twoplustwoequalsblog

Adding Google Adsense ads might be the best upgrade I have ever made to my blog. Not only have they made me almost enough money to afford getting a soda from a vending machine, they almost always accurately (and often humorously) reflect the most recent entry. Right now, there are two soup ads and a restaurant supply ad. How cool is that?

Of course, barely anyone actually clicks them, which is an interesting point. The only reason Google can rake in such ridiculous amounts of money in advertising revenue is because they are so widespread. Sure, there are a few big sites that get tremendous traffic (digg.com stands out), but they also advertise on millions of other pages like mine. Can anyone tell me what a million times a couple of dollars is? That’s right, it’s a couple million dollars. Not bad.

Still, I think this sort of advertising is on the way out. I even think audio and video advertising as we are used to it is on the way out. TWiT just set up a partnership with Dell and Visa to place advertisements in their “netcasts”. The ads are both advert (”This episode is brought to you by our sponsors…”) and woven into the shows (a discussion of different credit card companies anti-identity-theft measures). TWiT has said it won’t let its sponsorship change anything it would otherwise say, but I can’t imagine that nothing will be affected. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Frankly, I wish advertisers would stick to more entertaining forms of advertisement. I love the Vonage commercials that feature a customer talking about all of the benefits of Vonage while something absurd goes on in the background. My favorite commercial of all time is this e*trade ad from a Superbowl during the .com boom. I remember it all these years later, and it is extremely amusing to watch. The new batch of Apple ads both entertain, and inform. This is what all advertisers should strive for.

Make me want to watch.