$0.03. (click for full size)
I just signed up for Google’s affiliate advertising program. On one day, one of my posts got posted on Reddit. I had just shy of 2000 page views, which to me seemed like a lot. But 2000 page views (without any clicks) = $0.03.
If my calculation is right, that works out to $15.00 per one million page views, which calls for some quick math.
That would be:
• $11.47 If the entire population of San Francisco had seen my blog post
• $268.04 if it had been seen by every person who voted for Barack Obama in the primaries (including Florida and Michigan)
• $502.99 for every human being in California, including newborns, inmates, and people who died since the last census
Or maybe more accurately:
• $45.00 for the New York Times‘ estimated daily traffic of 3 million
• $12.00 for Digg’s daily 800,000
• $6.00 for the Huffington Post’s daily 400,000
Granted, the basic truth here is that Adsense only works if people click on ads, but does anyone ever click on ads? In over ten years of using the Internet, I have probably clicked on ten ads intentionally, and maybe average one per week as a mistake (which seems to be the logic in placing them over to the right of a wide Web page next to the scroll bar.
Google reports Adsense revenues v. costs, but apparently there is a system in place where some Web sites get 100% of ad revenue, and some as little as 40%, and the information regarding that isn’t shared with affiliate sites. But it makes sense, as a lot of the bigger Web sites wouldn’t exist, or at least, wouldn’t be using Google’s ads otherwise.
It’s just amazing that Google managed to generate $1.69 billion in Adsense revenue in the first quarter of this year alone, mostly with ads that are more or less the same in content as spam.
And, of course, if the disparity between my server’s statistics and Google’s is an indication, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30+% of visitors are using ad blocking software, which I can appreciate. The ads are seeming more and more like useless clutter.
July 1st, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Maybe your website sucks?
July 1st, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I’ll click on a Google Ad on my way out.
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:03 am
People that make money off of their google adsense are people with special markets. These markets have readers that are total idiots and click everything in sight.
Getting a post on reddit wont get you any ad clicks. The people on reddit aren’t idiots!
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:39 am
Most (internet) advertising is the same really, always has been. It’s about trying to get as many people as you can, to do a little bit to make you a little money.
In this case, Google, there user base is massive.
I only use Google to advertise because
a) I do find it displays something remotely useful “sometimes” - and hope, that my users will get a little.
b) It’s one of the less obtrusive methods of putting advertising on your site.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
I just signed up for adsense myself, and have gone nowhere with it. I dont want them to be intrusive nor do I want to trick people into clicking them. I guess I wont be able to quit my day job just yet…
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
That is good to know. I’ve been considering placing AdSense on my blog for several weeks now, but after reading through your post I have been convinced to wait a while. For you sake, I’ll click on one of the ads on my way out.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:05 pm
FINALLY some truth to the whole matter. so many people talking about making 100 a day on adsense are full of shit or rank high in a high paying niche.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I signed up for AdSense in the hope of it would help in the financing of my web hotel costs. In 6 months now it got me 43$. And one year for the web hotel costs 200€. So, so far it’s really not looking promising.
The thing is, like someone already said, it really depends on your visitors. My site is technical, mostly for system administrators and most in my line of work use ad blockers.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
still you are using gmail. for free. and it is good. google is smart man.
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Good post.
Also, Google does not pay until a minimum $100 is in the account. Good luck getting to that magic number at the rate of under $3-5 per month.
In the meantime, imagine sitting on small amounts owed to a million publishers out there. Nice chunk of change for Google, zilch for the rest of us.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I have around 1200 pageviews a day for my blog (punchkickchoke.blogspot.com) and now that I’ve had almost exactly one year to look over it, it took me about 3 months to get more than $5/month, 6 months to get more than $15/month, and 9 months before I was making more than $30 a month.
I feel that niche and placement of ads are more important than just pageviews, but you still need the pageviews for it to make a difference.
That being said, I’ve heard reddit users are notorious for not clicking any ads.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
It’s been mentioned before, but it’s all about who is visiting your site. Traffic coming from reddit is going to be “smart” traffic from people who know the web.
For example, a few months ago my site (http://www.linein.org/blog/) got on the front page of digg.com for a dog licking a screen. Great stuff for people who just like a good laugh and it was forwarded around via email to every mom and grandma who love to click on ads. (especially very related ones which they were)
If you want to make money off of ads, you need to have material for people who will click on them.
July 4th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Have you tried moving the adverts around to get a better return?
July 5th, 2008 at 12:29 am
nuff said
July 11th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
You’ll only really get money for clicks on your ads when you’re starting up (that’s CPC advertising). Once advertisers put placement ads on your page you’ll get more CPM advertising (where you’re paid per view of the ad not just for the click). Placement/CPM advertising pays much better in Adsense.
From my calculations I would say that 3c for 2000 impressions is about 1/5th of what you should be getting once you’ve built up your placement advertisers. I would focus on getting more traffic to your site and pray that people click ads…