Coop Ad Network on a professional site?

mchas · 12-19-2004, 05:47 PM

I have been reading about the successes of the Coop Ad Network for many of you... and as much as I'd love to use it for my site (www.automotivedigest.com), I don't think it would be appropriate to have totally random links at the bottom.

What does everyone think? It seems to me that this is good up to a point, then you start sacrificing professionalism for a higher placement in the search engines.

I'd love to hear some feedback! Thanks!

thebassman · 12-19-2004, 06:25 PM

I think it's best to keep it off of pro sites... if you're going to use it, keep it to forums and whatnot, and you can always point your ads to your pro site, but host the ads on a forum site...

mchas · 12-19-2004, 06:32 PM

Yea, I think you're right. I've been spending a ton of time reading through all of the great posts on this site, and am learning a ton. My site has been up for about 7 years, and we just haven't seen the kind of traffic we'd like. I am going to keep reading the posts in this forum. In the meantime, if anyone would like to take a look and give me some advice, feel free to email me. The website is www.automotivedigest.com. Thanks in advance, and thanks again for such a valuable forum!

Dave Hawley · 12-19-2004, 06:33 PM

Personally I don't think is worth anything in the long run and has a good chance of doing more harm than good. As you pointed out mchas, the displaying of totally random links is really a red flag for Google.

The other very real problem is, you will likely, sooner or later, be linking to a "bad neighbourhood" and this can get you dropped from Google.

Botton line, I wouldn't use it on any site for any reason.

Shawn · 12-19-2004, 09:04 PM

The way it is now , I agree with Dave.

glengara · 12-20-2004, 02:57 AM

Another factor in the scheme is the transient nature of the links, pages would be constantly fluctuating wildly in the SERPs.

ferret77 · 12-20-2004, 07:40 AM

Quote:

linking to a "bad neighbourhood"

just curious could you guys post the location of bad neighborhood so I could check it out

theJack · 12-20-2004, 07:49 AM

"post the location of bad neighborhood "

You could probably find your way to one if you follow this discussion:

http: //www.threadwatch.org/node/753

ferret77 · 12-20-2004, 08:33 AM

thats pretty wild the site the gg mentions as a bad neighborhood is PR6

Dave Hawley · 12-20-2004, 05:17 PM

There was one GG took a look at on another forum for a non profit quit smoking site. They were linking to a "bad neighborhood" and dropped out of the SERP's for terms they were ranking well for. The error in their ways was pointed out and GG got it up and running soon after they fixed the bad neighborhood links. I think it would normally take a LOT longer to get back though.

Bad neighborhood sites are often the ones that have link farms. That is, they link to any site that links back to them and the sites are often not on-topic. Many have not yet paid the price, but odds are they will and as they say, %^&$ rolls down hill so you don't want to be linking to them when they are caught.

mchas · 12-20-2004, 06:24 PM

So the general feeling I get is that the coop network isn't a good plan for a professional site.

Do you think Google's AdSense is ok for a professional site? I seem to see more and more using it these days. The targeted content makes it seem more professional, but does anyone get the feeling that a professional company would be "selling out" if they had Google ads on their home page?

awall19 · 12-20-2004, 07:57 PM

>but does anyone get the feeling that a professional company would be "selling out" if they had Google ads on their home page?

it really doesnt matter what we "feel" so much as what works. many businesses (especially in industries such as insurance) place adsense ads on their sites.

Dominic · 12-20-2004, 08:04 PM

ADSENSE

With adsense it really depends on your content.

We serve adsense on three of our sites. Our homeless site makes barely anything as the ads that relate to the content are low paying. But we have two other sites where the ads pay fairly well because of the content. One of the sites gets low traffic, the other site is dominant accross all engines, has high trafic and the ads pay well.

With the last site I'm more than happy to have adsense on it as it raises a fair amount of dollars for us.

In terms of 'professional sites' look at yahoo... they accept advertisers. Adsense use to be one of them.

The fact that you can block the ads you don't like means it's never really a problem - control is there.

In terms of presentation, perhaps you would like to use a medium rectange and select image...
https://www.google.com/adsense/inline

This sort of shape and look ad if often used by newspapers and other very high traffic professional sites.

I'd trial it and see how you go, if it nets you (for example) an extra grand a month than consider the look and feel of your site with the ads and ask if it is worth US$12,000 per year to you to make that sacrafice in terms of asthetics.

COOP
Shawn is one smart cookie. The coop is a good idea and we participate (just started). No doubt as the project has become such a success for Shawn and many others he is looking to improve and protect it's future viability.

So I would expect that it will be enhanced / protected as needed in the future. I don't disagree with the concerns raised, but in the scheme of things, it's not really powerful enough yet to be of any real concern to google.

In terms of adding coop links to a 'professional site'... our coaching site could do with a little tarting up, but otherwise could be considered 'professional.' Problem is, it's still stuck at 100 and something in the serps. As this site sits idly by in the never never land of cyber space... it's not much use to me. If coop ads bring it from outer space into the top 20... than the most professional thing about my site in my opinion will be this clever little coop I'm participating in that I desperately hope my compeditors never discover.

Dave Hawley · 12-20-2004, 08:10 PM

Quote:

I desperately hope my compeditors never discover it

I'm hoping that mine do.

When a Google employee (GoogleGuy), who often posts on many forums, states it's not a good idea and users still jump into it knowing this.....what can one say???

It's no wonder forums are full of "help I'm no longer in Google index" posts. Some people are their own worse enemies. It also means those that poop in their own nests use up free forum resources at the expense of a genuine Webmasters in need.

Dominic · 12-20-2004, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Some people are their own worse enemies.

I notice John Scott uses the coop on a site he owns, ... (if only google knew I was keeping such bad company LOL)

Hey - take it or leave it, we aren't trying to talk you into it... I'm just outlining why we participate.

mchas · 12-20-2004, 08:56 PM

Great info here guys, thanks a lot for the feedback. The site I am currently working on is ranked pretty highly, and has PR 6. I've decided to stay away from the coop idea for now, but it sounds like Google's AdSense is a professional way to make some extra money.

Just out of curiosity, about how many hits per month would it take (rough estimate) to generate around $1,000 per month in ad revenue? We currently have many banner advertisers, and I'm trying to see if offering a spot on our homepage would bring in more revenue than Google's AdSense.

Thanks again!

Dave Hawley · 12-20-2004, 09:47 PM

Quote:

I've decided to stay away from the coop idea for now

Smart move.

In regards to AdSense all I can suggest is try it and see. Unlike the link building scheme, there are no risks involved.

Dominic · 12-20-2004, 10:39 PM

mchas, depends on how much the ads pay out that get served from page to page and why your visitors come to your site.

Just give it a shot and trial a few different ad layouts and see how it performs. FYI, I find adsense for search makes bugger all, my preferred ad format for our site is skyscraper on the right hand side of the page... using similar colours to the page the ad is on.

If you have 20,000 + pageviews per day I can't see it being a stretch for your site to achieve that.. but don't know what ads will serve on your pages, what they cost, or anything much about your visitors.

If you haven't used adwords yet... sign up for that too, create a draft ad (no need to run it) and adwords will show you what it will cost to target keywords and related suggestions and what they cost to target and how many clicks per day average the ads will get). This will tell you a lot about how much money can and can't be made from your site.

You may also want a look at digital point's adwords sandbox, put your homepage in, see what adsense is displayed.

mchas · 12-21-2004, 12:07 AM

More great advice - thanks everyone. I have actually created some mockups of what the site would look like with skyscraper banners on the right hand side, and it looks pretty good actually. I think I'll give it a shot. The adwords tip is very interesting, I'll look into that. If I do end up running AdSense, I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes. Thanks again!