Starting Charity Account with AdSense
3 Feb
I’ve complained about Google AdSense many times before, saying I will never put them on NevBlog. Well, that’s changed.
I have a very under-funded Charity Account with Bank of America which I recently started, and not much money has gone into it. This account automatically accumulates money every week from my main account, but relatively slowly compared to the other accounts.
Starting this Feb 1st I put a vertical Google Adsense banner on NevBlog to generate income for this new charity account. I tried to make it very un-invasive:
Leaving the ad relatively out of the way is contrary to maximizing its profit potential, but I don’t want to clutter the site.
So far the return is extremely BAD. The first day I got several thousand impressions, 8 clicks and a grand total of 38 cents. If that’s a taste of the profit to come, then I’m not sure AdSense is even worth it.
I thought this would be a painless way to increase the amount of money I give away, so hopefully the profits improve!
Very noble of you.
I’ve had a terrible experience with AdSense. I was cancelled twice for some “abusive activity”. I went through logs and traced some activity from overseas. I had no luck proving to Google it wasn’t me clicking on my own ads.
I just gave up on them. People that are like me don’t click on ads anyway. No surprise my site is ad-free as well.
You got 38¢ because it was day one, give it time.
Most clicks are from searchers and as you said you didn’t want it in the way, so with it being ‘out of the way’ it will be out of sight as well, which means fewew clicks that what possibly could be.
Perhaps you also try other advertising forms such as Chitika.com and other blog revenue sources. They might add more ‘clutter’ but they would bring in more ‘profit’ :-)
Couple of comments:
1. very generous of you to give money to charity in this way even if it might not be much so far.
2. be careful with posts like this. Anything that could be seen to be encouraging people to click your ads can get you banned. While you havn’t asked people to click here and are probably ok – if people take this post to heart and decide to help you out by clicking lots of ads the chances are you’ll get banned. I know of a couple of people who made announcements that they were giving their money from ads to charity and had this problem. While I’m sure Google applaud your charity they have to be tough on false clicks because advertisers are paying for each click.
3. The reason you probably have not had much money from them is that they are unobtrusive to the point that they go pretty much unseen on your blog. This is mainly because they are below the fold on your blog (ie readers have to scroll to see them) and because you’ve blended them in so much that they are almost invisible on my screen. I understand why you’ve done this (you don’t want them to be too obtrusive) but you can’t expect to have ads that are unseen and earn lots – it’s probably going to have to be one or the other ;-)
Anyway – all the best with it
very good for you to be giving to a good cause. Since it is for charity, you may want to palce it higher up where it can earn a bit more money.
Also be careful reavealing the amount you make on a daily basis – cumulative amounts for a month and year are ok, but daily and per click are against the adsense terms I believe.
1. Move the ads to the top (left is good, though).
2. Start writing about topics that earn good $ per click.
3. Watch the money roll in.
1. Start writing so you make money with ads.
2. Watch more money roll in.
3. Watch your readers leave.
4. Watch the money stop rolling in.
Nev, your site has really gone to crap. First you say you will never have ads, then place the stupid pixel ads in the corner…then you place google ads on the blog, under the pretense of increasing your charitable contributions.
You aren’t giving money to charity…Google is….
And the asskissing here has gotten ridiculous.
8 clicks is a lot I think? I mean, for first day.
the eCPM should be worth more later as time accumulate I think.
Pretty cool how you’re donating to charity with the Adsense revenue. Sure, it maybe Google who is helping you get that money, but otherwise it would go in your pockets.
Either way you will be helping others. Might as well use the popularity of your site to give back.
I think that this is a wonderful idea on your part.
Your website is very “long”, so you could probably put even more banners down the left side. It would still be easy to read and unobtrusive.
Google prohibits you from disclosing CTR so you might want to remove that. And, oh yes you can make a LOT of money off adsense, but that isn’t your goal.
Yeah, try putting the ads further up the page like most bloggers do. However, this makes everything cluttered and harder to use for the sake of profit…your choice.
charity?
Nev…you make me laugh — how about you actually go down to your local soup kitchen and lend a hand instead of trying ot be all good with this Adsense thing.
Oh…take pictures…you serving the homeless — priceless.
Nev,
Good work… I’m not sure how much you will be able to collect or if you do start getting lots of clicks if Google will ban you (like they did me)…but hey it’s all good — kudos.
Jay
Nev, used to love the blog…don’t know what has happened over the past few weeks. While giving to charity is noble, I’m not feeling the AdSense ads. And what happened to the great insight on investing and entreprenurial activity? I feel like this site has been slipping since you graduated.
I’m still a big fan, just wanted to share my 2 cents!
- J
I use Firefox with the Adblock extention, I don’t even see your ad, nor any google ads as I block *.googlesyndication.com However, I think it loads and counts as a hit to you, it just isn’t displayed to me. If you never mentioned this, I would have no idea you even have the ads. I can’t be the only one blocking the ads…
I have been using adsens for 2 months now and have a grand total of 61 pence. My ads are placed above my content and i have not done much to market mysite although i have started adding it to directories and using traffic sites such as blogmad. Can anybody offer any other advice my blog is http://neocant.blogspot.com
I have been using adsens for 2 months now and have a grand total of 61 pence. My ads are placed above my content and i have not done much to market mysite although i have started adding it to directories and using traffic sites such as blogmad. Can anybody offer any other advice my blog is http://neocant.blogspot.com
Neville-
PPC can work just pick your keywords carefully as with any advertising conversion rate not clicks is the key to success.
Consider Adbrite and linkshare and consider the buzzword of the moment…Viral Marketing. You have one of the best ratings I have ever seen for a blog via Alexa you are a 19
But you have no Google rating. My websites may not be “Nevolicious” but they are rated by Google a PR5 which makes them a place people want to advertise because I get the traffic from various vertical markets.
Blah, blah Blah…Start selling space directly on your web…or set up a landing page connected to your blog to sell space for people who believe in you and enjoy you as well.
As for the blogger who wants to see you serve soup to the homeless. Having visited his blog I wonder why Mr Financial Man would have at not least suggested setting up a 501 c3 to keep your donations tax exempt. It can be your money, my donations or even the financial guru who finds it necessary to find fault with other people’s dreams
You just keep it up buddy and hey let me post some pictures of me finding my way in the arms of some famous folk.
I am heading your way for a book signing-maybe I’ll let you in to the seminar for free (wink)
Just keep being you!
Josh
If you can't get any joy out of adsense then perhaps use affiliates .. such as amazon affiliates. For example choose some good business books and put them in the side bar or something. Could be worth a try
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