Adsense or No Adsense. That is the question

In the world of web 2.0, Google AdSense seems to be the rule all of advertising based web sites. In fact, many web sites rely on AdSense and/or some other form of contextual advertising as their sole form of income. This is especially true in the world of social networking where sites like Myspace and Facebook rely on contextual advertising to turn a profit.  However,  in recent years many ad networks have been pushing ads for malware. Even though Google Adsense, Adbrite, and other advertising networks do their very best job to fight such behavior, it still leaves some internet users very shy of the contextual advertising model.

Everyone knows that bloggers around the world rely on competing for the “Slashdot Effect” to drive as much traffic to their web site as they can. This is done in order to serve ads to as many potential visitors as possible. The question is though, should you Adsense or not Adsense? These same principles apply to Adbrite, Clicksor, Bidvertiser, and any other contextual advertising service.

The decision to monetize your site in this way depends on your niche, your audience, and highly on your site design.  This is not a decision that should be taken lightly however because the success or failure of your website or blog could depend on this very crucial decision. Your audience is the single most important factor to decide if you wish to go this route. AdSense and other forms of advertising do not fare very well against the security minded, and the extremely computer savvy minority of the web. If you are targeting that market, your AdSense or ad campaign could suffer.

Also, the emergence of the Ad Block Plus extension for Mozilla FireFox users blocks almost all ads all together. This means your visitors who use Firefox With this extension will never see your advertisements anyways. This is a huge blow to the contextual advertising market, and could spell disaster in the future as this add-on and FireFox become even more popular.  Some estimates say 8.5 million people are using the Ad Block Plus Extension. I figure that number will grow in coming years.

As you may or may not have noticed, I have no AdSense or any type of advertising on this site. My reason?  I just didn’t feel it would be the correct way to monetize this site. I figure in the years ahead, the contextual advertising market will begin to dwindle somewhat. As more and more people begin blocking ads, adding entries to their hosts file, and just all together refusing to click ads. I feel this will take its toll on the community.

In my humble opinion, the future way to monetize a web site, which I will do at some point, is through affiliate programs and selling your own advertise space on your web site. I personally believe selling spots on your high ranking web site would be a much better option. you can decide how much that space is worth, and you can negotiate directly with the party who wants to advertise or put a banner on your site.

I feel affiliate marketing would be the way to go over contextual advertising because programs like amazon Affiliates, and others who pay you a commission on products bought though your link will most likely bring in a better Return on Investment over the long term. when thinking about this, 10 clicks on a ad may garner you 6.00, on the other hand 1 click and purchase from an amazon Affiliate link, depending on the product, may net you 15 bucks, or even more. so in essence you actually made more money from 1 click then 10.

I am not against Google AdSense, or any other advertising strategy. There are some niche web sites that Google AdSense or whatever ad service you choose is the best option. This is due to the niche you are in, and your target audience would allow you to benefit most from it.

The bottom line is to weigh your options carefully, look at your competitors, and see what they are doing. See what you can do better, and then adjust your strategy from there.

Good luck to you in your future endeavors.