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Jan

Does adding AdSense ads to your site make it look “cheap” ?

Filed Under (Blogging) by Mani Karthik on 27-01-2009

I was talking to a client lately, who suggested that I remove the AdSense ads from DSB.

It makes your site looks cheap – He said.

Hmm…That’s an interesting point.

In fact, DSB does not run on AdSense nor the revenues is any good to call it a credible, sustainable source of revenue. It’s around 3-5 hundreds a month, which I believe is negligible for the space it occupies and the highlight it receives.

But I’m not surprised. AdSense ads are meant to perform well for websites who have tailor made content, or so I believe. For everyone else who focus on quality writing, it’s probably a bonus.

And a lot depends on what domain you are in. Right ? If you are running a “MFA” then you got to keep AdSense units all over, but for a service/product related website, it might have to be cornered.

I think it’s taking too much of space on DSB, and is thinking about cornering it. It does give good referrals to interesting websites however. If it does not, I might completely take it away.

But what do you think ?

Is it un necessary or good enough just to be cornered ?

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Rohit

depends on your perception of cheap looks and more importantly how many bucks u make out of it. If Adsens is ur primary revenue source, you can’t really do much about it.

[Reply to this comment]
Rajasekharan N.

One ad is enough, two looks cheap, apart from the concern of loading time of pages.

[Reply to this comment]
Mani Karthik Replied:
Does it affect the loading time that bad ? Damn, should give it a thought then.

[Reply to this comment]
Ron Replied:
Adsense can and will slow down loading times. My ad units take a while to load and can be quite irritating. I firebugged my site and it came up with the same conclusion.

[Reply to this comment]
Mani Karthik Replied:
That’s interesting Ron.

SEO Tips South Africa Replied:
I got broadband and loading time isn’t really an issue for me, but one has to consider it as a negative, indeed.

[Reply to this comment]
Raju

if you ask me, 2 big rectangles for adsense in a single post may be a bit too much. Think about a big and a small one or probably a link unit which doesn’t intrude the reader’ space. Just my $0.02

[Reply to this comment]
Mani Karthik Replied:
I think it would still make the taste linger.

[Reply to this comment]
Viraj

I think adsense ads are just fine. You should just adjust n wrap them around text of your post. That should do it.

[Reply to this comment]
Dawn

MHO - 90% of the time adsense ads look cheesy. I have heard this from other seasoned IMers, and as net users “age” they learn to avoid them as most of us have the old style banner advertisements.

My biggest beef is when website owners try to stick google ads where normal menu’s would go, or disguised inside of content and you get taken off to a sales page. These sites NEVER get a return visit or a recommendation from me.

[Reply to this comment]
Ron Replied:
Are the in content ads that bad?

[Reply to this comment]
Mani Karthik Replied:
I completely agree Dawn. But these sites don’t look for “loyal” readers I guess. They focus on SE traffic and the “content searchers”, who are most likely to click on links.

[Reply to this comment]
Jennifer

Mani, Kudos for bringing out this topic. I really liked your title.

I have been struggling with this over the past one year that I have been using google ads. When you say 3-500 you’re talking rupees, I guess which is about $US10 because if that is dollars that’s super!

I have been getting anywhere from a few cents a day to up to US$30 a month, depending on the month. But I have always been curious- is it really worth it because google ads takes people off my page- not even opening into another window but completely away and out. Mostly for this reason I have taken down most adsense and am trying to sell ad spots on my blog. And, do I want to really chase pennies? Does it make sense for me to chase and rely on small amounts of money for the blog to be productive? This is an exercise in thinking also- if we have to chase money to be prosperous, are we really prosperous?

I agree also with aesthetics. Maybe because I know what google ads are (many websurfers may not if not tech savvy) if I see them plastered about an article, I either avoid or ignore them looking for the bloggers actual content or if it seems there are just too many ads - I choose one of two paths- forget the site altogether or subscribe and read their info through RSS feeds where I can appreciate the blogger’s talents and not adsense’s!

Again thanks for bringing up this topic and making me rethink it.

[Reply to this comment]
Mani Karthik Replied:
I’m talking dollars Jenni, but AdSense isn’t my main revenue stream, it’s sort of a bonus to me, nothing reliable there. It might come, it might not. I better don’t care about it.

But it’s true that for many bloggers, it’s the main source of income. Ironically it isn’t high paying either. If one is bothered about the reputation of your blog, you don’t want to keep it. After all its pennies.

And you re right about the “Ad blindness” phenomenon. Webmasters/SEO/Earn money online niches don’t really work wll because the audience is aware of what this thing is and they would want to avoid it.

So I assume it all depends on what domain you are in, if you are in a niche which has the non tech savvy readers, then you might want to keep it and leverage on it. And it’s working well for some blogs too.

As for me, it’s taking too much space, I might consider cornering it away from the content, considering that it does give some interesting website leads.

Thanks for the input.

[Reply to this comment]
SEO Tips South Africa Replied:
$300 - $500 per month is still a tidy sum if you look at it over a year. Will you stand to gain more by not having the ads, or by having them, that is the question, I suppose.

[Reply to this comment]
Niyaz

Recently I removed the ads from my blog for this same reason. Ads in blogs do not do any good.

For a high profile blog like this it will be better to remove the adsense ads.

[Reply to this comment]
SimplyMalayalee

AD-Sense advertisements on my site makes it look cheap and worth for advertisers

[Reply to this comment]
SimplyMalayalee

But was Shocked 2 see LK Advani ads on my site from Adsense this morning. BJP site?

http://tinyurl.com/9cum6p

[Reply to this comment]
Mani Karthik Replied:
Yea Agni, They are running a campaign on Google starting Jan. The copy is “interesting” too.

[Reply to this comment]
Maneesh J Replied:
yeah in my site too i saw such ads recently…………..i think they are targeting indian youths………..and i visited the site directly because url was visible in large letters in the ad……i guess it was lkadvani.in .And found Mr. L.K Advani’s blog also and found many people commented there……….drawing inspiration from obama campaign our leaders are using internet for campaign………………i also heard on asianet news that some left youths have started a website supporting pinarayi after he was charge sheeted in lavalin scam…………..don’t remember that url………

[Reply to this comment]
Maneesh J

Thanks mani for bring up this topic……i am placing the maximum allowable google ads i can in my page ……bcos they are the highest paying network…………but it has surely made my pages look cheap and draws away visitors…..i have not encountered a better performing and rewarding affiliate or ad network…….Also people having sites with 1000 to 2000 unique visits may not find any buyers if i am planning to sell adspots directly?………..are there any better options available for me?////////i have tried komli, tyroo etc…..THe best ones that worked for me are google adsense and DGM India

[Reply to this comment]
SEO Tips South Africa

One quickly gets used to adsense ads, and I must be honest and say that my subconscious actually “glosses them over” and I pretty much ignore them. The more regular / experienced internet users I converse with generally have the same observation…..

[Reply to this comment]
Are your Ad units making your site look bad? by Ron Del Rosario

[...] Adsense and other ad units can make your beautifully crafted site look awkward and even cheap. But you can’t remove your ad units entirely to make way for your designs, especially if your [...]
Arun Basil Lal

I think the Top rectangle ad should be replaced by a 468×60 banner. WOw, your homepage is lot better now.

Plan B: Remove the ads above the post to the sidebar. I dont have a single ad above the post, but the sidebar next to the title has some ads and they work well for me..

Cheers
Arun

[Reply to this comment]