Why don't more Amiga sites use Google ads?

I don't understand something, and I'm hoping you guys can help me out.  I really begin to feel like most Amiga sites are missing out on a lot of opportunities here to promote the platform (and their site) by not using readily available resources like the google adwords program.

There are two different programs by Google.

Adwords - the program used by advertisers to place their ads on the various sites.

AdSense - the program to display the adverts on each individual site.

Since putting up the google ads on the site, there are essentially only 7 total Amiga advertisements I've seen, though there are many, many Amiga sites out there.  I enrolled Amiga.org into the Google Adwords program and our advertisement's getting displayed thousands of times.  

At the same time, we're only being charged (about 5 cents) each time someone clicks on the advertisement via a number of keywords.  Our advertisements with the google adwords program have ranged between 50 cents and 1 dollar per day.  Meanwhile, our Google Adsense ads (the ads you see) have brought in on average, about 60 to 75 cents per day.  

In essence, we're getting a buttload of free advertising for the site while the number of new AO members has gone through the roof and is currently hitting about 7 new members per day.  So, given that, why don't more Amiga sites bother to use the gifts that are handed to them?

Wayne

[Bezzen]

I think the Amiga busineses just haven't figured out that it won't cost them a fortune to use it.

It works with even the tiniest of advertising budgets (like mine).  :-)

[amigamad]

I guess that not many people are aware of the benefits .

[djbase]

Because I dont like ads on webpages thats why I dont use it. Its like spam.

DJBase wrote:
Because I dont like ads on webpages thats why I dont use it. Its like spam.

I'm not sure how to take your reply, but you're saying you don't advertise because you don't like advertisements?  You're spamming Amiga.org right now advertising for #amigazeux so I don't quite get it.  What you're getting is -- in fact -- free advertising for your Pegasos/MorphOS support channel (which mysteriously has "Amiga" in the title for some illogical reason since you guys are so vehemently "anti Amiga").

The conversation however is about Google ads, so I digress.  No slight is intended to #Amigazeux members, I'm just reinforcing my point using the most obvious example.

Wayne

[blobrana]

@Wayne
Hum,
i think it’s a good deal and resource for a portal such as A.org, and its users.
But having said that, i don’t think i would have it on my site as i have no control over the links that appear, nor feel the need to have more than just  a link to this site or a webring...

You mustn’t forget that all sites aren’t as central to the community as this place….

[djbase]

Let me try to explane. I have nothing about Avatars who can be like an advert or 1-2 advert banners that are related to the theme of the webpage. But if you have a page which has hundreds of banners or advert links it makes me sick to visit this site often. You find such pages a lot in the internet. Its to agressiv in my point of view. I dont like that.

And about my avatar: I am one member of this group. We are not a commercial group who could make benefit of this kind of advert. And we are not a Pegasos/MorphOS support channel. We are a coding group for Amiga (and Amiga means both AmigaOS and MorphOS).

PLEASE, WE ARE NOT AGAINST AMIGA! Why do you say that?

PLEASE, WE ARE NOT AGAINST AMIGA! Why do you say that?

Because the actions of that group (like my actions) often speak louder than words.

Wayne

[Brian]

For a big site it might run even but for smaller sites there's no way. I'm thinking running costs are pritty high and I don't think 60-75c/day make much of a dent in that bill, sure you get more publicity with having your own ads out there but at what cost? I rather keep the site clean then or offer free advertisement to other Amiga sites in return for the same favour... that way one can also design the adds to fit in with the design much better and avoid aysoering misscolored adds.

Brian,

I suggest you look at the google adwords site.  You can control the colors, which ads do not appear on your site and everything else.  The only reason we're doing it for Amiga.org is

1) lots of ad banners on thousands of Amiga sites
2) displaying the Google Adsense ads (which is different than Adwords) pays for it, coming out even.

You do NOT have to display ads on your site in order to have your adverts appear on other sites.

If ANY Amiga related site doesn't fit the bill of "small", I don't know what would.  I'm just surprised a site as progressive as Amigaworld.net hasn't taken advantage of Google's AdWords program to advertise their own site.

Just checked, and between Google's Adwords and Adsense, Amiga.org has cleared all of $3.00 in the first 20 days, so it's not about money.  It's about advertising.  So far it's working very well for Amiga.org, getting new users to notice us.  

I just think it's in EVERY Amiga site's best interest to advertise so I thought I'd share what I've learned.  It's cheap to do, it helps the site, it helps the platform, and it's not about competing between Amiga sites.

If one succeeds, we all do.  That's the way it should be.

Wayne

> Amiga.org has cleared all of $3.00 in the first 20 days,
> so it's not about money

I should clarify here, and I find it quite funny.  Since Google doesn't send you a check until you've reached $100 in funds with them, I haven't cleared anything and won't (at this rate) for about 33.3 months.  Until then, we're paying for the Google ads that we PLACE on other sites out of contributions.

It's a real circus balancing act...

Wayne

[todi]

Because the actions of that group (like my actions) often speak louder than words.

Well said. But doesn't fit with the conclusion you make.

Back to the topic:

I dislike every form of commercial advertisement (now). I very much liked the creative ads I saw when the internet emerged or better when I went online somewhen in the early nineties. But now it's just annoying. Googleads are the least annoying of them all but still as they pop up everywhere recently.

I fully support free for free advertising though as can be seen on our website. It's more a support kind of thing for me. But that's probably just me looking at the other comments in this thread so far.

[Abou27]

Seven new users a day? That's remarkable - if it's attributable to the advertising; especially given small target audience.  It sounds like a great idea for A.org despite the long wait for any financial payback:-)  I certainly must say that, personally, I haven't founds the ads in the least obtrusive.

Was there any payment upfront or is it all down to the ads being clicked at either end?

[Karlos]

I don't find googles text based adds annoying at all. What I do find annoying are stupid flash based ads or other image / bandwidth heavy adds that totally cram a page.

Luckily the adblock plugin for firefox is very nice. A few, well chosen wildcard filters blocks a shedload of them ;-)

[Bezzen]

From the replies given here I think people need to separate the two programs Google offer.

Advertising on other sites has nothing to do with showing Google ads on your own page. If you don't want to clutter your webpage with ads, then don't. That decision doesn't mean you can't display your ads on other sites though. It's not like a banner swap, you know.  :-)