When Adsense Makes No Sense: Knowing When Not To Use The Google Adsense Pay-Per-Click Program
When Adsense Makes No Sense: Knowing When Not To Use The Google Adsense Pay-Per-Click Program
By Eric Giguere
Google's AdSense program is a proven money-maker that has
enriched the pockets of many website owners. Unlike many pay-per-click
systems, the AdSense program has a large pool of advertisements to draw
from -- the ads come from Google's AdWords program, which you can think
of as the flipside of AdSense -- which almost guarantees that AdSense
can find relevant advertisements to display alongside a site's content.
There are times, however, when using AdSense makes no sense atall. Here are some common scenarios: 1. Your site gets too much traffic. The
basic AdSense program is geared for small-to-medium sites. If your site
gets significant traffic, look into the Google AdSense Premium Service
(http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/ct). This is the program used
by sites like Amazon.com and the New York Times. 2. Your site does not conform to AdSense program policies. You
cannot display AdSense advertisements on any site that violates the
AdSense program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies).
This is outlined in the first section of the AdSense terms and
conditions (https://www.google.com/adsense/terms) to which you agreed
when you joined the AdSense program. Practically speaking, this
means that any content that promotes pornography, gambling, drug use or
any illegal activity is unsuitable for AdSense use. You are also
forbidden from using AdSense to promote alcohol, tobacco, conterfeit
goods and other controversial products or services. If you're running
an online casino, for example, AdSense cannot be used on the casino's
site. 3. Your visitors are offended by advertisements. Above
all else, AdSense is an advertising distribution program: you're
renting space on your pages to Google for the display of advertisements
drawn from its AdWords program. In return for the use of your space,
Google gives you a cut of the pay-per-click revenue it makes from the
advertisements shown on your pages. If most of your visitors find ads
offensive, they'll stay away from your site and you won't make any
money from the ads that are displayed anyhow, so you might as well not
display any ads. Note that there's a difference between offending
your visitors by showing any advertisements at all and offending them
by showing the advertisements in so obnoxious a manner that all they
want to do is leave your site. In fact, displaying ads in an intrusive
manner violates the AdSense program policies and should be avoided for
that reason alone. 4. The ads are simply unsuitable. Although
Google does its best to find targeted advertisements that are relevant
to a page's content, sometimes that targeting fails and unsuitable ads
are shown. If your content is about the evils of dieting, for example,
you probably don't want to see advertisements promoting specific diets.
Nor do you want to see advertisements for competing products or
services. AdSense lets you filter out many advertisements, but in some
cases it's simply impossible -- or too much work -- to keep out the
unsuitable advertisements. 5. You make more money by keeping visitors on your site. The
fundamental premise of pay-per-click advertising is that you're willing
to send your visitors elsewhere in return for some kind of payment. If
AdSense is your only form of revenue then this is an acceptable
trade-off. If, however, your site makes you more from other programs,
you should consider whether or not losing some of your visitors to
pay-per-click ads is worth it.
You don't have to remove ads entirely to handle this problem.
You can simply reduce the number of ads that you display and even
reposition them so that they're clicked less often. Or place them only
on the site's exist pages -- the pages from which your visitors
typically leave the site. Remember that your visitors are going to
leave your site eventually anyhow, you're just trying to get them to
stay longer.
Another strategy is to use AdSense link units instead of regular
text or image advertisements, because you can configure link units
(unlike the regular ads) to open in a separate window when clicked.
Remember that the AdSense program is a flexible
pay-per-clickprogram. You don't have to show advertisements on each
page ofyour site -- in fact, the AdSense program policies forbid you
from displaying ads on certain kinds of pages. Nor do youhave to
display ads on each site you own. You can even decidewhether image or
text advertisements (or both) are to be shownon a page-per-page basis.
And of course you can use AdSensechannels to discover just exactly
which pages are making youmoney and which pages aren't.
Use AdSense's flexibility to your advantage, but don't getstuck
on it if it's not working for you. There are otherpay-per-click and
impression-based advertising systems out thereto explore. For a
general, all-purpose program it's hard to beat AdSense, but your
situation may warrant a more specializedprogram. Some sites make more
from affiliate programs that fromselling advertising, or use a
combination of both. Do thesearch and figure out what's best for you.
Copyright 2005 by Eric Giguere. Permission is grantedto
reproduce the article in electronic newslettersor on websites provided
that the complete article text is included, unchanged, and that neither
the copyright declaration nor this license are removed. This article
was originally published at http://www.MakeEasyMoneyWithGoogle.com/no-adsense.html.
Eric Giguere is the author of Make Easy Money with Google: Using
the AdSense Advertising Program, an introductory AdSense book published
by Peachpit Press. Find out more about the book from the companion site
http://www.MakeEasyMoneyWithGoogle.com or by contacting the author directly at eric@makeeasymoneywithgoogle.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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