Does AdSense Make Sense?

19Jun06

Well, after getting all my technical difficulties taken care of, I can finally post this article. In case you’re curious AdSense Deluxe proved to be the solution. Not only did it solve my problem, but it also allows me to easily change the colors a formats of my adds.

As you’ve most likely noticed, MandLadventures now has a few ads by Google. I’ve had mixed feelings about advertisements on web sites for quite some time now. In the not so distant past I was against any and all ads. Yet, I did understand that people/bloggers needed to pay for their hosting and maybe earn a little something for all their hard work. So ads never really bothered me that much; I just didn’t care for them. After realizing how much work goes into maintaining a blog, I decided I would try my luck with running a few ads. My one caveat was that they could not be obnoxious. So, I did my best to blend my ads with the the theme of the site (expect for this post). Overall, I think that they look pretty good…for ads anyway.

After having the ads up for about two week I’m a bit disappointed with the results. I’ve barely made enough to buy a coke. :) Maybe the ads blend in too much…I guess that is why so many websites have ads that are in your face all the time. I suppose its good that I’m not in this for the money. I blog because I love building websites and giving back to the community.

So this post was my attempt of putting ads in your face learning how my readers feel about advertisements. Does adSense make sense?

Don’t worry, I have no plans for adding crazy amounts of ads on my site except on this post of course. If things don’t improve I will likely remove all ads.

I’m anxious to hear how my readers feel about ads. Do absolutely hate them, like them, or don’t care as long as they blend in? Leave some comments and let me know. Thanks.

Author: Matt   |   Filed under: Entrepreneurship   |  

10 Responses to “Does AdSense Make Sense?”  

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  1. 1 Dennis on Jun 19th, 2006 said:

    I actually don’t mind the ads. Sometimes interesting stuff does appear and I would click on to see more. Then again, somtimes I completely ignore the ads altogether as if they weren’t even there.

  2. 2 Dennis on Jun 19th, 2006 said:

    By the way, I dropped my Adsense code directly into the php code. I got tired of having to post the adsense tag with every post. if you notice, my blog only shows three posts at a time to comply with Adsense TOS.

  3. 3 Matt on Jun 20th, 2006 said:

    Thanks Dennis. I’m like you if something is interesting I’ll click it. If not I won’t. And sometimes I completely ingnore them

    Good point about the TOS. I think I’m in compliance, but I better double check. The only problem might be this post :)
    For some reason when I dropped Adsense code by writing the post it does not seem to work. When I drop the code into my presentation files it works like it should. Kinda weird.

  4. 4 Adnan on Jun 20th, 2006 said:

    Hey Matt,
    I have developed Adsense blindness, so much so, that I rarely follow ads through unless they have really caught my attention, or unless I want to give the publisher of the article some clicks for their hard work!
    As you’ve seen in Blogtrepreneur, I try and make my ads blend in with the general theme of the blog, and I make sure that I use similar colours so as to not distract the reader.

    I would’t mind if I saw more ads on your blog, but definitely not in the middle of posts like in this article!

  5. 5 Matt on Jun 20th, 2006 said:

    I know what you mean about Adsense blindness. I think you already know from talking to me that I like my ads to blend in. This post was an exception to make a point–not something I plan on doing in the future.

  6. 6 James on Jun 21st, 2006 said:

    Matt,

    Just a suggestion - the adsense bar on the right menu will never get clicked.
    1) Looks too much like an ad
    2) Is below the fold
    3) People will skip right past it.

    I approve of the advert under your first post however I disapprove of the one in the actual post :)
    Try putting a 468×60 ad above your first post.

    If all else fails, read this :)

  7. 7 Matt on Jun 21st, 2006 said:

    Thanks for the suggestions James. I was afraid that the ads on the sidebar were in a bad position, but they actually look decent there.

    I disapprove of the one in the actual post…like I said I was trying to show how ads can be annonying.

    I don’t really want to move the ads above my post b/c I think that looks bad even though I’m sure your suggestion would increase my click through rate.

    I’ll check out the article you linked to.

    Also, I used that code you gave me and made the color changes. Do you like the blue better than the green?

    Thanks for the comment and let me know if you think of any more great ideas.

  8. 8 Matt on Jun 21st, 2006 said:

    On second thought James, I may put the 468×60 ad above the post. 60 pixels tall is awfully small, so it won’t be annoying as I first thought. Good suggestion.

  9. 9 Matt on Jun 21st, 2006 said:

    After hearing everyone’s wonderful comments and suggestions I decided to change things up a bit.

    I decided to leave the adsense at the bottom of each of my post, but have changed it from the block format to the banner format. Like James mentioned, I added some ads above my first post. However, I decided on a 468×15 link unit rather than the 468×60 banner. The sidebar ads were not doing any good (not that the other ads are either) so I replaced them with a referral to some great free software. Google Pack really is worth checking into and I’m not just saying that b/c I’m got an ad for it.

  1. 1 Effective Ways to Monetize Your Website at M and L Adventures

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