Comments on: To Google AdSense or not to AdSense?

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 19:48:40 +0000

Content is still king, only after content is there, clicks will come in, lastly $$$ will come in. That’s my experience at least.

By: Mallory

Mallory — Sat, 13 Aug 2005 02:24:54 +0000

Is this (your site) in Verdana?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 05:58:57 +0000

Jared: Thanks for the comment! The colors I can adjust… but that’s it. And you’re kind of limited; you can’t choose just any color. All the Google code is generated from their servers (you stick in a little Javascript) and not touchable. Oh, for just one little font tag… I hate Arial. Argh.

By: Jared Christensen

Jared Christensen — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 22:38:55 +0000

Viewing your source, it looks like there’s a lot of adjustments you could make to colors, fonts, etc. That is, of course, unless that code is all generated server-side.

By: Gone Away

Gone Away — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 20:01:30 +0000

I removed the two ads from my blog a few days ago. It occurred to me: why do I have these things hanging around when they don’t earn me any money and slow the loading of the blog? Then I went and posted a polemic against advertising in blogs! But I’ll agree that, if you have to have ads, the Adsense ones are the least obtrusive and distracting. Not that they’ll ever earn the vast majority of us any money…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 09 Aug 2005 19:49:48 +0000

Kaitlin: I know perfectly well how to punctuate! I just choose not to while instant messanging. It just slows me down. Speed is of the essense. I’m not a huge fan of ad blockers — I feel that if someone wants to read my content, they should put up with the small efforts to monetize. And if the ads are out of control? Then don’t read the content. It’s not like the user doesn’t have the choice of not visiting the site. I doubt that’s a popular stance…

Rob: Why not sign up for Google? It can’t hurt! I like where you put it on your site, it looks good there. I don’t mind Google ads either — I click them pretty regularly across the net. They’re often relevant. And like you said, fairly amusing when they’re not. I am particuarly amused when you can see what the Google ad was thinking was the content, when it was very wrong. If that makes sense.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:00:54 +0000

Man, my clarity is poor this morning. By “give it a shot” I meant that I’ll try AdSense on my own site. I’ve submitted the application and will try to integrate the ads with my site once everything goes through.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 16:59:35 +0000

Well, you inspired me to give it a shot. I'm sure I'll get even fewer hits through Google than you do, but what the heck? Maybe I'll earn enough someday to pay for a can of Coke.

As a reader, I don't mind Google's ads. They're often either relevant or amusingly inaccurate, so they've either got actual or comedic value. In my gmail account, I get the equivalent beside all of my e-mails, but barely notice them. It's a small price to pay for the coolness that is gmail.

By: Kaitlin

Kaitlin — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 04:03:23 +0000

The Andrew writing these blog posts doesn't seem like the same Andrew who occasionally messages me. All the punctuation makes me wonder if you have been replaced by an alien replica.

By the way, I think using filterset.g with Firefox's Adblock extension blocks Google Ads. At least, I've never seen Google Ads since I implemented filterset.g (or any other ads, for that matter). Just thought I would let you know. Even Google can be thwarted, apparently! AdBlock can be very zealous.