I often wrote about misplaced “contextual” ads that created undesirable situations, but this is something else.  The Google Ad I saw today is ironic on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin.

Dan Lyons a.ka. Fake Steve Jobs wrote about how he quits blogging, as there is no money in it:

While blogs can do many wonderful things, making huge amounts of money isn't one of them.

Technorati, a blog researcher, estimates that bloggers who run ads earn an average of $5,060 per year. Don't call the Ferrari dealer just yet.

So only the top few blogs – best in content, highly popular, millions of readers per month – will generate enough ad revenue to make e living on.  Arguably Lifehacker is one of them, nevertheless founder and top blogger Gina Trapani said her good-bye two weeks ago.

Today RedWriteWeb, another highly popular blog I have great respect for announced Gina’s plans to start a new blog, Smarterware.org.  

So imagine my surprise, when at the bottom of Marshall’s post I saw this:

I thought it was some kind of a joke:  a high quality blog discussing a top blogger, displaying a junk ad.  I clicked through to the actual post, and did not see it. Back to Google Reader: I’m seeing something else now.  So this was indeed a rotating ad.  Click a few more times, and it’s back, and now I actually notice the “Ads by Google” link at the bottom.

Now, why is this a junk ad?   We already know very-very few exceptional bloggers will generate above $5K per month.   The same amount in a year – more likely.  This is a classic case of Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

And if you believe in it, I suggest you also go out and buy all the get-rich-quick no-money-down guides by all those real estate moguls, who instead of practicing their wisdom getting rich try to sell a bunch of books, explaining how to do it.  

Finally, isn’t this supposedly about making money on the Web?  And sendig a CD?   Under which rock has the advertiser been hiding?   If he’s about to teach us how to get Web-savvy, shouldn’t he do it online, Web 2.0-style?

But of course if you believe it, go ahead and buy it.  And by all means let me know - I have a bridge to sell you. A great deal.  

Oh, and congrat’s to Gina on launching her new blog.