Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I have a site that has only been running for about a week.
Already, I average about 2.000 uniques a day, clocking over 10.000 since I started. My goal is to have around 4.000 a day after 6 months.
The site is sort of a visitors-come-back thing more that visitors-come-in-and-leave.
However, if the site continues like this (and it will!) my hosting fees will be way too big. So I joined a google adsense and it seems to work fine, even though I havent started using it on my visual pages.
Im asking: when is a good time to start advertising? I believe some visitors might start thinking "nah... that cheap, I thought this was non-commersial" and leave. However, if I wait a while, they will be "stuck" into the site and wont really care about some extra ads.
Is there a tutorial or some quick hints anybody could give me?
thank you
What is your goal for creating your site? If it is merely to share information and maintaining a particular "street cred" that you will never beat the path of commercialism, then don't run ads.
However, if you are thinking of at least trying to recoup hosting costs, then you need to do something to earn. Advertising by putting in Adsense code is by far the easiest. Remember that millions of web sites out there have ads, so visitors are already familiar with sites that run advertising. If it really bothers you, you can explain in your site somewhere why you need the ads.
What is your goal for creating your site? If it is merely to share information and maintaining a particular "street cred" that you will never beat the path of commercialism, then don't run ads.
Actually, its a little bit of both. My intention is definetely to get some sort of earnings for all my work and at the same time cover the hosting. At the same time, Id like to show my visitors that this is for real and not some cheap make-money trip. Its not a commersial site, and Id like my visitors to keep believeing that.
Would it be adviceable to wait until the stats are showing *bling bling* or should I start right now?
Or in other words - is 2000 uniques enough to get some earnings and at the same time make them come back?
thanks
Think of it this way:
- If you will achieve X unique visitors and you know you can achieve it in 6 months, are you willing to FOREGO any earnings between now and 6 months? No income at all, just some unseen "emotional credit" that visitors know that your site is not commercial. In economics, there is such a thing as "opportunity cost" -- lost revenue because you did not take on the opportunity to earn it.
- Will the lack of income for six months really commensurate for the pride of not showing any ads? What if you've established your site as an ad-free site, not commercial at all as you start developing a growing and loyal visitor base. Then wham! All of a sudden 6 months down the road, you start showing ads? Do you think your users will not feel "betrayed" - that at the start you were non-commercial but soon changed your tune. You sold out! Better to start showing ads NOW that you are still developing your client base so they can get used to the idea of seeing ads on your site, rather than "mislead" them into thinking you are non-commercial.
[edited by: alika at 3:04 pm (utc) on Aug. 27, 2004]
The quality of your content is what will make your users come back to you again and again -- not whether you have ads or not (of course, moderation is important in terms of showing ads)
Many webmasters here who have used adsense and other banner networks have no problem developing a loyal customer base despite the fact that they are showing ads. I'm sure you will have no problem either.
Two caveats:
1) Some sites don't work well with AdSense. Your success will be determined, in large part, by your topic and the "stickiness" of your audience. A site that reviews expensive widgets and gets most of its traffic from search is likely to make good money from AdSense; a pensioners' forum that consists mostly of the same users day after day won't do as well. Fortunately, it's easy enough to try AdSense; it it works, great, and if not, you can delete the code from your pages.
2) In most cases, running ads won't affect your credibility or reputation, but there are times when it will. I tried running AdSense ads on a writing-related site and quickly gave up because nearly all of the ads were for vanity presses, phony poetry contests, and other scams that fleece aspiring writers.
I dont see much point in smashing ads in the face of my faithful visitors on sections with hardly any SE traffic, but I guess you are right about starting now so that they get used to it.
Thanks again
Your intended approach sounds like a good one to me. I have been using AdSense for nearly a year, and have it on less than a quarter of the pages for my site. I made sure to put in first on pages that were big entry points from search engines. This worked well--and from channels, I've been able to learn that maybe half my income comes from a total of five pages!
Moral: you certainly don't need to put AdSense on all your pages. In fact, I have removed it from a number of pages that were getting few if any clicks.
I dont see much point in smashing ads in the face of my faithful visitors on sections with hardly any SE traffic
Ads can be very appropriate and very profitable on some low volumn pages.
I get a monthly check from G, so clearly my hosting is covered and I don't have ads on the vast majority of the pages.
I think if all pages had ads on it, then visitors might get the idea I'm in it for the money, but good targetting of the banners doesn't gove that impression. Like others, a couple of the banners are on search engine first contact pages.
I think most people understand that sites need to cover their costs by advertising. It's when it's on every page I get irritated.
Ads shouldn't be a problem on an information site as long as:
1) The ads don't overwhelm the editorial content.
2) The ads are relevant to the site's content (e.g., AdSense travel ads on a travel site instead of ads for Internet gambling, dating services, or credit cards).
3) You don't use annoying ad formats such as popups, popunders, and interstitials.
I doubt that adding ads will scare your visitors away though. Just as long as you don't flood them with too many ads all in one shot. You may wanna introduce your ads gradually by adding say one Adsense banner for starters.
Also, I've found the best results come when the ads are text-only and blend tastefully with the other content on the page. By all means, don't "bash" your visitors over the head. hyperkik and diamondgrl are spot-on right. In this case less IS more.
Were I you, I'd put them on today.
Good luck and good hunting!
What do people expect for FREE? There's even adverstising on pay sites. Like WSJ.com. You have to PAY to read the articles, but there are still ads.
