The Sidebar Ads: A Race between the Tortoise and the Other Tortoise

Halfway through the month-long experiment comparing AdBrite and Google ads, they are nearly tied. Only a few cents separate the two. The downside is that both are pathetic thus far. I did go in and reduce the price of a direct ad on AdBrite to account for the fact that it will only be up approximately half the time. For $2/day, you can have your ad in the sidebar. Just click the “Your Ad Here” link and you go straight through to purchase. If anyone actually does this, this will probably tilt the scales to AdBrite. That is what I like about their system, that someone can place an ad specifically on this page if they so desire.

More on Ads

I’m doing an experiment for the month of August. Since I recently put the Google ads back on, they have been performing better than when I took them off but not wildly better. I saw a reference to Adbrite the other day, and signed up. This is the ad company started by Pud of Fucked Company infamy. That site kept me going with gallows humor in my dark days of getting laid off and not finding a job, so I have a store of slack built up for him.

Right now, there is a coin-flip in the PHP code that renders the sidebar. Heads, it will show the Google Ads and tails it will show the Adbrite ads. We’ll see how it goes, both from a revenue standpoint and from an aesthetic one. The thing Adbrite does that Google doesn’t is that it has a “Your Ad Here” link. If you want your ad specifically on this site, as opposed to being served out by the network to anyone, you can do that. I’m withholding my opinion so far, and will just let the data speak for itself.