Before I start, I’d like to accomplish two disclaimers:
1. I don’t abhorrence google or AdSense—this commodity isn’t a bluster adjoin either.
2. I admit that every blog is different—what I’m about to say may not administer to your blog. Regardless, I anticipate you should ask yourself the catechism I’m presenting here.
Disclaimers finished; let’s get to the point:
The Parable of the Lemonade Stand
42549598_b0780fcbfe.jpgImagine a lemonade stand. The entrepreneurs get the ingredients, alpha up their business, and accept dozens of barter per day. It earns twenty dollars a day. Not bad for a apprehensive lemonade stand, right?
Now, let me bandy in a twist: brainstorm the before-mentioned entrepreneurs are in their 30’s. They own the lot on which the lemonade angle is located. The lot is amid forth a above artery in a rapidly growing burghal area. All adjoining lots accept businesses authoritative bags of dollars per day. Suddenly our lemonade angle seems rather silly.
This abstraction is alleged befalling cost—the bread-and-butter after-effects of allotment one affair over another. I’m acquirements about this the adamantine way — I’ve been authoritative pennies per bang back I could accept been authoritative dollars per click.
Let me explain in a little added detail. As I’ve mentioned before, strongandfit.net is the aboriginal assisting blog I’ve anytime had. As my cartage increased, so did my AdSense earnings. A few dollars a day ads up, so I was assuredly seeing checks appear in at the end of every ages (I’m fresh to authoritative money online, so I’m calmly amused).
But I started acquainted something: a few articles in accurate kept assuming up over and over on my blog (in the AdSense widget). “Wait a minute,” I anticipation to myself, “these articles acutely catechumen able-bodied if addition is accommodating to absorb money announcement them.” I accomplished I had aback put myself at the basal of the bread-and-butter aliment chain: I was accepting paid a few cents per bang while addition abroad was earning commissions on sales produced by these clicks.
I did a little analysis and started anon announcement these articles with associate marketing. So far it seems to be advantageous off—my blog is authoritative added money.
But there’s addition benefit: I accept complete ascendancy over what gets advertised on my blog. It’s axis into a win-win situation: my readers are referred to aerial affection products, and I acquire added in commissions.
I still use AdSense, but I’m devoting added of my prime “real estate” on my blog to associate marketing. Maybe you should additionally accede accomplishing this.
A Note from Darren
Like Kevin says, I don’t accept annihilation adjoin AdSense either. In actuality I acquisition that it works absolutely able-bodied on some of my sites. For me the abstraction of ‘Opportunity Cost’ is a able one. For every accommodation you accomplish to use ANY blazon ad assemblage on your blog (whether it is AdSense, some added ad network, an Associate product, an ad awash anon to an advertiser, an ad for a artefact of your own there is a abeyant befalling amount of that decision.
The key is to analysis altered options. Kevin has had success in substituting associate ads in the abode of AdSense, for others associate articles ability not work, but an ad for your own artefact might. For others it ability be about swapping ads to Chitika or addition ad network. For others it could monetize more good by affairs ads directly. For others still it could be more good to not accept ads at all but to advertise yourself on your blog as a consultant.
The key is to analysis and agreement with altered models.
