When I launched review-o-matic.com last July, I thought adding ads to my site might be a nice source of income on the side. Since the site is all about reviews, I decided to include ads to the following three services: Google, Netflix, and Amazon. The way the ads work is pretty simple. For Netflix, if people sign up by clicking on a link from your page, you get five or six bucks. For Amazon, you get a percentage kickback for any purchases made through links from your site. Google is simply a pay-per-click service. After so many people click on Google links from your site, you make a few bucks.

So after two months, how have I done? Let’s look at Netflix first. I include a big link to Netflix on the front page and in every movie review on my site. In the past 60 days, exactly 0 people have signed up through Netflix through me. Alrighty then. Let’s move on to Amazon. I’ve included Amazon links to every applicable product I’ve reviewed. In other words, if I review a CD, there’ll be a link out to the side where you can buy it from Amazon as well. My net total sales over the past two months? $0. No one has bought a single thing through the site.

Well, at least Google’s pay-per-click system came through for me. Today I got an e-mail from them saying there was a problem with my account, and they wanted to know if they should direct deposit the $0.01 I’ve earned to date, or if I would prefer a check.

Check, please?

Ya’ know, I’ll probably keep the ads on my site for a couple of reasons. There’s always that chance that someone MIGHT buy something through there. The ads aren’t “in-your-face” (maybe that’s part of the problem), and I think it adds a certain amount of legitimacy to the site’s look. And if that’s what you’re going for, I suppose it’s okay. If however you’re looking for a way to retire, well, good luck finding a condo for $0.01.