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GOOGLE ADSENSE
Yet Another description of Adsense (I'll make it short)
We all know about Google Adsense, that it's a free and easy way for a Web site owner to monetize his pages. In case you haven't tried it, you can get it by going to the above link.
It costs nothing, other than ensuring your page meets Google's basic Terms of Service. You do need to be able to copy and paste in an editor, edit HTML, and be able to upload the modified files to your Web site. And of course you need a text editor and an ftp program.
Adsense is basically the "standard" against which all the other contextual advertising services are measured. You (at least, we) naturally look at the benefits and features of each of these services in terms of how they stack up against Adsense, including those reviewed or mentioned here.
But we want to get away from Adsense, or at least supplement it. We want to mix and match ad blocks, search blocks and other advertising options, and hopefully increase the income these things can bring in.
Google Adsense is the Standard
Adsense is the standard because, first, it's been around the longest. It's what we've all been using for years, sometimes very profitably.
Second, ClickBank provides a database of products that affiliates can advertise and promote; Google's Adsense advertiser database is world-wide and virtually unlimited. ClickBank feeds are a very tiny subset of what Adsense can provide.
And third, you get paid by Google anytime someone clicks on an Adsense ad; inserting Google's code into the page is the height of the challenge. Today, adding Adsense to a webpage is as basic a necessity as selecting appropriate keywords, creating a logo or putting up a searchbox. Note that when you're advertising ClickBank products, the visitor must follow through and actually make a purchase before you make any money.
So What's Wrong With Adsense?
Well, nothing, if the content of your website is rife with content and keywords about things people want to know about. If your site is about treating prostate problems, your Adsense revenue will be greater than that of a site about how to create small circuit board adapters for surface mount parts.
So Adsense isn't dead; it will just thrive or whither, depending on the content and quality of your website.
Before November 2005, Google Adsense publishers could make a good passive income. If you had "mortgages" for a keyword, a click on an Adsense ad could bring in the same dollars as a Google Adwords ad on search engine results.
The reason people use (or used) Adsense is that it's a passive income system that's very easy to implement. And in the beginning, you could actually make some good money with it. It's still easy, but it's now passive in the sense that you won't be very busy cashing all those Google checks.
The small change that Google made allowed advertisers to make separate bids for search advertising and content advertising. Suddenly Adsense publishers saw their incomes shrink to a tiny fraction of what it had been before the change.
An Adwords advertiser for mortgages would spend several dollars for a click on a search engine ad, but could offer, say, a nickle, for a click on the same ad displayed on someone's website. True, the number of Adsense clicks would be far greater than the number of search engine clicks, but they were considered "passive" - those clicks were made by people who weren't actively looking for what was being advertised. And of course, Adsense has had a chronic problem of click fraud to deal with.
Our first website (which is still around but shall remain nameless), managed to make a couple hundred dollars a year from Adsense during the best of times (not saying it was a GREAT site, just the first), but since late 2005, well, we've decided tweaking keywords and content to eke out a few more dollars just isn't worth it anymore, But there are alternatives to Google Adsense.
Why Aren't There Adsense Ads on This Page?
Well, it wouldn't necessarily be against Google's Terms of Service to include Adsense ads with these feeds; some of them do advertise that they comply with Google's TOS. But we're not going to bash Adsense (even if so lightly) and then put Adsense ads on that page. And it's also not appropriate to put ads on a page and then point to them. The ad blocks you'll see in the next few pages (including the Adsense ads) are there to demonstrate the service, not to make us money.
Adsense ads were displayed on the previous page. You'll see that 'XML' and 'RSS' show up in the adblock because Google will (of course) display ads that are relevant to the content on the page.
- Positives
- It's very easy; just insert several lines of HTML code provided by Google
- You have access to a very large part of the universe of advertisers. You're not limited to a single marketplace, such as ClickBank, or any of the affiliate markets.
- Your site is spidered for relevant keywords; keywords can also be added to Javascript.
- Advertisers can be blocked if their keywords make an unfortunate match (for example, window shutters vs stereo viewing shutter glasses).
- You make money if someone just clicks on the ad; they don't have to actually pay for something. For ClickBank advertisers, your visitor not only has to click on the ad, but they have to follow up with a transaction before you'll make any money.
- Google Adsense ad layouts can be easily modified to match the look and feel of your website.
- Negatives
- A perception of very poor payout, especially when compared with its previous performance.
- Google won't let you mix Adsense with other advertising that may appear in a similar format unless you pay close attention to the Google Terms of Service.
- While Google provides some pretty good tracking, statistics and reporting features, no feedback is available regarding exactly which advertiser paid you the bucks (or what was being advertised).
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The Most Awaited AdSense Release of 2007: The AdSenseDecoded Project