Have I failed?

Does making money from adsense mean I have failed?

I have been building a new site over the past week and my sister expressed an interest so I explained to her how adsense worked and said I was hoping to make some extra cash from people who clicked on the ads, she looked at he a little confused and then asked why I did not give people what they were looking for on my site?

Her point was that the only way for me to make money via adsense is not to give my visitors what they want.

So does being an adsense success make you a failure?

 

Depends on your goals. Make money or make visitors happy?

 

You could tell your sister that you are giving information. Of course, everyone know knowledge is power, and you are sharing the knowledge... Now, it's up to someone else to supply the hardware. Of course, I haven't seen your site, so I'm not sure if this is the case for you. I can't really go selling curtains or chairs, but I could give people tips on how to buy or WHAT to buy.

 

If making money is a failure, then its one kind I don't mind wallowing in

 

If you are writing articles on tractors, how can you give your readers tractors?

Is Time Magazine a failure because it is supported by ad readers? If those ads didn't convert, the advertizers would surely drop them, so it's not a horrible comparison.

I don't think darling sis thought that one out so well. Just because your readers want iPods, there is no expectation that you will be handing them out!

 

hahah .. see it like this, if you make a great tv serie you'll need advertising blocks to make profit. If the serie is great it aint a failure. So why would making a good website with some advertisment be a failure?

 

Even if you are selling a product (say widget), you may not be able to provide all the accessories to that widget. So, by advertising for those widget accessories, you're taking advantage of your users interest in the widget and giving them what they want even when you can't provide it yourself.

Am I rambling?

 

SKE11, what kind of site is it? Informational or sales-oriented?

 

I think I understand your question. Your girlfriend is wiser than you think.

On certain informational topic pages, you can leave your visitors a little bit hungry for more information on the topic, which will cause them to click on Adsense ads that relate to that topic. In other words, if your topic is "XYZ Widgets", explain about XYZ widgets but don't include links to places that sell XYZ widgets in your content. Hopefully, context-related ads will pop up for places that sell the widgets.

I use this technique successfully in a "glossary" section of my site. Each glossary article addresses a very specific topic and is only a couple of paragraphs. By keeping the article short and not attempting to say everything that could be said about the topic, I've left my visitors eager for more information, which creates ad clicks. CTR on these pages is very high.

Good luck.

 

Yup. Same shit I do

 

Websites like About.com which offer information for everything ranging from massages to fishing, also use Adsense... I don't think they would be considered as deficient information givers.

 

This is not quite the same thing for adsense. The failure according to the sis is leaving visitors hungry for more information. Is she a teacher? anyways, as long as there is an added value to the visitor from your site then I don't see it as a failure. But of course that depends on the subject of your site.

 

I also want to contribute though it's pretty the same what the others said here:
No site can the hell be giving visitors all information they want. no site owner can imagine what directions visitors want to take. see askthebuilder.com he's writing and helping his visitors in any ways by assisting in building or designing your own home. finally visitors might get interested in "how to build a toilet" and they want to buy the equipment. is the site now supposed to offer a store where ALL of that can be purchased? I mean he pretty assists in almost everything !! Thats just impossible lol. your sister, how does she earn money? im just curious!!

 

they've got a reputation to uphold as a wealth-of-info site.

 

With all respect to the thread starter, there is an error in the premise.

It assumes what the author of "Built to Last" called the tyranny of the "or."

In other words, it can only be one thing or the other, not both.

I see no reason why you can not have both interesting content and attractive revenue, from AdSense or any other source.

There will always be some organic point in time where an article is finished or a series of pictures reviewed or a product considered where the viewer says "finished, now what?"

Hopefully, with AdSense, they click and leave you a nice tip in the jar on the way out the door.

 

read the works of Foucalt for furth clarification of what this means, knowledge is power but it works through the discourse of the seduction of the self. Taken from the panoptican idea from Benthams prison system where humans are controlled consciously through themselves, through forms of surveillance.

 

LOL. I agree.

 

i also support both guys. i love money!

 

Your sister obviously brings up a good point. Really though, if people are click on your ads, then they're obviously interested in whatever they clicked. You're still giving the readers something that they want... sorta.

 

You guys are playing a nasty game