Good bye AdSense!
Back in October, I decided to run Google AdSense ads on my site. I wasn't expecting a lot of money, but I was hoping to see enough for the site to pay for its hosting.
Unfortunately, AdSense isn't going to do it.
I added AdSense on October 20, 2007. On November 7, 2007 it broke $1. On November 21, 2007 it broke $2. On November 24, 2007 it broke $3. On December 5, 2007 it broke $4 and hit $4.26. It hasn't moved again since. That's over two months.
I wondered at first if I'd broken something. I refreshed all the AdSense code, and even expanded the number of ads I was serving. Nothing. Since December 5, 2007 I haven't seen a penny.
Oh, sure, maybe it will get better, but it isn't going to get that much better. Maybe I could reasonably expect to see a hundred dollars by the time my boy wants higher education (he's nine months old now), but I don't think it's worth looking at the ads (and their ever-decreasing quality) until then.
And so it comes time to bid AdSense farewell. It was a compromise that simply wasn't worth it, but I'd like to think I learned something from the experience. Although other than AdSense doesn't work, I'm not sure what that would be.
More Adsense fun
I'm definitely keeping Adsense on my site, even if I never see a dime. This is just too funny to pass up:
It's like Cliff Claven on Jeopardy: "Who are three people who've never been in my kitchen?"
Toilet AdSense rules!
I'm going to have to mention toilets more often, because the ads are far weirder.
How to get a free Dr. Pepper
I'd love to have my site pay for its own hosting. Failing that, a free lunch would be nice. But if I can't do that, at least I could get a free Dr. Pepper.
So here's how I got a free Dr. Pepper:
- Run DreamHost referral ads. This took me a few minutes to set up. It has earned me about $8 over the last few years. It would have earned me more, but I'm a secondary referral to someone who doesn't have an account anymore.1 Anyway, this would buy me about 16 cans of Dr. Pepper, except that it was applied to my Dreamhost bill automatically. That's just as well — 16 cans? I'd probably go into a diabetic shock.2
- Run AdSense ads. This took me a few hours to set up. So far, I've earned about $0.54. I could buy a Dr. Pepper with that money, except that I need to reach $100 before I can cash out. I figure that will be some time in 2036.
- Tell stories for quarters. So far, I've only done this once. "Buy me a Dr. Pepper, and I will tell you a tale of government beauracratic incompetence and disorganization that spans three years." He nodded, waved me at his horde of change, and I bought my Dr. Pepper. It took about 3.5 minutes to tell the story.3
So far, telling stories has got me the best ROI4. So I'm officially announcing5 that I will from this time forward earn my Dr. Pepper money by telling tales of woe at bus stops. Wish me luck!
Update: mx informs me that Google sends out cheques once a year. If true, that'd mean I'm probably a few months away from another free Dr. Pepper. Oh, the sweet, carbonated rapture!