Re: Google and Amazon Ads

**"Kathy Purdy" k*@gmail.com**

I also have both Google and Amazon ads on my website. With both, I didn't
start out expecting to make anything. I wanted to use Amazon's book cover
images when reviewing books on my website, and I liked that their ads could
be tailored with keywords, so that I have cold climate books advertised in
my cold climate section and garden essay books in my essay section, etc.

After clicking on a couple of Google ads and actually finding something I
was interested in, I decided Google ads might actually be helpful to some of
my readers as well, so that was my primary reason for starting with them.
Much to my surprise, I have actually made enough to cover my costs in
running a website, that is, my domain registrations and hosting fees. But
not enough beyond that to call it income. I probably make one tenth of my
Google income from Amazon, this despite the fact that
when someone clicks on an Amazon link at my site, I earn a commission no
matter what they buy, even if it's not what they originally clicked on.

So now I am starting to think in terms of how I can use these ads to
generate a more significant income. So far, that's all I've been
doing--mulling the idea over in my head. Doug Green is working much harder
on this, and he has posted emails directing others to sources of
information. Search the archives using his name as a keyword, and you will
find more information through the links he's already provided.

With my blog/website, I started out four years ago as a gardener with
something to say, and not entirely certain anyone would want to read it. I
progressed to thinking of myself as an author with an audience, an editor
considering design issues, and now I sometimes wear the hat of a publisher
as well, wondering how I can make money producing my publication. This has
also led to writing assignments in more traditional print media. I think for
most members of this mailing list, the experience flow has been in the
opposite direction, from some form of hard-copy print to online publishing
of one sort of another. Is this perception correct?

Kathy

On 10/23/06, bbmackey <bbmackey@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
> Dear Betty,
> >
> >>  Oh, there are Google and Amazon ads on my informative
> >> website, too.
>
> Now, that is an intriguing statement.  Are you saying that you get paid
> for
> ads on your website? Am I missing something here?
> >
> Lina Burton
>
> ------------------------ reply ---------
>
> Lina, the line you quote is from my paragraph (in the Imagekind post a few
> days back) about my imaginary future in which my garage is no longer filled
> with boxes of unsold books like it is now -- small batches are printed on
> demand instead.
>
> I am seriously working toward having passive (for me) internet activities
> that pay me. Having paying ads on an informational website is something that
> is possible in the here and now. Yes, you can allow Amazon.com and Google
> (and probably others) to place ads on your site without losing control of
> your content. The advertisers provide you with ads by way of  bits of code
> to paste into your website pages.
>
> Doug Green is doing this very successfully on his website and blog. Here
> are links:
>
> http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/annual-flowers.html is just one of many of
> his informative pages with a google ad worked in.
>
> http://doug-greens-gardening.blogspot.com/  Blogs can have ads, too.
>
> If anyone clicks on the ads, very low commissions (with Google, pennies
> per click) are paid. But with enough reader clicks it adds up to something.
>
> I am starting to do this on my website. I developed easy ways to make
> garden troughs with hypertufa and a variant of it called papercrete. This
> info used to be the handout for one of my talks but I got so many requests
> for copies that I posted it online. Notice how I put my book and cd ads at
> the end of the instruction sheet.
> http://mackeybooks.com/make_a_trough.html
>
> This page gets many hits because people are searching for the information.
> A few people also click on the google ad at the bottom of the page. Just
> last weekend I added an Amazon.com ad to the page, too.
>
> Many sites that offer book reviews have such links built in, sometimes
> inconspicuously. If you click a writeup about an interesting book and
> suddenly you find yourself in Amazon.com, that is how it happened. Some
> people are making real money with these things but when they put too much of
> it on the sites it gets annoying and drives people away.
>
> For more information on utilizing google ads, go to www.google.com and
> click the link to "advertising programs."
> For more information on Amazon ads, go to the bottom of any www.amazon.com  page
> and click on a link at the bottom of the page that says "Join Associates."
>
> With best wishes,
> Betty
>
> Betty Mackey, Publisher
> B. B. Mackey Books
> P. O. Box 475
> Wayne, PA 19087
> bbmackey@prodigy.net
> www.mackeybooks.com
>
> http://bettymackey.imagekind.com/gardenworld
> _______________________________________________
>
>
-- 
Kathy Purdy
Cold Climate Gardening: providing the information you need
to succeed in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 and colder.
http://www.coldclimategardening.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coldclimategardening/
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