I'm returning to full time blogging after about two years. I took the long necessary break to build myself on a few digital skills, attend to personal growth, development and building a network. My return to the blogosphere is met with multiple and new policies released by the Google AdSense Publisher Programme. While I think that these policies are great and are in the best interest for publishers, advertisers and Google itself, I still believe that it has the negatives. These are the things I have examined and have decided not to use Google Adsense (or other similar  Advertising Agencies) on some of my websites and blogs- specifically this, KoloNigeria, NMM, NELOC Media's and VineLegal. As Google Adsense has more profitability when a blog is monetized and is widely used by many bloggers, all other blogs and websites (of mine) may take Advertising too. Now, let me take you through my reasons. I have examined a few of them and I will discuss them in this article.
AdSense Image by Google


Google AdSense is one of the oldest contextual advertising programs on the web. It is also regarded as one of the best too. AdSense is great for website monetization, however, if you own a personal brand blog, Business/Company website or A community/project website/blog, it is not such a good idea to use AdSense and you're doing your website or blog in any case more harm than good. Since AdSense is still the simplest, and the laziest way to earn a few 'measly' bucks from your blog or website. Unless you've worked hard enough to have built a super popular blog in a lucrative niche with hundreds of thousands of visits and page views each month, you're really only going to earn little from AdSense. You can place AdSense everywhere on your site and each week, log into your AdSense account to see the earnings increase slightly. However, you will remain blind and wouldn't really know that you should put more attention to creating other more reliable and profitable income streams from my blog, rather than invest all my time in AdSense. Income streams like Affiliate Marketing fetch in more money with so much as one click. One click can give you an affiliate commission of as much as $70 while Adsense leaves you to makeup to $100 (as is the mimimum threshold for Nigerians) before withdrawal.

Asides from the fact that it's not very profitable, if you're trying to build a brand, a business with your blog/website, then using AdSense isn't such a great idea. I had to stop AdSense when I realized that I was trying to build a REAL brand, company and community. AdSense ads make your website look "cheap" and dilute your brand value. It doesn't really add value to your website (if you are building any of the things I mentioned)

Again, if your personal brand/business website exists to help you promote your own products or services-  let's say your book, using AdSense to monetize will help to kill your conversion opportunities and rates by sending visitors away from your site, who could potentially become new leads or even sales for you. This way, there is a high bounce rate on your site. People who click on an AdSense adverts are literally taken away from your site forever. This is not a great conversion strategy. One rule of conversion is to make people stay and see a thing reoccurently so it sticks to their mind.

Adding AdSense on your site also makes for poor user experience, especially those intrusive ones that interrupt readers halfway down a blog post or page, pop-up ads, and so on. Although, it is a funny thing that these popups and intrusive ads are the ones with most yields. That way, AdSense scripts also increase your page load times which is again, not great for your users.

AdSense is the least profitable way to monetize your blog unless you have a ton of traffic.
OK, so no AdSense, but what about displaying affiliate banner ads instead?
Banner ads are more or less the same thing in my opinion.

They too take visitors away from your site, however, I would much prefer to use affiliate ads instead of AdSense.

Why?

Because the profit of a potential affiliate sale is far greater than a click on an AdSense ad!

I would very much prefer to earn $50 or more from a targeted banner ad click that leads to an affiliate sale, than an AdSense click that could earn me just 20 cents.

Remember, these days, website visitors are much savvier than they ever used to be. And, most of them are blind to blatant advertisements, regardless whether it's an affiliate ad or Google AdSense block of ads.

What sites are great for using AdSense on then?
I'm not saying that AdSense is 100% bad.

What I'm saying is that I don't think to display them on a personal brand business website, where you're trying to build a brand and promote your own products or services, is a smart strategy.

However, if you really want to use AdSense to earn money from your dead traffic, they're probably best suited for high traffic, micro-niche websites, and blogs, and definitely not on eCommerce blogs or websites.

Again, that's just my opinion.

What should you do instead of using AdSense ads on your business website?
Personally, when it comes to monetization, I much prefer to create my own digital products to sell.

I also provide services through my blog because as I said, I'm focused on building a business from my website.

In addition, though, I do promote a range of high-value third-party affiliate products and services that I have used in my business.

That's my income model.

For a business website or a personal brand blog, you should be focused on business growth, creating amazing content, creating and promoting a range of useful products aligned with your niche, and providing services to your target audience.

Building your email list
The other thing you should be fully focused on doing is building your email list.

Converting visitors into subscribers should be a top priority, in fact, because they're the ones who are going to be your customers later down the line, over and over again in many cases.

Those many visitors you lost, or could potentially lose, through a quick AdSense click? They're never going to come back.

So, if you're thinking of using AdSense on your personal brand or small business website, please, please, please think very carefully about it before doing it.

Do you think AdSense is bad for a business website?
Do let me know your thoughts on this debate.

Do you think Google AdSense should be used on a personal brand or small business website?
Do you already use AdSense on your personal blog or business website? And if so, do you think you could be missing out on a whole lot of other opportunities, conversion wise?
I know the comment section below is closed at the time of updating this post, but you can always get in touch with me here on Facebook, or send me an email here.

Best of luck!


Many bloggers and website owners have come to prefer the AdSense. Recently, I helped a friend apply for AdSense and he qot it after a quick tutorial.

I usually get paid to help you open an approved AdSense account, however many wonder why I personally do not use AdSense.