The first is a "site" ad. Every time it appears on the site, it costs me a little. Clicks cost no extra (and the site doesn't get any more income from it). I'm using the site ad as a way to help support the site (and because I'm curious about the ad overhead that Google grabs).

The second type is an "AdWords" ad. Every time someone searches for the AdWords or phrases I picked, the ad appears in a sidebar in Google (if I had bid high enough). It also appears on the Google Network sites, under some circumstances. If someone clicks on the 2nd type of ad, it can cost up to the Cost Per Click I bid (but it's usually much less).

At the moment, both types of ads use the same text. Once I get the AdWords optimized a little better, I'll probably change the site ad to be a little more appropriate. (I already have an idea to make it more interesting without making it too complicated. :-)

At the moment, only 0.02% of the Impressions (a display of the Got LRPD? AdWords ad on a web page) result in a click. (In contrast, 0.50% of the site ad impressions have resulted in a click.) It's going to be a long slog to build traffic this way, but I'll keep it up and try to improve the "quality" of the AdWords if it doesn't get too spendy (and if it looks like it's marginally worthwhile).

Getting the AdWords right is a challenge. It can be very expensive to bid on popular words and phrases, but without good AdWords, you don't get impressions or clicks. The AdWords I have at present are:

current events, Zope, LRPD, threaded discussion, politics discussion, Objective C, forum software, perl help, ICLRPD, IT discussion, IWeThey, science discussion, Debian help, Microsoft antitrust, Ubuntu help, diet and health, ethics discussion, Mepis help, economics discussion, scripting language, database tips, python help, religion discussion

(Please feel free to suggest changes to this list - this is the 3rd variation so far.)

Making the terms too distinct - increasing their "quality" (since Google likes AdWords that closely match what someone searches for) means that they may never appear (because they're only rarely searched for). Making the terms too general - increasing the possible universe of searches - lowers the "quality" score and simultaneously increases the likelihood that the words will be very expensive. It's tough to optimize in a reasonable amount of time....

Cheers,
Scott.

Do we really want to attract people who do a search on "Chutney!" and "She tasted spicy." and "Menage a dodecahedron."

:-)

Cheers,
Scott.