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Well it’s only taken six months… but finally my Google Adsense adverts have reached their $100 payout minimum, and in July I can expect to receive the first cheque for advert clicks from this blog. I have worked with many clients who have assumed that the payout from contextual advertising like Adsense must be very significant; taking the prevalence of units on websites as a sign of their profitability. However, despite the average click through rate being more than triple that of standard graphic banners, publisher earnings per CPM are quite low in comparison - it’s commission on clicks that we Adsense affiliates get (I estimate 10%), and not the entire advertiser click fee.

It’s a shame that over the course of these first six months the value of $100 has dropped in pounds, £8 a month probably just about covers the cost of hosting the blog but none of the time and effort involved in producing the content. On the plus side contextual advertising is so targeted that it does often provide useful links to services around my articles, on a number of occasions I’ve been impressed with the relevancy of Google adverts and the speed in which they appeared, especially since I optimised the targeting elements. Here’s to the new year and payout number two!

Technorati Tags: google adsense, contextual advertising, click through rates, CTR, CPM, online advertising

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