Does AdSense make sense?

[Mr. Doug]

I've been self-funding my site for over a ear now. I've built the community to almost 2,500 members that pull over 1,000,000 SMF page views a month.

http://www.cameroncollector.com/forum/

I've been CONTEMPLATING putting a few ads on the site...just to supplement my income. I always liked not having ads on it, but if the money is right...

To those of you that have done this: what kind of money can I expect, off of what kind of ad? I can do banners, skyscrapers, ect...just need to know what kind of return I'm going to see...and if it's worth it or not.

Thoughts???

[xxangel]

If your website has that high stats, you can sell ads for maybe $50-$100 a month (like, a banner rotation or two ads). I haven't done this before, so I don't know where you would go to sell ads though.

You can also sell text links for less, perhaps around $14 or so for a month.

[Remaker]

From what I know and heard, Adsense doesn't work so well on forums... as forumers tend not to click ads on forums. It's a known fact.

And so you know, it's actually against the google adsense tos, for a publisher to reveal how much he/she earns...

[Ben_S]

And so you know, it's actually against the google adsense tos, for a publisher to reveal how much he/she earns...

That was changed ages ago.

[Harro]

But still not allowed to share your CTR I believe.
And adsense doesn't make much money on a forum.
But you can't know for sure if you don't try it.
Just make sure you blend your ads in the site, so they don't realy look like ads anymore.

[Mr. Doug]

Great info guys...thanks a lot.

I'm also going to be expanding to a few more sites that have more 'traditional' content, so it won't be 100% Forums.

[Niteblade]

You can install the smflinks mod. Then people can pay you to have their sites listed on it.

As far as adsense goes, you need to install the headers and footers mod. Place your adsense material in there. If it gets annoying, then all you need to do is edit your smfheaders.php file or your smffooters.php file to change the code (or remove it)... no uninstalled mods = not potential downtime for your site.

Moreover, adbrite is a potential option. Likewise, the adbrite code can do inside of the header or footer.

If I were you, I'd be upfront with my members -- letting them know why you're installing ads, and even create a place on the forum where people can complain or make site suggestions regarding ad placement. If you involve your community in this, you're more likely to see better feedback results. And if you've created a solid community based upon solid content (you have) then the ads won't drive away your loyal posters.

[Gary]

As far as adsense goes, you need to install the headers and footers mod. Place your adsense material in there.

Could always just place the adsense code in index.template.php itself.

-AwwLilMaggie

[Juvenall Wilson]

In generaly, I think AdSense is now a waste of time. The shear size of the service has reduced your earnings per click dramatically. On a site that, until recently, was running AdSense ads for 3 years, I saw my monthly earnings drop from an average of $200+ a month to $20-50 with roughly the same click through rates. So I ditched it for the Yahoo Publisher Network and my earnings a even better then they ever were with AdSense. Mind you, I'm sure that program will also become too big to be useful. I believe it's just a flaw with this method of advertising.

As far as placement on forums, contextual ads will always bring better click through results then standard ads. That's simply because each thread's ads have the potential to be relevant to the topic. The trick, however, is placing the ads in a "hotspot". That is, somewhere that the user isn't likely to block them out due to "banner blindness". Putting ads in the header, footer or sidebar of a site will give you the worst results. Mixing them in with the actual page content, however, results in better exposure and if you have a loyal community, many will click simply out of support. On forums I run, I put an ad right after the first post of every thread with over 5 replies (among other spots). This tends to generate the highest return. I've actually been planning on releasing a mod for this just as soon as 1.1 goes gold.

[Assistance]

On forums I run, I put an ad right after the first post of every thread with over 5 replies (among other spots). This tends to generate the highest return. I've actually been planning on releasing a mod for this just as soon as 1.1 goes gold

there already is a mod released with the ability to do that.

[Isaac]

On forums I run, I put an ad right after the first post of every thread with over 5 replies (among other spots). This tends to generate the highest return. I've actually been planning on releasing a mod for this just as soon as 1.1 goes gold

there already is a mod released with the ability to do that.

That mod only places the ads after the first post in the thread.

[Assistance]

blah, i am not gonna explain someone elses mod when you dont want to read the description that goes with it.

[Niteblade]

with ad placement, there must be a balance between function -- you want people to click on them -- and annoyance. plus, google limits the number of advertisement displayed per page to 3.

perhaps stacking 3 vertical banners inside a tiny portal left or right block would be better than a header and footer banner? maybe or maybe not. perhaps simply tweaking the colors of the ads already in use would do something positive (or negative).. if the ads blend in too well, people will over look them, but if they glare out then people will be annoyed.

however, i would recommend taking a cue from already successful sites such as digital point.

maybe it would be useful for people to post links to their sites where they have a nice CTR on their banners ... to give the rest of us ideas.

[~kev~]

I had a few topics on my forum that google said violated the agreement.  So I removed the google banners.  I have heard of peoples accounts getting banned when it was time for google to pay.  By the way, they sent me that email, about the topic that broke the agreement, after I reached my 100 dollar limit, and it was time to pay.

[Gary]

Yeah, I've seen that happen to other people. When its time to pay up they browse your forum find the smallest thing that violates the license then ban you for it so that they dont have to pay you.

One forum I know managed to get it sorted by getting its members to sign a patition and then get that sent to Google.

[Niteblade]

Is it possible to shoot them an email asking them to look over the site before they pay up?

[Toadmund]

Does anyone know something as good as adsense? (what about Yahoo?) I'd like to put some ads on my website, but I don't want some big company influencing my content, in effect it's corporate control in a (ad)sense.
I'd like to write what I want, and I want my guests to be able to post what they want (within reason), I just want that freedom, freedom to express themselves in foul language, to be able to talk about smokin'  doobies, whatever. Perhaps the way to go is to look for companies that have products that suit your website, and run their banner instead.
Why do the most powerful of entities always want to be the moral authority?

What next 'Cops', by Google, doing a Search in your neigborhood now, helping old ladies cross streets, putting duct tape on foul mouths, making sure your grass is no more than 7.6cm's (3 inches) tall.

Any opinions on alternatives, that anyone actually has experience with?

[Assistance]

Perhaps the way to go is to look for companies that have products that suit your website, and run their banner instead.

is the best way to go, companys love to shell out money for advertising

[Dirtrocker]

Perhaps the way to go is to look for companies that have products that suit your website, and run their banner instead.

Yep totally agree.

but I don't want some big company influencing my content, in effect it's corporate control in a (ad)sense.

Why should they be able to?
I have a few corporate banner ads on my site and they have absolutely no control over any of the content on our site. If they try and dictate to you what you put on your site, dump their ad. Plain and simple.

As was stated, the best way to handle ads on your site is to deal with companies that sell products that revolve around the content of your site.
If you have a gardening website and forum, then hit up the places that sell gardening supplies. Make them pay you commission on sales.
Click thru ads are a waste of time and space. Most don't pay well enough to even deal with. Or their TOS for making anything off of them is so messed up that you jump through hoops to make a dime. We had one banner ad that it took a year for it to make enough for them to finally send a check.

Personally, I wouldn't put any search engine ads on our site.
Good luck.

[Toadmund]

How does one go about finding banner ads, does one go and find individual websites, or does one go to a banner farm?
If one has a site that has content that may sell books, doesn't Amazon sell books that way, like google ads, or by sales commission.
I must look up that info.

[Dirtrocker]

Amazon sells by commission.
If you guide folks to the books that are relavent to what your site is, you can actually do fairly good.

Also, companies that you deal with in your website. Are their any book companies that you deal with or would like to deal with? If so, email them.

Affiliate ads are one way you could go, but their yeild is hardly worth the effort. We have a banner rotation system on our sites that changes the banner every time someone calls up the page.

Since we have an automotive website, most of our banners are automotive related. Some pay a monthly fee, some pay comission on the products that are sold from click throughs to their site.

[Toadmund]

some pay comission on the products that are sold from click throughs to their site.

I assume a lot of them work on the honour system, I mean how would you know they made a sale unless they were completely honest?
I suppose if they want there ad up, it better produce i guess.

Anyway, I found a site that affiliates their own banner, I have bought from them before as well. And I can now introduce related content that google would frown on since I would not be using google adsense. See, I am interested in 'altered states of mind' so why should I leave that stuff off my website and/or forum in order to have my site pay for itself and to have beer money to boot.
That's all I care for, freedom of content, a self supporting website, and beer money.
Not a lot to ask for

[tonilah]

well, how bout this?

Using the RSS Injector mod, i've created several news bots that post RSS feeds as post.  In addition to creating great content for my forum, I place relevant affiliate  links in their signatures.  So if the bot's posting recipe rss posts, I have Amazon cookbook link or two in the signature.

just an idea...I've yet to rate the sucess of the idea, since my sites' fairly new

[Toadmund]

I've managed to join two affililiate programs for banner ads, (not the affliliate farms that want their cut).
I joined the direct affiliate sort of deal where you google for something that is relavent to your site contents (some company with a product that supplies a banner, no middleman)

You just tell them where you want your check mailed, post the link url on your site and your in business!

If only I knew how to put ads on my helios_multi theme forum? (my ads are on my main website)

[DenDen60]

I've managed to join two affililiate programs for banner ads, (

Which one?