I really, really wanted to keep a Google AdSense strip on KN@PPSTER for several reasons -- but after a few weeks, none of those reasons have panned out. So, it's gone.
1) I wanted to reward Google, which owns Blogger/BlogSpot.Com for giving me free use of storage space, bandwidth and editing tools. However, I suspect that they were spending more on bandwidth to provide the ads than they were making on the proposition -- I've averaged a whopping nine cents per day in Google click-thrus.
2) I wanted to make a little money myself. See above -- at current performance, it would take three years or so for me to earn a $100 check from AdSense revenues.
3) I wanted KN@PPSTER's readers to have the option of clicking on well-targeted ads for things they'd find interesting. For whatever reason, though, the AdSense algorithm and my content haven't seemed to click. Most of the ads aren't terribly relevant.
Above and beyond those reasons, BlogAds is far more lucrative for me, the ads are more relevant to the blog's content, and the click-thru ratios are much better. I figure I'm doing better by my BlogAds customers by removing the AdSense competition (especially since my tracking of average ad prices versus traffic on other blogs tells me it's time for a slight rate hike Real Soon Now).
Of course, this move will also either reduce the blog's load time or free up some load time/bandwidth for more geegaws and doomaflitchits. But I probably won't add many, if any, or those. I'd rather the readers who are on dialup be able to quickly load the site and enjoy the content.
I'm keeping the Google SiteSearch box, which also theoretically produces ad revenues. It's useful in and of itself.
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