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"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.
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:
www.eInfoNEWs.com and www.SearchEnginePlan.com .
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