A couple days ago I got some spam promoting some new advertising scheme. It's another one of those javascript based things. I selected the option to display the ads that payed the most per click. That doesn't mean much because they only had two ads from which I could select.
I put it at the bottom of The Perl Review page to play with it (although it will disappear in the next update since its not in source control). No big whoop. I clicked an ad, it was a broken link, but the site said I just earned $0.50.
I forgot about it (and forgot to remove it, making me one of those nasty people who surround three sentences of content with 9,000 ads) until I looked at the site again today. Curious if it had done anything, I checked the ad server site again. Apparently someone's been clicking on it.
Maybe I'll leave it there for a few more days, since a click on that ad gets me the same amount in the bank (after expenses) as selling a single issue. If 16,000 people clicked on the ad, I'd have all the money I need for printing the magazine for the next year (like that would ever happen). It's amazing what people will throw money at, though.
I suspect won't last. Right now, the ads blend in and look like content (though bizarrely unrelated content). However, I suspect you have a few repeat visitors. After they've clicked through a few times, they'll stop. I you have plenty of new visitors, perhaps they'll work after all.
My CGI Course also has ads, but I get plenty of new folks checking it out, so it's a constant (albeit tiny) revenue stream.
Re:Blends in
brian_d_foy on 2005-11-13T23:59:53
Yeah, the money isn't going to last, and I don't think the ad company will either. They have only a couple of clients, and there are hundreds of people trying to do the same thing.
Indeed, as I write this, I notice the $0.50 ads are gone and it's all nickel stuff, mostly for the ad company itself.
