How do they pick those adverts?

[William Marques]

I was looking at Santiago Today and the row of adverts accross the top was:

Holiday Shopping Is Here
Hundreds Of New Styles Have Arrived Shop & Save up to 50% Order Today
http://www.ZenosActivewear.com4 Pack

Sloggi UK
Buy 4 Pack Sloggi At NeedUndies, £2 UK Delivery and Up To 20% Off
http://www.needundies.com/SloggiUK

Aerobic Wear from Brazil
Women's aerobic and gym wear. Brazilian fitness fashion.
http://www.belaforma.com

I wonder how they analysed the site and came up with those.

 

[ivar]

Hmm.. it is supposed to be ads related to the content on the page, but.... not sure if it is working. "4 Pack Sloggi" would not relate to our content... I am not sure what happened to these ads, i will try to investigate with google to see if i can do anything to make them more relevant. I just took down the ads and added a smaller version for now.

Do these ads bother anyone? Right now they are the only way I can get some euros to pay for hosting the site. I get about 2-3 euros per day from them, that more or less covers my costs of running the site. There has been a few donations as well, the last one about 2-3 months ago. All in all,it seems like these google ads are the best option.

Anyway, let me know if anyone have an opinion on this.

Un saludo,
Ivar

 

[NB Kevin]

Hi Ivar.

It is an interesting question, how the ads are generated. How does that happen? I assumed you had a hand in selecting them, Ivar. The ads I have noticed are unobtrusive and interesting. I like the "bouncy" effect, kind of like the dancing babies of a few years back.

The content I have seen is also relevant, I think. I had not noticed the ads referred to, but I have seen the ones for trekking poles, for the most popular camino guide books, and for other related material. I was quite intrigued by the ad for the DVD "The Naked Pilgrim," though I have not yet purchased it. (It is available through amazon.uk, but not amazon.com which is my usual source). Is it a worthwhile DVD?

Most importantly, since they offset the operating costs of the site, I think the ads are a welcome and necessary element of santiago-today.

 

[Sumachado]

Hi Ivar, I think that in a way beggars can't be choosers :lol: So, if the ads bring money for you to keep the site and they are someway related to the Camino, I do not see why they would bother anyone, especially because everybody is supposed to be aware of the web "etiquette" and if the ads don't look honest, we should just ignore them... Regards, Sumachado.

 

[Dale]

Good Morning Ivar:

I can truly say the ads are not bothering me I had to go looking to see what everyone is talking about, I just tune that stuff out without even thinking about it.

On a different note though since I was on the front page looking at the ads I decided to push the paypal button and give a donation. This feature isn't working, it takes me to an error message and never does connect to the paypal site.

Dale

 

[sillydoll]

Hi Kevin,
A friend of mine from England taped the Naked Pilgrim series for me when it was screened in the UK. Brian Sewell is an art critic (and considered a bit of a Ponce in England) who takes his old Mercedes across the channel to Chartres and Paris on a quest for all things St Jacques. He drives along the Via Turonensis visiting museums, churches, cathedrals and vineyards giving erudite and witty commentary on all things cultural along the way (including a detour to Lourdes which reduces him to tears.)
In Spain he largely has to stick to the roads so has to by-pass a number of familiar camino villages and hamlets. He decides to ride a horse the last 100kms so that he can earn a Compostela and in the end burns his clothes on the beach at Finisterre. I don't think the many local peregrinos he spoke to understood a word of what he was saying but he came across as kind, genuine and somewhat soft-hearted.
I am pleased to have a copy but am also pleased I didn't have to buy it!
Hugs,

 

[Peter Robins]

the choice of ads is based on keywords, which are entered by the ad creators. So people making sportswear might have 'walking', 'hiking', 'travel', 'active vacation' or any such keywords linked to their ads. If the Google engine then decides that a page has content related to one of those words, the ad is considered relevant to the person looking at the page.

 

[NB Kevin]

Hi Sil, and thanks for the background info on Brain Sewell, The Naked Pilgrim.
We have a pilgrim meeting here on Saturday, so I will ask around and see if anyone has a copy that I can borrow. It sounds worth seeing, if not worth buying!

Stay well,

 

[NB Kevin]

Further to Sil's words about "The Naked Pilgrim," I searched and found 4 episodes of the 5-part series posted on fellow peregrino Eval Low's blog. Here is the link:
http://camino.wificat.com/?m=200709

I found that the constant attempts at sardonic humour soon grew tedious, but the visuals and some of the content are good.

Thanks Evan!

 

[Ulysse]

These ads do not bother me a bit.

If someone clicks on them this is added revenue for Ivar, so what!

I may add that one needs an enormous amount of clicks to make a SMALL payback at the end of the month. This may assist in upkeep costs of the site.

As to relevancy, well this is another issue which Google Ads is not about to solve, I know for a fact as I have the same problem on my own site and after numerous dealings with Google the problem still re-appears after a while.

 

[stephenDevlin]

Brian Sewell is an Englishman with an accent so posh he could make the Queen of England sound common.
Filming a scene for the Naked Pilgrim in Lourdes he talked with two women from the North of England who had saved for some time to make the pilgrimage there.
He disparaged the commercialism of Lourdes, the stalls and shops selling tatty souvenirs, but their reply seemed to move him deeply. I can't remember their exact words but the essence of it was that there was something deeper there, something very profound. As there is.
Sewell is a self-proclaimed lapsed Catholic. It must be very sad to loose your faith and find nothing to replace it.

 

[William Marques]

Ivar

I really like the new layout with books from Amazon.

 

[ivar]

Yes I like how they look, but the problem is that from experience they do give less income (a lot less actually). But I had change it, I saw some google adds this morning in the forum that was not really appropriate. And I think links to the Amazon books are more useful that the Google adds for new pilgrims. I will give them a try for a while and se how things go.

Un saludo,
Ivar

 

[Dale]

Thanks Ivar for adding the USA and Canada Amazon links. I would suggest that it is good to do some comparative shopping before making the purchase. I was interested in a book called Fumbling which was advertised at 10.50 pounds on the UK site I got the book used on the USA site for $2.66, roughly one pound.

 

[ivar]

I have received 3 Paypal donations in the last two days. Thank you for donating, a few coins per donation is enough to cover the cost of hosting the site.

I heard from some that did not know of the option to donate, so I added a donate button in the header under the search box.

Muchas gracias!

Un saludo,
Ivar