"If you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get, what you've always got".

Is there any point in Adsense?

Or is it just an ugly distraction from your blog content?

This is a question I have been wrangling with for a while. After all, when I decided to try and make some money from my blogs, this seemed like the easy way into some revenues. However, I’ve been blogging for two years now and I can honestly say that Adsense has been pretty fruitless. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve received a few payments from Google, but nothing to warrant the amount of time I‘ve put into my blogs. In fact as a business model, I’m pretty sure if I took the proposition to the Dragons Den I’d quickly find hear those dreaded words “I’m out”.

To be fair there are lots of little tips and tricks for optimising Google ads that I haven’t employed, such as putting links next to images, tweaking colours and styles to match your blog content and more. I’m sure if I had enough web properties I could generate a reasonable little trickle of income, but, I think it would always only be a trickle and to make any serious income I’d need a lot of blogs. In addition, I would need to think of multiple tactics, such as affiliate programmes and text link ads.

However, for the majority of bloggers I doubt that would produce revenues of a big enough size to quit your day job, not unless you have a lot of traffic – which most blogs don’t of course. So, I’ve taken the decision to remove Adsense from my blogs and to focus on the content along with pursuing opportunities that link my online and offline life i.e. work contracts, sponsorships, events etc.

I would be interested to hear of anyone else’s experience with Adsense.

Both from the perspective of people who own the content channels i.e. blogs etc, and those who advertise on AdWords using the content network. From my experience in both, I can honestly say I am doubting the value for most businesses. But I am happy to be proven wrong.

Of course, I’m not doubting Payperclick on the search networks which for me is an essential ingredient of any businesses marketing tool kit.

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22 Responses to “Is there any point in Adsense?”

  1. JR @ Internet Marketing Strategies on October 6th, 2008

    I too find Adsense a lame activity, the money is pocket change, I find on my blog that relevant banners, and recommended relevant products are far better money makers. I still have the Adsense, but I do not spend time on moving the ads or analyzing their position and colors…blah blah blah, I’d prefer to spend my time on content and getting traffic. There are so many ways to monetize websites and blogs and Adsense is just a very small aspect, for me anyway.

  2. Is there any point in Adsense? on October 6th, 2008

    […] Go to the author’s original blog: Is there any point in Adsense? […]

  3. itot on October 6th, 2008

    i have an adsense ads on my blog.so far i received 3 payouts from them.

  4. what-is-a-blog? on October 7th, 2008

    I have a good read, thanks for the information and insights you have so provided here. I will certainly bookmark your blog for future reads. Thanks!

  5. Thailand's World on October 8th, 2008

    So I guess, Adsense makes sense if you are optimizing your your website very and and you are receiving more traffic. I guess that could help in earning more click outs from your visitors and thus earning in your adsense.

  6. dogs on October 8th, 2008

    Adsense is not good enough for blogs. From my 1 year experience I have felt this. It is better for any other site but not blog.

  7. Roger Hamilton on October 8th, 2008

    Thanks for the informative read! I haven’t tried adsense yet but I think I should consider again after reading your post.

  8. Engago Team on October 9th, 2008

    Just wondering who clicks on those AdSense links?
    According to this study:
    http://www.smvgroup.com/news_popup_flash.asp?pr=1643
    Natural Born Clickers

    Just ask yourself: Do you click on AdSense links?

  9. dogs on October 11th, 2008

    There are lot of points with adsense. If a person really like it and want to use it positively then no other program is better then this.

  10. buy essay on October 11th, 2008

    So I guess, Adsense makes sense if you are optimizing your your website very and and you are receiving more traffic.

  11. Andrew Green on October 12th, 2008

    i have adsense in my site ..i feel it is good before they paid very good rate in early days but now it hard to get the bucks from them ..

    They are filling there pockets

  12. Niccolo Svengali on October 13th, 2008

    Its chief selling points are that it’s easy to insert and adds _relevant_ ads to your content _but_ you must optimise it.

    Make it look like part of the content, cut down the number of ads, use Google’s code to ignore irrelevant parts of your page, etc.

  13. Small Business Marketing Strategies on October 13th, 2008

    I’ve never understood the point of AdSense. It’s pocket money and in exchange you have to place horrible looking AdSense ads all over your blog or website. I personally much prefer going down the route of affiliate links and product recommendations.

  14. Search engine optimisation services on October 14th, 2008

    I felt good to know that you are making money from adsence. Congratulation! But, sorry to say i am not happy with adsense regardign my health blog. I am wonderign for some good tips for making money from my blog.

  15. Tempe Window Tinting on October 14th, 2008

    I used Adsense on a few blogs until I started researching alternatives because those measly checks weren’t cutting it. Look into applying for a CPA network, they have a bunch of offers for things that have made me 10x what Adsense was doing for me.

  16. denver on October 15th, 2008

    I don’t like to use adsense to make money.I prefer to use affiliate program ,text ads and paid membership.Try those out!

  17. Dragons Den on October 16th, 2008

    I can see why people use adsense to produce an extra bit of income but generally the ads look totally out of place as people tend to place them in awful places like slap bang in the middle of a page! Terrible!

  18. KFZ Versicherungen on October 21st, 2008

    I use on my blogs adsense but also other affiliate programms. By Adsense the ads normally have a good relevance to the content.

  19. Ice Rabia on October 24th, 2008

    I have been blogging for almost 5 months already. Haven’t been paid anything from ad sense. I am also asking the same question in my mind? Does ad sense really make money?

  20. paul on October 29th, 2008

    I find you are better off selling paid sponsored ads than adsense. I can say that I’ve made a good chunk of change from adsense, but it is really up and down.

  21. Kyle Howard on November 1st, 2008

    You may like this even less, but have you considered display ads on your blog? With Google Adsense, you can set it up to show display ads. I have had more luck on blogs using these. Maybe because the text ads blend too well with the text of the blag and do not get noticed.

  22. Buck Thompson on November 14th, 2008

    I felt good to know that you are making money from absence. Congratulation!
    I find your adds may be find more and attractive to me .you can show the display adds also. By Adsense the ads normally have a good relevance to the content.

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