Google AdWords

Well, I just did something pretty goofy this morning. I was reading 'The Tao of Masonry' blog and it gave me an idea. This blog is run by Tom Accuosti, a Freemason in Connecticut, and is always enjoyable to read. Brother Tom's most recent post was in celebration of his rolling over the hit-counter odometer on his site past 10,000. My blog has been online now for four and a half years and is now up to only 33,000 hits.

Tom also commented on the pattern of keyword searches that draw people to his site. I have written a couple of posts on this topic in the past and I was planning on doing a new one soon. I am now collecting an enormous amount of log data, largely thanks to the help of Google Analytics which was recently enhanced with some amazing reporting features.

Now that I have had Google Adsense running on my site for a while I am finally accumulating some real money. I have now earned (some amount) in AdSense revenue and I am up to about (some additional amount) per month in traffic. By the end of June I should hit my first major milestone of earning (an even round number amount).

I made a promise on this site in the past, and I plan to stick to it, that when I receive my first (round number in funds) from Google I will use the entire amount to purchase beer. In the grand scheme of things that much money can easily just kind of wash out, that is unless you earmark those funds for a special purchase.

Of course, even if I do buy beer with the money, I have to treat it like an investment. So, after I purchase and drink my (certain amount) worth of beer, I will have to post reviews of each brand on the site. This will, in turn, draw additional traffic, thus increasing my AdSense revenue and, ultimately, leading to yet another check and more beer. It is a self perpetuating cycle of inebriation on a six month timetable.

There is only one hitch with this strategy. On average I drink more than a this many dollars worth of beer every six months. Clearly, if I want to stay stocked with the good stuff, I will need to increase my AdSense income.

So, how can I possibly do that? Why, purchase Google AdWords of course. On a whim this morning I signed up for Google AdWords. It costs, at the minimum, about $50 per month. I figure I can run it for a month or two just out of idle curiosity. This $50 per month is *not* counted against my AdSense (i.e. beer) revenue. I am carefully compartmentalizing these monies using a mental partitioning scheme that clearly distinguishes their purpose using a shell account in the Cayman Islands if necessary.

Really, I'm just doing the Google AdWords thing out of complete curiosity. I have no business to promote, so I am simply promoting my blog. The keywords I purchased include my own name 'John Ratcliff' as well as a number of variations based on Freemasonry.

There is definitely an egotistical aspect to this exercise. Currently if you type my name into Google I not only show up as the number one hit, but also hold six of the top ten spots, including #1, #2, and #3. If you enter only my last name, Ratcliff, I hold two of the top ten spots, including #2. Ratcliff - Architecture, Planning, and Interiors beat me out for #1.

What really concerns me, however, is JohnRatcliff.com. Currently this site is the #4 result for my name, but how long can I count on that? I did have a brief email exchange with my namesake at one time and discovered that he is a British music producer. He seems like a nice enough fellow but there can only be a single John Ratcliff as the number one search result on Google; and that simply has to be me.

This is a battle for supremacy. Egos will clash and keywords will battle until only one emerges victor. Sure, I'm winning the battle now but I am afraid that if I don't do more to promote my site I could lose to this upstart Brit who's affable personality hides an ego that poses a serious threat.

So, we will see how this experiment turns out. In the meantime, I will keep my eyes open for other egotistical John Ratcliff's who may be a challenge to my game of Google King of the Hill.

-------------Update--------------

After less than an hour having AdWords activated I just received my first 'click' and was charged 15 cents. Yikes! So, $50 gets just 333 new visitors to the site. I get that many every two days just from normal traffic. But, hey, these are quality hits right? Customers?

And, by the way, if I am drawing 'customers' here I ought to have something to sell them. Why, what else could I possibly want to sell but Web Advertising!

Don't forget you can always go to 'A Million Pixels US' and donate money to Troy DeMolay chapter for only one penny a pixel!

Here are the stats so far by keyword and impressions.

Vacation Photographs : 137 impressoins
Ratcliff : 79 impressions one click!
Freemasonry : 16 impressions.
John Ratcliff : 7 impressions