freejung - 10:13 pm on Jun 2, 2010 (gmt 0)

If they presented the results people were looking for in the SERPs people wouldn't need to click your AdSense link would they? I highly doubt it... Which means the AdSense budget is spent where? Not on you any more seems to be the correct answer to me.

Hmmm... I see the point you're trying to make with this, but I don't think it applies in all situations. You're assuming that the user is looking for one definitive answer to a straightforward question. In cases like that, yeah, you're right.

But what if they are looking to compare products from many sources? Then having ads for other sources of the same sort of product on your site might make perfect sense, even if you have exactly what they are looking for.

Or maybe they're looking for something in a general category, but they're not sure exactly what it is. Then maybe you're a perfect match for their category, but they want to see other matches from the same category, and clicking Adsense is quicker than going back to Google and searching again.

Maybe I'm just rationalizing, but I don't think Adsense or advertising in general is an inherently unsustainable revenue source. It is, however, obviously beneficial to diversify your traffic sources.