[Cheesehead]

Adsense is now making the majority of my income. I view this as psuedo-diversification since I have a wide variety of pages and sites. If adsense were no longer, I would be up the creek however (right now). Have tried other similar services (tried 3 or 4 last winter) but they don't hold a candle.

Waiting for yahoo. Not to switch but rather to have something to switch to if need be.

[infoTim]

I have been focusing a lot on Adsense lately too, growing my AS revenue 2-3x month-to-month and putting time into traffic-building and content. Partly because the whole Linkshare fiasco demolished my motivation level for regular affiliate work. I will probably get things back on track there but in the meantime AS has given me something new to focus on.

Having a Yahoo alternative would be good for comparison/fallback.

[Jane]

Since most people are using Google as a search engine, I think switching to Yahoo ads may be a good thing. It will get more people to another engine, let them know there is more to life than Google. If not switching at least running ads from both engines to see how they compare.

[Donuts]

I use AdSense, but not heavily. Is it impervious to parasitic theft?

I'm always researching sales commissions theft - my bread and butter... saw the "Adsense = Diversification?" - beginning to think I should diversify into AdSense as a way to shelter some of my business from theft. Is that correct thinking - how you AdSense heavies view it also?

[MichaelColey]

It's impervious to most forms of parasitic theft. Of course you have things like Norton that completely block the ads and you could also have parasites that replace the ads with their own ads. But there's far less impact by parasites than you have with affiliate links.

On the other hand, I believe there's far less reward with AdSense than with affiliate programs when it comes to really targeted product- or shopping-oriented sites. I run AdSense on most of my sites, and it accounts for less than 5% of my income overall. On one site it may be closer to 25%, but that's more of a content site.

[Cheesehead]

Originally Posted by Donuts

I use AdSense, but not heavily. Is it impervious to parasitic theft?

I'm always researching sales commissions theft - my bread and butter... saw the "Adsense = Diversification?" - beginning to think I should diversify into AdSense as a way to shelter some of my business from theft. Is that correct thinking - how you AdSense heavies view it also?

I am fairly certain that adsense is, at this time, impervious to parasite theft. That is why it is about the most dependable source of income out there, for me at least anyway. It's a great way to get some additional income via content sites. A good static content site can take some time up front to develop, but once done, you put some adsense ads on and you pretty much leave it alone or continue to add to it to make it even more profitable. Some sales/lead sites on the other hand require a lot of maintenance just to stay even. A combination of sales and content is probably the most profitable.

[SSanf]

I wonder if I am losing a ton of sales because I have put adsense on my sales pages. Too much to offer as an option to clicking through to the merchant sites.

I am thinking of running very similar sites. One with adsense and one without and if Yahoo comes along, then one with Yahoo ads. Then, they would all have different "content" on the pages (along with my generated paragraphs which would be different for each).

I would just have to change the site navigation and appearance for each site, I guess, but I could use the same master feed for all.

[MichaelColey]

I don't think AdSense is much of a drain on affiliate earnings. On my shopping-oriented sites, I see anywhere from 30-75% of visitors click through on affiliate links and a considerably lower percent (which I can't disclose due to AdSense TOS) clicking on AdSense. The earnings per click varies, but is usually relatively similar (like half to double). So, clicks that get siphoned off to AdSense don't make a huge difference on total earnings. Also, I suspect that those who click on the AdSense links aren't as interested in what I'm offering (otherwise they would have stayed).

[Vinny O'Hare]

I agree with you Michael, 100%

[LearnAbout]

One of my sites is heavy on content but also has a designated shop area were I hawk related mechandise. The content pages are showing Adsense as well as the occasional affiliate link (mainly in the text). This is working well.

In the 'shop' section I used to have both product links and Adsense, and I got worried about loosing real commission $$ for 2ct Adsense clicks. Once I removed the Adsense from this section I only left my visitors with the products (or to just leave, of course) I saw a significant (but not huge) rise in conversions - significant as it was clearly more than the Adsense $$. In Michael's case the earnings are similar, in my they were clearly not.

I guess there is no one-size-fits-all wrt Adsense and a lot depends on the individual site, which means again trial and error...

Frank

[Snib]

I'm looking forward to the Yahoo program because Google just isn't compatible with certain types of sites. For example, Google won't let you run Adwords for gambling or alcohol related websites. This really limits the amount of AdSense income one could make with such a site. I know Yahoo is much more lenient about this and should do much better on a site that Google deems inappropriate. I've tried AdSonar but their interface is way too clunky and the ads just don't look right at all. I couldn't even generate a color scheme without a bunch of javascript errors. Let's hope Yahoo does it right!

- Scott

[Trust]

I'd watch out for Yahoo. They're not too friendly to affiliate sites brought to their attention. If you have a real content site, might be worth a try.

[Vrindavan]

i am using adsense and affiliate links together,
for diversification reason