Google, hands down is the most popular Service provider right now. Notice I didn’t call them a search engine? Because they are not, they provide services. a LOT of them, anything from Froogle for purchasing (in the US), to Google analytics, to GMail, to hosting your domains email addresses in the Gmail fashion and on top of that they provide you with a myriad of services for your website. The whole Google Adsense and Google Adwords thing is , I would say, arguably the most popular way of advertising nowadays. Why? because it does not cost you ANYTHING to put, pretty discrete and fully customizable, ads on your site that can be completely adjusted to display things relative to your site. Gone are the days of the Banner swap and fear of not getting paid etc.

Yes as you can see, I use Google Adsense here as well, and yes you can make a little on the side, but not really much unless you have HIGH volume of traffic (read: SLASHDOT??). Otherwise it will take several months to get any sort of payment. I thought about this long and hard and discussed with several colleagues, all of who use Google Adsense, and came up with some reasons as to why Google Adsense is actually a good idea and then counterparts, why is it a bad idea. I won’t draw a conclusion since that is up to everyone by themselves. However I will state my opinion, which of course can be argued.

The good:
Google Adsense has , as I mentioned, very good features which make it very flexible.

• like inobtrusive non graphic ads
• colors that you can customize and adjust to your sites colors
• (channels ) keyword based for different ads on different pages on your site
• you get paid by click
• you can view our earnings nearly in real-time
• AND its free to sign up and implement , for anyone

Google Adwords is nearly the same, except for people that want to advertise their site or service.

• you can specify how much you want to spend on advertising (remember, each impression costs)
• which channels (type of sites) your ad gets displayed on
• you can specify sites you want to advertise on, without having to “sell” your ads to them
• see near real-time statistics which also can be seen and analyzed with Google Analytics
• and of course specify which keywords and information gets displayed in the text ads

Google has a pretty decent system for finding “click fraudsters” so overall , both are very well designed services which appeal to both, the user and the seller. Now you can see the good points on each one but there still is one I am going to make. Bloggers, and smaller or bigger websites implement Google Adsense for a little extra revenue, meaning something additional since they do not want to implement flashy ads. This I think is a VERY good thing because its so unobtrusive (unless you overdo the ads), but it also gives the reader of the blog a chance to help out. Personally I hate the “PayPal” button. It gives me shivers. Things like Wikipedia or such is one thing since they have a multitude of people working or volunteering for them. But every blogger with a little bit of content seems to be on the “DONATE TO ME VIA PAYPAL” bandwagon. it takes time, requires actually PAYMENT out of the readers pocket and so on. A lot of people that I know use Google Ads to support the site they are visiting instead. Every click gets the site owner a little bit of cash, not much but a bit. You get a popup on your browser, you watch the site of the ad you just clicked and , who knows you might even find it interesting. The fact is you are helping the site to make some little extra and it doesn’t cost you a cent! Every site I visit that has some Google Adsense ads and I like it, I select the ad that most appeals to me and click on it. This is not click fraud, because that is what the ads are there for. You might think about implementing this strategy since it kind of benefits everyone (go ahead click on my ads , ok just kidding).

The BAD:
Google Adsense, because it is so easy to implement, can easily be overdone. As a matter of fact more then one ad section on a site is more then enough. I have seen sites where after EVERY paragraph there is an Adsense section with 3 small ads and on each side of the page there is another couple. That is too much, no matter what content you have i wont click on any of it. Also Google Adsense payout is not well implemented in many countries, in the US you get a check and you can cash it for free but over the pond in Europe, banks charge you for depositing checks because they are not in use anymore. Straight bank transfers are only available in certain countries (Germany and the UK for example), so it is a small hassle to get your money , IF you make enough.
Also if you do not spend time analyzing your site statistics and keywords, and configure your Adsense, not much relevant ad content will come to your site which will deter people to click on the ads.

Google Adwords has just a bad side like Adsense, if you just give an amount to spend and not a targeted channel (say you are unexperienced in marketing or putting advertising out) then your ad will be displayed on sites that most likely are very low on the page ranks scale or have no relevance to what you are trying to sell. Its all about money and on the internet a strategy is necessary. The Adwords interface and configuration isnt the most intuitive either so you need some serious time and if you want to spend 5 dollars a day you might have to consider if its really worth it that way. Also some “companies” design their adwords so that keywords from different areas are use to display their ad on any kind of website and since ads are usually put in groups of 2 or 3 by Google, you might find yourself next to a porn or escort service. I have seen it happen.

The verdict:
Even though there are bad things and good things about those services, I think it has never been easier to advertise or display advertising on your site then with Google Adsense and Google Adwords. Yes there are pretty annoying implementations out there but frankly, I’d take a Google ad any day over those “#%??&#”? Flash ads with layers that are flashing like crazy or play even video. Some of them are so bad, I am surprised people haven’t gone into epileptic shock.

Fact is, advertising drives products and services so we need it, and Google’s implementation is still by far the best one out there. They brought advertising possibilities to the masses! Kudos!

//Flosse

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