Google’s AdSense a bonanza for some Web sites

November 6, 2005

By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Canadian software developer and part-time humorist Eric Giguère made fun of the avalanche of Internet arthritis drug offers on his Web site last year. For his efforts, he received a $350 check from Internet search giant Google.

Giguère has one of those ubiquitous “Ads by Google” links on his site, offering ads the search giant considers of interest to readers. You might think that people rarely click on them, but they do — and often.

“For my own, personal humor writing, I got paid,” Giguère says. “It certainly opened my eyes to the possibilities that were out there.”

Google has a simple proposition for anyone who owns a Web site: Let it put up links to its ads, and Google’s AdSense program will give you a piece of the action when someone clicks on them.

It’s found money for many bloggers, small e-tailers and huge businesses — from small personal sites such as Giguère’s, to those of big-time corporations such as Amazon.com, the New York Times and About.com.

Giguère was so inspired, he wrote a book, Make Easy Money with Google, coming in May from Peachpit Press. Hundreds of online forums and Web sites are devoted to AdSense tips and tricks. The downside of the AdSense economy, critics charge, is that the avalanche of ads has created a new form of spam and is destroying the integrity of sites.

“This is a program that rewards people not for creating the best content, but for how to create sites to attract more advertising,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch online newsletter. “AdSense has nothing to do with search. It effectively turns the Internet into a billboard for Google’s ads.”

Google, whose executives often say their mission is to organize the world’s information, naturally begs to differ. “If I do a search for the New York Times and see an ad offering a subscription discount, that’s useful to me,” says Susan Wojcicki, Google’s director of product management.

Web site publishers don’t disagree.

“Say I write an article about a Braun shaver,” says Chris Pirillo, who runs the Lockergnome.com gadget Web site. “I publish it, and within minutes, I have targeted ads about shavers on my site. Someone who reads the content may feel compelled to pick one up. That helps me and the reader.”

Tales of AdSense riches range from a few hundred dollars a month to $50,000 or more a year, though high-dollar paydays are rare. They require a Web site with tons of traffic and the ability to put in 18-hour days working the system.

Pirillo, who has a following from his former role as a host on the now-defunct TechTV cable channel, says he’s clearing more than $10,000 a month.

Before AdSense, which began in March 2003, bloggers and other small Web publishers had fewer options to make money. They could put banner ads on their sites for a host of non-related products, or commission programs from Amazon and eBay. “It was a lot more work, and you didn’t get much of a return,” Pirillo says.

With AdSense, “You write content, publish it, and the money starts to pour in,” he says.

When he published the now-defunct Silicon Alley Reporter magazine, Jason Calacanis says, he used to suffer from insomnia, worrying about his monthly $200,000 to $400,000 printing bill.

He now runs a company called Weblogs, which publishes 75 Web sites on such topics as cars, gadgets, digital music and video games. He sleeps much better, he says, because “with AdSense, you know you’re always making money. Your life gets a lot easier.”

In his first four months of Web publishing, AdSense brought in $45,000. Some of his blogs produce $3,000 a month. His best do “four figures,” Calacanis says, though he’s reluctant to fill in the exact numbers. “And that’s with zero marketing,” he says.

How it works

Google and Yahoo dominate the booming online search advertising business, which is expected to grow to $5.6 billion in 2008, from $2.7 billion in 2004. Profit from search advertising enabled Google to more than double its revenue in 2004, to $3.1 billion.

The concept — text ads that ap