“AdSense is Stupid When…”
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
“AdSense is Stupid When…”
There are times Google’s heralded ad affiliate program isn’t in
your long term business interest. Oh no I said it!
AdSense isn’t the unstoppable revenue engine for every
eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce
pundits — please let me explain what I mean in my defense.
I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate.
I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without
resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with
photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour).
So my perspective is from one who has made decent income from
AdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertising
seminars — and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes,
AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. However
evaluate AdSense with some type of balance.
By now you may have heard about people like Joel Comm’s six
figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs being
on his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue.
Google’s Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publishers
certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters.
But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to use
AdSense ads on your sites. Let’s list – examine – and explain
them below.
~~~~> 1. On Sales or Mini-sites
This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particular
product that is important to your bottomline, you don’t want
AdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining your
email list, or hindering your site’s online sales process.
However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scale
eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages. This
might not be so bad since only 1% – 15% of your site visitors
will either buy from you or fill out a form.
The thinking with this approach is you might as well make money
from disinterested parties using up your server’s bandwidth.
~~~~~> 2. SEO Business Sites
If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization or
marketing for a living you might want to think twice about
displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this from
personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search engine
marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local area
because I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerce
consultant locally.
One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. After
intense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my site
from MSN.
I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the only
difference between me and the other top ranking sites was I had
Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that my
AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, was
getting a free ride in the MSN search engine database.
In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads for
at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense were
only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there were
very few of them in the top 5 pages).
I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the top
Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan other
industries where I noticed the same trend.
Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been banned
from the top listings by the search engines. It seems the more
visible you become, the more of a target your sites are to the
search engine auditors.
Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense ads
but that doesn’t mean they won’t also be targets in the future.
Let’s face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networks
to Google’s, and this competitive situation is rife for a
potential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads.
Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. However you
have been warned!
Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watch
SEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google? Did
you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) — is much easier to obtain.
Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealth
transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! It won’t
be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking on
AdSense sites in their databases — if not outright ban them.
If you are in the search engine business stay search engine
neutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines.
~~~~~> 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model
When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build a
business solely on AdSense revenue — think again my friend. Why
build a business solely on the largess of Google?
I don’t know if your realize it or not, but the sites making the
real big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn’t
depend on the search engines. Internet mavens like Chris Pirillo
or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and have
followings for their websites. Therefore they can consistently
make six figures with AdSense.
These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not the
other way around. But do you think Google is going to sit back
and watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings?
If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of the
top ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sites
these days. The only exception is in industries where these
sites don’t really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing,
shopping, etc.).
No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuous
scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other words
don’t bet your future fortunes on AdSense.
An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn’t in the
future for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense as
supplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSense
revenue isn’t just silly — it’s just plain stupid
Austin’s Search Engine Blog at…
http://www.searchengineplan.com
I Make Revenues From Adsense at a Very High Click-through Rate
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
There are times Google’s heralded ad affiliate program isn’t in your long term business interest. Oh no I said it! AdSense isn’t the unstoppable revenue engine for every eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce pundits — please let me explain what I mean in my defense. I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate. I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour). So my perspective is from one who has made decent income from AdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertising seminars — and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes, AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. However evaluate AdSense with some type of balance. By now you may have heard about people like Joel Comm’s six figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs being on his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue. Google’s Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publishers certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters. But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to use AdSense ads on your sites. Let’s list – examine – and explain them below. ~~~~> 1. On Sales or Mini-sites This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particular product that is important to your bottomline, you don’t want AdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining your email list, or hindering your site’s online sales process. However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scale eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages. This might not be so bad since only 1% – 15% of your site visitors will either buy from you or fill out a form. The thinking with this approach is you might as well make money from disinterested parties using up your server’s bandwidth. ~~~~~> 2. SEO Business Sites If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization or marketing for a living you might want to think twice about displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this from personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search engine marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local area because I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerce consultant locally. One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. After intense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my site from MSN. I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the only difference between me and the other top ranking sites was I had Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that my AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, was getting a free ride in the MSN search engine database. In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads for at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense were only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there were very few of them in the top 5 pages). I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the top Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan other industries where I noticed the same trend. Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been banned from the top listings by the search engines. It seems the more visible you become, the more of a target your sites are to the search engine auditors. Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense ads but that doesn’t mean they won’t also be targets in the future. Let’s face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networks to Google’s, and this competitive situation is rife for a potential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads. Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. However you have been warned! Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watch SEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google? Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) — is much easier to obtain. Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealth transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! It won’t be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking on AdSense sites in their databases — if not outright ban them. If you are in the search engine business stay search engine neutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines. ~~~~~> 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build a business solely on AdSense revenue — think again my friend. Why build a business solely on the largess of Google? I don’t know if your realize it or not, but the sites making the real big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn’t depend on the search engines. Internet mavens like Chris Pirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and have followings for their websites. Therefore they can consistently make six figures with AdSense. These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not the other way around. But do you think Google is going to sit back and watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings? If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of the top ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sites these days. The only exception is in industries where these sites don’t really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing, shopping, etc.). No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuous scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other words don’t bet your future fortunes on AdSense. An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn’t in the future for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense as supplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSense revenue isn’t just silly — it’s just plain stupid.
About the Author
For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website
Google Adsense as Supplemental Income
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
There are times Google’s heralded ad affiliate program isn’t in your long term business interest. Oh no I said it! AdSense isn’t the unstoppable revenue engine for every eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce pundits — please let me explain what I mean in my defense. I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate. I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour). There are times Google’s heralded ad affiliate program isn’t in your long term business interest. Oh no I said it! AdSense isn’t the unstoppable revenue engine for every eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce pundits — please let me explain what I mean in my defense. I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate. I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour). So my perspective is from one who has made decent income from AdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertising seminars — and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes, AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. However evaluate AdSense with some type of balance. By now you may have heard about people like 6 figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs being on his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue. Google’s Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publishers certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters. But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to use AdSense ads on your sites. Let’s list – examine – and explain them below. 1. On Sales or Mini-sites This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particular product that is important to your bottomline, you don’t want AdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining your email list, or hindering your site’s online sales process. However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scale eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages. This might not be so bad since only 1% – 15% of your site visitors will either buy from you or fill out a form. The thinking with this approach is you might as well make money from disinterested parties using up your server’s bandwidth. 2. SEO Business Sites If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization or marketing for a living you might want to think twice about displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this from personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search engine marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local area because I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerce consultant locally. One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. After intense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my site from MSN. I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the only difference between me and the other top ranking sites was I had Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that my AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, was getting a free ride in the MSN search engine database. In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads for at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense were only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there were very few of them in the top 5 pages). I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the top Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan other industries where I noticed the same trend. Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been banned from the top listings by the search engines. It seems the more visible you become, the more of a target your sites are to the search engine auditors. Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense ads but that doesn’t mean they won’t also be targets in the future. Let’s face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networks to Google’s, and this competitive situation is rife for a potential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads. Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. However you have been warned! Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watch SEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google? Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) — is much easier to obtain. Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealth transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! It won’t be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking on AdSense sites in their databases — if not outright ban them. If you are in the search engine business stay search engine neutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines. 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build a business solely on AdSense revenue — think again my friend. Why build a business solely on the largess of Google? I don’t know if your realize it or not, but the sites making the real big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn’t depend on the search engines. Internet mavens like Chris Pirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and have followings for their websites. Therefore they can consistently make six figures with AdSense. These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not the other way around. But do you think Google is going to sit back and watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings? If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of the top ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sites these days. The only exception is in industries where these sites don’t really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing, shopping, etc.). No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuous scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other words don’t bet your future fortunes on AdSense. An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn’t in the future for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense as supplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSense revenue isn’t just silly — it’s just plain stupid.
About the Author
For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website:-
http://www.googlefund.com
Evaluate Adsense With Some Type of Balance
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
There are times Google’s heralded ad affiliate program isn’t in your long term business interest. Oh no I said it! AdSense isn’t the unstoppable revenue engine for every eBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommerce pundits — please let me explain what I mean in my defense. I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate. I experience high click-through rates with AdSense without resorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users with photos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour). So my perspective is from one who has made decent income from AdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertising seminars — and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes, AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. However evaluate AdSense with some type of balance. By now you may have heard about people like Joel Comm.’s six figure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs being on his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue. Google’s Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publishers certainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters. But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to use AdSense ads on your sites. Let’s list – examine – and explain them below. 1. On Sales or Mini-sites This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particular product that is important to your bottomline, you don’t want AdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining your email list, or hindering your site’s online sales process. However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scale eCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages. This might not be so bad since only 1% – 15% of your site visitors will either buy from you or fill out a form. The thinking with this approach is you might as well make money from disinterested parties using up your server’s bandwidth. 2. SEO Business Sites If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization or marketing for a living you might want to think twice about displaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this from personal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search engine marketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local area because I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerce consultant locally. One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. After intense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my site from MSN. I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the only difference between me and the other top ranking sites was I had Google AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that my AdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, was getting a free ride in the MSN search engine database. In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads for at least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense were only using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there were very few of them in the top 5 pages). I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the top Internet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan other industries where I noticed the same trend. Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been banned from the top listings by the search engines. It seems the more visible you become, the more of a target your sites are to the search engine auditors. Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense ads but that doesn’t mean they won’t also be targets in the future. Let’s face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networks to Google’s, and this competitive situation is rife for a potential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads. Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. However you have been warned! Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watch SEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google? Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) — is much easier to obtain. Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealth transfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! It won’t be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking on AdSense sites in their databases — if not outright ban them. If you are in the search engine business stay search engine neutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines. 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build a business solely on AdSense revenue — think again my friend. Why build a business solely on the largess of Google? I don’t know if your realize it or not, but the sites making the real big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn’t depend on the search engines. Internet mavens like Chris Pirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and have followings for their websites. Therefore they can consistently make six figures with AdSense. These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not the other way around. But do you think Google is going to sit back and watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings? If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of the top ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sites these days. The only exception is in industries where these sites don’t really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing, shopping, etc.). No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuous scarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other words don’t bet your future fortunes on AdSense. An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn’t in the future for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense as supplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSense revenue isn’t just silly — it’s just plain stupid
The Future Value Of Your Blog
November 2, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
All the hype about the sale of Weblogs Inc. to America Online (AOL) has given rise to the now famous question – How much is your blog worth? In acquiring Weblogs Inc., AOL has provided some concrete metrics to future valuation of blogs. How much will traditional media be willing to pay for a blog? Conversely, how much would you sell your blog for?
AOL-Weblogs Inc. Deal – Benchmark for Future Blog Valuation
Weblogs Inc was established by Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey in 2003. It is a network of blogs which includes under its wings successful blogs such as Engadget and Autoblog. Jason Calacanis pointed out that Weblogs Inc. earns in excess of $1 million yearly in Google Adsense revenues alone.
AOL purchased Weblogs Inc. for a confidential sum assessed at somewhere between $25 – $40 million. After said purchase, Tristan Louis came up with a blog valuation scheme based on the deal. He created a chart of blog value using the value of each inbound link to Weblogs Inc. as the basis. It is common knowledge that blog readers follow links. Search engines also act as users and primarily determine blog quality rankings based on linkage data thus direct and indirect value links are a great proxy for value measurement. In the blogosphere, conversations that nurture connectivity represented by links and indexes like Technorati give a vantage view of the value of a blog.
Tristan Louis itemized the publicly available data (list of blogs indexed) at Weblogs Inc. network including the number of inbound links (Technorati blog numbers) per blog divided by the purchase price to determine the value of an inbound link to a blog. At the rumored price of $25 million, the estimated value is $ 564 per link. At $30 million, it is $677.57 per link and $903.42 at an acquisition price of $40 million. Interestingly, the consumer segment chalks up the biggest percentage of linkage. Engadget represents over a third of the overall network traffic.
Applying Tristan Louis’s Weblogs Inc, sale, Dave Winer has also sold http://Weblogs.com to Verisign for a rumored price of around $2 million. Blog entrepreneur Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media has signed a deal with VNU Media to publish Gizmodo (gadget blog) across Europe in six languages. VNU Media is a leading worldwide information and media company which owns ACNielsen, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, among others. With this deal, blog publishing has hit big time.
However, the value of a blog is not calculated based solely on links using AOL’s purchase of Weblogs Inc. Jason Calacanis, the man behind Weblogs Inc., disputed using links alone as proxy for the value of the blog network. He reiterated that the acquisition price was based also on the ever reliable revenue, earnings, management and other metrics.
Tristan Louis based his valuation scheme on links to a blog but he also acknowledged the significance of technology, talented management team, financial performance and growth. There is direct correlation between links, traffic, revenue and earnings capacity of a blog or blog network but it takes sound management to maximize all these potentials.
Value of a Blog – Some Metrics to Consider
How much is your blog worth? There is no one standard gauge yet. But one way to measure the value is to look at certain factors to gain a better perspective on how to measure the future value of a blog.
Aside from number of links as mentioned earlier, traffic level is a key factor in determining blog value. Highly trafficked blogs definitely have a bigger potential for earning compared with those blogs with few readership. A blog’s success is highly dependent on visitors/readers. However, ascertaining the value of traffic is a thorny issue. Some bloggers value traffic anywhere from $3 to $10 per hit a day. From this data, a blog with 2000 unique visitors (page views) would be worth between $6000 to $20,000. The downside to this valuation approach is that some traffic is more valuable than others. A personal blog might have 1000 unique visitors but more difficult to convert to revenue than a blog with 1000 readers that blogs on the topic of digital cameras.
Aside from diverse traffic streams that come from bookmarks, direct links or RSS subscribers will make risk of losing traffic low. Social bookmarking sites are inching their way to becoming prime sources of traffic, with peer referral at times carrying more weight than search results. There are a number of well known bookmarking sites you should link to. Top bookmarking sites include Furl, http://del.icio.us, Diggs, to name a few. By leaving an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, you can feed you readers’ desire for information. Visitors can get automatic updates whenever you provide new content. Having a fairly good base of bookmarkers and subscribers ensure a steady flow of fans and repeat readers – the all-important traffic.
In the blogosphere as in any other field, revenue or earnings is a major focus. a logical approach to blog valuation would be to base its worth upon current and projected earnings, assuming that your blog is earning something to start with. Again, there are varying views on how to use current earnings to measure a blog’s value.
Some bloggers opine you should expect six to eight months earnings as your blog value. A blog with a daily income of $150 would be worth between $27,000 – $36,000. Still, others determine a blog’s value as being two years of current earnings. A blog earning $150 a day would be worth $108,000. Again, there is a huge disparity between these methods of assessing value. Having diverse streams in the form of multiple affiliate programs also increases blog revenue. An affiliate program is an advertising model in which a blog owner markets via his blog a given product, on behalf of another company. The blog owner is reimbursed a percentage of all sales sold thru his affiliate link. Reimbursement rates can vary from 1% and upwards. Google Adsense is a prime example.
Visitors access blogs throughout the Internet primarily through search engines. If your blog does not have a post appearing in the top ten search engine rankings, the chances of visitors reaching your blog is low. A blog’s presence on relevant search engines is a significant medium for maintaining a blog’s success. Search engine ranking and pages indexed in search engines is critical for generating traffic to a blog. Having your blog among the top results of a search or receiving a high Google PageRank (a system for ranking blog posts) would increase your blog’s overall value.
High quality content will always be a key factor for determining a blog’s value. As has been said time and time again – Content is King. Moreover, search engines can only “read” a blog. What attracts a search engine are the words, the content of a blog that explains, informs, shares and educates readers. Good content increases blog value.
All these aforementioned objective metrics can be considered in assessing the value of a blog. Added to all these, a talented management team behind a blog, its underlying tools and blog technology in use can further help to estimate the future value of a blog.

