Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I just like the way my sites look with just 2 ad positions on each page and no additional advertising, one regular Adsense unit and one link unit. About 6 months ago, I dropped all of my affiliates and most of my private advertisers. I hung onto my two favorite advertisers, but now I'm letting them go as well.
All my eggs are not officially in the AdSense basket yet, I have one other small revenue stream for one of my sites, but that's it.
If anything happens with AdSense I can always switch to another way to monetize the ads or go back to affilates/private advertisers. So, I'm not really worried, but sending that letter to my advertisers today did cause a small knot in my stomach. I hope I can make up for the lost income with AdSense. I should be able to according to tests on other pages, but I couldn't run tests on the specific pages because my private advertiser ads were in the way. So, all I can do is wait and see.
I don't really have a question, just curious what others would think about my decision.
Steve
You are daring :) Obviously you know your site better than we do, but diversification has more security and it could build from there.
But the first tests showed it takes much afford to sign people up.
As I increased eCPM February 2005 very much, the situation changed to, it's extrem hard to sell the space for higher rates than Google.
When we were hit by Jagger last year and lost 75% of our Adsense revenue, what kept us going were our own advertisers. If we did not have them, we would have scrambled to find new sources of revenue (and that takes time). We started our site in 1998, and joined Adsense when it opened in June 2003 - and not once were we affected by a Google update. But Jagger showed us that we can be vulnerable to search engine swings - and we found it to hurt A LOT!
I think you did the wrong thing. Google can drop your traffic (and your Adsense revenue)with a flick of a switch. You will not have time to react. You need to have something immediately to catch you.
Never in a million years will I do what you did, especially to my loyal advertisers who renew month after month. But hey, it's your decision to put substantially more in the Adsense basket.
I thought about this, but the thing is, I want the layout of each page to essentially be the same and we can't make other ads look like google ads. The pages with private advertisers(banner + text) looked out of place.
"You need to have something immediately to catch you."
I'm hoping that with the new changes and extra Adsense ads I will soon have plenty in the bank to "catch me" should something go wrong. I've got a good amount set aside already.
I am putting my faith in Adsense! Don't fail me now, Google.
1) The "too many eggs in one basket" risk; and...
2) Loyalty to advertisers who have been treated me well in the past.
Having money saved is not the issue here; rather the stress of seeing your revenues down (especially if it is your main and only source of revenues). It is better to earn $1000 from other eggs in your basket, rather than $0 when your main egg gets broken.
I'm trying to bolster my direct advertisers, not ditch them as they bring in a nice chunk of change.
Oh well, to each his own.
Direct advertisers are extremely important to us. Just the thought that you have other sources of income to rely on in case Adsense goes away is enough to make me sleep better at night.
Some of them have been with me for several years, way before Adsense was even a blip on the google radar, and although the adsense income is very nice, I wouldn't want to burn any bridges and mess with that relationship.
So you did it mostly for "cosmetic" reasons? That does sound pretty brave; but as was said above, you know your site the best.
I would have just dealt (or lived with) the cosmetic reasons in favor of the loyalty to the advertisers that helped keep you going all this time.
Yes, this is the reason I did it. I just like the way it looks with the same layout on each page(and the way the google text ads look compared to banners). I especially like the way the pages with Adsense look but that layout would not work with banner ads, which is what these advertisers are looking for along with text below the banner. This, along with the thinking that I'll be making equivant money with Adsense(possible more) and I don't have to deal with the billing. Then, back to: I like that way it looks and I want all my pages to look that way.
adsense has cut their payouts for a lot of people lately, hopefully your sector isn't affected by that downward trend.
i think that i would back up adsense with a ypn account asap, even if it's just on a very small scale... you may need it, if something happens to your adsense account.
the problem with losing search engine traffic is that it doesn't matter who your advertisers are, if you can't provide traffic, you won't get paid.
Not because I quite understand why you've done what you've done, but more because I've learned to follow your posts at WebmasterWorld more than anyone else's posts.
You were right on getting rid of low paying pages. You were right about adlinks (I'm fairly certain that was you - but it could have been Bill). You've been 100% right so far so my thought is keep on going with your feelings.
Make the site look less full of advertising and people will do the natural link thing. Less money short term - more money in the long term.
Less money short term - more money in the long term
Definitely NOT if
(a) you lose your Adsense account
(b) Adsense payouts indeed fall
(c) you're hit by smartpricing or other factors that lower your income levels
(d) your traffic decreases
There's just way too many risks that I'm sure no business books will tell you to put all your eggs in one basket. It's always to DIVERSIFY. To each his/her own, but this is one strategy that I will never ever do with my own business. Especially with the reasons given (e.g. billing, site design).
i would like to get into direct advertising myself, and i noticed that you were involved w/ private advertisers. i do have adsense on my site, but selling space myself given my local niche will be most beneficial. problem is, i don't have a registered business name, and don't have a LLC set up. do you think i need one? will local businesses not talk to me if i am not a registered biz, just an individual? thanks
I have been trying to get the new design to work for a long time, it wasn't something that I just sat down one day and changed. Since last June, when a different layout was suggested to me at the WebmasterWorld conference, I have been trying to get it to work with my site. Allowing for both would just be too many ads. The new layout was a great idea(I don't remember your name to thank you whoever you were) and now I want to implement it on all my pages. IMO, I don't have room left for other advertisers.
Knowing that I've entered into a partnership with Google, as all us publishers have, and that I am fulfilling my end of the agreement, I can sleep very well at night.
I use Google AdSense exclusively as my advertising generator and I am making more money than 95% of the publishers posting here in WW (judging by THEIR posts).
Google is MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than I am at selling ad space - most advertisers on my site are large corporations, and it's very doubtful that I could have negotiated an advertsing contractr with them directly. That is what my partner, Google, does for me... as most people recognize Google's name... not mine.
Heck, I don't even have to show my visitor logs to anyone to prove how much visitor traffic I receive, and from what part of the planet & for what search terms. Google does all of this automatically... and then allows advertisers to "validate" my content's marketing effectiveness with SmartPricing. I don't have to provide arguments as to why my content is worthy of advertisers money - they can experience it themselves and judge by the conversion rates... fortunately it must be worth it to the large corporations as they have all remained month after month, paying me a very fair PPC (much higher than averages that I see usually mentioned here... same thing with my click-through rates).
Each site is different, one must experiment to see what works best for their particular situation. For me, Google AdSense works fine as an exclusive advertising partner.
Each site is different, one must experiment to see what works best for their particular situation. For me, Google AdSense works fine as an exclusive advertising partner.
I find that AdSense works well for contextual CPC ads, but it it's a poor source of more general ads (such as site-targeted CPM ads). For me, the best combination is AdSense (cost-per-click text ads), Travel Ad Network (CPM display ads), and affiliate links.
I get the impression that Google has been very slow to make inroads among mainstream corporate advertisers and ad agencies, probably for several reasons: (1) a lack of business relationships in key market niches, (2) an inability to deliver handpicked sites and audiences, and (3) skepticism among media buyers who have to answer to their bosses and clients.
BTW, I noticed the other day that the Travel Ad Network (which I use for display ads) is now selling private-labeled text ads in cooperation with AdSonar. I've often thought--and said here--that Google should consider offering private-labeled AdSense ads through third-party vendors in selected niches. Looks like AdSonar beat Google to it. :-)
I hope that it all works out really well :)
Knowing that I've entered into a partnership with Google, as all us publishers have, and that I am fulfilling my end of the agreement, I can sleep very well at night.
Isnt the 'Agreement' too much one sided? I am sure the agreements you had with private advertisers be less 'one sided' as compared to google.
I dont take privare advertisers even since i started on adsense. I have another way of revenue from them now and i would you to suggest you that.
I happen to be an Google Adwords professional also, and tell them to go through Adwords route. To facilitate this, i take consultancy fee from them, to draft ads for them, position them, bid advises etc.
I wish you all the best. You are a brave man.
