Why use AdSense?

[AmySueN]

I don't "get" AdSense... as I understand it, Google "reads" the content on a page and puts relevant ads in. But don't these ads lead to another site, drawing visitors/potential customers AWAY from my site to another site? I want visitors to stay on my site and make a purchase, right? What am I missing here?

[Cricket]

A lot of webmasters have informational websites rather than an online business, so it gives them a way to make a few bucks here and there.

[dotservant.com]

Like Cricket says, not all sites sell their own product, and if a site is selling product, naturally, it will not be placing other ad material to avoid loosing sales to competitors.

[Nikhil]

same opinion as of cricket and dotservant.com

[janhvizdak]

Originally Posted by dotservant.com

if a site is selling product, naturally, it will not be placing other ad material to avoid loosing sales to competitors.

I have seen one site dealing with roofs which has been showing adsense ads too. So it depends on the point of view. If the conversion is not affected by advertisement or if ads lower the conversion rate negligiblely, it is possible to profit from both (sales and ads).

[dotservant.com]

It is possible to show ads for related product and benefit from both, for example, you are selling beer but not wine, and that is chance to capture a commission if the client stumble in with no intention to buy beer but might be interested to go for a bottle of wine.

[cldnails]

I would agree it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to put Adsense ads on a site where you are trying to affiliate a product, or give the illusion of an eTail store. Personally, it seems to discredit the site itself by trying to sell me something and have an ad right next to it from a competitor. duh!?

[newsaroo]

I posted the same reply:

Hello,

My one site [link removed] made $127 in a 24 hour period in July and this was for approx. 4,000 unique visitors. The most I made was $347 for the month of August. However, keep in mind that this site was featured on national TV (Maury Povich) and the theme was caught on tape. He had a rerun of his how and we placed Google ads prior to the rerun and made money.

Now the site is on the back burner and making money (not much) with embedded videos only. We are creating a business plan for that site too and looking for investors (seed) money. If we can get 100,000 unique visitors that would generate approx. $2,300. Great return for a site dedicated to pranks caught on tape.

[weilies]

90% informative+non commercial site host Ads

So, you have to define your biz model before you install Ads on your website. I wonder Google provide an option that allow competitors excluded from their Ads before publisher the Ads on their website. So they wont bring traffic to competitors website

[arcadesstuff]

I guess if you own a site that sales something, the best way is not to have some other ads, because, as you said, you have to keep your visitors concentrated on your products...

[Jarodboy]

If you're site is for sales only purpose than you should probably think hard before putting adsense.
You can be loosing revenue, not just for not selling...but for driving traffic to your competitors.

[EveryoneCollects]

I screen out all the non-appropriate stuff that i don't want people seeing on my site. I don't sell anything and I'm definitely no prude, but some of Google's adsense ads are pretty lame if you're expecting kids (and their parents) to look at the site - especially the dating ones. The screening function was designed specifically for removing competitive ads.

Andy

[stacy131]

Or if you're much better and offer better prices beyond what your competition ever could, Adsense isn't such a bad idea. A great opportunity to embarass the competition.

(this is a joke)