Local Sites and Adsense

Is a finite group of clickers dangerous?

[mrSEman]

I have put up a site for a local "widget tossing" league. Members love this site because they can easily check their standings and upcoming events. Many of them will browse the site daily or at least several times a week.

My problem is that right now there are only 200 members from the same geographical area and the site is really of no interest to the rest of the world.

I'd love to try Adsense on it instead of peddling "Widget Tossing Books" from Amazon.

Has anyone tried Adsense on such a site?

If so, what are the chances of setting off RED FLAGS at G and endagering the rest of my account?

[Pengi]

Would it be worth asking G on this one?

A factor could be whether or not you are known to the 200 potential visitors as the site owner and recipient of any advertising revenue.

[mrSEman]

Would it be worth asking G on this one?

I would definitely do that before putting up ads. I am just trying to get a feel from anyone here who has a local website.

A factor could be whether or not you are known to the 200 potential visitors as the site owner and recipient of any advertising revenue.

Yes I am known and that is partly the basis of my worries. For that matter 3 of my neighbors are members of this league as am I.

But I am hoping to hear that G has thought of all of this and understands as the ads would be very well targetted and therefore I estimate a good conversion rate.

Right now even if I got a canned "Go Ahead" response from G, I don't think I would risk it unless I heard from others that they've done it and it all works out.

My reasons for even considering it are because "Widget Tossing" is very HOT right now and getting more popular by the day. We estimate the league to have thousands of members in the next 2 years. If the daily visits keep on rising steadily, I also plan to add some "Widget Tossing" informational content which would then interest the rest of the world through SE's and would be perfect for Adsense... that is if I do it at all of course.

[DamonHD]

Probably the same 200 people could become ad-blind anyway.

While you are thinking about it, sign up with a decent CPM network like TribalFusion or Casale Media etc. You can make all the slots the right size and rotate between the CPM ads and AdSense anyway to reduce ad blindness. If you still feel nervous, never rotate AS in!

Rgds

Damon

[jomaxx]

With the same 200 people visiting over and over, the income is only likely to be pennies anyways. If you build it up into more of a general-interest site, that seems like it would be a much better fit.

[MidwestWebGuy]

I have a local site as well. I have 4000 or so registered users and have not had a problem. Although with such a small user base AdSense isn't exactly a big money maker for me.

[leadegroot]

If you do decide to go ahead, what if you started with a search box?
Add some code to encourage visitors to make the page their homepage (for easy update checks, you know ;)) and *boom* their first search of the day is through you.
I don't have anything to back me up, but it makes sense that a diversity of topics in the searches should help you 'look good'
IMHO