Does adsense make you look desperate
Does adsense make you look desperate
I was interested in perceptions of websites with google ads on them. Do you think it makes the owner look like his site hasn't worked and is trying to make up revenue or that he or she is just making the most of whats on offer?
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marcus
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- Location: Lot-Garonne / Dordogne borders
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For me, I think adsense is not suited to a personal website. First, because it will attract people away from the site and second, the revenue it would generate from a personal site is usually too small to bother (pennies not pounds), unless you are getting loads of hits (see Mascamps in a recent discussion). It was suggested that 1 in 50 unigue visitors to a site might click on an ad, I seem to remember, each generating income of 20 cents. I may be remembering wrong. You will know probably how many visitors your site receives and can do the sums yourself, but if it generates less than, say, £100 - 500 per year you need to be sure that you are not losing a single booking as a consequence for it to be worthwhile.
One possible exception I came across is pages dedicated to travel. Companies advertising cheap car hire pay up to £7-8 per click (according to google). So a travel page including adsense could, in principle, be quite lucrative.
On a different type of site - where the target is that the site makes money by itself, for example, listing several properties, etc etc I have added adsense because I'm trying to create an overall 'useful experience' for visitors, rather than specifically trying to attract bookings for our own properties. It would be nice if the ads paid for the hosting and for a bit of an adwords campaign but it's too early to tell.
To answer your specific question, on balance, no I don't think it makes the owner look like his site has failed - but it does take visitors away from the site.
One possible exception I came across is pages dedicated to travel. Companies advertising cheap car hire pay up to £7-8 per click (according to google). So a travel page including adsense could, in principle, be quite lucrative.
On a different type of site - where the target is that the site makes money by itself, for example, listing several properties, etc etc I have added adsense because I'm trying to create an overall 'useful experience' for visitors, rather than specifically trying to attract bookings for our own properties. It would be nice if the ads paid for the hosting and for a bit of an adwords campaign but it's too early to tell.
To answer your specific question, on balance, no I don't think it makes the owner look like his site has failed - but it does take visitors away from the site.
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
I have absolutely no objection to people trying to make money. After all, that's what everyone is doing. I think the accusations "you are only it for the money" and the ideas that "profit" is a dirty word are complete and unutterable rhubarb.
My reaction to “adsense� is that it tends to clutter up an otherwise clean and clear site. As a user, I would much rather visit a site which had links to other items of pertinent interest. For instance, if I was flying to Bergerac for a holiday I would much rather find a link to car hire firms than an adsense selling – anything really.
Alan
My reaction to “adsense� is that it tends to clutter up an otherwise clean and clear site. As a user, I would much rather visit a site which had links to other items of pertinent interest. For instance, if I was flying to Bergerac for a holiday I would much rather find a link to car hire firms than an adsense selling – anything really.
Alan
Hi
I'm not sure it works with a website describing a single holiday rental.
By it's nature, it will provide competing ads.
At worst, the ad could be a similar villa to rent in your area : and often would be a rental listings site that you don't subscribe to.
In fact, you can filter certain advertisers but there are many of them and they change frequently.
And from a previous posting :
"And just to say a bit about adsense : very few people click on ads, and it is reducing !
Over the last 2 years I've had about 1.5% clicks to views at about 28 cents per click. In the last year it has dropped to 1.3% clicks to views at about 21 cents per click.
I've now added some link units, so I'm hoping this will improve.
A quick calculation tells me that I only need another 245,730,000 views to make 1m dollars ! "
Peter
I'm not sure it works with a website describing a single holiday rental.
By it's nature, it will provide competing ads.
At worst, the ad could be a similar villa to rent in your area : and often would be a rental listings site that you don't subscribe to.
In fact, you can filter certain advertisers but there are many of them and they change frequently.
And from a previous posting :
"And just to say a bit about adsense : very few people click on ads, and it is reducing !
Over the last 2 years I've had about 1.5% clicks to views at about 28 cents per click. In the last year it has dropped to 1.3% clicks to views at about 21 cents per click.
I've now added some link units, so I'm hoping this will improve.
A quick calculation tells me that I only need another 245,730,000 views to make 1m dollars ! "
Peter
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Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
Hi
For a rental listing site I would say that adsense is okay as they will be getting a lot more hits than personal sites so why not cash in on a few extra bucks. With a personal site however if you are looking for a bit of extra money why not join a site like commission junction or something like that that way you can choose what other ads go on your site like car rental firms, flight firms etc that way you are offering your customer an additional service because if they want to book your villa then see rental firms or flight firms they click on the link and if they book with them you get money and everyone is happy. That way I feel it just offers your customer that little bit extra.
Petehols
For a rental listing site I would say that adsense is okay as they will be getting a lot more hits than personal sites so why not cash in on a few extra bucks. With a personal site however if you are looking for a bit of extra money why not join a site like commission junction or something like that that way you can choose what other ads go on your site like car rental firms, flight firms etc that way you are offering your customer an additional service because if they want to book your villa then see rental firms or flight firms they click on the link and if they book with them you get money and everyone is happy. That way I feel it just offers your customer that little bit extra.
Petehols
for worldwide holidays try www.lastminutevillaholiday.co.uk
I have reservations about including adsense on sites where I'm aiming to get bookings for me as it shows people other accommodation with my keywords and they may well book that in preference to me. So on that basis I don't have adsense on our main page or on the reservation page (definite shooting in the foot to offer people other options when they get there!).
On the other hand, I get a lot of hits from our regional guide pages and, going by the stats for it, quite a small proportion of those people are likely to book with us eg we have a bit about Andorra on it and currently get loads of hits for "andorra" yet aren't really that close to it. So, I put adsense on that and don't worry too much about losing revenue.
Our listings sites do list us but they list a lot more people than ourselves so again we put adsense on that.
We've not had a whole lot of success in selling the likes of car rental as people tend to have already made their bookings for such things by the time they book us. However, we are trying to sell such things a bit more proactively by beefing up our transport page and referring to it as perpignanflightsandcarhire.com. One unexpected consequence of this is that we've started getting people linking to that site from their own accommodation pages. I imagine that Marcus will see the same. Actually, I know that he will as I'm planning on adding a link to his southofthedorgogne page from our listings sites.
One other thing to bear in mind is that some of the ads that you will get will be for listings sites that list you so you could get the situation where someone landed on your site, clicked a listings site advert and ended up booking you anyway. Personally I wouldn't be relying on that chain though!
Arnold
On the other hand, I get a lot of hits from our regional guide pages and, going by the stats for it, quite a small proportion of those people are likely to book with us eg we have a bit about Andorra on it and currently get loads of hits for "andorra" yet aren't really that close to it. So, I put adsense on that and don't worry too much about losing revenue.
Our listings sites do list us but they list a lot more people than ourselves so again we put adsense on that.
We've not had a whole lot of success in selling the likes of car rental as people tend to have already made their bookings for such things by the time they book us. However, we are trying to sell such things a bit more proactively by beefing up our transport page and referring to it as perpignanflightsandcarhire.com. One unexpected consequence of this is that we've started getting people linking to that site from their own accommodation pages. I imagine that Marcus will see the same. Actually, I know that he will as I'm planning on adding a link to his southofthedorgogne page from our listings sites.
One other thing to bear in mind is that some of the ads that you will get will be for listings sites that list you so you could get the situation where someone landed on your site, clicked a listings site advert and ended up booking you anyway. Personally I wouldn't be relying on that chain though!
Arnold
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thisfrenchlife
- Posts: 106
- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:28 pm
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Running Adsense on a holiday home website would prove very difficult in raising cash, it needs plenty of pages to get its teeth into and so provide focussed ads.
Affiliate sites could be a different proposition especially if you have relevant ads.
Don't just stick a car hire ad on your site, feature actual link text that says "Click here for car hire from XXX Airport".
Also if you send confirmation emails to people stick an ad after your signature so that it's fresh in your customer's mind.
Another idea is to offer Amazon books for sale on your site related to the local region, the commission is not great but it's better than nothing.
I look at Adsense and affiliate schemes as a single item on a shelf, so you want plenty of 'stuff' on your shelves, with subtle placement, available to people.
Just make sure your advert designs sit well with the look of your site.
Any questions, just shout.
Regards
Craig
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/
Affiliate sites could be a different proposition especially if you have relevant ads.
Don't just stick a car hire ad on your site, feature actual link text that says "Click here for car hire from XXX Airport".
Also if you send confirmation emails to people stick an ad after your signature so that it's fresh in your customer's mind.
Another idea is to offer Amazon books for sale on your site related to the local region, the commission is not great but it's better than nothing.
I look at Adsense and affiliate schemes as a single item on a shelf, so you want plenty of 'stuff' on your shelves, with subtle placement, available to people.
Just make sure your advert designs sit well with the look of your site.
Any questions, just shout.
Regards
Craig
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/
I don't know that it's the number of pages that you have that makes the difference Craig. What's most "liked" by adsense are pages rich with relevant keywords.
In practice, most well written holiday home sites are loaded with keywords relevant to their location and should, in theory, be "liked" by adsense. Whether it's a good move to have an advert for other accommodation on your own site is another question though.
Affiliate ads are, in principle, better as they pay more. I get £7.50 each time that someone books a car through me yet even though I emphasise that it's the cheapest car hire in our area (and it is: I checked them all), I get few bookings from it whereas the adsense ad records car bookings (going by the amount of the transaction). Even worse is that I can tell when the guests arrive that they have paid more for their car than they would have via my affiliate link!
"Just make sure your advert designs sit well with the look of your site."
Absolutely essential. I've seen some incredibly naff sites.
Arnold
In practice, most well written holiday home sites are loaded with keywords relevant to their location and should, in theory, be "liked" by adsense. Whether it's a good move to have an advert for other accommodation on your own site is another question though.
Affiliate ads are, in principle, better as they pay more. I get £7.50 each time that someone books a car through me yet even though I emphasise that it's the cheapest car hire in our area (and it is: I checked them all), I get few bookings from it whereas the adsense ad records car bookings (going by the amount of the transaction). Even worse is that I can tell when the guests arrive that they have paid more for their car than they would have via my affiliate link!
"Just make sure your advert designs sit well with the look of your site."
Absolutely essential. I've seen some incredibly naff sites.
Arnold
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thisfrenchlife
- Posts: 106
- Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:28 pm
- Contact:
Hi Arnold
Agree with 100 per cent I suppose I was writing from the sense of earning a living from Adsense and affiliate ads, as opposed to running a gite website with the ads tagged on.
That's when the number of pages you have becomes important as more people are likely to arrive at your site via Google etc. and so see relevant adverts.
The location of your affiliate links on a page is also key, if you are confident that your car hire deal is better than any others then maybe it's worth featuring it as a stand alone item on the page.
You could even put together a simple page on your site showing your research into prices of other car hire companies, just think how many ads you see from companies highlighting their competitors' poor deals - often featuring the savings involved.
Regards
Craig
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/
Agree with 100 per cent I suppose I was writing from the sense of earning a living from Adsense and affiliate ads, as opposed to running a gite website with the ads tagged on.
That's when the number of pages you have becomes important as more people are likely to arrive at your site via Google etc. and so see relevant adverts.
The location of your affiliate links on a page is also key, if you are confident that your car hire deal is better than any others then maybe it's worth featuring it as a stand alone item on the page.
You could even put together a simple page on your site showing your research into prices of other car hire companies, just think how many ads you see from companies highlighting their competitors' poor deals - often featuring the savings involved.
Regards
Craig
http://www.thisfrenchlife.com/