I developed my site (www.accepted.com) to support my editing and consulting business for applicants to graduate school. My business has grown nicely since I launched the site in 19996 and is profitable, but my conversion rate is low. The site has become a large and rich resource independent of the consulting business and the majority of visitors to the site come looking for information, not our services, which frankly are high-end and expensive.
I am developing products to sell to those visitors who just want info, but I was also thinking of participating in Google Adsense, specifically on those parts of the site that don't contribute to our consulting revenue. Obviously, this will drive some traffic away from the site, but I think it is traffic where revenue is highly unlikely. I mentioned my intentions to my son and he felt that the Google Adsense ads would take away from the professionalism of my site. I disagree, but he nonetheless sowed some doubts.
Does anyone have experience with Adsense when the site is not just an affiliate site? Any opinions?
The site has become a large and rich resource independent of the consulting business and the majority of visitors to the site come looking for information..
A large, keyword-rich site with a low conversion rate? That's a site to drool over these days! It's an excellent candidate for AdSense.
To be sure, just go to Google, type in a few of the important keywords that appear on your site, and see what AdWords appear on the page.
I don't believe that having something from Google - the best search engine on the planet - on your site would harm its reputation. You can block out ads from 200 sites you don't like.
One suggestion... You could probably split up some of your longer pages - for example you might consider spreading your FAQ answers over many pages, with keywords in the file names and page headings, to increase the opportunity to aim for different keywords.
I'm running AdSense on parts of five sites now, including sections that have no affiliate links. It's working beautifully, and we topped $1,000 in earnings a while back. I strongly urge you to give it a go. It's simple to join.
I'd love to hear about your results - in general terms, of course. We wouldn't want to break those AdSense rules _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Obviously, this will drive some traffic away from the site, but I think it is traffic where revenue is highly unlikely. I mentioned my intentions to my son and he felt that the Google Adsense ads would take away from the professionalism of my site. I disagree, but he nonetheless sowed some doubts.
Does anyone have experience with Adsense when the site is not just an affiliate site? Any opinions?
We're developing an entire site on AdSense, so we've been doing a lot of research on this.
So far, not one person we've spoken with has noticed a drop in revenue when adding AdSense. This is counter-intuitive to many people, but is what the early AdSense adopters are finding.
As for decreasing professionalism, I agree with Allan. Google has "trained" us that their AdWords are high quality and relevant. And for many people, the "Ads by Google" gives the site additional credibility because it suggestions Google has checked you out.
Audri G. Lanford -- http://About-AdSense.com/
Free Mini-Course helps you get better results from AdSense: "Dollars and AdSense"
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5783 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:16 am Post subject:
Hi Audri
Welcome aboard! Nice to see you here.
So, is anyone seeing a drop in revenue after adding AdSense? _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 1734 Location: Bangor, Maine
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 4:09 am Post subject: Denied by AdSense - any suggestions?
I got turned down for the AdSense.
Any suggestions on changes to make? I have a programming related website. I am running about 60 uniques a day, so I figured I'd use AdSense to try and pick up a buck or three.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5783 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 5:54 am Post subject:
Perhaps you need to work on getting more high-quality links to the site and boosting the traffic before AdSense will be impressed. Good luck! _________________ Allan Gardyne
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Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 6:14 pm Post subject: Revenue Drop with AdSense
AllanGardyne wrote:
Hi Audri
Welcome aboard! Nice to see you here.
So, is anyone seeing a drop in revenue after adding AdSense?
Thanks Allan. Of everyone we've talked with (and by now, it's quite a few people!) not one person has experienced less revenue from their sites after adding AdSense.
I'm sure that will change, but so far, the results are unanimous.
Audri G. Lanford -- http://About-AdSense.com/
Free Mini-Course helps you get better results from AdSense: "Dollars and AdSense"
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2003 1:12 am Post subject: Further thoughts
Thanks to everyone, specifically Allan and Audri for your thoughtful responses.
I tried out Audri's Adsense tool. Pretty cool. But when I put in the key words for my site, the ones that consistenly show up as search terms and phrases in my stats, there were some high paying ones, but those tended to have Google ads for my competitors. I realize I can block up to 200 of those domains, but how accurate is the tool? If I block the ones that are the highest bidders for those terms, then presumably my revenue from Adsense will be less than it would be if I allowed the highest bidders' (frequently my competitors) ads to appear.
Does it make sense to put up competitors' ads on pages that tend not to generate revenue?
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2003 3:02 am Post subject: Re: Further thoughts
labraham wrote:
I tried out Audri's Adsense tool. Pretty cool. <snip> I realize I can block up to 200 of those domains, but how accurate is the tool?
Glad you like the Tool. We're getting great feedback on it.
I'm not a techie, but here's my understanding: when you originally put up a page with AdSense, the Tool will display basically the same AdWords as what you'll see on your page. However, Google will spider your page, and if the info from the spidering leads it to different conclusions, then you may get different AdWords. Remember also that the AdWords can change from pageview to pageview.
In practical terms, we're seeing that the AdWords that the Tool predicts do show up on the pages when AdSense is implemented and most often continue to be displayed. So, overall, the AdSense Tool has been very accurate.
labraham wrote:
Does it make sense to put up competitors' ads on pages that tend not to generate revenue?
There are a LOT of different opinions on this. It ultimately comes down to testing what works best for you (which unfortunately, right now, is not that easy to do with AdSense until Google gives us a bit better tracking).
My personal opinion is that, in general, people worry too much about competition.
I believe in offering great products and/or services and marketing them well. Since not everyone is going to buy from you anyway, I'd rather use AdSense to earn a little extra revenue from those people who will buy from competitors anyway.
Right now I'm trying to test this on one of our sites. So far, we've noticed no drop in sales and no drop in click throughs, even though we recommend highly against some of the types of products being displayed in AdWords. However, even though this site presents our opinions strongly, we advocate that people make up their own minds. So, those people who disagree seem to be clicking on the AdWords.
A Win-Win in my opinion.
However, I definitely recognize that most people don't feel this way. The keys are testing and what you're comfortable with.
I've been thinking about your site and thought I would add my suggestions.
I think I am probably with your son on this one! I really like your website and it contains some fantastic content. It is certainly very useful for people who are writing admissions essays with lots of great advice.
It does strike me as slightly confused as to whether its providing free content or essay writing consulting.
If I wanted to buy consulting (which is pretty expensive) I would look for an extremely high quality site with good testimonials and reviews from high quality organisations. I would want to see things like Harvard Professors recommend... to make sure that the people offering the advice are very highly qualified to give it. I would like to see case examples of the service you offered - may a before and after admissions essay. I don't necessarily think that having lots of free advice would make me more likely to purchase consulting.
Accepted.com is a very friendly and inviting site but it doesn't scream 'run by Ivy-league Professors' and having adverts would certainly not help in this respect.
It looks at the moment that there may be significant revenue to be made from having a high quality content site that funds itself though Adsense but this is far from certain to continue. If it does continue it might well be worth your while using your excellent content to produce an Adsense funded site. Depending on how that would compare to your consulting revenue you may feel this is a better way to proceed.
If the aim of your site is to get people to buy consulting then that is what you should be doing. If the aim is provide quality free content then adsense (if the present revenues continue) would certainly support this and may even be more profitable than your consulting.
It looks to me like if you put adsense up on your site then most of the ads would be for your competitors. This means either that your competitors have calculated that readers of your content once they click on the adsense link will convert to sales (in which case surely you should be driving those visitors to your sales instead) or that they haven't thought about it and they are losing money (in which case it will be a matter of time before they pull their ads).
It doesn't make sense to me that an ecommerce site could have adverts on it. You are spending all that time and effort to get visitors that are likely to buy and then you send them elsewhere (even if its not to a competitor, they still leave without buying).
I may be wrong about this as some pretty big ecommerce sites now have text ads on them - for example Amazon.com. I just can't understand the logic of it. I was looking for some pda software the other day on Amazon and there was a text link to a site that offered the same software but I could download it instead of buying as a CD from amazon. So I bought the downloadable software instead. I really don't understand why amazon is doing this! The only thing I can think of is that they must be making more money from people who click on the text ads than those that choose to buy from them.
I once read that if someone is stupid enough to want to buy advertising on your ecommerce site you should sell it to them! Perhaps this is what amazon is doing.
Sorry for rambling... IMHO the only way to make money is to FOCUS. You only have so much time, and so many resources. Get visitors who want to buy and then sell it to them. If you are not making money through consulting then try offering free content and selling advertising. Your company is obviously very good a writing free content - maybe other companies are better at selling consulting - if this is the case a free content site might be better for you.
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2003 4:50 pm Post subject: Unhappy with Adsense
Well Chris, I may ultimately decide that I agree with you and my son. Thank you for your thoughtful post. I now have Adsense on many pages of my site, primarily the ones that seem to produce the least business and are used mostly as free resources.
In any case, I have the following problems with Adsense:
1) Many of the ads that display (and that I am subsequently blocking) are for term paper and essay mills. They definitely take away from the professionalism of my site. I have successfully developed relationships with top schools; these ads could threaten them.
2) The releveance of the ads is poor. Since I have blocked competitors, I am getting ads on MBA pages directed at medical school or college applicants and vice versa. Ironically, I am getting virtually no ads for test prep or finanical aid sites, which would be relevant to my visitors because algorithms don't think about similar markets; they just look for words, headers, phrases, etc.
3) So far, and it is really too early to say much intelligent about adsense ROI for me, click-throughs have been understandably minimal. It seems like I have to choose between allowing advertising for my competitors, which would be relevant and probably pay better, ads for sites that take away from the professionalism of my site and which I disapprove of, or irrelevant ads.
Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 5783 Location: by the beach, Australia
Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2003 10:53 pm Post subject:
chris wrote:
I was looking for some pda software the other day on Amazon and there was a text link to a site that offered the same software but I could download it instead of buying as a CD from amazon. So I bought the downloadable software instead. I really don't understand why amazon is doing this!
It's probably a simple case of mathematics.
For example, Amazon could use that space to advertise a product it's selling. Out of every 100 people who click on the link, let's say that 2 buy the product, which Amazon then has to package and deliver, and it has to pay staff. It can calculate the profit.
In contrast, it might receive, say, 20 or 30 cents for every click on the text link. Neat, clean and ever so simple. And good for this month's bottom line. _________________ Allan Gardyne
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