People might remember that I promised on the thread about the introduction of ads on LP to report back on how it was going. We’ve now gone through the first full month of ads, so here’s the report!
The gross revenue we earned during April was $3,434.81. Commission is 50%, with 40% going to the advertising broker, and 10% to the network. So the net is $1717.40. We’re paid on the basis of $18 gross per 1000 ad impressions for each page impression. There are 2.5 ads on each page. Nielsen, which does the measuring, only counts Australian visitors, so while posts such as this one with Chelsea Clinton in the title attract a lot of search engine hits, most of that traffic would be from outside Australia. (Though our server stats suggest the great majority of traffic comes from Australia.) We also only get an ad impression (obviously) where people don’t have an ad-blocker plugin installed, or have disabled the plugin for LP.
I’m going to do a comparison between our server stats and the Nielsen numbers to estimate what proportion of views produce an ad impression, but I’m yet to do so. In the meantime, our server stats show we had 80514 unique visitors in April, 176894 visits, 1175376 page views and 3384784 hits. 46.34 gigabytes of bandwidth was served.
The site upgrade cost us a total of $4118.99. We received generous donations totalling $860, which I’ll be paying to The National Forum now that I have the invoice, and the rest will come out of the advertising revenue – which means in effect that it will take us another month before any of that revenue actually accrues to us. Thanks so much for your help! But I’m going to ask for some more – you might recall that the LP collective had agreed that the revenue would initially be shared between promotion of the blog and some recompense to me, to assist me while I’ve been sacrificing paid work in order to finish my PhD this year. The problem is that I’m still sacrificing the income, but because there’s also a time lag of about 3 months between when we earn the ad revenue and when we get paid, we won’t actually see a cent of it until September! So so far, it’s not really fulfilling that purpose, so if you’d like to contribute to the Mark scholarship fund, me, my landlord and my credit cards will all be really grateful!
Please note: Despite my writing one blog post for the Higher Education section of The Australian provoking loud denuncations from Gandhi and Megan on the left, and Andrew Bolt on the right, I’m actually not drinking cocktails every night courtesy of News Ltd. largesse. I’ve only had time to write one post for them, for which I got paid $530. So if I sold out, I was very cheap at the price. I’ve scaled back on paid writing this year (which is why I haven’t been seen much in Crikey) and my only income has been from a sessional gig at QUT lecturing in one subject and tutoring in another. As those who would be familiar with the gravy train that is academia would know, that brings in about 500 bucks a week after tax, and only for weeks during the teaching semester. I’ve cut back on my usual teaching workload and I haven’t taken on any consultancy work, so I’m basically broke, and incidentally not believing Malcom and Brendan that inflation is imaginary, even though I’m not a “working family”. I’m quite happy with that choice, as it really is the only way I could realistically clear enough time to finish off my thesis, but I do need to pay the bills, so in the absence of the magic bullet of LP advertising revenue curing my finances – at least for the next few months – I really would be exceptionally grateful for any kind donations! I could even immortalise you by thanking you in the acknowledgements page of the thesis! 
The PayPal button can be found here.
Aww, I’ve got an ad-blocker installed by default. I will turn it off for LP so you can afford to eat.
Mark,
Shall I turn off my adblocker when visiting?
We may differ on some things, Sam – but at least we comment at the same time.
Thanks guys!
I think part of the problem with a site like this raising revenue from advertising is that its users are generally tech savvy peeps who know how to block ads. I’ve got one installed myself in my Firefox which I’ve turned off for this site and for a few others where I know some fellow bloggers are trying to raise some dosh.
I suppose you could also turn off the RSS feed..
I was thinking of giving that hotel in Elizabeth Street, Melbs , a swing.
80 bucks a night, for 3, does not sound all bad even if it only has two stars.
Maybe we could start critically reviewing the products available on the weekends.
Well done so far, Mark. Unfortunately I too have reverted to student status (and brokeness), and now I can’t even generate ad revenue for you because I’m in the UK. Damn!
I’m afraid any donations I made here would come straight out of my Oxfam donations budget line, and I’m not sure you’d want that. However, if it would help I’d be happy to make you a loan against future LP ad revenue – no interest and I’ll cop the risk that revenue will go through the floor for some reason.
Being the techno incompetent that I am I don’t know how to turn on my ad blocker, so I can’t claim any moral highground for the fact that you’re benefiting from my views, but if I could turn it on, I’d turn it off again for LP.
“The site upgrade cost us a total of $4118.99″
Good heavens! After LP successfully ran for years on a hosting plan which cost around $20 a month and $20 a year for the domain name using free blog software? $4118.99 would have bought a very decent hosting account for several years into the future.
Perhaps if would have been better to stick with the totally-free LP-in-exile site which cost nothing to run.
Rodney, I still think it was worth it. We discovered that a lot of our problems were caused by different bits of the site architecture actually working against each other and in some unexpected and quite complex ways, and while someone doing the job voluntarily may well have picked those things up in time, it would have taken a lot of time. I also do think there are advantages to running the site on its own domain as opposed to using a free Wordpress site.
feral sparrowhawk, thanks for the offer! I’m interested! Could you email me please to initiate discussion? mbahnisch (at) gmail (dot) com
NP
I live on a DSP. I get $300PW including Rent Assistance. I have lived on this for 15+ years since I was hit by a train (I know, it’s a real conversation stopper. but thats another story!)
You run a fairly interesting blog and want me to give you money?…OK…
Well at least you asked…NP
Classified, I was very conscious of the fact that when I’m crying poor by saying I live on $500 a week, a lot of people make do on less. I spent my share of years on the dole in the 90s, courtesy of the not exactly fabulous employment market for Arts graduates in the Keating recession! When I actually got a job in 95, and my income went up by 70 bucks a week, I could suddenly afford things like new shoes, etc. But, for me, that’s a long time ago, and the reality – for me – of my situation is that having earned more (not massive sums, mind, but something closer to the average male full time wage) I’m stuck with a higher rent than I can really afford now, and the legacy of borrowing that I still have to service. As I said, I’m not trying to write a sob story, or do anything other than take responsibility for the choice I made voluntarily to reduce my income in order to finish my PhD. I would point out, though, that the nature of my employment for most of the last decade has been insecure, having to be renegotiated and pitched for each semester, variable in remuneration, and consistently without sick pay, annual leave, etc. And that’s meant I’ve often had to use credit to smoothe over the recurrent periods when I’ve had no income at all, not even a red penny. That’s just a fact. It’s also why I support my union’s campaign against casualisation!
And no one is under any obligation whatever to do anything about this! I’d just be grateful if people who like the joint around here, and appreciate the effort that goes into it, chose to, is all! But only if they’d like to.
in the immortal words of bettie & wilma – charge it!
enjoy mark. more than worth the ticket price.
Mark,
Well, we could probably have an nice little tosh over new shoes. I havn’t bought any shoes for 10yrs… but that’s mainly cos I dont like shoes
Fair enuff your points but we are on differant waves. I begrudge you nothing and do quite like the new curtains here at LP
But your still not getting any $ from me
Ah well, I kinda like shoes!
And cheers, jo!
betty. yoiks.
I don’t mind the ads. I’d rather have them than no Larvatus at all.
Even I, in my little blog that has a tiny proportion of readers compared to LP I decided to advertise my host since the demise of ‘Rank and Vile’
These reports might be handy for me – I’m considering turning adblocker on and then donating via paypal. This should give me an idea of what a “typical” heavy-user contribution would be to revenue.
Having finished off a PhD myself while working (having, erm, not quite finished during tenure of my scholarship) I find myself sympathetic to your plight, Mr Bahnisch.
Yes, I’m also sympathetic. I’m about four months from submitting, my scholarship is a fading memory (I got just 2 1/2 years of a UPA due to some poor advice at the beginning of my candidature) and I’m pretty much leaning on my patient and generous partner until semester 2 teaching starts. Given that my partner is doing quite well financially at the moment, we might be able to find a little to send Mark’s way in the next few months.
Thanks, folks, much appreciated!
I see Stuart Cunningham’s been pushing for extended scholarships to reflect more closely the actual average completion time (4.5 years FTE). That would be great! I think about 60% of candidates who haven’t completed by the time their scholarship runs out never submit.
“….and I’m pretty much leaning on my “patient” and generous partner until semester 2 teaching starts.”
You need to know how scarey that sounds, prospective, “Dr” Klaus K.
Yeah, I’ve turned off my ad-blocker for LP too, now, and it’s something I’ll bear in mind for other blogs I read regularly. It’s one thing to be able to surf the net ad-free, another to be denying a few extra dollars for people whose sites I hang out on far too much …
I’m also approaching the end of a PhD, and I suspect I may end up like Lefty E in terms of the scholarship and the candidature not ending quite simultaneously. With that in mind (as it increasingly is!), I was interested to see just how much you get paid for the ads. It looks like my humble blog gets something like a quarter to a third of LP’s traffic (which surprises me), so, extrapolating naively, I might expect to get a few hundred a month if I put ads on it. Which would be huge in my current financial situation! Something to think about, anyway.
Lol, joe2, and well done. I’m trying to think of a response that doesn’t amplify the effect now that you’ve pointed that out, and I can’t. Every way of rephrasing either makes it sound scarier, or perhaps dirtier.
Cheers, Klaus K , best luck with the work and “dirtier” sounds good.
Folks,
To turn off your adblocker for this site (which I’ve just done), take a look at the bottom right corner of your web browser (assuming you’re using Firefox for the moment). Do you see the word “AdBlock”? If so, right-click and select the option “Whitelist this whole site”. Otherwise, do you see a red stop sign with “ABP” in it in the top right, perhaps near the search bar? If so, left click the little down arrow just to the right of the stop sign, and choose the “Disable for larvatusprodeo.net” option. Otherwise, try your “Tools” menu. You’re looking for options that refer to the entire of the site/domain.
HTH.
I wish someone would send me a large sum of money. I earn even less than Mark does, and I haven’t finished my thesis either!
I think Sarsaparilla had lots of potential to turn a buck, Laura, but unfortunately it seems to have lost a lot of the impetus. That’s a pity for more reasons than supplementing one’s income. I’m sure you and others who were writing for it have a lot of other demands on your time, but I’m sorry to see it revert to very irregular posting, because it was a fabulous blog and filled a much needed niche.
Just on the whole aca casual poverty thing. I think there are some parallels with some of the comments Marcus Westbury and Ben Eltham were making in reference to the Creative Australia debate. Lots of people with a passion for doing art and culture will do it anyway – and find crummy jobs to make do or live on peanuts – as most freelance writers do. There’s a real element of exploitation in this. Because often they’re creating economic value only to see others make the money off the back of their efforts. So I’m all for people with a bit of a passion and some talent turning a buck from it if they can. Unfortunately blogging would have to get a lot bigger in Oz to really make it into a living. Except for the tech bloggers, some of whom seem to have solved it, and the MSM co-optation model.
But getting back to slaving away as a casual or contract academic. There’s a lot of stuff written about how universities will face a workforce crisis when the baby boom retires etc. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. It should be seen as a tragedy for Australia that we invest so much educating so many really clever people only to let them drift off into other things (where they often make great contributions of course) and unable to do what they are trained to do – teach, research and write.
I did a Masters in my time in San Francisco, and also did the ABD thing (”all but dissertation”)- ie sat for the doctoral coursework exams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.Phil.
But I sort of got diverted into other paths, and then decided to come back and live here, and while I’ve done a spot of tertiary teaching, just aren’t prepared to devote four or five years to a thesis while trying to scratch around at the same time and make enough money to live on. Coz I couldn’t live on a scholarship – not with the sort of expenses that are associated with prosthetics, and other financial commitments I have.
Ps – the whole system of postgrad financial support in Australia seems premised on the notion that you go to uni when you’re 18, get a degree when you’re 20, finish honours when you’re 21 and get a phd when you’re 25. I bet a lot of people don’t do that these days. What about women with kids, people later on in life who’ve already incurred financial obligations, people with other care responsibilities, etc. It doesn’t seem designed to assist adults do research degrees!
Damn straight Kim (@ 31)
It’s dumb in all sorts of ways!
I’ll send in my five dollars, but only for the privilege of keeping Ad Block Plus running!
“Ps – the whole system of postgrad financial support in Australia seems premised on the notion that you go to uni when you’re 18, get a degree when you’re 20, finish honours when you’re 21 and get a phd when you’re 25.”
This is pretty much what I’ve done, but I don’t know anybody else who has. Even the younger candidates have done other things for a year or two here and there.
At least a PhD is covered by RTS, so you don’t get to increase your HECS debt doing it. If the APA/UPAs were extended to 4 years with the option of requesting an additional six months that would be a good step.
*Puts up hand*
Mind you, that was two or three decades ago, and there was a bit of an interruption to drop out and be a (non-pregnant, ahem) teenage bride and other things that were de rigeur at the time, but I finally submitted my PhD thesis about a month before I turned 27. I was so terrified that the three-year scholarship would not be renewed even for the usual six months (standard at the time) — and that even if it was I would be stuck looking for academic work in the middle of the then-three-term academic year — that I finished the wretched thing on the stroke of midnight, as it were, before the coach turned into a pumpkin.
(For this I must thank my parents, who took me back into the parental home (marriage well over by then) and fed me and did my laundry and so on for the final six-month stretch.)
One of the recent appointments my department made is a person who finished the PhD in the mid-twenties.
They’re about to put me on a proper footing now too, but I suspect it’s largely out of pity.
PC, may I point out that the phrase is spelled “de rigueur”. People always leave out the first “u” and it drives me a littl spare. Sorry!
Well shucky darn and slop the chickens, so it is. Thanks, Fine.
Quick, someone tell J*hn Gre**nf**ld. He might stop calling me Miss Hathaway.
Or not.
“(For this I must thank my parents, who took me back into the parental home (marriage well over by then) and fed me and did my laundry and so on for the final six-month stretch.)”
My food and rent have been provided by aforementioned partner since January (and until August, it seems, when I will be convening a course). Much to my relief she can actually run this place on her salary now, and not a moment too soon – last semester was a bit of stretch for us. I’m bringing in a hefty $60 a week tutoring high school English, which is a pleasure and a relief every Monday afternoon. It looks like I’ll have the thesis in about two months before my 26th birthday.
BTW I took your advice, Dr Cat, and had my student read ‘A Modest Proposal’ for her satire unit.
And I’m hardly one to judge, as my spelling is shocking.
My thesis will be celebrating its tenth birthday when it’s handed in (and I hope that it has a much longer life in a different form), so I’ve decided to give it a party. I think that the completion will be 5.0 FTE years as I calculate it, so I’m actually just beyond average – even though there’ve been long periods of part time enrolment when nothing much happened and a few years of non enrolment. I’ve been chatting to a couple of friends and colleagues today and yesterday whose (long completed) theses are much older then mine, and they both commented that a lot of the ideas only really gelled in the final writing up period. I can look back on stuff I wrote years ago and wonder at how much further I’ve travelled. Some universities (not QUT unfortunately) offer completion scholarships for the last three months, and that should be a nationally adopted practice, I think, because the last race to the finishing line is actually often the most intellectually crucial bit, yet for those who aren’t completing in a “timely manner” it’s very hard indeed to drop everything and do it!
I’d also observe that a couple of my friends who took 8 and 12 calendar years respectively think that the process of engaging with intellectual work over a long period of time has distinct educative value compared to a simple straightforward candidature. But I guess they (and I) would say that! I still suspect it’s true though.
“a lot of the ideas only really gelled in the final writing up period”
This is true of me also. At the end of last semester I started planning to complete, and the argument really came together between then and now as I took the various chapter drafts and began to work out if they fit, and where.
As for having more time to do PhDs, I’d say that in certain of the sciences (anything to do with genetics, biotechnology etc especially) that could be counter-productive for the candidate given the pace of change in those fields. This is less likely in the humanities, and perhaps the social sciences. My feeling is that a ‘one size fits all’ approach doesn’t work (PhDs by Procrustes!). I’m conscious of having deferred broadening my knowledge in some areas that will be useful in research and teaching in order to focus on the thesis (languages would be the main one). We would be better off with humanists with a wider breadth of knowledge.