
It’s been nearly a month now since I integrated Google Adsense into this blog, but the earnings ($8.53) aren’t what I anticipated, so I removed Google adsense from this site. For the past week, almost no one clicked any of the ads. I think all the readers who did click ads clicked them out of curiosity only. After the first experiment, there was no incentive to click them again. By the way, Google only mails you a check after you accumulate $100 worth of revenue.
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I thought about adding AdSense to my blog, but I gave up for fear that it took away credibility. It made it look like I was blogging not because I loved the topic or wanted to share my life, but because I thought I could make an easy buck doing it.
But to each his own. Here’s to hoping that it works out for you.
Let us know if it pays enough for you to quit your job, or move to the Bahamas or something…
I checked my revenue today and see that I’ve earned 44 cents so far. Woohoo! I’m on my way to riches.
I see your point. But I at least want to experiment with ad sense for a month. If I make nothing but pocket change, then I’ll remove it.
Strangely, my wife said the ads made my blog look more professional.
Scott and I had AdSense on our blog, and it was going quite well until Google pulled the ads from our site and accused us of click fraud. Neither of us had clicked on our own ads, but Google shut down all communication and that was that.
I hope you have better luck than we did.
Aaron, I’m sorry to hear Google banned you from Ad Sense. Your note that it was going quite well gives me hope. How well was it going? Did you do anything specific to optimize the clicks?
BTW, I just realized that I’ve never seen your adsense links. I wonder if it is because I’m using Firefox with Adblock Plus…
Hmmm…. Maybe I’ll look at your site in IE and see what it looks like with the ads.
So, Tom, I can’t see any adsense at all, regardless of the browser I use. Did you remove it?
(Sorry for the abundance of comments this morning… Maybe I should just e-mail you instead…)
Paul,
I actually removed the adsense links about a week ago (I silently removed them; maybe I should announce their removal). Google ads really didn’t make much money ($8 after 25 days), and for the past week or so they hit a plateau at $8. It was like nobody was curious enough to click them any more.
It was a good experiment, but it’s not worth integrating Google adsense unless you have a blogging topic that is commercial and product-oriented (which would invite clicking ads for those products), or if you have thousands of readers each day.
Still, if you read Darren Rowse’s and John Chow’s blogs, they offer techniques and other tricks you can do to increase readership and ad-clicking. There are professional bloggers, but it requires a lot more time and know-how than I am willing to invest. And my blog, as would be true for most other bloggers, isn’t for commercial purposes. It may be a way to market myself professionally, sure. But I’m not looking for the $100 Google check after 5 months of ads displayed all over my site. I don’t think many others are either.
Maybe you’ll have a better experience than I did. If so, let me know.
By the way, I updated the original post to show a screenshot of my results. After nearly 4,000 page impressions, only 19 people clicked ads. Does that tell me my readers aren’t product-oriented people? Did I not optimize my ads correctly? Maybe that’s just how many impressions it takes? Who knows.
[...] Integrating Google Adsense into this Blog | I’d Rather Be Writing … 3K a month, I decided to start integrating Google Adsense … Google ads really didn’t make much money ($8 after 25 days), and for the past week or … Integral WordPress Theme based on a design by Free … http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/02/24/integrating-google-adsense-into-this-blog/ [...]
Adsense works, ready my site?
Adsense site
Does people need to click on one’s ad to earn revenue? hmm..
Wow, that was some profit. I suggest you to research why your earnings dropped so sharp. That’s not normal, you know that too.
Thank you for your help!
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i use Adsense on my blogs and websites, i can say that Adsense is the best make money online program on the internet.
i love Google Adsense, it allows me to make money on my personal blog and some of my health related sites.
i love google Adsense, it enables me to earn money on the websites and forums that i have put up several years ago. if you got tons of websites, you can earn a lot from Adsense alone
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