What Do You Want From Adsense? And Why It Matters.

To Get Rich, or Pay For Hosting?

[ken_b]

What Do You Want From Adsense?
To Get Rich, or Pay For Hosting?
And Why It Matters.

When folks post questions about Adsense, we often, probably most of the time, don't know what their goals are for participating in the program.

Some folks are looking for a way to get rich quick, others just want to pay for hosting. Still others are somewhere in between.

Without some idea of what a posters goals are it can be difficult to give solid advice, or even make relevant comments.

For example, if getting rich is your goal, then placing adblocks in the hottest spots on your page and making them look like content might be the way to go. Suggesting that a poster with get rich quick goals place a small adblock at the end of an article probably isn't much help.

On the other, if you sre just looking for a few extra bucks to help pay hosting fees while you continue to build a site dedicated to your favorite cause or hobby, a lower key approach might work well for you. For this perosn, a small or medium adblock near the end of an interesting article might well be the way to go.

I'm in the middle group. I'm not in the get rich quick mode, but I want more than hosting fees. I also don't, and don't plan to spend an inordinate of time worrying about my Adsense income.

Like all of us, I want to find a way to make Adsense work as well as possible for me and my site, while using it to meet my goals for my site, without losing the focus of the sites original purpose.

Any thoughts?

What are your goals for participating in the Adsense program?

[david_uk]

(General election here in the UK tomorrow folks!)

Really? Gosh - I never noticed that. I *did* wonder why they've locked Prescott in a cupboard, and the old sleazeball (forget his name - grins a lot, talks crap, famous wife who's dad was in "Till death do us part") has taken to gabbing more rot than usual.

[Never_again]

Our website is an important part of our overall business strategy. The sites primary goal is to create a national awareness of our firm, create an image that we are “the experts” in our field, and build a large subscriber base to our free weekly eNewsletter. It has been highly successful.

Since the site contains thousands of pages of high quality content, we were looking for a way to monetize this content in a non-obtrusive way. AdSense was our solution and provided us with:

* A way to monetize an important asset (our content and website).
* An additional income source (If your goal is to earn a buck, find 20 ways to earn a nickel. AdSense is one of those nickels.)
* An increased perception of the value of our site by connecting our users with other product and service vendors in our field which drives to the primary goal of the site.

[ken_b]

This has turned out to be a pretty interesting thread, at least to me.

Thanks to everyone who has posted.

The changes in how Adsense publishers viewed participating in the program are particularily interesting to me. You know, starting with hopes of paying for hosting and later realizing that Adsense might also pay for a few vacations, or let one quit the 9 - 5 grind and live more independantly.

I'm reminded of something that happened years ago. A friend of mine was trying to enroll one of his friends in a direct sales program.

My friend kept trying to convince the guy that riches were just around the corner. No matter how many times he heard this, he wasn't biting.

My friend asked me if I'd help him convince the guy. I said I'd give it a shot.

So I asked the guy what his goal would be if he could make the program work for him.

His answer was that he'd like to make enough money to take his wife out to dinner a couple times a month, or maybe even enough to pay the rent on his spot in the trailer court.

I showed him how he could do that with the program, and how much time it would likely take.

He enrolled, met his goals, saw the light so to speak, and went on to out earn and out last my friend in the program by far.

I've been fascinated with that type of progression ever since.

[HitProf]

What Do You Want From Adsense?

Diversification of income for both our company and for clients.

[fearlessrick]

Monetization of web assets into eventual full time income. Thanks for reminding me of that. I am often distracted by the variables of Adsense and have to force myself to refocus on the bottom line, building content and improving my site.

Great thread. Very potent.