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Ditchin' the Google Ads
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06/16/05 11:18 AM EST
posted by JER email web |
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Argh... here's a breakdown of my Google AdSense revenue so far this year...
| Jan 31, 2005 |
$1.67 |
| Feb 28, 2005 |
$2.32 |
| Mar 31, 2005 |
$0.45 |
| Apr 30, 2005 |
$0.73 |
| May 31, 2005 |
$0.03 |
At this rate, I'll reach the $100 "We'll send you a check" threshold sometime in the year 2013. So clearly the Google Ads are not contributing to my site's financial well being. The Amazon.com links help me out occasionally but that's usually because someone like Bull clicks them. So my bloglines-like xml feed links will be replacing those ads very soon.
As for $$, I'm thinking of branching my ImageVerifier out onto it's own website and selling it for a nominal fee (I've seen competitors sell single-license versions for $20, multi-license for $75, source code for ~ $200 -- mine would be cheaper). I also have a few freeware components to put up there as well (Windows Key identifier, etc.). Though you can't see it from my use on this site, the ImageVerifier is a completely stand alone C# component that includes visual themes, user-selected Fonts, full Visual Studio .NET integration & many more developer-customization features... If any Shiny Donkey regulars are interested in using it on their blog or wherever, I'll be putting the finishing touches on it soon & you're welcome to use it for free, but there will be a small link to my "corporate" site to try to lure buyers -- just let me know! |
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06/16/05 11:55 AM EST
posted by Tester (nate) |
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Testing the image verification...
Just a few quick notes:
1.) I probably shouldn't receive an error that the code is incorrect when I preview the post.
2.) I haven't seen the entire character set but I don't see any characters that could be confused in this one test. Just to prevent brute-force posting (is anyone doing that?) you might want to have the code change on every attempt. |
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Thanks for the feedback, Nate!!!
1) I could swear I tested that "preview" didn't fire the validator. I'll look at that more closely.
2) After writing the Windows Key ripper, I saw the character set that Microsoft uses to validate their keys and matched it. It's basically alpha-numeric characters that can't be confused with one another (zero and O are excluded, for instance). Hopefully that will lead to fewer false errors. Also, I'd thought about the brute force issue but never got around to doing it. Ideally, there would also be a link on the image that says "Hard to read? Refresh this image", but that could cause some serious issues in making this a stand-alone plug-in. |
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06/16/05 01:07 PM EST
posted by Nate (testing) |
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No problem. Actually, I'll bet you did test the preview option but you didn't follow this path...
Before posting this reply I attempted to preview without attempting to enter the code. = No error message.
If I click "Add Message", get the code wrong and then click "Preview". = Error message.
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