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Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

Google Adsense used to be a really big deal for me. It's dropped in the last month or two though.

Site / blog sponsorships. I'm not talking text link ads but actual sponsorships from key companies in my sector. It's not big money but enough for me to spend my time working on what I want rather than what I have to.

In the past, I had revenue generating webapps, but I sold those in order to build some capital for future projects, savings, etc. I should probably get on to building another to be fair..

Oh, some low-maintenance Web hosting and domain registrations too for ultra old Web design clients (when I did that sort of thing). Keeps the servers paid up for me to use for my own stuff :)

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Was the drop due to adsense payouts dropping over the last month, or something else?

Yes. It comes in waves, I find. Sometimes pages rank well in Google, sometimes not. Lately, however, it seems to be more a case of getting less per click - but I put this down to the economic situation leading people to bid less.

How did you sell your webapps? I mean how and where did you find willing buyers?

I didn't. I was approached in each case. I wasn't planning to sell. Unfortunately this doesn't help me give you any advice ;-)

> Site / blog sponsorships.

How does that work, exactly? Do you mean, you put links on your page to those other key companies and then get paid per click?

I guess "sponsorship" is really a nice word for "self-managed brand advertising." It's semi-popular in the development blogging world. For example, you'll see Peepcode banners on many Ruby blogs.

Let's say you run a .Net blog and a .Net tools vendor wants their logo on the sidebar of your blog. You say, sure, it costs $500 per month (or whatever) and that's it. If you've got the readership, fame, or whatever, it's reasonably easy. You won't get an awesome CPM but it's nice to have known companies supporting you.

If Gary Vaynerchuk doesn't answer this question perfectly, and in video form, I don't know who does. Check it.

http://tinyurl.com/6lpckv

Heh, that was the first thing that came to mind too. GaryV definitely has that kinda thing down packed.

Shortened version for people too lazy to watch video, Type in keywords appropriate to your site in Google etc, look at the ads in the sidebar and approach those companies directly.

Vaynerchuck ROCKS. Love this guy.

You don't think he resembles a frantic sleazeball marketoid at all?

Compare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk

Not at all.

wow, I'm exhausted after watching that. good video.

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