AdSense ads removed
I couldn't take seeing ads for PublishAmerica and other outfits I'd never in my life recommend showing up on my blog, so, as of this evening, the Google AdSense ads are gone from here.
I'm very interested in the issue of monetizing a writing career in the decades to come. If it ceases to be possible for most writers to make a living off of selling copies of books, because free digital versions undermine the print-copy revenue model, I'm curious about what other revenue streams might exist for writers; AdSense seemed like a possibility, but without way more control over who advertises, I'm not comfortable with it.
Ah, well. It was an interesting experiment.
Posted by Rob on Friday, September 08, 2006
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6 comments
6 Comments:
I can appreciate that. I have used Adsense on a few different occasions, and the ads that "popped up" were often things I didn't care to have on my site.
I thought with adsense you could filter out ads that you weren't interested in serving. Couldn't you filter out the companies you aren't interested in endorsing?
The same thing occasionally happens on my site as well. AdSense does have ways to block certain advertisers, but I don't know what the limitations are since I haven't tried it.
But, but...they promised they were gonna make me a published writer!
Sorry, couldn't resist...
John F
Anonymous wrote, "I thought with adsense you could filter out ads that you weren't interested in serving. Couldn't you filter out the companies you aren't interested in endorsing?"
Even if you could do this -- and I've found nowwhere on the AdSense. sight that makes it possible -- I'd then have to spend my time reviewing every new advertiser, and there's no easy way to do that. You are contractually forbidden from clicking on the ads that appear on your own site (since doing so makes money for you); the only way I found out that the ad that said something like "Science fiction publisher -- we want your manuscript, not your money!" was for PublishAmerica was by happening to see the same ad on another site, where I did click on it to see what it was selling. I don't have time to constantly be hunting down who every possible advertisers is.
I have had adsense on my blog for two years and have seen nary a penny. Now that I am busy with other things, I hardly publish a blog. When I do blog, I pay no attention to the ads as they obviously have no monetary value to me.
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