The thoughts of a web 2.0 research fellow on all things in the technological sphere that capture his interest.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

One Month of Google Ads: Am I a millionaire yet?

One month ago I decided to tap into the Google AdSense millions, hoping that the blog would eventually pay for its self. I found the estimated 50cents per 1,000 page views close to the reality, with my first month total reaching a total of $2.30. This about half the amount I need to pay for my hosting package. I therefore need to either double my page views or double the number of adclicks (whilst I could also start blogging on subjects that pay more, I wouldn't particularly want to).

The breakdown for the last month (according to AdSense):
Page impressions - 2,600
Clicks - 5 (paying 5 cents, 68 cents, 35 cents, 16 cents, and most recently $1.04!!!)
(The extra couple of cents have come through ads that pay a tiny amount per impression rather than click.)

What is most noticeable is how few ads have been clicked, or more positively, how few clicks are actually needed for the blog to pay for itself. The easy solution to getting more clicks is to put more adverts on the pages, or put them in a more prominent position, however, they can quickly become intrusive; personally I think my box in the sidebar has the balance just right. The more difficult solution is to increase my overall traffic whilst keeping the same adverts. Hopefully a steady increase clicks will come naturally with a steady increase in traffic, although not necessarily: yesterday probably saw the greatest number of visitors yet to Webometric Thoughts (absolute unique visitors still unknown), but no-one clicked.

I would think that if the traffic continues to grow at this rate, and people click on ads at the same rate, by the time of my one year anniversary Webometric Thoughts will be paying for itself. Not earth-shattering, but quietly impressive nonetheless.

UPDATE: This is reflection on my AdSense income rather than a request to click. Google has a number of detailed algorithms to make sure people don't get click-happy on their own sites, and a sudden increase in clicks does not result in an increase in income:
-5 clicks in last month $2.30.
-3 clicks today $0.00

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