Adlink Units: Are They Worth It?
By Joel Comm
When Google first launched AdSense,
there was some skepticism from publishers. As much as most people were blown
away by the idea of ads that were targeted to the content of a Web page there
was the question of whether users, used to banners and skyscrapers, would click
on something that looked so different.
Boy, were those doubters wrong! AdSense has more than
proved its worth to advertisers, users and publishers.
A similar sense of skepticism greeted Google's launch of
AdLink units. With nothing more than a list of links (which then lead to the
ads), these units contain even less information than a traditional AdSense
unit. And the user has to click twice before the publisher gets paid. That
makes them sound about as welcoming as a winter barbeque in Siberia.
It took a while for publishers to discover that actually
AdLink units weren't as bad as they looked, and that with a smart bit of
positioning they could actually take advantage of the way some pages are laid
out. In fact, for some designs, they were able to reach parts that other
AdSense units just couldn't reach!
And best of all, publishers quickly discovered that once
someone clicked on an AdLink unit, they would almost always click on the ad
that followed. That did their revenues the world of good and removed the
two-click doubt.
The old AdLink units then were effective, but fairly
limited. They were great if you knew the one or two places on the page to use
them but not so good if you didn't. Recently though, Google has launched
horizontal AdLink units that have taken these ads into a whole new realm.
Because they fit neatly across a page they're useful for a much broader range
of page designs and are much more flexible. On the other hand though, they're
now competing for space directly with the traditional ad units, making it even
harder for publishers to figure out which ads to place where.
Is all this good news for publishers or bad news?
It's great news for savvy publishers who have more tools
to maximize their AdSense revenues (and know what to do with those tools) but
it's bad news for people who don't make the effort to learn how use AdSense -
and now have more ways to miss out.
For more Google AdSense tips, visit
http://www.adsense-secrets.com
Copyright © 2005 Joel Comm. All rights reserved
Joel Comm is Dr. AdSense, an Internet entrepreneur who
has been online for more than 20 years. Joel is co-creator of ClassicGames.com,
now known as Yahoo! Games and is the author of the web's best-selling AdSense
ebook, "Google AdSense Secrets (Or What Google Never Told You About Making
Money With Adsense)".
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