Associated Content and Adsense

Having seen the suggestion on an online forum that rather than publishing your writing on Associated Content you would be better off putting it onto your own website or blog, and putting Google ads on the pages using Google AdSense, I decided to test this experimentally. I have had some scientific training as well as having worked in research at Adelaide University for over 17 years, so I can see for myself the weaknesses of the comparison. However, I think there is a limited validity to it, and certainly for my own purposes it allows some comparison of the two.

Method

My web site is www.bettatrading.com.au. On this web site, as well as price lists and things like contact information; I have put many of the articles I have published on Associated Content. Most of these articles have Google AdSense ads on them. Every time someone clicks on them I receive a share of Google's charge for the ad.

Results

For the two months of March and April 2009 I have recorded the results from the two. On Associated Content I received in the two months 5832 page impressions. Associated Content pays for these at the rate of $1.50 per thousand, giving me a total payment of $8.45.

On my web site I received 2128 page views on the pages with Adsense ads on them. I got 37 clicks, giving total earnings of $4.80. This was an average of 13 cents per click. ($2.26 per thousand page views.)

Conclusions

The results do not justify the proposition that you will earn more with Adsense. The amounts earned are small, but large enough for comparison. Because I am not a legal resident of the United States, Associated Content cannot pay me upfront payments for my articles, so I still own the copyright to them. This means that I can increase my earnings by putting my writing onto both sites. It also means that I could put them onto other sites as well. So far I have not done this, but I may in the future.

Breach of Copyright

Last Month I published on Associated Content an article entitled "Associated Content v Adsense". This was removed from publication by Associated Content because they had found another web site carrying my article without my by line (Steve Challis).

Whoever had put my article onto the other site had done it without my permission, in breach of the Copyright Laws, and ignoring my moral right to be recognized as the author of things I had written.

When this happened I had three different emotions. The first one was outrage that someone had stolen my article. I was also flattered that someone had thought my article was good enough to imitate. The third emotion was amusement at the other two, largely contradictory, emotions.

Since then I have found that someone has copied one of the articles on my web site. This is a nuisance. Each time I have reported the Copyright abuse to the website. I hope they will take action.