The Chicken Or The Egg with your website and Adsense

How many have built a site for Adsense vs using Adsense to monetize

[newborn]

Ok just a quick survey here has anyone ever built a site that is built around maximizing to earn the Adsense dollar vs. having a website then adding the Adsense code.

A ratio would be great say I have 10 and really 9 were built for Adsense...not ashamed to say?

[LifeinAsia]

Every site I have predates AdSense. However, new sections are added (or old sections redesigned) with AdSense in mind.

[bhartzer]

I have sites that pre-date AdSense, but even with those sites that post-date AdSense (i.e., new sites), I look for traffic and then if it's monetized with AdSense then "great".

Traffic first then AdSense is the way to go.

In fact, I've actually had better success without monetizing it at all until I get to a certain daily traffic level. For some reason people look and link to sites differently if it doesn't have anything on it. Then, once you have the traffic and monetize it with AdSense then you're better off.

[icedowl]

3 of my 5 sites predate Adsense, but my 2 newest sites would still exist even if Adsense didn't.

[potentialgeek]

I built my main site pre-Adsense. Didn't put any ugly ads on it for about four years. Everyone else used pop-up crap, etc. Then added GoogleAds.

It's much more difficult to get motivated to start new sites nowadays with the Google sandbox crap, not to mention competition. You could spend months building a quality site with enough content and spend years getting it to be well placed in SERPs--and that may not even happen. You might get and remain stuck behind the blackhat con artists.

In the future I might make 'MFA' sites if I can get the quality high enough. Right now I'm trying to kill the competition. I think some sites are 'developed for adsense'. MFA doesn't really show the full picture. I think a lot of people wouldn't spend as much time developing their sites if not for Adsense. There's MFA and DFA (Developed For Adsense).

p/g

[europeforvisitors]

I've got two editorial sites: one with AdSense ads, one without. Both predated AdSense, and I use AdSense the old-fashioned way: as an incremental source of advertising income, not as a reason for having the site.

[Lagamorph]

2 pure wholesome sites from the last century, 2 MFA's built last year after putting AS on the first 2. As far as earnings my MFA's rank 2&3. Traffic and all the good numbers are going up across the board.

[Genuine1]

15 sites unchanged since way before google or adsense.

[jema]

I had some sites pre-adsense. When I put adsense on one particular site I realised it could make real money.

So I then made sites for adsense. I think the term MFA is actually a real bad one to have crept in, there is nothing wrong with sites geared around earning with adsense. The problem sites are those that abuse the system, which is quite hard to characterize in words.

[Huntster]

My main sites do not. I have a couple that were built with adsense and other affliates in mind.

[FourDegreez]

I don't build web sites for the sole purpose of AdSense. Having an idea for a site, then creating it and watching the traffic start to flow has been a hobby of mine since the 90s. I enjoy the creative process and the idea that people are seeing what I've created. That still hasn't worn off.

That said, I do have a mind for AdSense now when I'm building a site. It's good to have a hobby, but a profitable hobby? That's the ultimate.

[youfoundjake]

I have two sites that existed on my desktop, one was 7 years before I knew about adsense, but when it went live, it was designed to run adsense optimized, the other site already existed but was again redesigned for adsense optimization.

[newborn]

My reality...I built my first website to sell a ebook on line and actually to date it is my most successful site. However there are several other websites that I have built all between 25 - 100 pages. However they were all geared towards earning income from affiliate business. Especially adsense. I mean ladies and gents lets face it the .com bubble has returned and the housing bubble is gone. I just cant see anyone surviving online life as a fulltime job without
ebook sales
or commission sales
or PPC Earnings.

[loner]

Most of my sites predate adsense and google. They are all showing adsense. I've built a few around adsense with the intention of making a bzillion dollars a year, but they ain't no fun. They bring in some money, but I like working on my older stuff rather than developing the new junk.

[thedigitalauthor]

Most of my sites were created before I knew what Adsense was all about, however, adapted Adsense to them fairly easily.

I too, must admit, that although I do not specifically create sites for Adsense, I do intentionally create my sites with Adsense in mind.

[BushMackel]

With a background in Comp Sci but loving artistic endeavors(sp) I've always been drawn to making websites. As I grew older, I knew that I needed a way out of the 9-5 and for years starting looking for something that would do it. In the end/beginning (depending on how you want to look at it) I concluded that a website would be a good shot. Low overhead, I was already familiar with the a good part of it etc...So even though I started my website in hopes of making money, I've learned through reading the boards that AdSense isn't always the most stable of monies to fall back on for a living. Despite this, I trudge on and constantly refine my site to take advantage of what I learn w/ AdSense.

[ConfusedButCommitted]

Built site before AS, but expanded it 5x after I "found" AS

[bobothecat]

Added AdSense only to a few select pages per-site. I've always looked at it as 'free money', and not something I want to monetize for. I make more than enough off of other previous ventures that have been around far longer than AdSense, and in some cases Google.

[sailorjwd]

website started Aug 2001

Retired for two years with adsense/ypn income.

Now back working full time + :)

[calman]

Site predated AdSense - March 2000. Site traffic grew very quickly.
AdSense was added May 2005 - I was a bit curious about how much I could earn on a site that had never been monetized. To put it mildly, I was a bit overwhelmed.

I was already contemplating retirement from the corporate world in 2005 and am now retired.

AdSense provides substantial incremental income but is not at all critical to the financial viability of the family.

I spend absolutely no time optimizing AdSense (I find the process to be exceptionally boring). It is simply integrated into the site in whatever way I personally feel is appropriate. I know I am undoubtedly leaving money on the table, but I simply don't care.

It would be disappointing if I lost my AdSense revenue for some reason, but I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over it.