When Google first launched AdSense, there was some
scepticism from publishers. As much as most people were blown away by the idea of ads that were targeted to the content of a Web page there was the question of whether users, used to banners and skyscrapers, would click on something that looked so different.
Boy, were those doubters wrong! AdSense has more than proved its worth to advertisers, users and publishers.
A similar sense of scepticism greeted Google's launch of AdLink units.
With nothing more than a list of links (which then lead to the ads), these
units contain even less information than a traditional AdSense unit. And the
user has to click twice before the publisher gets paid. That makes them
sound about as welcoming as a winter barbeque in Siberia.
It took a while for publishers to discover that actually AdLink units
weren't as bad as they looked, and that with a smart bit of positioning they
could actually take advantage of the way some pages are laid out. In fact,
for some designs, they were able to reach parts that other AdSense units
just couldn't reach!
And best of all, publishers quickly discovered that once someone clicked
on an AdLink unit, they would almost always click on the ad that followed.
That did their revenues the world of good and removed the two-click doubt.
The old AdLink units then were effective, but fairly limited. They were
great if you knew the one or two places on the page to use them but not so
good if you didn't. Recently though, Google has launched horizontal AdLink
units that have taken these ads into a whole new realm. Because they fit
neatly across a page they're useful for a much broader range of page designs
and are much more flexible. On the other hand though, they're now competing
for space directly with the traditional ad units, making it even harder for
publishers to figure out which ads to place where.
Is all this good news for publishers or bad news?
It's great news for savvy publishers who have more tools to maximize
their AdSense revenues (and know what to do with those tools) but it's bad
news for people who don't make the effort to learn how use AdSense - and now
have more ways to miss out.
For more Google AdSense tips, visit
http://www.adsense-secrets.com
Copyright © 2005 Joel Comm. All rights reserved
Joel Comm is Dr. AdSense, an Internet entrepreneur who
has been online for more than 20 years. Joel is co-creator of
ClassicGames.com, now known as Yahoo! Games and is the author of the web's
best-selling AdSense ebook, "Google AdSense Secrets (Or What Google Never
Told You About Making Money With Adsense)".
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