AdSense: Workable Micropayment?
August 4th, 2005 at 7:06*Question of the Day:* Are AdSense users more likely to click through on ads on other sites that use AdSense? Personally, now that I’ve seen some first-hand evidence of how hard it is get click throughs in general, I sometimes like to take a moment to tip a weblog for a post that I appreciate by clicking through on one of its AdSense ads. It only costs me a moment of time and it also allows me to satisfy my curiosity and do a little research on the types of websites that our buying ads through Google (since I can’t use the ads on my own site in this fashion).
Furthermore isn’t what I’m doing sort of the ultimate form of voluntary micropayment? People have talked about micropayment systems for content for a long time, but there’s never really been a viable universal infrastructure that I’ve been aware of. Google AdSense finally seems like a workable implementation because it’s the ultimate micropayment solution. Instead of dollars and cents, it allows you to pay a website with something even smaller and easier to part with: a few seconds of your time.
Comments are open. Let me know what you think about this idea.
August 6th, 2005 at 10:01 am
I suppose I would be more likely to click on an ad if it caught my eye.
August 6th, 2005 at 10:48 am
Michele, my guess is that the vast majority of people surfing the web approach ads exactly as you described. They ignore them if they don’t specifically catch their eye and most of the time they’re trying to focus on the content. AdSense users like us (I checked your weblog and confirmed that you’re using them as well) are more likely to think about the AdSense ads we see at a more critical level.
Are the ads well integrated into the site? Do they actually have anything to do with the content? Do I like this content? If I do I can reward the author by clicking through one of these ads. Are there any that I might be remotely interested in? Yeah, that looks kind of intriguing: click.
I guess the idea or meme that I’m trying to spread (or find out if anyone else has thought about this) is that as thoughtful bloggers (rather than mindless surfers for lack of a better term) we can actively try to reward, support and encourage other quality blogs we come across using AdSense.