Google Ads
I just added Google ads to my individual archive pages this afternoon and I must admit I’m both impressed and amused by the technology. They do an amazing job of extracting keywords from a page–even if they get the context wrong.
For example, the banner for this post, where I note that TSA fined a woman for carrying cake servers she’d gotten at a wedding in her carry-on baggage, currently has ads selling TSA-approved luggage locks, cake servers, and a wedding superstore. Heh.
Yeah. Google ads seem to do a bad job of figuring out what a given blogger thinks on an issue. For example, Brad DeLong’s Google Ads right now are for Bush Cheney 2004 Gear, a RNC Build a Stronger America Ad, Bush 2004 Merchandise, and Articles on Dick Cheney.
Calpundit has two ads for collectible Bush action figures, George Bush dolls, and Grist Magazine, the last of which fits, I suppose.
For some reason Google ads turned my application down:
“We have reviewed your site and found that many of the ads that would
appear on your site would not be relevant to your site’s content. As
the ads would not provide a valuable experience for your site’s users
or our advertisers, we feel that your site isn’t a good fit for the
AdSense program at this time.”
So what gives?
Don,
They turned me down twice. They accepted on the third go-round. I’ve got no clue.
Google Adsense (GA) should generate a steady, if small, stream of income. Maybe 1% click-thru, paying about 10 cents per hit.
GA depends on words and fairly broad categories. Figuring out which side of an issue a website falls on is beyond GA.
I Trackbacked my earlier post on the topic.
I’ve had GA up on my main site (5,000 hits/day) since GA’s inception last July. Email me if there’s anything I might be able to help with.