Your experience with Google AdSense?

[Livingalmostlarge]

I make about $10-20/month. I get more from advertising on my blog. But I don't go looking for advertising. I prefer to just blog and have fun. It can be fun supplemental money. Pays enough for webhosting.

[GOTO Fashion]

I'm with Megan - I think the 5 second ad would be a big turn-off for readers. I can't stand waiting for the ads to finish on news videos on sites like CNN and AOL. For those, I make an exception since I'm usually interested in the content, but a blog? Not sure I'd wait for the video to finish.

If you try them on your site and have good results - in other words, the traffic sticks around and clicks through to your ads - let us know. Maybe I'm underestimating the patience of the average blog-reader.

As for using Adsense with Amazon or other affiliate programs, I read Google's terms as meaning that you can't combine Adsense with other search-engine driven ads. In other words, I'm pretty sure you can post products, affiliate links to retailers, etc. so long as they aren't for competitive search engines.

[hermione]

I agree. I often immediately close the tab/window or hit the back button when I come to a page with speaking ads or even loud music. They just get on my nerves, because unless you choose to watch/listen to something, unexpected noise is really annoying.

(Though for some really weird reason, I really enjoy hearing the little "click" in Internet Explorer when you're going to a new page; I don't use IE much though because it's so slow.)

I've got AdSense and Amazon associates now and they seem to fill up the space quite well enough.

[USCGamecocks]

Adsense has been great for me.

I think that whenever your linked by big blogs or your "digg'ed" those types of people that visit your sites understand what ads are about. They are the advanced internet user that don't really click ads. As bloggers or more advance internet users how often do you click an ad, when you know it's an ad? Not that often right?

Use google. I don't know another more reilable option to make money.

[mbhunter]

Responding to the comment that it's not worth it to put AdSense up on a new blog: That's one of the first things I put on! In my thinking, there's almost no reason not to. You start earning and working toward that first Benjamin.

No problems with payments; they come like clockwork.

Once you get a fair bit of traffic, start testing to see what works best. And use channels so you can see which ads perform the best.

[GOTO Fashion]

I'm curious as to how long it took some of you who are earning money with adsense to start earning? Was it simply a matter of time, or did you do something(s) to proactively get people to start clicking on ads - changing placement, ad type, adding referrals to other Google products, etc.?

[Jeremy]

Adsense picks up when search engine traffic picks up. Until then, if your visitors are regular readers, other bloggers, or those coming in from other blogs, the number of clicks will probably be relatively low.

In my case, it took me just about six months to earn enough with adsense to be issued a check. But once I reached that point, every month beyond produced sufficient earnings to receive a check.

Of course, tweaking placement and ad style can help, but until you have a steady stream of search traffic, those changes won't provide drastic results.

[Xin Lu]

Recently adsense earnings have been dropping for me. The price I get paid per 1 thousand impressions is lowered. I think it is probably because Google is taking a bigger cut than before to boost their earnings. I started to use Adsdaq to sell per impression ads and that has been performing better than Adsense! So I use Adsense as a backup tag to Adsdaq now.

[yourbeginnings]

I agree with Xin Lu. My adsense revenue is down. Currently I use Adsense, Commission Junction and Amazon Affiliates. The for the reference to Adsdaq. I will be signing up with them. Xin Lu, do you get a referral fee for Adsdaq? If so, let me know.

[Lynnae]

My experience with Adsense has been much the same as Jeremy's. It took about 6 months for the first check, but I've earned enough for payout every month since.

I think I'm going to look into Adsdaq. Thanks for mentioning it Xin Lu. And definitely tell us if you get some sort of credit for referrals. If I use it, I want to give credit where credit is due.