The Google Adsense Program is the most popular PPC ad network within the online marketing industry. As long as you own your own domain name, it’s fairly easy to get approved. And once you are approved, you don’t have to bother reapplying if you want to use it on additional sites.Many, many people are making money from Google Adsense, but if they’re using it as their only source of income they could be missing out on some serious money.
#1. It’s not the best way to monetize every type of website.
If your audience is looking to buy something, using Adsense is not the wisest idea. Why? Well, if they see your ads and click, you may be getting a few cents here and there, but you’re losing out on the real money. If you were using affiliate ads, you’d be able to earn commission from those clicks if they go on to buy. You don’t get money for every click that way, but you’d be making dollars per sale, not cents
Think about it, if you need to have at least thousands of unique monthly visitors for Adsense to start making you any type of money, you could potentially turn a portion of that traffic into affiliate sales rather than losing them to a few cents per click. That way you’d be making several dollars for each sale instead. With that type of traffic you could earn A LOT more money!
#2. You can be banned at any time, for no apparent reason.
Google has a habit of banning seemingly innocent people from their program and not giving a clear explanation as to why. It seems there are may, many unsuspecting victims getting this message from Google:
The email seems pretty vague, right? No mention of what type of “invalid account activity” and no mention on what websites the activity was suspected on. The likelihood of getting your account back once this happens is pretty slim, once they decide you’re gone, you’re probably gone for good.
But the truth is, it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been using the program or how much money you’ve previously earned, Google has the right to terminate anyone who they feel are in violation of their code of conduct. Being banned for things like clicking on your own ads is fair game, but even if you don’t knowingly violate any of their terms of service, you could still be just a moment away from getting an email informing you of your sweet departure.
The worst part of it all is you aren’t even entitled to your last paycheck. They give it back to the advertisers!
#3. You don’t have exact control over the ads it places on your site.
Basically it does its best to place the ads as it sees fit based on your content, however, you don’t really know what those ads are going to be. If it’s something you dislike or wouldn’t recommend to a friend, do you really want it being advertised on your personal website? Yes, you do have the power to block certain ad types and URLs, but there are so many advertisers it’s probably impossible (or at least not worth your time) to block everything you wouldn’t want appearing.
#4. Their ads are just, for lack of a better word — UGLY!
I can’t be the only one that thinks their ads look like crap? They should revamp their ad style, it’s kind of embarrassing.
#5. You don’t want to make it your only source of income online.
Adsense can be a great way to earn extra money, but I’d recommend not using it as your sole source of online income. Not only could you be using better programs that would earn you more money, but you wouldn’t want your entire income source to come crashing to a halt if they did decide to exclude you from the program.
If you do get banned, there are alternatives to Google Adsense such as Chitika, Kontera and Infolinks. You could even sell ad space on your own websites. That way you could charge what you wanted and get to control what was advertised (and they can’t ban you!)
Better yet, try incorporating affiliate programs. Join networks like Commission Junction, Linkshare and Amazon and promote their products instead. You’ll get higher commissions!
In conclusion…
Google Adsense is a good option for some types of websites, but definitely not all. For informational or entertainment type websites that aren’t selling any sort of product, Adsense (and alternatives) could be a good way to attempt to monetize the traffic. However if your niche has a buyers market, I’d recommend affiliating with companies and marketing their products instead. That way, you’ll receive a decent chunk of commission when someone buys a product. Plus you have control over what you’re marketing!
Do you have any personal experience with Google Adsense, if so was it good or bad? I’d like to hear about it! And as always if you have any additional questions, comments or concerns please leave a comment down below!
-Wendy
Not a fan of adsense. I set them up a little while ago and I`m still trying to get my money out. Frankly this is pretty shady of Google to set up. They only want to pay me directly to my bank account, not paypal like a normal person wants to be paid. Haven’t experienced getting kicked out yet but that only happens once anyways lol. thanks for all the info!
Actually I like the direct bank account deposit thing, but maybe that’s just me. I currently use Adsense and they do pay me every month, but it is by no means my only source of revenue online, so if they ever did give me the boot I wouldn’t care too much. Yeah exactly, it only happens once. A lot of people who got kicked out of the program were there for several years and hand earned tons of money!
hi…wendy. how r u. i want to know do google adsense work . can u help me plz. plz mail me [email protected]
I was actually kicked out of adsense and I am so grateful for it now. Though I know a lot of people like the idea of writing a blog about ‘whatever’, then monetizing it with adsense, you need A LOT of traffic to do that. Thousands of visitors per day. I much prefer affiliate marketing as a way to monetize a site. It requires a bit more ‘marketing’ to it, which not all people are comfortable doing, but I think it’s awesome. I can write about what I want MOST of the time, and then every once in a while find something that my audience could benefit from that I can promote.
Were you? Yeah it seems like everyone is getting kicked out now eventually! Do you know why or did you just receive that vague letter?
I do have another blog that receives only around 200 daily visits, that makes an average of 5 bucks per day with just Adsense, so while it doesn’t produce a significant amount of money, over the course of a month it adds up. However, I mainly use affiliate marketing for revenue generating and yeah it is much more profitable for sure. If I ever got kicked out of Adsense I wouldn’t sweat it.