When Adsense Makes No Sense: Knowing When Not To Use The Google Adsense Pay-Per-Click Program

There are times, however, when using AdSense makes no sense at all. Here are some common scenarios:

Google's AdSense program is a proven money-maker that has enriched the pockets of plenty of web-site owners. Unlike plenty of pay-per-click systems, the AdSense program has a large pool of commercials to draw from -- the ads come from Google's AdWords program, which you can think of as the flipside of AdSense -- which almost guarantees that AdSense can find relevant commercials to display alongside a site's content.

The basic AdSense program is geared for small-to-medium sites. If your site gets significant traffic, look into the Google AdSense Premium Service (http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/ct). This is the program used by sites like Amazon.com and the New York Times.

1. Your site gets much traffic.

You cannot display AdSense commercials on any site that violates the AdSense program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies). This is outlined in the first section of the AdSense terms and conditions (https://www.google.com/adsense/terms) to which you agreed when you joined the AdSense program.

2. Your site does not conform to AdSense program policies.

Practically speaking, this means that any content that promotes pornography, gambling, drug use or any illegal activity is unsuitable for AdSense use. you're also forbidden from using AdSense to promote alcohol, tobacco, conterfeit goods and other controversial products or services. If you're cycling an online casino, for example, AdSense cannot be used on the casino's site.

3. Your visitors are offended by adverts.

Note that there's a difference between offending your visitors by showing any commercials at all and offending them by showing the commercials in so obnoxious a manner that all we require to do is leave your site. In fact, displaying ads in an intrusive manner violates the AdSense program policies and should be avoided for that reason alone.

Above all else, AdSense is an advertising distribution program: you're renting space on your pages to Google for the display of commercials drawn from its AdWords program. In return for the use of your space, Google gives you a cut of the pay-per-click revenue it makes from the commercials shown on your pages. If most of your visitors find ads offensive, they'll stay away from your site and you won't make any money from the ads that are displayed anyhow, so you might as well not display any ads.

Although Google does its best to find targeted commercials that are relevant to a page's content, sometimes that targeting fails and unsuitable ads are shown. If your content is about the evils of dieting, for example, you probably don't require to see commercials promoting specific diets. Nor do you require to see commercials for competing products or services. AdSense lets you filter out plenty of commercials, but in some cases it's basically impossible -- or much work -- to keep out the unsuitable adverts.

4. The ads are basically unsuitable.

The fundamental premise of pay-per-click advertising is that you're willing to send your visitors elsewhere in return for some kind of payment. If AdSense is your only form of revenue then this is an acceptable trade-off. If, however, your site makes you more from other programs, you should consider whether or not losing a number of your visitors to pay-per-click ads is worth it.

5. You make more money by keeping visitors on your site.

You don't have to remove ads entirely to handle this problem. You can basically reduce the number of ads that you display and even reposition them so that they're clicked less often. Or place them only on the site's exist pages -- the pages from which your visitors typically leave the site. Remember that your visitors are going to leave your site eventually anyhow, you're trying to get them to stay longer.

Another strategy is to use AdSense link units instead of regular text or image commercials, because you can configure link units (unlike the regular ads) to open in a separate window when clicked.

Remember that the AdSense program is a flexible pay-per-click program. You don't have to show commercials on each page of your site -- in fact, the AdSense program policies forbid you from displaying ads on certain kinds of pages. Nor do you have to display ads on each site you own. You can even decide whether image or text commercials (or both) are to be shown on a page-per-page basis. And of coursework you can use AdSense channels to discover exactly which pages are making you money and which pages aren't.

Use AdSense's flexibility to your advantage, but don't get stuck on it if it's not working for you. there's other pay-per-click and impression-based advertising systems out there to explore. For a general, all-purpose program it's hard to beat AdSense, but your situation may warrant a more specialized program. Some sites make more from affiliate programs that from selling advertising, or use a combination of both. Do the search and figure out what's best for you