A couple of years ago I was making good money each month with Google Adsense, enough so that it made sense to keep the codes running on the website. Then suddenly the revenue dropped, and it no longer made sense to have the Google ads running on the website.

Traffic to the website was climbing month to month, the content was largely the same yet I had no explanation for why the ads were no longer making money. So I pulled the banners.

Upon the launch of the new site design I decided to try Google Adsense again on a test run to see how it went. All I can say is that you don’t see the banners anymore for good reason, as earnings on Google Adsense was ridiculously low.

I am wondering if other bloggers are seeing the same drop in ad dollars running Google Adsense. I have been hounded by some ad networks to run contextual ads within the content but I really hate those types of ads.

Thankfully my podcast sponsors help keep the lights on, and allow me to hire bloggers that contribute here on Geek News Central. Google on the other hand was not even good enough for a cup of starbucks coffee.

The other day I reinstalled a machine: A VIA chipset motherboard. I had to get the Video, audio and other drivers. I went to VIATechnologies, which then shuttled me to VIA Arena – where the drivers were held.

What I was surprised to see was the site was littered with Ads. We’re not talking about a Google Ad on the side. Ad after ad after ad.

I selected a link I thought was a VIA driver detection program. It turned out to be a 3rd party program that wanted me to PAY to download. I went back and finally noticed the ‘(SPONSOR)’ note.

I went back to the page and tried to find my drivers. It wasn’t that easy: Actually took me a few different tries. I eventually found the drivers which I installed.

I understand if a company decides to put an invasive ad on the the site. Maybe a Google ad on the bottom or a sponsored link exchange. However 22 ads encompasing the company’s website?

What’s worse is that I fell for a sponsor program. What would a non-IT person do? Most likely they would buy the software because they think VIA requires them to have it. Then VIA gets a portion of that sale which means you are giving VIA more money.

VIA needs to re-think their site. Like I said, I don’t mind ads. However, turning the whole page into one big ad is annoying and, in a way, deceptive. I know for sure I won’t be looking toward VIA motherboards if I have to build a new system for someone.

USAToday is reporting on a high school teacher in San Diego, who has started selling advertisements on his test papers in order to pay for printing costs for his class. He felt it was the only way to subsidize the costs of printing for his classroom; his budget is $300, but his printing costs about $500 per school year.

Most ads, at this point, are pretty innocuous. Inspirational messages from parents top the list of ads, but ads have also been bought by local engineering firms and an orthodontist.

What concerns me about this is that this marketing gives advertisers access to children. Our children are the most vulnerable to advertising, without the maturity and life experience to weed out the obnoxiousness that is advertising. I can block advertising when my kids surf (ad blocker plus for Firefox) and keep the television watching to a minimum, but if my kids are getting advertising at school on their tests and homework papers, I have absolutely no control over that. While I would trust that the teacher would not allow questionable advertising to be printed on his test papers, when it comes to the almighty dollar, often greed trumps good sense.

I can appreciate the teacher’s ingenuity, but I think there is probably a better way. If he only needs to make $200, couldn’t he have had a small class fundraiser that targeted the parents, who should be supporting their kids’ education anyway? I have to think this teacher went too far.

Ever time I see someone quote Alexa numbers it makes me sick to my stomach. The reason is that their numbers are far from accurate.

Last week I had a client email me looking to advertise on one of my properties. He sent me a advertising figure that I quite literally laughed at. When I replied that the rate was about 15 times lower than what we normally charged he replied with a Alexa chart.

I followed up with some screen shots from my Google Analytics account, and the client said it was impossible for the numbers between Alexa and Google Analytics to have such a huge delta, and actually semi-accused us of fudging the numbers.

I wrote off Alexa a long time ago, sadly many people still do not have a clue that their numbers are pretty far from being even reasonably accurate.

Faulty Alexa data ends up hurting small companies like mine because this gives agencies the ability to negotiate with bad data. I think though the Agencies know it’s bad data and they use Alexa data points when they can as they know they can strong arm companies into lower advertising rates and get away with it.

I read a blog post by Louis Gray this morning that said that “Most Bloggers Don’t Deserve Any Ad Revenue” honestly I was pretty surprised that he would advance that type of a discussion.

One of the tenants I have lived by is that if a person wants to earn money for their writing or media creation then they should explore all avenues to do so.

While I realize that a site that is not well followed will likely not make a lot of money, many bloggers are happy to have enough money to buy a few new gadgets or have take the wife out for dinner.

My advice to Bloggers want to earn some money, be realistic on what you can earn and then go out and work your tail off to get a sponsor that matches your content. [Louis Gray]