What Would Fill In The Space If Google Adsense Didn’t Exist?
If Google Adsense didn't exist… what would you use instead? And for those that use Yahoo Publisher Network, or YPN for short… same thing: No Adsense, No YPN… what fills the holes?
Also, I am curious… how is Google Adsense working for you? What about YPN? Are they worth having on your site? Don't get me wrong… I support the two programs because I think that of all the things you could use to trash up your site in attempt to make a few bucks… Google Adsense and YPN seem to make it as tolerable as possible. It's cool that it provides related content, most cases advertisements… but if they didn't pay a commission, would you sign up for it and more importantly would you blast your site full of its CODE?
Not sure what you will say: I say NO. There is no way I would fill all this space with this code unless it paid a commission. So, knowing this… a question to ask: The money you make from Google Adsense and YPN, or both… is it worth the sacrifice of having on your site…
For real… if money wasn't an issue, I can think of a million different things to put up in its place. The problem for me is that Adsense and YPN do make me money… not a lot, but enough to keep me curious, and enough to keep me thinking that if I am more creative with the code…it will become more effective.
But think about this… I am not sure how many people click on your ads… but here its been around 2.7%… some might say thats good… some might not, but this does make me realize something again and again: Traffic will make you money… the more traffic you get the more money you can get. Its that simple. I can definitely see how people use the code. I would love to have 2.7% of 1,000,000 people click my ads… I would be doing great and also… lets just say that I probably could get my freaking Tivo/DirecTV hooked bake up!
Writing this post has made me realize a few things… but one thing that I am taking with me is the fact that everyone should be reminded how important it is to focus on getting traffic by providing useful and or entertaining content compared to focusing on how well you place, format, or blend in your Google code…
I might yet again, make a few changes to my site… I have been doing so good, and making a lot of progress… yet, I have a very common tendency to slip and take a few steps back. I am more less catching myself this time and I might actually take a few steps forward this time, normally when I take the steps back… Few minor changes are about to be made. By the time you read this post you would have already discovered them.
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August 11th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
I am not sure what would fill the space… maybe just a direct advertisement.
August 11th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
How true. The fact remains, traffic + well places ads makes money. I don’t do tremendously well with adsense or any of the rest for the ads, but I know that one day I will. Might as well experiment now. I make a decent amount off of the domaining part so I am happy with that..
August 11th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
As you can see… I have moved all the Google and YPN things down to the bottom and raised all my own sidebars up. To me even 10% isn’t worth having the codes taking priority over the site’s own content. It just doesn’t make sense… However, when I am getting more in the ball park of 5000 unique visits per day, then yeah… those ads are going back up… because I know that with traffic starting around that range is where the money starts paying for things: i.e. your hosting costs, utility bills, food, etc…
I feel it is better to drop down a percentage point in click thru’s by lowering and even reducing the ads compared to having the extra point added by having the ads on the top. Its a difference…
I am happy with moving the ads down… and probably will even remove a few of them momentarily… One thing is for sure… I don’t want to crap up the site… I am better off using one code and making it stand out instead of blending it.
I am starting to think blending the ads could be offensive to viewers… I mean, come on! Everyone in and their grandmother knows what Google Adsense is… at least this site’s viewers do… why should I risk insulting the intelligence of my viewers by blending the ads… I realize when viewing MANY other sites, seeing when they blend the code with their own .css scheme, it makes me think that someone is trying to get one over one me.
I think I am pretty solid on this decision, and will be re-designing a new sidebar tab for Google Adsense and YPN. I probably will make YPN more visible because, honestly… it pays better… a ton better!
August 11th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
I agree with you the. I try to blend ads in but not make them feel as if they are part of the site. It makes it a little more aesthetically pleasing.
I do have two questions though. Since you use the same theme as me, do you think you can email me your left sidebar file so I can see how you enclosed everything in the blocks. I lack in the programming department :0)
Also, do you know how to link pages, like ryan did on his new video site. He linked a page directly to his main blog, ryans life.. The only thing I have come up with is creating a page and then putting the link on there.