Google’s Blogger service put the word out this week about the program, asking bloggers to share in ad revenues by joining the AdSense program, which displays ads targeted to keywords in a website's content.
Blogger.com’s Biz Stone did not offer details on what percentage of the click-through rates would be shared with bloggers, but he emphasized that participation in AdSense is optional for Blogger users.
He also said that the sponsored-links program is open to publishers of blogs that use other blogging services or software.
“If you want to participate in AdSense for bloggers, play nice,” Stone wrote. “Just pick your ad colors, paste the code into your template, then keep on blogging. If you play by the rules, Google will mail you checks.”
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google purchased Blogger.com in February 2003 from the owners of San Francisco’s Pyra Labs, which started up in 1999. Since the acquisition, Google has altered the service by dumping a paid version of the service and rolled out a major update.
Last week, Blogger ended running Google ads from blogs hosted through Blogger's Blogspot service, which did not include a revenue-sharing program.