Hey Kids - Everyone can play!

[Griff Grumbein]

Just out of curiosity. . .

Please take the poll and post your additional comments / experiences to this thread.

Thanks,

Griff

[angela]

Hi Griff,

I did an experiment with my adsense. I didn't put them on my home page for 1 week and I didn't have any hits whatsoever compared to the previous week.

Angela

[Griff Grumbein]

Hi Angela, and thank you for sharing your results!

Before I go further, would you please define the type of "hit" you are referring to, e.g. visits to the page, clicks on links on that page. . .?

Thanks again!

Griff

[Griff Grumbein]

Hello All!

The poll is still open, so please let's hear from you! Thanks also to those who have voted already!

Since better than a third of respondents so far have said they'd like to learn more, let's discuss it.

I personally do NOT want Adsense on my home page(s) for the following reasons:

1. I think a home page is to draw visitors INTO a site, I don't want them coming to my home page and then leaving by following a link before they've even gotten in and had a look around.

2. OK, people will click on an ad on the home page, but how much is that ad going to pay? Regardless of how tightly focused the niche, the home page is still quite general when compared to the specifically targeted inner pages of the site. Since the inner pages are the ones with lazer targeted content, the ads on these pages will pay significantly more than the "generalized" ads that would be served on the home page.

An exception to the above is when running Adwords campaigns for these same niches and targeting the ads toward that site and it's pages, then perhaps home page ads are viable as both ad programs will be optimized to your keywords, and both programs (if run properly) pay you. Even then, the inner pages pay more, but in this case the home page ads would at least pay better.

What do you think? What has and / or hasn't worked for you? Remember, there are no right or wrong answers and as always,

Thanks for playin'!

Griff

[Lowell Rieger]

Hi Griff,

My answer is it depends on the niche.

I've taken Adsense off most of my sites, all pages. For sites that attract web/tech savvy users I find it almost useless. This group seems to have major Adsense blindness.

But I have some more general niche sites in the food and hobby area where the click through is high, 5-10 %, so Adsense remains on every page.

I think the best way is just to test and use the Adsense channels in the Adsense control panel to analyze results.

Lowell

[Griff Grumbein]

Thank you for your answer, Lowell!

A few follow-up questions to you, if you will:

Are you running Adwords campaigns?

If so:

Are you targeting them to your site(s)/keywords/phrases?

Are they being served on your site(s) that are running Adsense?

I agree that most web/tech savvy users are pretty blind to them, but if the ads were specific to the content (e.g. serving up your own ads), do you think the ads would still go unnoticed?

I appreciate your feedback to the poll and your answers to these questions!

Thanks!

edited 062408 @ 1430 to correct terminology

[Lowell Rieger]

Griff,

The short answer is yes, I think that Google Adsense
ads are just lumped in many techie minds as "don't click."

I know I'm one of those lol.

For each site you have to know your market.

Now a longer response.

I think you are mixing up Adwords and Adsense.
A typo perhaps?

Adsense serves Adwords ads. I know you know this,
just clarifying for other readers.

Adwords has campaigns, a very valuable tool. You can
choose where your Adwords display.

I see what you are saying in that I could choose my
own site(s) for the ad display, but with outbound money
links that cost 0 on that site, ie Clickbank, other aff.
links, my own products, why would I pay Google for the
clicks? They're already on my site. To me that's like a
dog biting his own tail.

Where I do use Adsense - Narrow niche sites -

Typically "evergreen" niches like hobbies, health,
food. etc. Typical visitors are not internet sophisticated,
just looking for info. They probably got to my site via
a search engine link. I'm not interested in paying for
this traffic.

Since I am getting organic traffic, I'm not interested
in paying for Adwords keywords. I remember reading
some time back that Google is frowning on arbitrage.
Anyway, that's too hard for me as I like "set and forget."

I have great Adsense clickthroughs on these niche site pages
because

1. I got lucky on a niche (chance favors the prepared)
2. Content is good and unique
3. Ad placement is correct
4. No other ads or just one ClickBank ad.

One thing I do is block urls in Adsense if I have an affiliate
link to the product. That's a dollar vs. pennies choice.

I didn't mean to get so wordy here. The main message I have
is test test test to see what works. You don't have to be a rocket
scientist to test Adsense. It's in the control panel. Just be sure to
use channels if you have more than one site.

Some other hints -

If incorrect ads show in your site you can use Adsense
targeting to fix the problem though it may take a week or so.

You can also make one of your Adsense channels available to Adwords buyers as an ad placement, which sorta goes back to your point from
the other side.

Lowell

[Griff Grumbein]

Great info, Lowell, thanks again for your reply! (. . .and for spotting my typo, heh, heh )

Yeah, I'm fairly blind to 'em too, but while I seldom click, I will look at the ads served on the pages for relevance and ideas.

[Jim Hutchinson]

I use a fairly simple set of rules for using AdSense ads.

Informational Sites
+ Affiliate links in body, especially on a product review page.
+ AdSense ads in navigation bar or using search box.

Product / Service Sites
- No AdSense. Period. Only the product/service links and possibly related products, AFTER the sale, such as free eBooks that are coded to my affiliate link.

Blogs
+ AdSense ads in the sidebar. Affiliate links in the body content. Ads will be rotated between direct affiliate programs, ClickBank, etc.
+ AdSense Deluxe plugin for WordPress is modified to use affiliate links instead of AdSense ads, for easy inclusion.