I consider AdSense to be “the people’s choice” when it comes to website monetization. Anyone with a unique and interesting site can join this program. A single click can earn anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars, depending on your niche. If you are looking for the easiest and the most profitable pay-per-click ad program, then AdSense is the best.
But wait! See the “No AdSense” in the post title above? Read on to learn why sometimes the better choice is not putting AdSense (or any AdSense alternative) on your business website.
If you are a novice, and you are planning to build your own online business through a blog or an online web store, you probably intend to insert some Google ads on your site to start earning a living online. While there is nothing wrong with this use of AdSense, there are a few factors that you must consider prior to plunging into the AdSense world.
Why say “no AdSense” for your business website:
Let me explain the basics of AdSense, and why it is the best advertising platform available at this time.
AdSense is a contextual ad network, which means that the ads that are displayed on the page are relevant to the topic of the post. For example, let’s say you are running a web hosting blog and you are trying to promote your hosting business. To increase your revenue stream you use AdSense, and instead of promoting your own business, you are suddenly inadvertently promoting your competitor’s similar business due to the contextual relationship. This occurs because most of the AdSense ads shown will be relevant to hosting and domain sites, but not only YOUR hosting and domain sites! So for just a few cents (or a few dollars if you’re lucky) you may be sending away a prospective client from your site.
This not only implies to AdSense, but also to other ad networks such as Infolinks and other similar ad programs that offer contextual advertising.
There are other reasons why it is best not to run AdSense or any other contextual advertisements on your business website.
It devalues your brand
Starting a blog or any type of website is an enticing opportunity to make money from the comfort of your own home. In order to be able to remain competitive, however, you need to take good care of your brand. Online branding is one of the most important priorities of any good webmaster.
When you start to monetize your site with various types of advertisements, you are also decreasing the value of your own business brand. You are actually cheapening your brand with every AdSense ad you insert on the pages of your site.
You may have seen company websites or sports websites that are using AdSense on their pages. Instead of promoting their own brands they are using AdSense, which is totally unnecessary and very unprofessional.
You are providing an opportunity for your competitors
Once again, because AdSense is a contextual program, the ads it serves are based on your web page content. So if your site is all about technology, cell phones and other cool gadgets, and you use AdSense, AdSense will place advertisements on your web pages for products that are related to the technology industry, and are similar to your own products. Thus you will be providing an opportunity for your business competitors to leverage their brand using the AdWords program – the sister platform of AdSense.
To explain further, a competitor can leverage himself by buying sponsored ads using the AdWords system. By optimizing his campaign through keywords, your competitor can easily reach your site through AdSense with less cost. This can cost you much more money than the cents-per-clicks you would get from AdSense.
So remember, you don’t have complete control over who advertises with AdWords, and this can ultimately hurt your overall online business.
Every click means you have lost a reader and gained a higher bounce rate
A single click on an AdSense ad opens in the same window, not in another browser tab. While the user can easily click the “back” button, the chances of this happening are slim.
For this reason, every click potentially means a lost reader when using AdSense. In addition, AdSense ads may confuse your readers if the ads do not blend well enough with your website’s design.
Every click also means a higher bounce rate for your web business, because your visitor is actually leaving your site once they click an AdSense ad.
In summary, AdSense is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to put up their own website or blog. However, there are certain limitations or boundaries that you should be aware of before using AdSense as your primary monetization program. I suggest that you first build a good reputation and enough content on your site before you start monetizing it with AdSense or any other method such as affiliate marketing or direct advertising. This way you can practically analyze what is the ideal ad program for your particular web business.
When you create a blog or website to promote your online or offline business, my advice is to add your own advertising. For example, you will want to advertise your own services and products, and drive more traffic to your sales and landing pages.
Sometimes it is in your best interest to stop running behind those few-cent clicks, and target a superior branding and reputation of your own business brand.
If you are a business owner, I would like to know what kinds of ads you are running on your website. Are you using any contextual ad networks like AdSense or Chitika, or any other direct advertisement program? Have you removed AdSense from your business website after reading this article? Feel free to use the comments section below to share your thoughts and experiences.
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