Lol, my stats are a joke (just started adsense)

So today I put adsense on my site. Doesn't hurt is what I thought.
Well almost 500 page impressions later and one click = $0.14 makes me think it was a big mistake.
I am not willing to sell out for a few cents or a couple of bucks a day.

I would kindly ask the fellow DP members to check out my Travel Guides Website and tell me what I am doing so perfectly wrong, since it is my first try.

Anyways, thanks for checking. I am still laughing about this ridiculously low numbers. I guess I am going to pull the ads after a week or so.

 

Thats not bad. Its only 500 impressions,

How many Uniques was that?

 

The skyscraper in the left column is nicely integrated. I suggest you nest a 250x250 ad unit in your articles.

On another note, in your horizontal menu you misspelt "Browse".

 

Well that's not bad considering you only have the one ad spot. But if you threw in a banner just above your first story on the homepage and add some block ads within your articles then you'd certainly make more.

I know how you feel about comprimising your site but you'll get over it.

 

I'd have to check. I guess half that number is about right.

 

Still not bad, 500 impressions 14 cents, Just boost traffic and that will grow

I have some sites that make less and some that make more, But in the end it all ads up

 

I was hoping not having to do that. I was contemplating a small horizontal ad below the main navigation menu.

The Browze is intentional. I don't take myself too seriously

Thanks for the tip, I will think about it for a while.
But if it brings me just a couple of cents I won't rip the layout of the articles apart

 

Very nice site. I think your site should have CPM somewhere around $10 with no prob or even more.

Try better ad placement, other colors, ...

 

I am all with you on the first suggestion. The banner is something I can easily do.

I will consider the add block once I am over the trashy look of adding ads everywhere
I don't want to put any of the two on the front page, since I consider it the entry page to my site and I would like most people to at least browse around a bit before exiting through an ad.

So I guess those numbers are normal then.
Makes me wonder why so many people are so obsessed with Adsense revenue.
The way I figure it's just a few pennies here and there that can eventually cover the server cost but thats it.

I better start working on a biz plan if I really want the site to grow so that I need some heavy servers. So far its just for fun.

Did any of you guys notice a significant drop in visitors after adding ads?

 

Thanks for the compliment. I have been beaten on a lot for the design
I am however kind of happy about this feature:
http://www.opentravelinfo.com/map.html

I thought about CPM and about affilates. I guess this kind of site could do better with affilates ads in which case I shouldn't give my space away to google.
Do you have any suggestions (ad networks)?

I am not sure what you mean by other colors? I chose the colors of my site to integrate the ads.

 

Seems hardly worth my time. But since I was doing it for the fun, I don't mind spending time on it. I just know that I won't ever make a site for adsense. Seems ridiculous now.

 

I am not pretty sure that affiliates will work very well on your site. But I agree that you should also try this.

Use more ad blocks nearest the content and I would definetly use also horizontal link unit.

It is obvious, that your ad block on left is very well blended, but there is no clicks, so, something is wrong. Maybe these ads are too well blended. For experimenting, try using borders and colors and you will find out what is good for your site.

Good luck.

BTW, what CMS is that?

 

Nice idea. Thanks for the tip. I will let it run for a couple of days and then make some change and let it run again so I can get a significan sample. Otherway its statistically unwise to make changes after too short of a time.
I never thought borders may help to do better, since everyone seems to be saying the better you blend it the better the ads will do.

CMS:
http://drupal.org

 

You probably shouldn't think of it like that - you're not ripping the layout of the articles apart.
In fact, you're doing your readers a favour by providing them with external links which can help them read more information about the topic or purchase related products. It's not unethical or anything like it.

You could also place a horizontal ad unit at the bottom of the articles - it's not very invasive, and chances are you'll get a decent CTR, because readers need somewhere to go after they finish reading.



And it's always refreshing to see someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously!

 

For first part of your post, take your time for testing. Even this is your first day, wait still a little and then make changes.

For second part, if ads are nearest content or in the content, blending is very important. But I think that if ads are out of "reading area", they must be kind of attractive and eye-catching.

Have a nice day.

 

I checked my stats. Looks more like 500 uniques = 500 impressions. Whatever that means.

 

Like it may have been said, the sie banner was nicely integrated, but peoples eye doesnt go over there much. You should either try to attract their attention there (not too recommended) or you should put ads in your articles. This will score you MUCH more clicks.

 

Damn. I took a second look around the site and the more I look at it the more money I think you could make with it. There's an awful lot of good information...for crying out loud submit it to dmoz.org and get some wikipedia links.

 

Also, because it's PR5, you could make some big bucks by selling ad space on the home page!!!

 

frisby, GLD: Thanks for the tips. I will defenitely give the top and the bottom ads a go and test them out. Then I will make up my mind about putting them into the content.
That one takes longer anyways, since I need to work out the automatism for it (don't want to do too much manual labor ). Manual labor is worse than making just a few cents on a fun website