When is it proper to place GoogleAds in a blog?

January 27, 2004 9:27 PM

When is it proper to place GoogleAds in a blog? My "other" site has been approved for it but I don't want to give the impression that I've sold out or anything. Budget is minimal so maintenance is not a factor...yet. Do you think having those ads will add cachet to a site? Or will it just achieve the opposite? [No self-links/respond with confidence]
posted by azul to Computers & Internet (21 answers total)

If you need the revenue, then go for it--I can't imagine a problem (people are used to them, and they're less obtrusive than banners or skyscrapers or flash ads)
posted by amberglow at 9:50 PM on January 27, 2004

Your "street cred" doesn't matter here. What matters or not is if it will be a good fit. Just because you got approved doesn't mean you'll make anything. I wrote about it exhaustively here, in case you have checked it out, the gist of it is that unless your blog is specialized you'll have a hard time meeting with any success.
posted by mathowie at 9:57 PM on January 27, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks for the comments so far. I've read that post a while back Matt and found it very instructive. My blog is very specialized and is getting about 1000 hits/day since I opened it barely 2 weeks ago.
posted by azul at 10:09 PM on January 27, 2004

Your "street cred" doesn't matter here

amen. unless you blog about the evils of capitalism and advertising, etc...though, the irony of that would be worth it...

selling out is a myth anyway. making money with a blog is selling out? yet sitting in a cubicle isn't? don't worry about selling out, worry about not having dreams or time to relax.
posted by th3ph17 at 11:10 PM on January 27, 2004

what site is it?
posted by seanyboy at 1:51 AM on January 28, 2004

thanks, seanyboy; this was also my question...
posted by taz at 2:25 AM on January 28, 2004

I've made about a hundred bucks so far after three months of using Adwords at the Roald Dahl fansite I run. I had some guilty feelings about it myself, mostly because the bulk of my visitors are kids. I've run the site for years out-of-pocket and I didn't want the emphasis to become making money. (I've had an Amazon association for a year or two that helps me buy new Dahl material, but it didn't cover the hosting cost.) I decided to try it as an experiment and it's succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. The ads seem well targetted and none of them have been age-inappropriate. I haven't received a single complaint from my visitors. It seems the only person who cared about "selling out" was me. I say go for it.
posted by web-goddess at 3:05 AM on January 28, 2004

azul, there's no bending the rules to put a relevant link to your site in this thread or in your profile. would be easier to judge appropriateness of ads if we could see the site, really.
posted by anildash at 3:50 AM on January 28, 2004

there's no bending *of* the rules
posted by anildash at 3:51 AM on January 28, 2004

azul, I appreciate you not putting the site up here, but do unlock it on your profile.
posted by biffa at 4:09 AM on January 28, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks again for your thoughts. I really appreciate it. Site isn't much really but I'm just being very careful not to turn people off. Link is at my profile now, sorry for the inconvenience.

:::Learning Mode:::
posted by azul at 6:00 AM on January 28, 2004

After looking at your profile page, it may generate some hits.
posted by thomcatspike at 7:07 AM on January 28, 2004

I wouldn't worry about selling out -- Google ads are remarkably well targeted and arguably you are providing a service by making it easy for people to purchase the products you are advocating. I think it's a good plan and you might even make a few bucks.

Thanks for the link in your profile, I never thought I would say it, but I found your discussion of moleskin notebooks oddly compelling. A quick Google search turns up a fairly large sub-culture of sites devoted to these products. Whowouldathunk?
posted by cedar at 8:06 AM on January 28, 2004

I think Google ads on topical blogs are very appropriate. Your readers likely Googled for your topic, learned from your site, and can use the ads to make a purchase.

That's, I think, the beauty of the ads.
posted by o2b at 8:19 AM on January 28, 2004

I agree.
posted by taz at 9:11 AM on January 28, 2004

From the Google AdSense Program Policies:

Personal Pages

In general, we do not accept personal pages or chat sites into the AdSense program. However, if a site contains targeted, text-based content and/or provides a product or service, we may consider it for participation.

I take that to mean "no blogs". So, i don't run my AdSense ads on my personal weblog. I do, however, run them on SunHELP and MacHELP, etc, since those aren't "personal" sites and more of "community portals".
posted by mrbill at 10:04 AM on January 28, 2004

Hrm, apparently the policies *used* to say "personal pages, or chat sites, or blogs". Wonder when they changed it.
posted by mrbill at 10:07 AM on January 28, 2004

FWIW, my new weblog project was just approved for AdSense but it is focused on a saleable and ad friendly topic.
posted by turbodog at 11:48 AM on January 28, 2004

I have a Moleskine. They're wonderful!
posted by The God Complex at 3:37 PM on January 28, 2004

Azul, it would be ridiculous of anybody to chide you for putting an adsense link on the blog. Presumably it would be for something which complements the notebook. Yours is not an edgy, anti-establishment, punk rock blog, I'm sorry to say this.. a certain amount of consumerism is built into the site itself. Nobody is going to complain.
posted by Hildago at 8:50 PM on January 28, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks Hildago and everyone for their input on this issue. I really appreciate it. Will implement the program in the coming days.
posted by azul at 9:27 PM on January 28, 2004