August 8, 2006
What Are You Doing with Your Eggs?
Recently on the Reese Report forum, a member pointed to a , where one of their well-respected regulars started a heated thread on Web Pro World about Adsense.
The member, Janeth, said she had closed her Adsense account because she felt it was bad for her business. She said they were doing $10,000 per month with Adsense, but that when they removed the ads their sales went up. It wasn’t worth it for her company to use Adsense.
This is good information for someone who may want to test out the same on their websites. But then, Janeth went on to write about what she felt were universal truths about Adsense and that’s where I think she may have led some people in the wrong direction. Most of what she shared were opinions – not universal truths, by any means.
And this caused a lot of other people to question that what they were doing might be a bad idea. Problem is, what she wrote was based on her presumed facts:
- All Adsense publishers make crappy websites
- Adsense on a site causes you to lose credibility.
- Adsense publishers only use SEO (search engine optimization to get traffic)
- Adsense publishers only have Adsense as a revenue model.
- Adsense publishers are using ads on ecommerce websites and aren’t testing whether or not it reduces conversions on their own products.
Well, if those assumptions were true, I might have agreed with her. If you’re using Adsense and all of the above (or any of the above) true for you, then you need to reconsider.
BUT – if you’re working this smartly:
- You make quality websites that encourage visitors not only from search engines, but by word-of-mouth, repeat visitors, publicity (nobody wants a press release from your garbage website), article marketing and other promotional methods.
- You earn an income from several revenue streams that should include:
o Selling affiliate products
o Selling your our own products
o Building your mailing list from your incoming traffic – which creates a continuous revenue stream.
o You can even sell advertising yourself if you’re so inclined.
- If you add Adsense to your ecommerce sites where you sell your own products, for goodness sakes, test the results. Sometimes you might find Adsense adds to your bottom line and other times it might take away. The same might go for your opt-in pages and even content sites. If you don’t test it, you’ll never know.
So, the underlying message is what you’ve been taught all your life. It’s the old adage of “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Whether it’s traffic strategies or income models, every online business benefits from diversification.
And as far as losing credibility goes, if text advertisements caused sites to lose credibility – nobody would visit Yahoo, Google, MSN, CNN, Technorati, About.com or almost any other huge information portal. We are Internet marketers and we view other websites through Internet marketer’s eyes – our perceptions are not the same as the general public. Something to keep in mind.
Be wise in your business planning and make sure to understand what works best for you.
Free Marketing Course
“We are Internet marketers and we view other websites through Internet marketer’s eyes – our perceptions are not the same as the general public.”
Alice, this is such a true statment. The only time Adsense really turns me off is when sites that have affiliate programs put adsense on them. (You may recall my rant about that.) If I’m sending my traffic to an affiliate program to make a sale, they darned well better not be sending it off through their adsense accounts. GRRRR…
Very interesting post. I have wondered about the loss of sales due to using adsense. I think that is would be something to test and is going to be different for every website and every niche.
Jason Cooper
Witness An Internet Marketing Miracle…
Well of course her sales increased. Especially if she had a direct sales page. Marketing 101 teaches us to give the visitor no link to exit unless its by closing the browser or clicking order.
Again Alice - you nailed it dead on.
Internet Marketers do not see the web the same way that the general public sees the web.
Even people that may have a passing interest in internet marketing, or might have heard of you, me or someone doing what we are doing, may check out our sites. But they have no intention of buying a product, but may click an adsense ad.
TEST, test, test - you are right - don’t just assume one way or the other.
And after you test - apply IM Twisting to your site to make it unique.
Jack
I totally agree with you Alice. Nothing works for everyone. Test and re-test; you definitely don’t want any AdSense leaks on a sales page, but if it’s a page containing an article or report you should monetize it.
Joyce
EarnOnYourComputer.com
Well said Alice.
It amazes me how quickly some people jump the gun when it comes to “generalizing” information.
Every product is different, every website is different, and therefore every business is different.
Kudos to you my friend for a wonderful post
Stu McLaren
“Adsense on a site causes you to lose credibility”
I agree with this one!
Hi Alice
I guess it depends what your tactic is with adsense. If your following the wealth empire model then let’s all bang up 1000 keyword rich sites and drive traffic to them from auto generated blogs and directorys that you own! Et voila $1000 dollars a day in adsense clicks
Or do you?
What the Gurus (hate hate hate that word) Dont tell you is that to set that up cost’s you large at the outset both in terms of time and moola too!
1000 domains = $15000 if there .coms I guess you could use .infos as they are much cheaper but even so still a hefty outlay for most people.
Then you need to drive traffic to them becasue no traffic = no clicks. You can do that from your own directorys, directory submissions, blogs and god knows what so a major time factor here too setting all that up and getting links etc! All in all adsense like all other business models on the net aint as easy as it first looks!
As for losing credibility and or sales I think you’re spot on too. Why would I want adsense on 15dn for example and then drive away my high paying clients to other web design firms etc! No thanks.. I lose a $100k client for the sake of a .50 cents click.
I agree. I posted the article on the WAHM boards as well. Many people are looking for ways to earn an income without joining a business or work at home job, so we usually give the advice of adsense and a high content site or blog with some affiliate links. But it’s still alot of work and effort, and you much had tons of traffic coming to your site to make a decent income through adsense. But you can still run the risk of getting your account closed for invalid clicks.
Too many publishers are dependent on Adsense income to make a profit.
totally test. and it depends on your site and purpose. adsense can be beneficial to your visitors if you do it right…. to present to them the ads that will likely be relevant to them. but i think the key to adsense or any other internet marketing endeavor, the LONGTERM key, is having a good niche and MEETING THEIR NEEDs in many ways. adsense can do that, used correctly. as usual alice, you bring balance in a *slanted* world of IM.
Alice said:
“We are Internet marketers and we view other websites through Internet marketer’s eyes – our perceptions are not the same as the general public.”
My point exactly! I talk to people daily who only shop online, or are preparing to launch an online business. When I asked them what is their opinion on Adsense… they were clueless! None of them knew or paid much attention to adsense ads. If the ads relate to their inquiry, guess what? They clicked!
Nicole… you’re funny BUT I agree