Google ads now on Toytown

Did my eyes deceive me?
Did I just see a Google Ad in the top right corner of a TT webpage? (refresh this page a few time and see for yourself)
Has Editor Bob moved (further) to the dark side?
We're doomed, I say, all doomed...

I noticed this as well... I don't get the "Dark Side" comment though. I'd be willing to put up with more in all honesty. Google ads are a perfect compliment for such a text heavy site like this.

Oh, the innocence ... Only seven years to go...

That is what ad blockers are for. I have Google ads blocked in general so I wouldn't even have noticed if it wasn't for this topic.
Out of all ads there are out there, I would still prefer the Google ads over any other, though. They are not really intrusive, they do not pop up or under, and they have no annoying flash animations or anything else like that.

Agreed; the Google ads up in that corner are a lot less intrusive than some of the others, like that bright red one for example.

I really don't mind adverts if they are well targets and non obtrusive like Google Ads. Flash ad's and overlays are really giving the whole advertising industry on the internet a bad name, and they are the only reason why ad blockers are needed. We need advertising on the internet, and need to use it, or many sites that we use wouldn't be around - probably including this one.

Actually, Google is funding his move away from the dark side. Bob decided to stop sleeping with me for money, and wanted to keep the site running somehow.

TMI!

Good Lord, Molly! I thought you were sleeping with Top Model and Top Monkey! Bob must be the Top Martyr, then, no?

Apes and Affen

I just see an "ads by Google" box, but no ad. It is in fact up there right now on this page, but there is still an empty box. With Google ad targeting, I wonder what this thread would actually bring with it if the box weren't empty. Maybe you could buy shillings at a reduced price somewhere? Maybe you could buy Editor Bob and for a schilling he will accept your Toytown member!

I still see an ads by google box and it is still empty. What up?

Strange, because I can see the adds quite clearly, there's one for apartments in Heidelberg being displayed as I type this. Have you got some ad or pop up blocker activated?

very interesting... quite scary but seems kinda inevitable

Just seeing this now. You're hilarious! Gosh golly, yeah I appreciate a good looking woman as much as anyone does (come on - women's mags are full of pictures of women - maybe we identify rather than salivate, but we still look) but Model & Monkey are really energetically anti-sexual, anti-feminine. Both are quite pretty, actually. Just ... ugh. I'm beginning to understand some of the jokes about my own gender.

Maybe if I paid Bob enough, he'd do what it takes to make Model & Monkey happy to be women ...

But he probably prefers running ads.

I just clicked on one of them... does that mean Editor Bob makes some money?

Yeah, probably about 20 cents. Same as if you did the same on my site: www.theprofessionaltourist.org

Does anyone ever click on these ads? Has anyone ever bought anything via a Google Adsense Ad? Sure would like to know where all the money is coming from.

I was mildly ammused when one for 'Older women searching for younger men' came up the last time I connected.

How does it come up with the ads?

Actually, I click on them all the time. I find them quite useful in many cases because they can often be incredibly relevant to what you're looking at.

This is what came up when I clicked on 'View New Posts'. Very interesting these google ads. Does he only get money when somebody clicks on the link?

You'd be surprised how much you can make on Google AdSense, I know a few people who earn over $100/day from them.

Generally Google Adsense earning depends on :

1. number of clicks, it's a pay per click system
2. topic of the site (niche), ads for lawyers will pay more than ads for dating sites i.e.

Google also has a CPM model where you can pay a set price for 1000 ads impressions.

I'D sure as fuck be surprised. I'm drinking the Kool-Aid and I don't see $10/month despite text ads and search at the top. People just don't click on ads very much. I only have the ads to pay for the hosting and testing materials for my site. Bottles of sauce generally run €2-3 each and that expense adds up.

woof.

I know for a fact companies making over $10,000 a day on Adsense.. there are plenty of private people making over $100 a day.. if you have a popular, niche site, you can make quite a bit of money off it.

How much more niche can I go than "Everything you could possibly want to know about French Fries"? It's already a pretty sparse field. Should I specialise in only thin-cut and avoid all the talk about steak-cut, Western, "chips", waffle-cut, spiral-cut and the rest? Is that how I get more than 1 in 1,000 people to click on a damned ad which only pays 3 cents?

woof.

I click on these ads on sites that I find useful or just like...so yes, people click on these ads. Do I buy anything that was linked to? never have yet...but who knows, might happen.

So if you're on a site that has google adsense ads...why not take that 1 second and click...

BD : you need to improve the ads integration on your site. Make the text wrap around and stuff like that a 5% CTR is really achievable. It's all about the mixture between blending in and the fact of making them stand out. Different niches convert differently.

false: ...of course that's against adsense rules, at least as I read them.

@BD

It's not doubt about your content and your advertisers. If you're writing about french fries, there probably aren't that many advertisers willing to pay good money for your traffic.

Do a site on credit cards or loans, and you'll get a great click through rate, and a dollar a click. Getting a load of traffic to your site specialising in such a thing though is very hard as it's already incredibly competitive.

So what do folks think about ad-blockers? I've put a lot of work into Visio Guy, and it irks me to think that people are running ad blockers out there. I'm certainly not getting rich off of this, but it is nice to have internet hosting costs covered, plus a bit of beer money.

I'll cede that those monstrous, "pop-up-and-cover-everything" ads are obnoxious and even irresponsible, but I still think that people who put a lot of work into their sites have a right to be compensated.

Readers can easily ignore the ads, but blocking them outright seems to me to be almost a form of stealing.

I block ads and sites loaded with ads and crap but no porn. You got porn?

Interesting google ad just appeared in the top right hand corner of my screen, advertising...a baby boy! Well, not that he's for sale, but the fact that he was born. Strange way to get that little tid-bit out into the world I think.

EDIT: Can't find the ad now, maybe it will re-appear when they have their next kid!

Had problems just now waiting forever for TT pages to load - the message at the bottom said "Connecting to pagead2.googlesyndication.com". Seems OK again now, but I don't see any Google ads - have they been temporarily disabled?

EDIT: No, there's a Google ad at the top of the page again now.