Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Literacy Cambodia
Pregnancy Weight Gain (March of Dimes link)
The Green Guide
Asian Developing Nations
Are You a New Dad? (March of Dimes)
I haven't seen any of the old PSAs though, since these ones were added.
I wish they'd keep it to VERY general and international groups. Otherwise it depends too much if you agree with Googles judgment for your own good deeds.
SN
And The Green Guide is definitely a commercial site, not a "public service" site in the same way the Cancer Society or PTA are. Some of the articles are free on that site, but many you can't even view unless you pay to view them. I can't see why this site is considered a charity site at all.
This leads me to wonder... will Google ever sell run-of-network ads to advertisers who desire broad exposure, to fill these PSA slots?
What a phenomenal concept. Suggest it to Google! Even people suggest it ... maybe it will come to pass?
Debs
What a phenomenal concept. Suggest it to Google! Even people suggest it ... maybe it will come to pass?
Why thank you! I'm sure Google's thought of this -- they've got lots of smart people working on lots of smart projects (*).
But now that I think about it, I bet it'll never happen. One reason they might reject the idea is that they've spent lots of energy branding AdWords as a way to drive *targeted* traffic. Although they might make a few bucks in the short term, it would water down customers' image of AdWords even if it's a strictly opt-in feature. And users wouldn't look at AdWords the same way after seeing enough untargeted advertising. You could argue this is already happening with the PSAs, but I bet the goodwill factor compensates for that.
Just thinkin' like a marketer.
(*) That's an inside joke...to someone who probably won't ever read this, but oh well :)
Not gaining enough weight in pregnancy starves the baby and produces premature and Low Birth Weight (lbw) births. LBW is one of the most serious health problems in America today and, like many genetic birth defects, causes lifelong problems.
It's great that this is finally getting some exposure. Won't hurt guys to see it.
/jh
Men need to know the truth about pregnancy weight gain. One of the big reasons women don't gain enough weight in pregnancy is that they don't want their guys to think they're "fat."Not gaining enough weight in pregnancy starves the baby and produces premature and Low Birth Weight (lbw) births. LBW is one of the most serious health problems in America today and, like many genetic birth defects, causes lifelong problems.
I don't think this is much of an issue nowadays as most women gain too much weight during pregnancy.
Actually, this is the first time that I've heard of LBW being considered the most serious health problem in America today. My guess for the biggest health problem in America is the 68% of the population which is overweight or obese.
Actually, this is the first time that I've heard of LBW being considered the most serious health problem in America today. My guess for the biggest health problem in America is the 68% of the population which is overweight or obese.
It is after all our traffic that we are sending to these charities.
I definitely would like to see AdSense offer webmasters an option to select four charity ads they would prefer to see on their AdSense sites. Non-profits have many different viewpoints, and there are certain non-profits I will not support for a variety of reasons, whether it be their political connections, motives, % of revenue that actually goes to the cause they support, etc. I would be disappointed to find my site inadvertantly supporting them through AdSense.
True, many charities are supporting noble causes, but as dougb said "some are pretty dodgy, though."
Google should get a list of charities together and let webmasters choose which PSAs are shown on their site. Choosing the charities they see most fitting to their site as a whole or which charities are most important to them as an individual. I don’t mean to sound harsh but some webmasters may not care about literacy in Cambodia but may really want to support the fight against cancer.
It is after all our traffic that we are sending to these charities.
I agree 100% with this. I run an animal welfare site. Seems logical that I might prefer animal and environmental PSA's. I wouldn't mind showing those for free.
However, showing ads for the PTA really rubs me the wrong way for reasons I shouldn't go into here. I also wasn't aware I could block certain PSA's.
And. There is something strange going on when these ads are displayd. Try changing the URL on a site by adding a parameter with a well used keyword like &funVar=hosting or?anotherVar=t-shirts
At leas the sites I tried it on changed from PSAs to ads targeted on those keywords! Another example of the power of the URL, or a glitch in the targeting algo?
Just clicking around, I can't find a single paid ad. It makes me wonder how I have any clicks at all.
Is anyone else seeing this on their sites? Is this something to worry about (beyond the obvious loss of $$$), or is it just the end of the month, dried-up ad budget situation?
I'm also seeing this on other people's sites that are running adsense, so maybe they just don't like my IP today. Either way, its damned annoying.
Whether in the form of weighting, exclusions, target-hints, or whatnot, I think allowing pet vegan sites to have animal-rights PSAs and teen health sites have suicide prevention PSAs and so on would increase valuable click-thrus for the charities AND would make Webmasters less grumpy about seeing PSAs on their sites.
Some specific ideas I'd love to see implemented:
1) Have PSAs categorized into specific areas, such as Reproductive Health, U.S.-Centric, Education, Cultural Awareness, and so on.
2) Allow Webmasters to either weight (re: preferences) each category ("Highly relevant to site," "Minimally relevant to site," "Completely irrelevant to site") or even exclude up to 'x' number of categories.
They did suggest that charities holding 501(C)(3) status explore the following program:
[google.com...]
The more I think about it, the more I like your idea acidic
The more I think about it the more I'm NOT a charity and expect this whole thing to be 'for profit' as far as I'm concerned. Why would I want a new 'feature' that still doesn't pay me? If I want to promote a charity I don't need a service to show the ad. I'll show the ad myself. I don't mean to sound cold hearted but I just don't want the option to choose 'free' advertisements. At the end of the day I won't feel any better about not being paid just because I had the option to choose.
JAG
I would like to make the PSAs as relevant to my site content and, most importantly, my readership as possible - this would contribute to the integrity of my site and, I'm sure, increase PSA CTR as well. (Everybody wins!)
Rather than having to go through an ever increasing checkbox list to select individual Public Service Advertisers I think the suggestion that webmasters could give a relevancy rating to different PSA categories is an excellent one.
This could be implemented over the top of the current system as an optional extra (like the colour selection), so that webmasters who choose not to give PSA relevancy ratings continue to receive the default service.
<added>JustAGeek: Google doesn't owe you or me a salary does it? Why don't you think of AdSense as a PSA service which occasionally (actually quite a lot of the time) provides adverts instead which you get paid for? If you don't want to host a PSA service then don't.</added>
Google doesn't owe you or me a salary does it?
Nope. They don't owe me a salary. No arguement there. Never said they did. Won't ever say they will.
Why don't you think of AdSense as a PSA service which occasionally (actually quite a lot of the time) provides adverts instead which you get paid for?
I guess I could but that's not what the service was designed for from what I understand. It was designed as a way to make money and that is how it is sold. I just can't fathom the idea of a feature that allows me choose what advertisements I will not get paid for. Just sounds a bit strange to me.
If you don't want to host a PSA service then don't.
I don't. I trim those buggers right out before they have a chance to show :-) But, like I said, it just sounds strange to me to have the option on which ones to show.
JAG
