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The following article presents the very
latest information on Adsense. If you have a particular interest
in Adsense, then this informative article is required reading.
Those of you not familiar with the latest
on Adsense now have at least a basic understanding. But there's
more to come.
AdSense is Stupid When...
There are times Google's heralded ad
affiliate program isn't in your long term business interest. Oh
no I said it!
AdSense isn't the unstoppable revenue
engine for every eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by
the eCommerce pundits -- please let me explain what I mean in my
defense.
I make revenues from AdSense at a very high
click-through rate. I experience high click-through rates with
AdSense without resorting to questionable tactics like tricking
site users with photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour).
So my perspective is from one who has made
decent income from AdSense to fund aspects of his business like
advertising seminars -- and outsourcing to his virtual
assistants. Yes, AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue
source. However evaluate AdSense with some type of balance.
By now you may have heard about people like
Joel Comm's six figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis
of Weblogs being on his way to generating 1 million dollars in
AdSense revenue. Google's Ad revenue sharing affiliate program
for publishers certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many
webmasters.
But there are obvious and not so obvious
times not to use AdSense ads on your sites. Let's list - examine
- and explain them below.
~~~~> 1. On Sales or Mini-sites
This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to
sell a particular product that is important to your bottomline,
you don't want AdSense ads distracting your customers from
either joining your email list, or hindering your site's online
sales process.
However I do see hybrid sites that are
mini-sites or full scale eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the
bottom of their pages. This might not be so bad since only 1% -
15% of your site visitors will either buy from you or fill out a
form.
The thinking with this approach is you
might as well make money from disinterested parties using up
your server's bandwidth.
~~~~~> 2. SEO Business Sites
If your livelihood depends on search engine
optimization or marketing for a living you might want to think
twice about displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you
this from personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for
search engine marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my
local area because I found people felt more comfortable hiring
an eCommerce consultant locally.
One day my site fails totally out of the
MSN index. After intense study I noticed that I obviously had a
filter on my site from MSN.
I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN
and noticed the only difference between me and the other top
ranking sites was I had Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone
at MSN felt that my AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent,
my book on SEO, was getting a free ride in the MSN search engine
database.
In fact I noticed that there were no sites
with AdSense ads for at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites
with AdSense were only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home
page (there were very few of them in the top 5 pages).
I knew it was strange to not have AdSense
ads on the top Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to
scan other industries where I noticed the same trend.
Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites
that have been banned from the top listings by the search
engines. It seems the more visible you become, the more of a
target your sites are to the search engine auditors.
Some of my sites are still on the top of
MSN with AdSense ads but that doesn't mean they won't also be
targets in the future.
Let's face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have
competing ad networks to Google's, and this competitive
situation is rife for a potential backlash against SEO sites
with AdSense ads.
Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this
position. However you have been warned!
Think about it, how long will MSN and
Yahoo! sit back and watch SEO driven websites use their search
indexes to fund Google? Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) ---
is much easier to obtain.
Therefore optimized sites are creating an
ad sales wealth transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of
Google! It won't be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue
ranking on AdSense sites in their databases -- if not outright
ban them.
If you are in the search engine business
stay search engine neutral, or create multiple sites for
different search engines.
~~~~~> 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only
Business Model
When you become so myopic in your thinking
that you build a business solely on AdSense revenue -- think
again my friend. Why build a business solely on the largess of
Google?
I don't know if your realize it or not, but
the sites making the real big AdSense money usually have a
following that doesn't depend on the search engines. Internet
mavens like Chris Pirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet
a while and have followings for their websites. Therefore they
can consistently make six figures with AdSense.
These content powerhouses are an asset to
Google and not the other way around. But do you think Google is
going to sit back and watch just anybody make big bucks off of
their top rankings?
If you do a search on most keywords you
will notice many of the top ranking sites are news sites, .gov
sites, or .org sites these days. The only exception is in
industries where these sites don't really exist like eCommerce
industries (clothing, shopping, etc.).
No doubt in most industries you will notice
a conspicuous scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In
other words don't bet your future fortunes on AdSense.
An IPO based on projections of AdSense
revenue isn't in the future for the average eBusiness. Think of
Google AdSense as supplemental income. Building a business
solely on AdSense revenue isn't just silly -- it's just plain
stupid.
Those who only know one or two facts about
Adsense can be confused by misleading information. The best way
to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the
truths you're learning here.
About the author:
Kamau Austin is the publisher of over ten websites. See more of his eCommerce and Search Engine Commentary can be found at:
http://www.eInfoNEWs.comand http://www.SearchEnginePlan.com
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