Posted on July 31, 2008 by admin

Tip #9: Avoid the “Advertise on this site” Program

Sometimes what is good for someone else is not good for you. This is one of
those occasions. Google’s newest enhancement to their Adsense program is the “Advertise on this site” program. We hate it, and we suggest you not use it.

Here’s how it works:

By allowing “OnSite Advertiser Signup” on your sites, Google automatically posts a link at the top of all your ads. The premise is that a potential advertiser will visit your site, decide they want to advertise on your site, and click that Google link to signup.

On the surface it sounds like a good idea. But when we tested it, it cost us money to tune of a 9% drop across the board.

We’re not sure what caused this but we do have my suspicions:

First, it was another link on my sites. As mentioned above, the more links you have, the less money you make. And in this case, the only way to be paid through this link is if someone actually fills out the form and signs up. That does not happen very often, if ever.

The second reason we feel this “enhancement” cost us money is that the ad itself makes my other ads look less like resources and more like ads. It’s bad enough that Google still puts that unsightly and annoying “Ads by Gooooooogle” line across the top of your ad block, but adding another “Advertise on this site” link right next to it really pushes it over the edge. People hate advertising when it is in their face. What do they do? They leave. Fast.

Third, very few advertisers, at least those who are serious, are going to be willing to agree to advertise on your site and your site alone. It is simply not good business to be tied to one site (even if that site belongs to you) and most people will not agree to that. We know we would never agree to participate in something like that, something that restrictive. We can’t blame others for not wanting to do it either.

Most of the people we have talked to have also experienced a decline in earnings when the ad appeared on their sites. If you have it on your pages, you should consider dropping it.

“OnSite Advertiser Signup” is activated by default at Google. Unless you tell them you do NOT want to participate in the program, they will turn it on. It is easy enough to check and to fix. Log in to your Adsense account and click on the “My Account” link. Scroll down to the bottom and look for the line that says: OnSite Advertiser Sign-Up. Make sure this says “You are not currently subscribed to Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up”. If it doesn’t say that, click the “Edit” button and unsubscribe.

Now, it may take a few days (perhaps longer) for the code to update across all of your pages, but eventually it will vanish, and hopefully your profits will increase.

Source – 10 Powerful Secrets To Make Money With AdSense.