Do you think AdSense is overhyped? - had to correct the title From my experience so far with AdSense, if your website does not get 5,000-10,000 visitors/day, the AdSense ads can bring you maybe $1-4 maximum/day if you are in a niche that pays on average 10 cents a click. This means that with AdSense, most of us cannot even cover our hosting fees, especially if we host dynamic sites with larger databases. If we want more visitors, then we have to pay for AdWords, and that way it is a win-win situation for Google since they have a monopoly in the search engine market. Some friends that I know who have used AdSense longer than me (more than 3 years), have all switched to other ways of making money online since AdSense did not bring them much. On of them even has a website that gets around 10,000 visitors/day. He paid for AdWords in the beginning to promote his site and it did bring him traffic, but he lost more than he made. He now makes money by selling ads himself and affiliate marketing. I also believe that Google gives higher ranking to sites that pay for AdWords because most of the sites I see that are ranked in the top 10 for a specific keyword also spend anywhere from $50-$100/day on AdWords. There are tools online that you can use to check this. The best way to make money in this saturated market is to either sell some service that is in demand or sell products that are unique and not available yet in stores or cheaper than in your retail stores. What are your thoughts on this?
I have a testing game blog (as known that game niche is consider as low pay niche) which give me an average $0.20 per click. I get only 150 visitor per day and it provide me around $3 per day. I think the earning is good enough.
Yeah sometimes Adsense doesn't perform well in terms of money, but if you're getting enough traffic I suggest you experiment with ad placement as that might help boost CTR. If you still don't see results, then as you said, it might be better to sell ads directly or use your ad space more wisely (ie. advertise a hot product with decent commission etc.)..
I dont think Adsense is over. But I would definitely say the current time is not favorable for publishers with low traffic. In the recent months, for many of my sites - the CTR and CPC had drastically gone down. Even parking domains in Sedo gives a better earnings than Adsense!
I think it is over hyped, but I still love the program... it is just such a challenge! In my personal opinion, the big boys go for the affiliate commissions these days. If you go long tail, then you can find web users that are in a position where they're ready to commit to buy and generate you a nice commission... maybe £3.00, maybe £10.00... maybe even £30.00 at a time... depends what you're goin after! With Adsense you can direct a web user and pick up $0.01 for your efforts. Adsense is great, but I think you need other sources of income to balance things out, unless of course you suck up tens of thouands of daily uniques.
My guess is math probably isn't your cup of tea. I have a site that gets about 900 UV per day and makes arond $9 a day ($14 maximum). If the site did get 5000UV then it would probably pull around $35+ a day. Adsense is hyped a lot more than it really is, but does provide a sucessful revenue flow for people with the right amount of effort into their sites.
Selling unique things and service are the key to online business. But people still do search to find their preferred product and service. Having adsense embeded might not be the main reason to make you rich, but having them on page can give you a bit extra money.
Sometimes it depends on which niche you are in. But when it comes to the question on whether adsense or other monetization methods are more rewarding, that will of course depend on your marketing strategy. But I have to admit earning with adsense is no longer that rewarding anymore compared to previously.
Adsense is basically the only game in town really. They are the "Electric Company" of the Advertising world. Once you get banned from them, your lights are out for good. Be careful and use them wisely!
adsense in not over..in fact there are many new features adsense in adding..you see internet advertising will be here to stay..and internet is the future media of the planet..
Good earning from Adsense depends on Unique content, % of Unique visitors, Valid traffic source (search engine, direct entry, referring sites, locations) and site optimization.
I dont think it is over hyped at all. It all depends on what your niche is and how well your site is converting...
It is a very good program to join and earn money from any site in general. I believe it lives up to it's hype.