Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with adsense

Adsense Nonsense

man down under — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:58:31 -0800

How come Adsense revenue is so random? I've recently joined the YouTube partnership program and as such have started to have some pennies trickle in. ($16 so far...retirement here I come!)

I've noticed that the amount I earn is seemingly unrelated to page impressions, click thru and all that jazz. I mean it obviously influences it, but not in any consistent way.

Today for example I made about 50c for 1200 page impressions and one click (KERCHING!) but a couple of days ago I had nearly 1500 impressions, a whopping 4 clicks and less bang for my buck - only 35c.

What gives? What's the hidden factor?

If you want me, I'll be at the airport polishing the new private jet...

Finally! $100 in Adsense!

47triple2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:44:32 -0800

I broke the $100 mark on Adsense, now what? I've been blogging with Adsense for more than a year and finally broke $100 mark. Do I have to do anything now or are they just going to send me a check at the end of the month?

I've been planning to stop blogging once I broke that magical number, will this cause problems with not getting paid? (My blog will still be there for a couple months, but there will be no new content.)

Does this affect my taxes? (Is it a very small, one time, "gift.")

Finally, what am I actually going to get out of that $100?

Thanks!

Is it worth it for the average Joe to use Adsense?

bluehermit — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:37:09 -0800

Is it worth it for the average Joe to use Adsense? I'm creating a blog for teachers on blogger that will have lesson plan ideas, pictures, web links, videos, etc. I've heard of people using Adsense making some decent money, I don't expect to quit my day job but I'm wondering if it's all hype, or if some people on here have done well with it? Could a blog actually generate a few hundred dollars here and there? And are you sucked in with any monthly fees you have to pay out?

Cliff Notes for Pay-Per-Click?

diode — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:21:22 -0800

I'm interviewing for an online support position. A prerequisite is knowing pay-per-click. I've got lightweight knowledge and need to ramp up my skill set. The company I'm applying with needs a good support professional, which I'm qualified to do. The support arena is for users of pay-per-click services of which this company has a niche product. I've done some reading about affiliate marketing, and pay per click campaigns but never gone to the mat with this. I could use some sources for getting up to speed on this in a big picture way for the short term (meaning interview), and then I will expand my knowledge set after that for the work. I'm hoping my support experience will make up for gaps in my PPC knowledge for the interview and then I can go on to gain expertise through experience and study.

Help me feed the cow while giving the milk for free...

Alabaster — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:45:15 -0800

I've created some educational materials (pdf / mp3 / ogg) that I would like to offer on the internet for free, probably under a Creative Commons license. I want the materials on their own website with their own domain name -- how can I make enough money to cover the domain / hosting / bandwidth costs? The trend nowadays seems to be to have some Google Adsense ads and a "Please Donate" button (linked to Paypal account?). But I don't know much about these things, especially with regards to security and legality of accepting money over the internet. Any advice?

Also looking for recommendations for domain/hosting companies that don't cost a fortune but offer enough space for audio materials (to download, not stream), and bandwidth for mass downloading, should the site ever gain popularity. Thanks

Why does Google AdSense hate British people?

deeper red — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 05:35:55 -0800

Tax forms for a Brit trying to receive Google AdSense income... Usually when I get money from US companies I fill-in a W-8BEN form, and thereby tell them my ITIN number (I'm UK born and resident but visited the embassy to get an International tax number). This stops them taking tax via the international tax treaty etc.

Google wants me to fill in a Form 8233 instead. I've had a look at the form and this seems entirely wrong -- it asks for a US address, a passport number, and so on. Most of the fields are entirely irrelevant.

Have you filled one of these in successfully? Why fields did you fill-in? Did you find a way of getting Google to accept a W-8BEN?

New to advertising

Benzle — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:05:49 -0800

I have a website with about 2000 hits a day. I have recently and grudgingly plastered it with google ads. Can anyone tell me, ideally if traffic keeps up, what kind of revenue might this generate per day. Any personal experience would be great. Thanks.

What are the domain names that are linked to in the "Yes on Proposition 8" ads running on Google's ad network?

Mo Nickels — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:50:20 -0800

What are the domain names that are linked to in the "Yes on Proposition 8" ads running on Google's ad network? Though the company came out against California's Proposition 8, Google Adsense is serving up ads in favor of it on my site and on others. (I would expect there to be a firewall between the company's opinions and its revenue streams, but still.)

I had no idea until a dismayed reader/listener emailed me. But since I am in New York, and not in California, I'll never see the ads. I need to know what domains they link to so I can stop them in my Google Adsense settings as soon as possible.

I've preemptively blocked yesonproposition8.com and protectmarriage.com, but I need to be sure that will solve the problem for the next 36 hours or so.

Would 200 daily site visitors make me any money?

TheManChild2000 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:34:43 -0800

Is there any point in trying to monetize a fansite that gets 200 visitors a day? I don't know crap about ads but years of 150-200 daily uniques make me wonder if the long tail might have at least paid for a new video card or something by now.

What do I use to make my first website?

grieserm — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:21:02 -0800

Need recommendations for personal website as hub to internet life for a first time page creator. I'm wanting to establish an official internet presence for myself. I've never made a site before, so simplicity is key. I would like the site to show my recent flickr uploads, my delicious shared items for a specific tag, and my shared google reader items. Adsense integration would be nice, too. I don't feel like I have much more to contribute to the web than this right now, so I don't think a "blog" makes sense. Just a simple site to put all my web junk in one place.
Help me find the best service for me. As I said, I've never done this before, so specifics would be nice.
Thanks, hive!

How do I get my PIN from Google Adsense?

Idiot Mittens — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:14:33 -0800

How do I get a Google Adsense PIN if I've ordered it twice and still not received it? In order to receive your Google money, you need to enter your PIN, and in order to get the PIN you request it through your account.

When it didn't arrive at the first address I entered, I tried another one and it still didn't arrive. Now that I've requested it twice it won't allow me to request it again. And now the money has been forfeited.

I replied to an email the company sent me warning I was about to forfeit the money I had earned, but they didn't respond. I've tried Google groups for this, and found many people with the same problem but no solutions.

The hardest part seems to be getting any kind of a response from the company. Is there any way to contact this department of Google directly to get an answer? Ideally I could get a person's email or number. Feel free to message me personally if you don't want to put an email in the thread.

Thanks!

Shhh!

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:03:53 -0800

How anonymous is my anonymous blog? What steps would someone have to take to figure out that I am the person publishing my anonymous blog? Right now I use blogger. Would I be less anonymous if I had my own domain name? I'm thinking of using adsense - in which case Blogger would know that I am associated with my blog. How concerned should I be that someone else can track that connection? (I'm not blogging about anything illegal, I just really want to stay anon). Also, if its not obvious, I am tech-stupid, so please speak slowly in a loud, clear voice when answering my question.

I'm looking for an image gallery script with easy adsense integration and option to embed and share photos.

bostonhill — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:54:13 -0800

I'm looking for an image gallery script with easy adsense integration and option to embed and share photos. Currently, I've been experimenting with Coppermine but it doesn't have the embed photo option I would like to have on a page I'm working on. Is there any image script out there that makes the adsense integration and embed possible?

I like the 'times to come' coppertime hack via; http://herselfswebtools.com/themes since it has the sponsors bar included but they have no option for embed and share photos.

Thanks!

How do I block a particularly offensive google ad?

emyd — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:11:19 -0800

Can I block a particular google ad I never want to see again? I'm a science grad, and receive about 5 emails a day with the word "evolution" in them. Consequently I see a google ad promoting a certain ID movie by a certain ex-Nixon speechwriter many, many times a day. I know I should be able to just get over it, but it really becomes more offensive to me every time I see it. Is there any way I can get google to stop serving me just that one ad??? I am never, ever going to click on it, so it's not like it would be a loss of revenue.

Adsense vs the World

survivorman — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:31:04 -0800

Are there any current estimates as to what percentage of all marketing/advertising dollars are being spent in contextual marketing? Google Adwords, Adsense and the Pay-Per-Click industry at large seems to have tremendous upside (in fact, I can't see how contextual advertising could ever be usurped unless the human race stops using words and relevancy... but I digress) and I'm wondering how it's competing dollar-wise against traditional media like television and radio.

Thank you.

Wanted: An Adsense plugin for Wordpress that works

cameron.case — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:51:29 -0800

Looking for a wordpress adsense plugin that actually works. What is the hivemind using? So far I've tried Adsense, Adsense Manager and Adsense Injection with poor or unpredictable results. It's driving me mad I say, MAD!

(Any other rev generating plugin recommendations would be welcome as well.)

Any (ad)Words to make (ad)Sense of Adwords and Adsense?

prophetsearcher — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:43:11 -0800

Is there any 3rd-party software that is any good for managing AdWords campaigns? Every review I've read online seems to be driven by referral links, and I've been finding a somewhat-seedy underworld of affiliate back-rubbing pervading the industry. I can't trust any of the links I find online (they generally reveal their affiliate ID when you examine the HTML), nor do I trust the recommendations of such 'gurus' as Perry Marshall, Joel Comm, etc., whose books I've been reading and who send me countless emails everyday to my junk account.

I'm looking for the sort of program that will do (m)any of the following: generate keywords, examine current bid prices, estimate positioning, reconfigure match-types, adsense arbitrage analyses, etc. I'm willing to pay a reasonable price - and if it works on my Mac, that's a great bonus. [Note: None of these links are affiliate links...]

The tool I'm most tempted by is Keyword Analyzer , but there are a ton of them: Adwords Dominator , Keyword Elite , Adword Analyzer , Adword Accelerator (which Perry Marshall seems to shill for), and, of course, Word Tracker - which I still don't get what all the fuss is about (and I've tried the free trials).

I use the Adword Editor, but I'm looking for a tool that will help me really crush this Adwords thing. I've been playing with them for several websites for about 2 months now, and either I just don't get it, or the system doesn't quite work. For example, they want me to bid $5.00 on a keyword that only has one posted ad, and which is fully optimized on my site and ad text.

Does anyone have any real, unbiased experience that can help me find the tools I need? I know Google provides a lot of them itself, but I'm hoping for some extra 'edge' and ease of use.

Is orble.com legit?

flabdablet — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:31:40 -0800

Is orble.com legit? An email from a friend of mine:

http://www.orble.com/earn-money/
Hi Stephen,
What is this about - as in, safe, a con, get people's details etc?
Thanks in anticipation,
Regards, Juliet

How To Claim Adsense Revenue on Taxes?

davidmsc — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:10:45 -0800

Full-time job = salary = W-2 form = income to report on federal taxes. So far, so good. But I also made a few dollars (~$1,000) in 2006 from ads on my websites (some Adsense, some others). No documentation for the income, other than deposit receipts into my bank account. How do I include this modest sum in my annual income? Do I simply add the $1K to my salary income? Even if - especially if - there's no official "W-2" form to validate it? Could it really be that simple, or is there something more to claiming this income?

How can I randomly display blocks of text in a .jsp file?

Kickstart70 — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:44:56 -0800

How do I output random blocks of text in a JSP include? I am not in any way a java/jsp programmer. I have an application that uses JSP includes to display advertising (Google AdSense) to visitors. Currently, the ads are fairly static in size and content...I'd like to mix it up a little, have different sizes displayed, and occasionally have no ads at all.

Is there a way to do this just inside the .jsp file? Ideally I'd like to be able to specify what percentage of displays each will get (roughly...doesn't need to be perfect), like one ad block showing up 10% of the time and another 90%. That's not a requirement for this though.

Thanks!

Can I ETF to the wrong name?

acoutu — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 15:38:24 -0800

Banking Filter: Can I do an ETF if the bank account number is right but the name is wrong? Last year, I asked about cashing a cheque with the wrong name on it. Flash forward 12 months and I want to know what happens with electronic funds transfer in the same situation.

Google Adsense pays by cash and by ETF. The cheques have both my business name and personal name on them, so I have the choice of depositing to either a business or personal account. However, when you try to set up Adsense for an ETF, it only lists the business name as the account holder. Does this matter? Can I set up the ETF to go to my personal account, which is under my own name?

Thanks.

Centralized Advertising for the Lazy Blogger

mutantdisco! — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 08:42:06 -0800

I run AdSense on my blog, and burn my feed with FeedBurner. I would love to advertise within my feed with AdSense for Feeds (AFF) rather than the Feedburner Ad Network but AFF seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Does it still run, and how can I get into the program?

New blog - popular post - no money!

kdern — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:44:13 -0800

It's my first blog, and today one post is getting a lot of attention on digg. 15,000 hits by 9 AM, more to come. But I'm not making any money. Help! I have a new blog (1 week old) with 2 Adsense panels on the left side. I have had 15,000 visitors this morning (it's 8:30 AM here), but only 18 ad clicks. I've made just a couple dollars so far. I must be doing something wrong.... or is this normal?

I have another blog post with affiliate links to itunes albums, but that entry is not the one getting the hits.

I expect to double or triple my hits today, maybe hit 50,000 this week. Any tips? Are there any other sources of ads or revenue I can put up immediately?

(Notes: The blog is on Blogger Beta. I've put the blog up with the sole purpose of hopefully creating additional income. I tried putting adsense ads in the middle of the blog post, but Blogger won't allow the javacript tag).

Why doesn't Gmail understand what kind of spam to advertise?

skylar — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:27:25 -0800

How advanced are Google Ads, really? I thought we were all frightened of Google mining our GMail accounts to serve targeted ads. But when I check the spam folder of my GMail account, all I get is adverts for recipes ("Ginger Spam Salad - serves 1, refrigerate overnight") using the food product Spam! Spam Quiche - makes 4 servings; Creamy Spam Broccoli Casserole - makes 8 servings; French Fry Spam Casserole - Bake 30-40 minutes; Spam Skillet Casserole - Broil until golden; Spam Breakfast Burritos - bake 5-10 minutes, serve with salsa.... the list goes on.

Is this serious? Or is it an ingenious, if comical, guerilla marketing technique?

Isn't spam a valuable ad word? Is it just me, or has this company bought up all references to spam within Gmail spam folder (at least in the UK, where I'm based)...? And surely if Google is so clever it can figure out that spam as used in recipes has nothing to do with the kind of spam that ends up in their junk mail folders.

Please, fellow Metafilter users, explain my folly and show me what I'm misunderstanding here.

Need to find an AdSense-style technology platform

cameronx — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 03:55:04 -0800

Where can i find a small UK software company that has built almost an exact copy of Google's AdSense software? I don't need an AdSense alternative as i'm not buying ads or selling them - just the actual trading software itself. We're looking at getting hold of an engine to modify for a TV-based application and don't want to build from scratch.

P.S. My first question after lurking for months!