Goodbye Google AdSense, Hello Direct Sales

If you read my article, A Decision to Stop Displaying Google Ads, you'd know that I planned to drop AdSense from being displayed on my articles once I reached the magic $100 mark again. Well, I reached that mark and the AdSense ads are gone. Did anyone notice? Probably not right away. My decision was prompted by two things: The AdSense ads didn't perform well and I didn't like displaying them. I thought they were too obtrusive, regardless of how they were placed.

I put up four sponsor widget boxes, two above the fold on each side and two below the fold on each side. I also made provisions for "in post" ads. You can take at look at my "Advertise" page and see the prices. I was originally going to use the Text Link Ads Calculator to determine prices, but I threw that out the window. I prefer to keep them cheaper than that. Basically, what I've done is cut out the middleman for text link ads.

I'm currently doing sponsored posts for PayPerPost and Blogsvertise between four, five or more of my own articles. I've easily made more in a month from those than Google AdSense. The point I'm making is that I'm not going to actively seek out sponsors for the text link ads to replace the lost AdSense income since that's the reason I started doing sponsored posts in the first place. I may seek out sponsors, but not as any kind of income replacement.

August 31st, 2007 By RT Cunningham | Categories: Advertising | Tags: discontinued |

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Thomas on August 31st, 2007 at 2:43 am (Reply)

Will follow this with interest.

I think your prices are very(!!) affordable.

Edit: Forgot to say that the site looks smoother without adsense

RT Cunningham on August 31st, 2007 at 3:28 am (Reply)

I'll follow up on it, if and when anything changes.

Mark on September 1st, 2007 at 5:15 am (Reply)

That's very interesting, I've had a lot more frustration with Google than I would've thought. I could get 200 pageviews a day and still only 3 clicks a week. at the rate I'm going it will take 10 months before my next google check.

RT Cunningham on September 1st, 2007 at 5:22 am (Reply)

I've been generating more than 400 page views per day and sometimes it pays well and some times it doesn't. It takes about two months to reach $100 even with all the views. It's definitely not worth waiting for.

I think you have to get upwards to 10,000 page views per day to make it pay off.
2. Michael Curry on September 4th, 2007 at 6:48 am (Reply)
  
  Excellent post.
  
  AdSense performance can be highly variable, and sometimes disappointing. I disagree with the earlier commenter that one needs 10k hits a day to make it pay - it all depends on the audience, your site layout, and the AdSense integration within the site (not always an easy task.)
  
  I agree that the layout and appearance of AdSense ads is also a limiting factor.
  
  In any case, I'll follow this with great interest, because I'm also considering a move to direct advertising sales on several of my sites.
3. RT Cunningham on September 4th, 2007 at 12:14 pm (Reply)
  
  Heh, I was the author and the commenter that wrote that. Actually, it pays off before you get to 1K a day and I was exaggerating. I wasn't doing that bad with AdSense. I just didn't like the way it worked.

Angela on September 1st, 2007 at 11:04 pm (Reply)

My adsense earnings have dropped 75% since March. In fact, for August, I earned $6.66. Now I'm freaked! It's a sign!

RT Cunningham on September 2nd, 2007 at 12:18 am (Reply)

People are developing AdSense blindness just like they developed banner blindness. It was only a matter of time.