After last week’s PageRank update, plus because the ads were making the site look very cluttered and busy, I have decided to remove all advertising from PlanetMike.com.
I’ve been experimenting with advertising on the site since leaving my full-time webmaster gig in February, 10 months ago. I have used Google Adsense, Adbrite, Project Wonderful, and Text-Link-Ads. I did receive some money for these ads, enough that it was a bit more than chump change, but not enough that I could retire completely. Each ad system had their advantages and disadvantages:
- Project Wonderful: Easy to implement; very low payout unless you have a very popular site. (See Thoughts on the Project Wonderful ad system for more info.)
- Google Adsense: Easy to implement; low payout.
- Adbrite: Easy to implement; low payout; R and near-X rated ads, one ad was trying to infect Windows PC’s, which was when I dropped the program. Adbrite won’t give me my $4.94 that has accumulated in my account .:(
- Text-Link-Ads: can be tricky to implement, requires you to give special file permissions to a settings file on the web site; ads will affect your rankings in search engines; some ads are links to bad places; very high payout.
So how am I going to make money from PlanetMike since I will no longer carry advertising? For the short term, I’ll beg for donations. Longer term, I’ll ramp up my programming and consulting efforts, which will probably include reviewing sites. So, if you need some help on a web issue, feel free to contact me.
I also will be looking into what search engine I should use so that the site can be searched. Right now I use Google’s, so I do make a few cents from those searches. But those few pennies aren’t enough to justify not looking around to see what the options are. I’m open to suggestions, just leave a comment here.
(Updated on 2018-04-27: Removed two dead links, and fixed two internal links that were pointing to the wrong pages on my site.)
What does “very high payout” for Text-Link-Ads mean?
Supposing you earn $X/day with Google Adsense, which you described as a “low payout” system, how much, more or less, would one get with Text-Link-Ads? 1.5*X? 2*X? 3*X? More? Less?
Hi,
For my site, and every site is significantly different, but in the month of October 2007 I made $X using Google AdSense; with Text-Link-Ads, I made three and a half times X, $3.5*X. Considering that was only a handful of ads on the site, (2 on the home page, one on the blog, and I think 8 in old blog posts) that’s a lot of easy money. But after evaluating the impact of those text link ads on my PageRank score, and that I was tacitly endorsing those sites (cigarettes and Russian dating) from my site’s home page, I decided it wasn’t worth it. Some of the other ads weren’t so bad, but I feel a lot better about myself and my site by only linking to things I want to link to. Maybe ads will come back, but that is a long way away. Mike
I’ve always thought of you as a trend-setter, Mike. So I hope your example sets one for many. In order for ads to work, we must have more control over the ads, and set the standards for what are “quality” ads, as ads do reflect back on the integrity and reputation of our blogs and blog content.
Good for you for speaking out on this.
Hi Lorelle, Thanks for your support. One of my other sites we manage the ads ourselves, and that has worked pretty well. I think we got dinged there by Google as well, so now the ads have rel=”nofollow” on them. It’s silly, but that’s the new game. Mike
Nice move. I hope more people go this way and it shakes up the ad marketplace. It’s all messed up. Too many people lose their shirts with ad campaigns thinkin the Inet is going to make them big bank.
I need to dig a little deeper into your site here I must admit. I’m a techie and get the feeling I could learn a thing or two. Maybe even share a bit of my knowledge too.
Keep it up,
John