In the dark ages of the SEO era, when bloggers and webmasters were still familiarizing themselves with the process and its functionality, certain tactics and strategies had become industry standards.
The era I’m talking about is the one where Google AdSense was heavily built into the foundation of a blogger’s strategy. The “legacy” tactics associated with this approach can still be found in the way modern publishers think about SEO and branding strategy. However, AdSense’s limited customizability can hold back publishers. This needs be addressed and rooted out.
Before assuming AdSense is the best monetization partner for you, consider these four warning signs. If you’re guilty of practicing any of these points, it’s time you re-evaluated your monetization partner and strategy.
1. You haven’t considered other platforms
It’s no secret that AdSense as a standalone monetization stream isn’t enough to earn substantial revenue. Most solopreneurs that still operate in the “blogosphere” have understood for years that it is important to branch out and diversify revenue streams. So there’s nothing revolutionary about this concept.
Most of the focus on diversification has been on developing products to sell, with eBooks being a gold standard. This is great advice, even if it can become a bit boilerplate at times. But we’re not talking about selling products today. We’re talking about contextual advertising, which means placing relevant ads on your site that fit in with the content of your page. When it comes to contextual advertising, too many people still aren’t considering their other options.
Media.net, the second largest contextual advertising business worldwide by revenue, is a good place to start experimenting. The platform uses machine-learning algorithms to predict user intent, based on the content of your pages, and serves ads