Tag: site news

Site News: AdSense is trying to kill me

So this was already a wild week (if you only knew…), and then AdSense tried to put another nail in my coffin.

AdSense, which is Google’s ad program that puts most of the non-Amazon ads on the site, sent me an e-mail saying they were disabling ads on my site. Why? They said I posted pictures that broke their policies. This sort of happened previously, except then they told me it was okay if I posted those pictures, so I started posting them again last fall (after going through and deleting thousands of pictures off the server).

Then out of the blue, they canceled my ads again earlier this week.

At one time this site was making upward of $1,000 per month in AdSense revenue.

Recently it had trickled down to less than $2 a day.

Yesterday it was $0.06.

Today it is $0.00.

I submitted the site for AdSense review, but they rejected my appeal by saying the site was still breaking their policy. They sent me a link as an example of a violation, and the link said “Page Not Found.” So I have no idea.

I am now exploring other ad server programs.

Site News: The Corona Effect

I know posting has slowed a bit in recent days. I will admit that the general slowdown of everything has quelled my motivation to write. I’m still getting site traffic, so that’s something, but the bottom line is that an ad glitch with AdSense and the crappy economy have sucked dry almost all monetary reward. And while I started this blog twelve years ago for nothing but fun, my priorities have changed since 2008.

This post isn’t about asking for donations. Some of you are already very generous, and everyone’s taking a financial hit during quarantine. This post isn’t a “farewell” because I intend to continue the blog.

This is only meant to be an insight into a) the financial effects of coronavirus and b) an explanation for the posting slowdown.

Here are a couple more detailed looks, starting with Amazon:

As of May 23, the earnings for Amazon in May are at $9.17. That’s about $0.42 per day (through 22 days of reporting).

AdSense is more productive, but you can see in red the downward trend – after a couple months of downward trends. April was down 32% from March, and May is down 25% from April.

We’re 22 full days into the month, and the site is taking in less than $5 per day, so I just can’t justify cranking out article after article wh

There are admittedly flaws in my business plan. I don’t seek out ads, and random Russian businessmen often e-mail me with offers I ignore. Maybe they could make me rich, or maybe I end up with a guy wearing a thick gold chain named Boris shoving a Glock in my nostril.

So. Don’t send money. Don’t cry.

Please just keep this post in mind if you visit the site and don’t 2-3 new articles per day.

Site News: Keep the Change, Ya Filthy Animal

The time has come to pay the bill for Flywheel. Flywheel is the web hosting service that I have been using for the past few years after 2015 and 2016 really sucked due a terrible local hosting service. As you can see above, I ran the $1,250 charge last week.

In the last couple years, I have become increasingly reliant on donations and Amazon ads because Google AdSense just doesn’t bring in what it used to bring. For example, the month of January 2020 brought in $302.04 from Google, so it would take me four months of writing just to pay for the site to exist.

So if you can donate something, anything, to the effort, it would be appreciated. Please use the Paypal donation button below. Thanks!

Site News: No More Redirects (I Hope)

If you have been receiving the above picture at times over the past couple months when trying to access TTB, I have some (potentially) good news: the malware has been removed.

Yay!

I made several requests to technical people for help, and they kept telling me that readers should clear their cache. Which, you know, might have worked, I guess, but it’s hard to tell readers they should clear their cache if they can’t actually land on my website to see words. Sure, I can reach people who follow me on Twitter, but that’s not everyone.

So.

If you continue to see redirects like the stupid one above, please do two things:

1. Clear your cache, which might help temporarily.
2. Contact me via e-mail or Twitter and let me know, at which point I can notify Flywheel again.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to the people who kept contacting me so I could know that the problem was ongoing.

Top 10 Most Popular Posts of 2019

Looking back at last year, here are the top 10 most popular posts of the year 2019, according to traffic numbers and stuff.

1. If I had My Druthers . . . 2020 Transfers (LINK)
2. Visitors: 2019 BBQ at the Big House (LINK)
3. Ex-Wolverine Updates: Week 1 (LINK)
4. 2019 Scholarship Count (LINK)
5. Visitors: Michigan vs. Ohio State (LINK)
6. Visitors: January 17-19 (LINK)
7. Snapshots: Passing Game Confusion (LINK)
8. Ranking Michigan’s Quarterbacks (LINK)
9. Ex-Wolverine Updates: Coaches, Summer 2019 (LINK)
10. 2019 Spring Game Visitors (LINK)