Google AdSense: Does it make sense?

thebassman · #1 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 12:27 AM

I'm fairly new to the website biz, and am still learning, so I appreciate people's thoughts on Google Adsense. I'm thinking of starting my own forum, and, just by looking at other forums, sites, etc., I've found that many are now using Google AdSense (including this forum). Do people find that it actually brings in some decent money, or is it just a good compliment to other forms of ads on the site? What are people finding the Click Through Ratio is with Google AdSense on your sites?

compar · #2 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 08:41 AM

There have been at least half a dozen other discussions on this forum about AdSense, but the short answer is that they are great. They bring in pretty good money and don't seem to conflict with anything else.

toddieg · #3 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 09:22 AM

I couldn't agree more.

Adsense is awesome, and it WILL make you $ as long as you have some decent traffic coming in.

samer · #4 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 09:35 AM

cool, i think i'm gonna' start with 'em

SVB · #5 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 09:42 AM

Only thing is that now you cant have any other ads along with your adsense

compar · #6 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unrealfragmaster

Only thing is that now you cant have any other ads along with your adsense

I don't think that is quite true. There is some limitation, but I certainly run other ads on every page where I display AdSense ads. Look at this page for instances http://www.compar.com/infopool/articles/news1vs16.html

SVB · #7 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 10:31 AM

They now say they have updated the TOS, before they said you cant have any other ads
https://www.google.com/adsense/terms

POR-15 Depot · #8 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 01:55 PM

What the new TOS says is this

Quote:

You agree that while You may display more than one (1) Ad Unit on each Site Web page, but no Ad Unit shall contain any advertisement in common with any other Ad Unit. You also agree not to display any other text-based or content-targeted advertisement(s) on the same Web page in connection with which an Ad Unit or any Ad is displayed.

John Scott · #9 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustbullet

What the new TOS says is this

Quote:

You agree that while You may display more than one (1) Ad Unit on each Site Web page, but no Ad Unit shall contain any advertisement in common with any other Ad Unit. You also agree not to display any other text-based or content-targeted advertisement(s) on the same Web page in connection with which an Ad Unit or any Ad is displayed.

What ? That's just confusing.

spidersam · #10 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 02:28 PM

I give'em the thumbs up

SVB · #11 (**permalink**) 03-12-2004, 02:40 PM

A bit more clear of what they allow alongside adsense:

Quote:

We do allow affiliate or limited-text links.

starca · #12 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 06:51 AM

My sites make a good deal of $$ from adsense. I would definitely recommend it

SVB · #13 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 07:17 AM

Yeah they are very good. Even a small site can make at least $30 a day from it, with abt of work you could be getting paycheques all the time :-)

GoldDust · #14 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 09:51 AM

It would be nice if Adsence would use other methods of payment though!

SVB · #15 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 10:00 AM

Yeah paypal would be good, though the cheques arent bad, excpet for the exchange rate and the all time dollar low :-(

thebassman · #16 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 12:05 PM

So what type of money do you get per click then? I suppose it varies... where do people find they get the most clicks (i.e. placement of AdSense?)

starca · #17 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 05:28 PM

Vertical ads produce the most income for me. Can't really talk the specifics per their TOS but the numbers do vary. I've talked with some who get very high click-through rates and some with low rates. I will tell you that all the affiliate programs that I've tried haven't given me the payouts that adsense has (nowhere near).

thebassman · #18 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unrealfragmaster

Yeah they are very good. Even a small site can make at least $30 a day from it, with abt of work you could be getting paycheques all the time :-)

$30/day on 1 site from AdSense click-throughs? Wow... that's not bad at all... When I'm on a site I like and want to support (like this one, for instance), I make a point on clicking on several ads to just support the site, but usually only on ads that I would be interested in. $30/day would be a pretty decent suplimental income for a smallish site...

RockNRollPig · #19 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 07:53 PM

Adsense has been very good to me. But if you plan on using Adsense on your forums, then I think you'll be disappointed. Unless you have VERY popular forums, I think you'll find that the CTR is incredibly low.

thebassman · #20 (**permalink**) 03-13-2004, 07:56 PM

Really? Good to hear as well... what type of sites do you find profit well from AdSense? I realize the forum would have to be quite popular to make some decent coin from it. What do people recommend for forum advertizing? I know IMR uses mainly Google AdSense, but this is a thriving forum...
Thanks for all the input thus far, though!