To Ad, Or Not To Ad

I recently toyed with the idea of putting ads on the site. But one simple fact (other than becoming a sellout whore) stopped me.

This blog is hosted by Blogger, the largest blog publisher. They provide this service free of charge. Blogger, as you may or may not know, is run by Google, the search engine folks. They provide search service also free of charge. If the purpose of running a business is to make money, and a company provides most of its services for free, how does Google make any money (other than minting stock at $188/share)? Well, they sell ad space.

Google offers a program called AdSense, in which businesses can buy ad space that Google will strategically place on a participating website. The neat thing about the technology behind this is that Google actually caters the ads they provide to the content of any particular webpage. If this blog had Google ads, and you were reading the post on the Nokia 7280 mobile phone, for example, the ads provided by Google might direct you to Nokia's website, or to an online retailer who sells the phone. But, this isn't even the best thing about this service, which Google, once again, provides free of charge.

Because this is an insanely lucrative business for Google (which made $1.5 billion last year), they actually give back to their consumers. When someone clicks on an ad on your site, the advertiser pays Google for referring the business, and Google turns around and pays you for supplying the leads. It's really a pretty sweet fucking deal, one that I'd be almost crazy to pass up. I was ready to sign up. But then, I had a rather elementary thought: Who the fuck ever clicks on those ads?

In the 10 years that I've been surfing the Web, I've clicked on maybe a dozen ads (I should mention these numbers are somewhat skewed: In the years before Internet Explorer, and for a few after, there were no ads on websites. It is a phenomena that has literally popped up in the last few years). Everyone that I know that reads this blog is nearly as jaded as I am, and I'm sure that they don't click ads either. I'm sure there are people who click ads, because Google earns shitloads of money from just that (so much so that they turn around and give it right back). But that's from traffic on sites with a lot of hits. I have a couple dozen hits. And how many of those people are going to look at ads? Not me. Just the process of signing up isn't worth the trouble of the $.14 return I'd probably get. Truth is, I will probably find more money in payphone coin returns or on the ground than I would make from selling out and having ads on my site. So, hence, no ads on my site. Although, based on this one post, it would be funny to see an "Ad by Gooooogle" that referred you back to Google. Gotta love fuckin' with The Man.