Google AdSense makes you look unprofessional
Just how much do you value your own appearance? Would you give up on making a great first impression for a few extra dollars a month? AdSense can be lucrative for some, but at what cost to your business?
When I began blogging, I experimented with Google’s AdSense. It was my first foray into the world of onine advertising and I thought, “Hey, this has some potential.” However, it didn’t take long before I removed the ad blocks from my blog due to their less-than-complimentary appearance. Of course, the fact that I wasn’t making much money contributed to the decision, but more than that, and as a graphic designer, I don’t like adding things to my site that I don’t have control over.
Was my decision to remove AdSense detrimental to my overall blogging aims?
Not one bit.
I was prompted to write this article after reading a guest post on ProBlogger.net by Chad Randall, titled 10 ways to make your blog more attractive to advertisers. Chad has been working in the online advertising industry for around six years now, and has sold more than $5,000,000 in online ads. You’d think he’d know what he’s talking about, wouldn’t you?
Two of Chad’s 10 points that I found most interesting were:
Don’t use Google AdSense on your site
Chad writes:
OK, this could be the most painful one for most people, especially if you are generating a few hundred bucks a month from it already. But Google ad sense devalues your site and makes it look unprofessional. You have to ask yourself, “Do I want some real revenue from my site or Google’s table scraps.”
Have an ‘Advertise with Us’ banner on your site
This is the single most important issue. It should click to an Advertising information page and have an easy way to contact you for more information and rates. Key points: Make it a graphical image or a tab. Keep it above the fold.
Now, I’ve been mentioning lately about making money online. Not plastering my blog with every ad or affiliate scheme under the sun, but placing a few targetted, relevant ads in prominent positions. Ads that don’t cheapen my blog’s appearance, but ones that are actually useful for you.
Chad’s article came at a time when I was looking for it. For that I’m grateful.
However, it’s not all that ‘cut and dry’. The comments on Chad’s guest post make interesting reading too.
Cue Dave Taylor, author of the successful AskDaveTaylor.com. Dave had this to say about Chad’s stance on Google AdSense:
Chad, I find it hard to understand why you, the ad director of b5media (of which Darren is a member), are saying that AdSense makes a blog “unprofessional”. My take is quite the opposite, and that if anything, an AdSense block is like anything else you add to a page (like, say, a widget or banner ad): you can use it for good or evil. If you have an ugly design or try to trick people into thinking it’s part of your navigational scheme, well that’s obviously bad. But that doesn’t make AdSense itself bad.
Frankly, for you to blanket criticize AdSense without explicitly saying that you make your money by competing with Google for blog advertising space is a bit like the pot calling the proverbial kettle black.
Oh, and finally, some of us bloggers make more than “table scraps” with AdSense. In fact, I know of many bloggers and website entrepreneurs that are making a quite comfortable living working closely with Google.
Of course AdSense can be beneficial. Dave Taylor is an excellent example of this. In saying that, and speaking as a graphic designer, I’d personally overhaul Dave’s site design, possibly shooting myself in the foot at the same time.
From a design point of view, I still don’t like the aesthetics of AdSense blocks. I side more with Chad than Dave on this one.
What is unfortunately contradicting about Chad’s point of view, is his follow-up comment where he, Director of Sales for b5media, mentions:
Yes, b5media does still run AdSense.
Hmmmm. So I followed on through the comments, where Chad draws readers to his own blog to carry on the conversation. You can read his post there by clicking on his blog banner below:
Interesting how the article is titled, ‘Why I hate Google AdSense‘. Spot the AdSense anywhere?
Thanks for initiating the debate, Chad. I enjoy it when another post prompts me to respond.
What’s your take on using Google AdSense?
Related posts on David Airey dot com
33 appreciated comments on “Google AdSense makes you look unprofessional”
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I’ve been thinking of taking Google AdSense off my blog, and I probably should…it just makes things unclean. At the same time though a part of me is saying, “But, I want money.” Money that isn’t coming of course though… I’ve had two clicks in the last week. Then again my blog is fairly new and not many know about it. It’s a tough call, but I think I’ll end up removing mine :(.
Great post too by the way! I’ll have to start reading over the articles you’ve posted. Great advice :).
Nice writeup, and I have to ask what you’d change in the design of my site. I have to say, though, that just as TV scriptwriters just live with the inexorability of ad breaks every 8-11 minutes when plotting their stories, so do bloggers who seek to make some meaningful revenue need to factor good ad placement into their design. It’s when you sloppily graft advertising onto an existing designer blog that I think your results don’t match your hopes. :-)
I am by no means generating “good money” from my blog (still very new and probably not very revolutionary at all) but even I just took one of the adsense bars off and it just makes your content less cluttered. Image banners seem to be less distracting than text ads, especially if the text blends in too well with your other content. I could see why having less ads would make your blog more attractive to users.
However, if you’re making “hundreds” a day with your current ad setup… I wouldn’t touch a thing. But thats just poor old me. Good article!
I do a lot of work for independent professionals to help develop their blogs, and I never allow advocate putting ads on their site. For people who are trying to earn respect and a reputation as a business expert, I feel that adding Google Adsense makes them look unsuccessful. Blog hosting doesn’t cost very much per month, and if a consultant has ads, it looks like they are trying to subsidize their website costs because they don’t make enough from their consulting to pay for the website.
Of course, there are bloggers who make their living from ads, and I think that is fine. However, I think ads ruin a blog that is designed to promote the professionalism of a business expert or consultant.
I’m inclined to think that it’s more about the site than the Google advertising.
I think ProBlogger, for one, pulls it off while still looking professional. While I generally think that Adsense detracts from a site, if it’s done well the publisher can still make money without losing credibility.
Yaro Starak (Entrepreneur’s Journey) doesn’t have Adsense on his site. I wonder if that’s the reason why.
I don’t have Google Adsense on my site because Google doesn’t support Thai language yet. I think it depends on the design of the website and the relevant between the advertising and information on the web.
Some advertise are useful for me. If it’s about what am I looking for. :)
Dinner, I think you’re right to remove the AdSense from your blog. It currently looks out of alignment with the rest of your content, and I feel it detracts from what you’re writing about.
Dave, thanks for stopping by. There are a number of changes I’d make to your AskDaveTaylor.com website. I’ll send you an email so as not to go too far off topic here.
Dan, I think image banners can be so much more fitting with your site. They can be self-designed to match your exact design-style and not detract from your site’s cleanliness. As Chad mentioned, if you’re making a lot of money through AdSense it could be very painful to remove that source of income.
Katie, I agree with you there. It all comes down to the goals you have set for your blog / website. If you wish to generate a professional image to advertise a service you offer then I believe it’s harmful to promote third parties with poorly designed ads.
Take one of my blogging goals for instance. I want to promote my graphic design skills and raise awareness of design that works. It would be contradicting of me to clutter my site with AdSense. Of course that’s only one perspective.
Mat, the ProBlogger.net case is a contentious one for me. No doubt Darren makes a nice income from it, otherwise I doubt the ad blocks would still be running. However, I do feel that they detract from his site design, cheapening it somewhat.
For me, it depends on the purpose of my blog and my audience. My audience on my professional blog is going to be other designers and bloggers, who tend to be rather ad blind, especially to Adsense. I think affiliate ads are more appropriate there, but I wouldn’t want to load it up, because the purpose is to grow MY business there, not someone else’s. However, I have two sites (freestuff4kids.net for example) where the purpose was to monetize from the beginning and the audience is certainly not ad blind and in fact, might see them as positive if the ads are relevant. Good article David.
[...] Times story from January 2006 that claims Google pays out 78.5% of AdSense revenue to publishers. David Airey weighs in on Chad’s claim AdSense makes your site look [...]
I’m not a big fan of unnecessary ads on sites, and get particularly irked by new blogs that crop up where the emphasis is clearly on shoving adsense down my throat before giving me any content.
I completely agree with Katies comments above. If a ‘pro-blogger’ wants to try and make a living full time through running a series of quality blogs paid for by advertising, then good for them.
But people who are running blogs mainly to raise awareness of their other activities should think long and hard before going down the ads road. The increase in business should surely be enough reward?
I put it on mine to fill a space really – think it looks alright. i guess i’m not a business though!
Aaron, an upturn in business is definitely worth more than including AdSense for me. Other website authors, with different goals, will disagree with that, but for me it’s what’s important.
Pinksy, good to have you stop by once more. Your blog is one of the few where an effort has been made to integrate AdSense into the existing design. However, I wonder why you label the column with ‘Adverts’ as the heading. If you think the third party services are beneficial to your readers then why not label it as such?
The fact that you write for personal reasons makes a difference too, as you rightly point out.
Yes for me the appearance of the site is important and sometime adsense is way out with the design. Thanks for the idea. also thanks you for visiting my site. More power to you too!
Great Article. I was debating in my mind about this the other day. I would have to agree with Chad about this too, while I have seen some blogs with AdSense that looks good, the majority of them don’t.
I have also heard that your income from AdSense is nothing compared to what you could be making from a direct advertisement, do you think this is true?
I think Chad could just be going for the old stir up controversy and get people to visit your blog trick here, and fair play to him.
I’ve pretty much done away with Google ads for now, as they made me nothing, despite a relatively healthy number of impressions.
I think they work best on a site with massively high traffic, and less web savvy visitors. I simply don’t see adsense blocks as I use an ad-blocker, and given that 85% of my visitors use FireFox, I’d say most of them do too.
Text Link ads made me much more, and paid posts (although obviously no suitable for all) 100 times more than adsense.
Horses for courses?
What never fails to amuse me is the people who have ads on their blogs… who then write about how much money they make from the people reading their blog! Nothing makes me want to click on an ad more than being reminded that the blogger is only encouraging me so that they make more money! Or not.
Excessive ad placement, regardless of the source, is going to make any site look unprofessional. I’m not entirely convinced that Adsense itself makes a site unprofessional.
That said, there are issues with Adsense itself. The big one, in my mind, is the issue caused by Adsense being unable to find an appropriate ad for the page in question. The result is a PSA for the first unit and NOTHING for subsequent ones. It’s too bad that Adsense doesn’t permit “suggested” ads like Yahoo does. This would eliminate this layout flaw.
E Akino, it was my pleasure visiting your site.
James, as to your question about direct advertisement yielding a higher return, I think you’re right. You can’t say for sure with Google not disclosing the percentage they give to those using AdSense.
Chris, it certainly seems like Chad writes to stir up some blog visits. He got me to check his blog out. the fact that most gives it away is how he uses AdSense himself, on his personal blog.
Katie, Robert, thanks for your opinions. Robert, you bring up an interesting flaw with AdSense. That certainly isn’t doing anyone any good.
I see two real questions when it comes to ads on a blog. First, what type of site are you running? Is it a site meant to promote or compliment a business you’re running? If that is the case, then I agree ads look unprofessional. If you’re site is a personal hobby then ads do not look unprofessional as the site itself has no “professional” purpose. The next question about ads has to do with whether they get in the way of the overall content and purpose of the site. Well placed ads will not distract and can, if done well, cover your monthly hosting fee. I understand that hosting these days is very affordable, but why pay for something that could be covered through simple ad revenue. I paid $114 for one year of hosting. If I make that by Jan 2008, then the ads were well it. All that being said, I think the real point your making is whether Google Adsense is the “best” advertising option. That’s a whole different question. I’ll say that Google Adsense is probably the easiest — but the best? Probably not.
[...] thanks to you all for the previous posts’ thought-provoking comments: Dinner, Dave Taylor, Dan, Katie Konrath, Mat, Jennessa, Randa [...]
[...] Is adsense unprofessional? [...]
Problem is we all have our own obsessions or points of view.
As an author, I find it’s all too easy to get far too closely involved in the words. My wife took one look at one of my sites, ignored the beautiful phrases and immediately criticized me all over the place about the appearance of the blog. Sadly, I’m sure she was right and I must change that template.
Again, I’m pretty blind to adsense but I quickly had to stay her hand as she moved the mouse in the direction of the ads on my site using my computer (close one!).
I guess it’s important to get other people’s opinions on site layout to blunt the effect of one’s own prejudices.
But, I’m still only really interested in the words.
Rob Hopcott (online author)
I don’t know if this point has been made yet, but I think adsense is very niche dependent. If your niche area is geared more to technical users than I don’t think adsense makes a lot of sense. Your more technical users are going to using Firefox and adblockers to remove adsense ads – even if they’re using IE with full ads, they’re probably going to be savvy enough to know that what they’re looking for isn’t going to be found by clicking on an ad – and they’re definitely not going to be “tricked” into clicking on a blended ad inserted in your text. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use adsense, but you have to know your audience.
my .02 – Mike
Bret, Rob, Mike, thanks for your personal insights on this.
Having read all the comments I think most of us agree that using AdSense depends on the audience you’re writing for, but at the end of the day it still takes away from the design of your site / blog.
The Sloof Lirpa Center just put out a (funny) warning about vulnerabilities in Google’s AdSense code. Seems to speak to the thread in this post.
http://www.slooflirpacenter.com
You can sign up for a beta invitation to ContextWeb’s new ad exchange, too. Top advertisers are within are network giving the professional look web publishers seek from their online advertising.
I took Adsense off my blog recently and almost immediately after, I sold 4 private advertising spots. I agree, for new blogs, Adsense is a big no-no and highly detracts from the quality of the blog. One has to ask themselves, is it really worth the few extra bucks a week?
i’ve disliked ads – those sloppy horizontal or vertical bannered ads scattered all over a site waaay before adsense came…
people hated it that time too since they where not directly earning from it…
I dislike ads on websites too, phd, although providing they don’t distract from the content, and tie in with the site design, then it’s fine by me.
I show some ads up top in the ‘featured sites’ section, but keep it consistent with my layout. It helps with costs.
I concur with Bret on this one. I make enough on adsense to almost cover my hosting and domain name renewal. I use a single block of adsense. My pet hate is the adsense blocks preceding the content, or randomly spawning throughout a single post.
However, If I could replace the adsense bock on my site with a single advertiser/sponsor, then I would.
I think that too much ads will make any site unprofessional. Although it is true that most of us earn our profit through Internet advertising, too many ads will turn off some customers and visitors.
[...] reading David Dairey’s post about Adsense, I decided to relegate it to the third column, and move it way down; I intend to do away with it [...]
You’ve been dugg.
here is one good FLAW to their FRAUD SYSTEM..
WHAT IF SOMEONE in another part of the world HAD KEPT ON CLICKING THE GOOGLE AD on someone’s website. Whatever the reason is its not the owners fault but due to google’s monopoly..they will tag it as invalid CLICK and ultimately lock your account and not pay you for it
ISNT THAT A GREY AREA GOOGLE IS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF!!! DAMN!