Forum Moderators: martinibuster
BUT: is it allowed to explain on the site that your web site is free and that you appreciate that they CAN visit your sponsors if someone has interests in their service. Same like people do it in real life /events/ when they say "This store is our sponsor, make sure you visit them...".
I hope you understand; I don't want to ask someone to click if he is not interested, I would just like to tell my 2000+ users that if they need something (hosting for example), they should first look at our sponsors offers, then look further. Because yes, this website is free and to keep it free, they should shop at the site sponsors.
I appreciate your opinion...
Think if it this way: if you tell your users that there ARE sponsors on your site then most of them might go out of their way to make sure that they don't click on any of your sponsors.
The whole point of having contextual advertising on a website is that it's relevent and fits into the rest of your website, right alongside the content. The reason why Adsense works so well is because people don't realize that they're clicking on an advertisement. Banner ads perform so horribly now because everyone knows that they're advertisements and they don't click on them--they actually tune them out!
So, do yourself a favor and don't say anything about your sponsors or your ads on your website. Rather, blend your advertisements (and Adsense) into your site so that people don't think of them as ads--your click-thru ratio will thank you (you will get a higher CTR)!
</rant>
[edited by: bhartzer at 8:24 pm (utc) on Feb. 25, 2005]
It doesn't imply that the advertisers behind the links sponsor the site
It implies that they sponsor the page to me. I'm sure there are many people out there who think the same thing. Or maybe I'm just clueless.
"Sponsored Links"It doesn't imply that the advertisers behind the links sponsor the site.It implies that they sponsor the page to me. I'm sure there are many people out there who think the same thing. Or maybe I'm just clueless.
A lot of people think that, which is why it works so well. The actual meaning behind it is:
"Sponsors' Links" = "These links belong to the people who sponsor this page."
"Sponsored Links" = "These links are sponsored, meaning that people pay to put them on the page."
You could argue that a sponsor does exactly the same thing that an AdWords advertiser does--pays money for referrals from your page--but the intent is different. A sponsor agrees to advertise on your page, and has seen the page and agreed to its content. Their presence on your page implies a certain amount of approval of your page. An AdWords advertiser has agreed to advertise on any page that has the right keywords, though they would probably prefer more control over the process, and they may not even realize that their ads are on your page if they're not getting any clickthroughs from you.
"Sponsored Links" is another meaningless phrase from Google
Google didn't invent the term; it's been around for years.
Advertisers are the ones footing the bill for the whole program, and Google goes to great lengths to protect them from webmasters begging for clicks.
now i want to do a site with adsense info :))))))))
Friday, that is my idea! you need to pay me royalties if you do it... :)
Also, I am not sure if it is appropriate to call some site "free", if you are running ads there. I personally consider that a slight form of cheating - I do not consider it free, if there are ads. I wonder why you just can't do what others are doing: writing articles and put adsense on them, without useless whinings like "we are free" or "look we have sponsors..".
