Does AdSense Make Any Money

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Jun 2007

I have a website that has been online for a few months now. It has a great deal of free information in the specialst area which it targets and it gets a great deal of traffic and pretty good page rankings. I am now beginning to wonder if I should not make an attempt to monetize it by getting some advertisement revenues. The two routes that spring to mind are

  • Getting Google AdSense adverts
  • Selling direct text link adverts

I am not terribly impressed by AdSense. In the course of my own browsing I often get presented with AdSense ads that are hilariously irrelevant. In any case, I NEVER click on such ads, or indeed even notice them.

I can see the value of text link adverts. I am also concerned about not giving the regular users of my site the impression that it has become a commercial enterprise that does not really take their needs into account. In other words, I want to carefully screen what adverts are shown so they actually add value to the user experience of the site.

However, this is entirely new territory to me. Am I just better of plugging into AdSense or would be better to try and directly sell text link adverts? Indeed, does anyone - other than Google - make any money off AdSense?

I would much appreciate any tips.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,282 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

The best thing about AdSense is that you know it's not going to get you into trouble for selling links. It's a known fact that Google does not like paid links. If you do sell your own links do put a rel=nofollow in them to cover youself from any penalty. However, the problem with this is that most buyers want that followed link. It's a tough spot to be in. If you sell followed links you are putting your site at risk (the most likely penalty being that your site would be blocked from passing value).

As far as revenue goes selling your own ads is always the best way to go. You keep 100% of what your advertisers are paying rather than some other service taking a hefty cut. We haven't had a problem here finding advertisers - they always come to us. Even if you have to track some down for your site it might be worth it.

You can make money with adsense depending on who your audience is and how well your ads target. It might take some fiddling to ge them to target well and therefore increase your click throughs. Usually, more tech-savvy, experienced audiences click through less often. It depends on who your audience is.

Regarding your visitors - only you know what they'll be comfortable with. I don't *think* people have too much of a problem with the ads we have here. We haven't gotten any complaints, although who knows how many are blocking or leaving because of the ads. Many of our competitors are much worse with the advertising than we are - that's something to keep in mind.

If you think your members won't click on ads then you might want to consider other ways of monetizing your site. For example, if you have a loyal audience you could suggest donations as a way of supporting the site. Wikipedia has been very successful with this (and you could be too!).

I am with you on wanting to keep the level of commercialization to a minimum. We hope to run this site without ads in the future.

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Jun 2007

Thank you, Megan. You have given me much food for thought. Good point, regarding the danger of being penalized by search engines for selling links. I don't want to "go commercial", just try to monetize what at the moment is an entirely volunteer effort while still offering value to the viewers.

The question that springs to mind is just when is revenue earning content not a "paid link". One of the ideas I have considered is offering reviews of services/products of interest to the users of the site and charging a fee - for the review effort, not editorial integrity.

Strikes me that Google are onto a good thing - they make money of adverts but have worked out a great strategy to stop others from doing the same.

teammatt3's picture

He has: 2,101 posts

Joined: Sep 2003

Quote: Strikes me that Google are onto a good thing - they make money of adverts but have worked out a great strategy to stop others from doing the same.

You came to the same conclusion that SEO expert, Aaron Wall, came to, and he isn't liking it.

I say don't worry about having sponsored links on your site without the rel="nofollow" attribute, Google just wants to be the middle man for all links, don't let them threaten you.

pr0gr4mm3r's picture

He has: 1,505 posts

Joined: Sep 2006

I wouldn't recommend AdSense. Google terminated my account because of I was supposedly clicking my own ads. Being a programmer myself, I know better because I know they are tracking me. Regardless of my caution, they terminated my account right before I reached the payout level. When I appealed it, they didn't care and blocked further communication - even though they had no proof. Now I wish I didn't pay them over $300 in one month for AdWords that never got me any clients.

I do not think Google's advertising program works. You're better off selling links yourself, and I wouldn't make them followable by the search engines because they wouldn't be if you were showing third-party ads.

They have: 24 posts

Joined: Jun 2007

i think goolgle ads are most reliable now a days and they create lots of money. i think that was a special case with the mr programmer who spend $300 and got no client and his account was terminated. i dont know wat was wrong with that. but google adsense are cool.

He has: 1,757 posts

Joined: Jul 2002

Adwords has worked well for me - I recently put adwords on a popular site that I run and it's now bringing in about $300 per week and that's just with one advert block per page. Nothing else.

Andy

My Blog

Hafsoh's picture

They have: 112 posts

Joined: Jan 2008

Adsense is great! but you should build your site to attracts targeted traffic with that you could make much from AdSense also be sure to choose a topic that you know a lot about so you can write lots and lots of content.

They have: 99 posts

Joined: Feb 2008

I've recently added adsense to my blog. Its there in the hope it will make me money but it there because I don't ahve to maintain it.

Fingers crossed it will make enough to cover the yearly hosting bill, that'll do me ;o)

They have: 99 posts

Joined: Feb 2008

2 days gone, $1.60 not bad for just for setting it up and leaving it. If I make enough to pay for hosting it will have served its purpose.

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Mar 2008

Adsense is the great program for making money online if they can protect invalid clicks automatically instead of letting account owners protect themslves by using 3rd party program to prevent invalid clicks.

Auto-search-and-destroy invalid clicks from Google help is one of the best ways for both Adsense publishers and Adwords advertisers.

There are thousands of Google accounts which have been disabled each month and those account owners can not join the program any more. I think they lost something from their program which people can participate.

They have: 31 posts

Joined: Jan 2008

As irrelevant as the ads might be, it does not matter as long as people are clicking. Sounds contradictory, I know, but people still click. A friend of mine has a blog about the housing market and other US economy issues and adsense triggers ads for the companies he is expressing concern about, still people are clicking. For example, one post talked about the countrywide financial write-downs and the credit crisis. Consequently, adsense displayed a Countrywide financial ad related to getting fast, easy credit. It is worth giving adsense a try, just done flood your site with ads making it look too spammy.

They have: 17 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

From experience and what I've heard from others over time, AdSense either brings in a good amount or hardly anything at all. I personally think it has to do with the quality of the site content that the ads are on. To many sites are made by people who want to get rih quick off AdSense, then they're disappointed when they make no money at it.

I agree with an earlier post that content is key.

decibel.places's picture

He has: 1,497 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

I have been running AdSense ads on my personal site for 3-4 years and I am halfway to my first $100 check. But it's a personal site, not promoted much, just for my own experiments and stuff.

I developed a method to place all the AdSense codes in a single javascript file and write them as a variable to each page - that way it is easy to manage remove or change the ads.

I also developed a function, Magic Return, that generates a popup with a link back to the page when the document unloads and the mouse is over the AdSense link - IMO it does not violate the word of Google's TOS, but they determined otherwise so I would not recommend it for AdSense but may be useful for other PPC networks. It could also be used for any link on your page.

Regarding AdWords, I was hired for an "interesting" project a couple of years back to generate automatic clicks on a competitor's ad to force them off the list. I used software, Clicking Agent, that was quite sophisticated and used proxies and different patterns and even random clicks mixed in. I was testing on an account owned by the client, not the competitor, so in fact I do not believe I was doing anything unethical. I am glad to report that in every configuration Google was able to detect the automatic clicks and they did not appear on the reports. Clcking Agent could work on other PPC programs, however.

They have: 90 posts

Joined: Jun 2008

I am starting to like adsense as it is now beginning albeit very slowly to earn some money although im sure there is still room for lots of improvement.

They have: 76 posts

Joined: Jul 2008

Hello,
You will read the google adsense tutorial. At First register their then you will find how you can increse money with the help of google adsense.

ms2134's picture

He has: 393 posts

Joined: May 2008

I also got banned from google, for no reason. But for also "Clicking my own ads". I know they can trace you but they are stuborn. The customer support is very bad.

I emailed them asking why they banned my account and they sent me back a pre wrote message about clicking own links, i emailed them again to say i knew nothing of it and i got the same email back.

Over 11 emails, i must have sent but still no joy. I have just given up now...

They have: 40 posts

Joined: Aug 2008

Hello,
I think If you click your own ads. on that time google trace it then it will close your account.

They have: 31 posts

Joined: Sep 2008

When you working on AdSense you should follow Google rules and regulation if you click on your own add at this condition Google will stop your payment.

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Oct 2008

I do think some did not click on their own ads but got banned, we all know clearly that is not allowed. But Google just did not provide any proof and closed our accounts and there's nothing we can do.

Does any one know other affiliates that is more reasonable than Google and also reliable?

They have: 26 posts

Joined: Nov 2008

Adsense make on money if you don't have traffic to your web site. so you have work hard to get more traffic then automatically adsense will make money.

They have: 15 posts

Joined: Nov 2008

use your own links (affiliates or whatever)

They have: 3 posts

Joined: Mar 2009

Every business definitely have advantages and disadvantages. SO we can not said so obejective. We must analysis and learn about the business.
I have got banned from Adsense and Adsense not pay me everything. Maybe the weakness is their ToS is to tight. But other beside, many people success in Adsense and make Thousand buck every month. Its amazing.

NickD's picture

They have: 59 posts

Joined: May 2009

Its worth bearing in mind that if you sell links, its likely your site that will be penalised and not the buyers site.
I would steer clear of links selling. why not sell advertising space on your site by putting a banner up saying advertise in this space for £xx per month and see how many replies you get?

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Jun 2009

AdSense is the best way to make money free online from informational sites even if there are no obvious related affiliate programs. But you don't need to disregard affiliate programs. You can combine both these ways to make money free online and double your income.

AdSense is easy to join, it doesn't cost you anything, all you have to do is paste a few lines of code into your pages, and Google does the work of finding the best ads for them from hundreds of thousands of AdWords advertisers. You can check the relevance of the ads by looking at the text ads on the right side of this page.
# Log in to your account using the email address and password that you submitted with your application, and agree to the AdSense Terms and Conditions.
# Paste the AdSense ad code into your Web pages. There are 10 ad layout choices: 728x90, 468x60, 125x125, 120x600, 160x600, 120x240, 300x250, 250x250, 336x280, and 180x150. In addition to text ads, you have an option of running contextually targeted image ads.
You can choose the color palette from a long list of available palettes or create your own. You can even rotate your ads through up to 4 palettes.
The AdSense ad code is unique for your account and is not site/page-specific. You can place it on any page or site you own.

Use simple design with the AdSense ads displayed prominently. According to Google, ads in the skyscraper format works better (especially on the right side of the page). Focus to only one topic per page - that should make it easier for Google to serve up the more tightly contextual ads which means better click-through.

{Mod edit: Please use your signature for personal links, cheers}

They have: 2 posts

Joined: Jul 2009

Adsence will make more money, only if you have a good US traffic and nice paying niche blog or website you have.
It is a slow process, you cant mint money from Google. They will ban your site instantly.

They have: 13 posts

Joined: Aug 2009

Adsense will help you in making money, but for that you need patience, as this is not quick money process, and secondly you need a steady and fair amount of traffic in your site, so that the advertisements gets enough clicks.

technologynow's picture

They have: 103 posts

Joined: Aug 2009

Provided you have good content, and a few hundred daily visitors, google provides a good steady income that will at least cover your hosting, internet, and electricity costs.

The trick is to not use too many (people come for the content not the ads) and to make sure the text and background of the ad is the same as the text and background of your site.

It will cover the costs of your site, but (unless you receive thousands of visitors a day) you'll never become rich.

They have: 21 posts

Joined: Aug 2009

Of course, if there have adv on your website and some people click it,google with give you money.

hhunt's picture

They have: 16 posts

Joined: Oct 2009

Most people I know that run web sites and blogs make a large part of their online revenue through Google Adsense. I'd suggest you give it a try if you haven't already, but it would make much sense if you had well targeted product niche.

They have: 60 posts

Joined: Oct 2009

Yes Google ad sense is great. It is a free program that enables the website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads and earn. Ad-sense gives you access to Google's vast network of advertisers, so you can show ads that are suited to your audience's interests. The ads are related to what your visitors are looking for on your site or matched to the characteristics and interests of the visitors your content attracts you will finally have a way to both monetize and enhance your content pages.

Want to join the discussion? Create an account or log in if you already have one. Joining is fast, free and painless! We’ll even whisk you back here when you’ve finished.