12 replies to this topic

[Seastone]

Since I'm new here. somebody please direct me elsewhere if this has come up before (I couldn't find it in Search)



Consider this scenario: you make a webiste/blog which pokes fun at something, like "I-cant-stand-NASCAR.com" or "I-really-hate-the-Yankees.com"

The point is that Adsense is going to see context of the copy and fill the ads up with merchandise for NASCAR, Yankees, etc. But the audience for the site is people who *don't like* the subject being poked fun at, and unlikely to click/convert for those ads.

What to do in a situation like that?

[Jill]

Maybe start selling your own "i hate whatever" merchandise and advertise for that?

Cafepress would be perfect for that.

[nethy]

Hi Seaston,
The 'normal' use of SEM is simply to deliver what people are looking for. IE they search for espresso machine, that's what you offer to sell them. Sort of like classifieds. This is the most common (and usually most effective) usage of the medium.

To do this, you'd need to advertise on the keywords "I hate NASCAR", " NASCAR sucks", etc. This of course depends on there being a steady stream of people actually searching these phrases.
Otherwise, you'll need to take a more roundabout strategy. A tame example is someone searches for 'espresso machine' and you try to sell them instant coffee (a substitute product) or espresso cups (complimentary product). More lively products also exist. For example, Woot.com (a sort of eccentric retailer of tech gadgets) advertised on the word IPO. with ads along the lines of "Got too much money? Need a place to spend it"

BTW, people who passionately hate NASCAR also may also search for it without the "i hate..". Try to pick them out with your ads. {Eg: "Hate NASCAR? Flaunt it." }

Edited by nethy, 29 June 2008 - 10:19 PM.

[Jill]

Nethy, I think you've misunderstood that the OP is wondering about the Adsense ads that appear on his site, rather than what to advertise on.

[Seastone]

Thanks! First let me say that I didn't mean "hate" in an offensive "hate speech" kinda way... more of a tongue-in-cheek, satire, make-fun-of way. In fact, some of the fans of the targeted subject may read it to laugh at themselves, but they would probably be the minority.

But the problem remains that Adsense will likely throw up ads which will appeal to the *opposite* of the majority of the readers.

For instance, if we know that most people reading a website which pokes fun at the Yankees may be RedSox or Mets fans, is there anyway outside of the main content/copy to direct Adsense to put up ads which target these anti-Yankee fans? (who are NOT going to buy Yankee merchandise)

Or should I just pretty much give up on Adsense for this, which won't really work in this special scenario?

[Jill]

Or should I just pretty much give up on Adsense for this, which won't really work in this special scenario?

You didn't like my cafepress idea to sell your own stuff?

[nethy]

Nethy, I think you've misunderstood that the OP is wondering about the Adsense ads that appear on his site, rather than what to advertise on.

Doh!
Yeah, your cafe press idea is better.
I don't know about adsense.

[MaKa]

I think there is a way to tell AdSense to ignore certain text in your copy. It does mean that you need to add copy about of the subject you do want adds to appear about. See AdSense section targeting

[Seastone]

Thanks Maka, that was the sorta thing I was looking for. So for say, an anti-Yankees site, you'd do something like this:

<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->

The problem with the Yankees is blah, blah, blah, etc, etc...

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->



<!-- google_ad_section_start -->

What most Redsox and Mets fans think is blah, blah, blah, etc, etc...

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->



That about right? Any other markup techniques to steer context ads toward/away from an audience?

[MaKa]

That looks about right. I must say I've never used these tags myself, so I'd say try it out with a couple of pages on your site and see whether it has the desired result. (And let us know whether it does )

[Seastone]

Yea, I'll have to give it a try. Actually here's a tweaked version of above that I'm curious if it would work:


<!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) -->

3 or 4...
.
long winded paragraphs...
.
with lots of digs at...
.
the Yankees.

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->



<!-- google_ad_section_start -->

One quick sentence that mentions Redsox and Mets.

<!-- google_ad_section_end -->


I wonder if the adsense would only be about the keywords in that last short sentence, despite the majority of the page being about a different team, albeit within the same general topic of baseball. Or would Google disallow that? Hmmm.

Edited by Seastone, 02 July 2008 - 07:53 AM.

[torka]

Quoting from the Google help page MaKa linked to above:

In order to properly implement this feature, you'll need to include a significant amount of content within the section targeting tags. Including insufficient content may result in less relevant ads or PSAs.

--Torka

[Seastone]

Thanks torka (I had almost forgotten about this). Yea it almost seems like a blackhat thing to just target a little bit of text, and its obvious Google thought that through.

There are probably a lot of good ideas to monetize an "anti" site (like Cafepress) but Adsense is not one of them. I just don't see a way to make Adsense work with that. (although if anyone can show me an example of an "anti" site which uses Adsense, I'd be curious to see it)