Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Today this thought occured to me (yes I know I'm slow)
If you're getting a bunch of 5 cent clicks which are usually affiliate ads to ebay or amazon, why not remove adsense altogther and post your OWN affiliate links instead?
Someone is turning a profit from those cheap aff ads, so why take 5 cents when you could almost certainly make more by cutting out the cheap advertiser?
Of course maybe your particular site won't convert as well as the affiliate advertiser's average, but its worth a try eh?
Anyone have any comments or experience with this sort of thing?
Someone is turning a profit from those cheap aff ads
I don't think that is a very good assumption. There's a sucker born every minute, so what's to say there isn't a continual supply of people trying out those ads only to discover they don't work.
In reality it is probably not an all-or-nothing situation. There probably are some people who are good enough at using PPC to turn a profit off these, and people who are just subsidizing eBay et al. traffic.
I get a lot of clickthru's (like 30-40% ctr) but I find people are not signing up or not bidding. I think that's the reason why the ebay affiliate ads on G are low paying. The conversion ratio is probably really low.
One question, is it against G's terms and conditions to put your own ebay affiliate ads? I remember the contract saying you aren't allowed to put competing ads...
Competitive Ads and Services
We do not permit Google ads or search boxes accessing Google search services to be published on web pages that also contain what could be considered competing ads or services. This would include ads that mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google on your site. If you have elected to receive content-based Google ads, this would also include all other content-targeted ads. If you have elected to receive Google search services, this would include other search services on the same site and non-Google query-targeted ads. We do allow affiliate or limited-text links.
IMO this means that showing affiliate links is OK, but showing overture ads is NOT OK. I use both on a couple of my sites, and find that most of my income still comes from the adsense.
I feel like it takes a little more effort to get the same revenue from affiliate ads, since they usually hinge on the prospect making a purchase. Therefore it requires a little more preselling.
I have been waffling back and forth between adsense and affiliate links on a couple of my sites. The income was approximately the same. Generally I stick with adsense because it has been a little more steady and predictable source of income for me. Also, it just takes less time and effort.
Then, having a 30% as benefits, lets you around 9$ to advertise. Bidding in Adwords at 5c, you can send 180 punters to eBay and wait that just one of them bids in the next month.
This explains everything.
For my test, I'll be placing amazon ads instead.
IMO this means that showing affiliate links is OK, but showing overture ads is NOT OK.
Yes, that's exactly what it means, according to AdSense Support.
It's also OK to use non-Google PPC ads on your site as long as they aren't on the same pages as AdSense ads.
Let us know how it goes.
I know I tried showing affiliate ads and other ads in my alternate ads, but got so little for it, I decided to pump traffic to my other websites instead.
And that brought in quite a substantial jump in revenue for those sites! I'm my own best advertiser :-)
It's also OK to use non-Google PPC ads on your site as long as they aren't on the same pages as AdSense ads.
what if i am running 2 ad units and one defaults to my backup ppc ad (non adsense)? that means I can't use default ads unless i am only running one ad unit on the page! otherwise i would run the risk of having non adsense and adsense ads on the same page...
