Consider it an early present… I’ve officially killed off Adsense here at All Freelance Writing. So no more text ad blocks inside posts, and no more Adsense banners above each post.
I’m doing this for a few reasons:
- To cut down on some of the ad clutter.
- To focus on more useful (and better-performing) ads, such as the job ads from Indeed.com now in the header and sidebar.
- To put more emphasis on promoting select affiliate products (I’d rather be able to monetize the site through personal recommendations than through ads I don’t have much control over).
- To free up some space on the site for later promoting my own e-books (one planned for early 2008 on pre-launch publicity for authors, and another on Web promotion for freelance writers hopefully not too long after that).
Hopefully readers will appreciate the change, with the content area now opened up a bit more. And if not, oh well…. :D
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Cathy Miller
Amandah
Andrew Kardon
Lori
Amelia Ramstead
Jenn, can I ask about Adsense? I’m setting up a new blog and was considering using adsense to bring in some revenue. Is it not worth it? I’m not asking for any specific numbers, but did it work for you at all or do you think is more hype than anything? You’re not the first blogger that gives up on it, so I’m wondering if maybe it only works for some specific blogs but not for all?
Adsense can work just fine. My biggest issue with them is how “clunky” the ads can look (text ads at least, which perform much better). The large rectangle is one I almost always use in blog posts because it brings the most click-throughs (for a lot of people), but it’s also one of the most invasive… that and the leaderboard at the top (the Indeed text leaderboard has a similar appearance up there now, but at least it’s offering a real resource).
I’ve even found the clicks to be worth more on freelance writing-oriented sites than some of my other niches (it’s not uncommon to get clicks worth more than $.30 each, and even some over $1.00, which isn’t common for a lot of niches).
In my case, I’ve simply found that the Indeed.com freelance job ads and job search box monetize better for me and get more clicks here, because they’re offering something of real value (the ability to find work). They also let me choose to have the ads display writing jobs relevant to each visitors actual location (so I personally see jobs from around the Philadelphia area for example).
Try out a few different monetization streams. Indeed plus affiliate programs from Clickbank are the best for me here. On other blogs, Adsense would be. Just don’t make the mistake of monetizing in only one way – always diversify. This way if Adsense bottoms out on you, you’ll have other income to soften the blow.
The Indeed ad is the one that appears over your photo? If so, it looks “innocent” enough to be confused as part of your website, rather than an ad. I really like it.
The best part about the indeed search box is that it actually is a part of the website. :) It’s just a feature for writers that provides something useful, adds functionality to the site, and just happens to pay me if it’s used (I believe if you click on something in your search results, and not just from using the search box itself). :)
I just added one to my own blog! :) Nice for others to use and will motivate me when I’m wasting time on my blog to search for work! :) HAHA.
I’m not sure if you’re allowed to use your own job search boxes. I never use the one on my site (would be like clicking on your own Adsense ads I imagine – a no-no). Just be sure to check the TOS with Indeed, so you don’t risk getting banned. :)
You definitively cannot use your own search boxes. I know somebody who set up one on her writing blog and use it (out of laziness, more than anything) to search for jobs. She was kicked out of the program after she did it a couple of times.
@ ALL — That’s nuts — isn’t that the point to utilize the service? And to spread the word? I’m not using it to make money however, I just have the banner on there not in the publishing program, or whatever they call it.
@Jessica. If you’re not making money with each use, you’re probably ok (read the fine print to make sure, though). She had signed up for the paid program, so it worked sort of like AdSense.
Oh ok — understandable :)
I’m giving Indeed a try in one of my blogs (one that I recently started and still doesn’t get a lot of traffic). It’s an anonymous blog, by the way, since I blog about some “touchy” subjects and don’t want my name directly associated with that. I’ll report later if it’s working for me or not, but I do appreciate the heads-up about it.
Sounds good – I’d be interested to see if the publishing program is worthwhile.
Well, worthwhile enough that people are actually using the search box. That’s more than I can say for all the time I had AdSense on the blog. Like I said, it’s a brand new blog with almost no traffic. Still, the search box has been used a couple of times already. I think this is due to the fact that it doesn’t look so much like an ad but instead appears to be a search function on the blog itself. Let’s see how it does by the end of the month. I’ll report back on it.
Adsense was awful andi t looks awful on a page :) I’m boycotting, you’re boycotting, we’re all boycotting ;)
I’ve always wondered who actually clicks on AdSense. I know I don’t. Never. It immediately makes me think of spyware, spam and all those things, so I never click on any ad. If I’m looking for something interesting, I just google it. It makes more sense to me. I think the Indeed box works because it’s providing a service, rather than advertising, so people look at it that way.
I think many people click it because it is the easy way to find a job, or so they think. :)
So they’re mostly aimed at beginners, then. People who don’t have much of an idea of how to make money actual money online or from home.
I would assume so, if you see a job there, you might not know how or where to find things on your own yet, so you go the easy route?!
This could make for an excellent article somewhere: “Places where you will NOT find a job so stop looking” kind of thing. Do any of the things advertised in Google are actually any good? Maybe some of them are actually good offers? I’ll pay attention to them next time.
I do believe the jobs are real and are pulled from their search engines from the sites many of us frequent…. :)
I don’t think they’re directly pulled. I believe companies need to sign up with Google’s advertising program in order to be featured, so basically anybody can do it, whether their products are real or not. I think it comes down to common sense of the person clicking rather than on Google.
@Jenn. Is it Indeed working better than AdSense for you or is it too early to tell?
Whatever it is, I’m not a fan, they are ugly ads.
Indeed is working much better on this particular blog than Adsense. It wouldn’t work for all of my sites though.
Indeed is working for me too. Maybe you’re right that it depends on the type of blog, but so far has been doing much better than AdSense ever did.