After a bit less than a month, but enough traffic to give me an idea what to expect, I decided to remove Google ads. I earned a dollar. Well, almost anyway.

My decision to end it was made easier when I discovered this, where ads were supposed to be:

Wtf?

I tried to follow Google’s advice. I picked the most successful formats (but also experimented with others), put them at premium places and choose colors that blend in. Result was a buck and a revelation that on my site even old-fashion banners would be more profitable.

I have no real explanation for disappointing results. Since I’m not fond of ads either, I stayed with number of ad boxes I felt most comfortable with (usually just one) and used only text ads. It’s possible that I’d have more luck with image ads, but it doesn’t really matter, since I dislike them enough that they wouldn’t be acceptable anyway.

It’s also possible and even probable, that the problem was with content of pages. I’ve certainly noticed what often seemed at best a poor match between displayed content and ads.

Sadly there weren’t enough clicks to merit a more involved analysis. Maybe some other time, when I have a new idea worth exploring and get better results.

What has been your experience with AdSense?