Googe Adsense – makes no sense to me
For those not familiar with Google AdSense, it is an advertising system that automatically delivers text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content.
You’ve probably seen them on some sites, a little box/column titled “Ads by Google” followed by a few ads offering various things.
Is it a good idea to offer Google AdSense ads on your website? No way Jose.
A couple of things to consider here:
First, when someone comes to your site you want them to take some kind of action that puts them into your ‘marketing funnel’. Be it signing up for your newsletter, or buying a product/service. The key to this is to keep your site simple and focused, leading them to take that action step.
When you put Google Ads on your site you are showing people an “exit door” from your website. They could become distracted by what the Google Ad is offering, and click through to someone else’s site never to return again. Eeek, not good.
Secondly, and so *very* important in my opinion is the trust/relationship that you have with your site visitors. With Google AdSense you have control over the types of ads that are displayed on your site, but not the actual ads themselves.
There is no way to know which ads will be shown and the ‘validity’ of the offers being made. Put simply – people could click on an ad from your site to a product that sucks. Eeek again.
Relationship and trust are so important online, and I personally don’t see the need to risk that for the sake of making a few bucks.
What is the appeal of Google Adsense anyways? From what I can see it is just the fact that you can make additional money from your site… which is cool. But I consider the value of a customer to be so much more important than that. Perhaps i’m missing something here? Hmmm.
My conclusion: Google Adsense does not make any sense for the relationship driven site/sale.
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I totally agree with you about your comment on Adsense. It makes sense to me that visitors click on an Adsense ad and they are gone from your site. But how many people out there have come around to this line of thinking? From what I know, many are just googling about Adsense and how they can make tons of mollahs.
I am having the same doubts about Google Adsense. I have a site, http://www.NotCable.com that gives direct links to great online programs for people who want to ditch their cable and watch movies and shows off the Internet on their HD TV set. But, like you, I don’t want people to leave the site. And, I admit I’m new at Adsense, but, based on research I’ve done – people report only getting 1 cents per click, sometimes only $4 per 1,000 clicks. So, if you do a little math, and you estimate that only 10% of the visitors click on an ad, that means you will need to attract 10,000 visitors to your site to potentially earn only $4. Again, I’m new at this – but, I also find it strange that Google is very secretive about how much they pay and are reluctant to release statistics (they just say – try it and find out!). I’ve never heard of a business deal that says, “help us do something and you might get paid – try it out and see if you do!”
Correction: I meant to write http://www.NotCable.net in my previous post. By the way, Tina, if you are not using Adsense for advertising revenue, what do you suggest using? Just curious.
Scott
http://www.Notcable.net
I actually don’t use adsense or any similar kind of advertising revenue system on my site, based on my business model. I’m focused on selling my own products/services and those of partners/recommended resources, and so i just set up links, advertising and such direct as needed.
If your business model is focused on outside advertising I know there are also blog advertising systems/tools that will also give you ads to post on your site, such as http://www.blogads.com. I haven’t used these personally so can’t comment directly but have certainly seen others advertising via these systems on their sites.