Tag: Advertising

My printer decided to send me an advertisement. I'm both amused and annoyed. It knows how much ink I have, so why not just sell me that instead?

As a UK resident with a Google AdSense account, I'm holding onto my earnings until the dollar-to-pound exchange rate improves. My first payout was disappointing, especially after a year of work. I believe UK advertisers are also being shortchanged due to the exchange rate. Unless Google implements an exchange rate program that gives UK advertising better visibility, we're not getting a fair deal. For now, I've suspended my ads and will hold onto any future AdSense earnings.

I've always been a fan of Yahoo's developer APIs due to their generous usage limits and flexible terms. However, recent changes to their T&Cs are concerning. They now prohibit displaying ads alongside Yahoo API results unless they're Yahoo Ads, and they forbid showing Yahoo search results next to other search engines' results. This impacts sites like Topicala.com and gada.be, as well as many example applications using Google AdSense. While their RSS feed search terms seem more lenient, allowing aggregation with other results and ads, the overall tightening of restrictions stifles innovation. I've updated Topicala.com to use the RSS feed as a workaround. I'm disappointed with Yahoo's approach, as proper attribution should be sufficient, especially when sites like mine prioritize Yahoo results. Until the licensing becomes more flexible, I can't recommend Yahoo's APIs.

I'm experimenting with AdWords to drive traffic to both this site and Topicala.com. So far, I'm getting about 60 extra visitors per day to each site. I've tweaked my campaigns, disabling ads in Google's search results due to high costs. While I achieved a high volume of ad impressions (600,000) for kinlan.co.uk recently, the click-through rate remains low, and I need better insight into keyword performance and ad placement. I'd love to hear any marketing suggestions. If you arrived here through an AdSense ad, please share your feedback and the referring website. I'm considering using ads to promote specific blog posts for increased visibility.

I'm working on some exciting new features for this site! First up, I'm improving the Tag Directory (more on that soon, including the source code!). Second, instead of linking directly to Amazon, I'll create landing pages with more specific info about the books I recommend. Third, I'm planning a service to advertise Amazon Marketplace books, hoping to help both you and me sell more books. Finally, I'll be writing about my final year telecoms project. Let me know what you think!

I've added Amazon affiliate links to relevant books on my blog posts, hoping to provide useful recommendations and earn a small commission. So far, I've had one referral. I'd love to hear your feedback: Do you find these book recommendations helpful? Would you consider purchasing a recommended book? What factors influence your book-buying decisions? Is it clear which links go to the UK Amazon site versus the US site? Recent stats suggest a low conversion rate for affiliate links (around 0.24%), so I'm evaluating whether the effort is worthwhile given the advertising benefit to Amazon.

I've just added a Google AdSense referral link to my blog! Google recently updated AdSense, including their terms and conditions. While I spotted mentions of "Feeds" and "Referrals" in the new terms, I haven't yet seen Feed Advertising in action. If you're interested in monetizing your blog, give AdSense a try!

I've removed Google AdSense ads from my site's main page due to poor visibility and ineffectiveness. I've relocated them to a spot just before the comment section within articles. Hoping this placement change will improve their performance!

Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN) now offers ad category targeting, similar to Google AdSense. This feature allows publishers to specify categories for their ads, resulting in more relevant ads for their audience. I'm excited about the potential of this for my own site and hope Google implements a similar feature in AdSense. I'm even considering incorporating this into future versions of AjaxTagger.