The Illogical Use Of Adsense

[Dale King]

In my opinion, any business that sells a product or a service shouldn't have Adsense on their website. Why? Because with Adsense, you're promoting your competition, that's why.

If you had a brick and mortar business, would you put your competitors ads in your store window? Of course you wouldn't. That wouldn't make any sense, would it?

Well, by having Adsense on your website, you're essentially doing the same thing. That doesn't make any sense either. Not to mention the fact that there are some people who won't even patronize you, if you have Adsense on your website.

It's tough enough to convert visitors to your website into paying customers. And even if you enable the Adsense filter to block out competitive ads, the ads themselves are still a distraction.

Why sabotage your own efforts by throwing distracting ads into the mix? See my point?

If you want to monetize your site, affiliate programs are a much better option, when you take into consideration the measly few cents per click that Google is going to pay you.

C'mon, be honest. How much was your last Adsense check? $50.00? $25.00? Less? When you stop to think about it, Adsense is hardly worth the effort is it?

The fact of the matter is, unless your website has mega-traffic, those huge Adsense checks are simply not attainable. And even if you have mega-traffic, there are no guarantees.

Anyway, that's what I think.

Do you agree or disagree?

Dale King

[Logan]

Hi Dale, I agree in many cases that is good logic but I will also say that based on my experiences it is not 100% of the case.

Why? Because with Adsense, you're promoting your competition, that's why.

If you are truly positioned competitively this shouldn't be a concern. Everyone when shopping checks out some competition, so if it is going to occur regardless of your adsense or not - why not make some extra revenue from it.

Not to mention the fact that there are some people who won't even patronize you, if you have Adsense on your website.

I think that applies in some cases and industries, but if I walk down the street and ask the common Joe if he would refuse to buy from a site that has adsense on it I suspect I would get a strange look. I think there is a continuum regarding what you say. If you are a marketer, sure - that applies. but if you are selling furniture ... not so much the case based on my experiences.

It's tough enough to convert visitors to your website into paying customers. And even if you enable the Adsense filter to block out competitive ads, the ads themselves are still a distraction.

Dale, as a marketer I'm sure you understand that only a small percentage of visitors to any site will make a purchase. Many click off and never return. Why not make some revenue on the visitors to your site that don't generate any?

If you want to monetize your site, affiliate programs are a much better option, when you take into consideration the measly few cents per click that Google is going to pay you.

My own experience is that I have made much more from per click earnings versus any affiliate programs. Not even close when it comes to my earnings.

C'mon, be honest. How much was your last Adsense check? $50.00? $25.00? Less? When you stop to think about it, Adsense is hardly worth the effort is it?

This question may explain a lot about your perspective. Honestly, because of the terms I can't tell you my earnings. For starters, they never cut a check below $100.

But let's just say you need to add some zeros on to that to get my figure. Not just one, but a couple - then double or even triple that amount some months. Not as silly as you might think. Sure if you are only making $50 - that is silly - but does the same apply if it is $5000/month? Not a stretch by any means Dale - although our experiences may not be the same.

The fact of the matter is, unless your website has mega-traffic, those huge Adsense checks are simply not attainable.

I disagree with that, it is more about niches to me. Many niches have good earnings with adsense without the mega traffic you describe. If you're site averages making $10 per hour on adsense - that is $240 a day. $7200/month. Hmmm - how businesses would disagree with that? While not typical for most/many - is it possible. Definitely.

Do you agree or disagree?

I agree in many cases, but certainly not all based on my experiences.

[Dale King]

Hello Logan:

Thanks for sharing your esperience with Adsense. It should be interesting to hear other people's experiences with Adsense

A point of contention Logan, if you walked down the street and asked people if they would patronize a site that had Adsense on it, you would indeed get strange looks, since the average person on the street doesn't even know what Adsense is.

Dale King

[Crimson Fox]

While I agree that if you are selling a product or service then adsense will distract from the point you are trying to communicate I would disagree that you can't make money from it. If you intend to make any real money from adsense then I would suggest that you view that as your product and subtly guide your audience through these ad gateways.

In this case it's not so much about keeping customers but rather getting more customers through the door. Much like a ticket booth at a train station.

If you are not pushing your 'adsense product' in this way. I would agree that at best it will cover your hosting costs.

It's all about viewing adsense as another tool and working out the best use of it for you.

[solid28]

When I see a site w/products and adwords, my initial reaction is "this site is trashy". Just after my initial reaction I think its pretty honest/nice of them to include those ads. Although, I would prefer to click links on a "useful links page" over clicking ads.

I am so inundated w/ads, that I often have an automated negative response to them, so I see where you're coming from Dale.

[David Wallace]

My first impression when seeing a business site actively trying to sell products and/or services in which they also have AdSense ads running right along with everything is that they are not doing well and are trying to compensate for that by earning some AdSense revenue.

We run AdSense on our informational sites where advertising provides revenue but certainly not on sites such as SearchRank where we are selling a service.

[MaryKrysia]

Originally Posted by David Wallace

My first impression when seeing a business site actively trying to sell products and/or services in which they also have AdSense ads running right along with everything is that they are not doing well and are trying to compensate for that by earning some AdSense revenue.

Not everyone is so Internet savvy as to think this. It sometimes makes business sense to include Adsense. Me? Not for me personally, but I have seen where it works well. I am thinking of article sites such as About.com which is full of ads.

[Crimson Fox]

You make a good point Mary. being in tech and internet dependent industries, we tend to think that everyone sees the web as we do. But in actual fact, most people I speak to offline about adsense, don't understand what it is or how it works. they simply see it as website content.

Obviously over time this percentage is diminishing, but in my own experience 80 - 90% of people not in web dependent industries have no understanding of adsense.

[mitch]

I have never used adsence because I get distrated from the main products on certain websites when I go to buy something, and I don't want this happening to my customers. Sometimes I have even clicked on the competition and bought there product because it was cheaper and looked better.

I think adsence can be good though if it is a information only website, this is what I am going to create in the future.

[Dale King]

mitch wrote:

I have never used adsence because I get distrated from the main products on certain websites when I go to buy something, and I don't want this happening to my customers. Sometimes I have even clicked on the competition and bought there product because it was cheaper and looked better.

My point exactly, mitch.

I've had a lot of people tel me the same exact thing.

I've also had people tell me that they've clicked on the ads accidentally, because they thought the ads were part of the content they were reading, and they actually ended up buying from a competing website.

I just don't think it's wise to introduce that kind of confusion into the equation.

Dale King