I'm feeling emotional, Google has sent us a badge 
A cheque would have been better, maybe a loyalty bonus? Sportscar? Pizza Voucher... Ahh well...
Never actually been a fan of adsense, which may sound strange, and I'm still not. I think the ads are ugly, intrusive but they without question work! Unconvinced? Read on.
I tried resisting the adsense trend when we first started, and in the end it was our man Clive that convinced me to give it a go back in October 2006 as a trial. I was adamant no one would ever click the ads, and they would lower the tone of the site.
The first day we added an adsense unit, it was a Friday, 63 people decided to click the advert and we made £12.32. Not exactly time to retire but I was genuinely surprised. 63 people that day proved me wrong 
12 months later it was making £80 a day, then in 2008, 1035 people a day on average were clicking our ads giving us £205. It made no logical sense to me, but with that growth we figured in 5 years we'd be making a £1000 a day and I'd have a PA 
All this as a single revenue source.
But Google isn't big on other peoples plans so brought us down to earth in 2009 reducing adsense revenue down to about £90 a day. So after becoming used to the extra revenue, it made us refocus, explore new revenue streams and we learnt a valuable lesson about complacency!
2010 saw much of the same as the previous year, with a slow growth back to 2008 levels in 2011. 2012 and 2013 were the glory years as we seem to benefit from various Panda updates, followed by lower revenue in 2014 which seems to be echoed by a number of adsense publishers.
So it's been quite a rollercoaster journey, it's made us a few quid, and provided us with some valuable lessons.
Anyone that says people don't click adsense units (as I used to reguarly spout) is talking rubbish, we've got 8 years of data that says otherwise. In that time the death of adsense from things like adblockers has been prophesied numerous times, normally along with the demise of directories, which I first heard in 2006.
But do I still think they are ugly? Yep, especially image ad's, and particularly the ones that stalk you round the internet 
There are loads of ways of monetising your website, some which are visually far better than adsense and less intrusive for your visitors. But adsense is very simple to set up and does work.
Are you considering using adsense on your site or blog?
If so, there are a few things to consider:
- Traffic - without any traffic no one will see your ad's let alone click on them. Assume 5% of your visitors will click your add, for which you might get £0.35 per click. Don't make your site ugly with ads unless it is worth it.
- Google Updates - There have been lots of publicised Google updates such as "Panda". These Google algorithms are looking for low quality and thin content. Slap a few adverts on your low quality page and you won't be doing yourself any favours. So keep adverts to a minimum or what your page will support. If in doubt, err on the side of caution.
- Throwing away leads - A lot of people slap ads on the homepage, which can cause confusion. A visitor that is on your homepage is more than likely to be there for a reason, to learn about you, your product or services. So don't send possible leads to your competition for the sake of a £0.35 click. Keep ads away from your call to actions.
- Type of site - Some sites just don't lend themselves to 3rd party advertising, adsense or other. If I am on a solicitors page, I don't really expect to see an advert for a sofa I was looking at 30 minutes a go.
- Eggs and basket! - Don't rely on adsense to be your one stop revenue generator. If you are an informational site/blog then think of other ways of paying the hosting costs. Maybe sponsorship, managing your own adverts etc. Google can and does change things overnight. What's great today maybe non existent tomorrow!
But if you factor all the pro's and con's, adsense can be a really useful supplemental revenue stream, giving you the ability to try out new things.
So has anyone had any experience with adsense, good, bad or indifferent? Does adsense put you off or do you simply tune adverts out in this marketeers saturated environment we all live in?
