Type of Traffic Determines Adsense Success

In my earlier post, while replying to Sandy’s comments, I told you that I don’t use Adsense in this blog. In spite of me supporting Google’s Adsense regularly in my posts, why I don’t use it here? I thought I should explain to clarify the doubts that might have cropped up in you.

I have three main reasons for not using Adsense on this blog:

(1) I primarily get traffic from social networking sites

(2) This blog deals with topics with other bloggers as the target audience. The topics generally revolve around blogging tips and make money online.

(3) The poor performing Adsense ads on this blog affected the performance of Adsense ads on my other blogs

How does type of traffic affect Adsense income?
The traffic to any blog generally falls under two major categories, traffic from social networks and traffic from search engines. Likewise, blogs can also be classified into blogs with primarily social traffic and blogs with primarily search engine traffic.

Please take note that Google Adsense does not perform well on blogs with traffic primarily from social networks. This might be one major reason why bloggers like John Chow, Darren Rowse and the likes have not been using Adsense on their blogs. Even though you get huge traffic through social networks, it is not going to convert into clicks. Even if it does, it is not going to produce good returns for you.

Blogging Niche
If you see advertisements related to blogging from Google on your Adsense block, it means you are not doing well as far as Google is concerned. So, the scenario gets worse if your blog itself is on blogging niche. It might look like you are getting targeted ads. Of course, I am blogging about blogs and I should expect ads related to blogging, right? But, Google will still pay you very minimal rates per click. So, it is a proven fact that blogging niche does not perform well with Google Adsense.

One poor performing blog affects the entire network
If you have many blogs under your Adsense account, then you need to watch the performance of each of your blogs closely. Google has a peculiar way of degrading blogs, called “Smart Pricing”. If one of your blog performs badly, then all your blogs will be slapped a kind of penalty and the returns from well performing blogs will start to dwindle. So, if you notice a blog with poor performance, immediately remove the Adsense ads from that blog. This will help in getting good returns from your other blogs. It is a good idea to regularly test all your Adsense blogs for smart pricing.

Conclusion
So, the above reasons summarize my decision not to use Adsense on this particular blog. But, I have other blogs where I still use Adsense and they perform particularly well. Hope that clarifies my support for Google Adsense and still not using it here in this blog. Please subscribe to my feed if you like this post

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Do I follow what I say?

I just wanted to address a comment from Sandy regarding the content of my earlier post titled "Keep it Simple for Adsense Success". Please read Sandy’s comment before we go further:

Sandy’s Comment on “Keep it Simple for Adsense Success”

"You don't see to practice what you preach...in that you say keep it simple and don't distract readers with subscriptions; but right in your post you say if you want more information to subscribe?

I'm not doing well with adsense, but everything I read say join join join, subscribe etc. Get your name in directories, get links out there. You post is the first I've seen that says do adsense and nothing else, so I wonder about it. Just really not sure what to make of it."

Why Sandy is frustrated?
I appreciate Sandy for being straight to the point. I can understand her frustration and I felt that her doubts should be cleared. I could have answered this as part of the comments, but I felt the answer should reach most of my readers who may have similar questions.

Why bloggers contradict?
You cannot learn the intricacies of blogging without reading other blogs or learning from the experience of established bloggers. But, the difficulty is you get contradicting suggestions/ advise from different bloggers. What should I do? One blogger tells me that Stumbleupon is the best for blog traffic. Another guy tells me that Google is the best source of traffic. Where do I stand then? Do I follow blogger A or blogger B? As it always happens in real world, you have to filter good information and weed away the bad information. Most importantly, you have to choose the right information that applies to your blogging goals.

Reply to Sandy
1. Sandy, when I said "don’t distract readers" I meant only for blogs that use Adsense ads. If you take a close look at this blog, I don’t use Adsense on this blog. So, the rules I have listed in the earlier post does not apply to this blog. If you are using Adsense on your blog, keep the distraction minimal. I do this on my blogs which use Adsense. The idea is to get the attention of the reader on the Adsense ads, rather than splitting his attention between an Entrecard ad, ten Adgitize ads, four CMF ads and a row of Project Wonderful ads. What is the probability of someone clicking on your Adsense ad?

2. Regarding joining blog directories or getting links, it is fine. The amount of incoming links from quality sites with keyword-anchored text is very important for you to move up in the search engine rankings. Getting links is certainly very important. I did not say “do nothing else”. But, while you spend time on off-site optimization you should also concentrate on your on-site optimization. Your primary goal should be to get search engine traffic.

I am just trying to share my experience with my readers and fellow bloggers. I have made mistakes and learned from them. Blogging is trial and error. If you are not going to try something, you are not going to learn. I always try many things. If it works, fine. If not, along the way, I may fine-tune my strategies.

Conclusion
Sandy, by the way, I would like to add much more on your comment. But, I have little time to add further. I will come back with further content on this in my next post. Feel free to shoot further questions that you may have.

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