Money Makes AdSense Go ’Round

Okay, so AdSense is (in essence) an advertising program. But why would
you want to use it? Well, for the money, of course. AdSense is an easy way
to generate income from your Web site, even if you’re not selling anything
on the site.
And while creating income is the most likely reason that publishers use
AdSense, it’s not the only one. Some publishers use AdSense as a means of
making their Web site more valuable to site visitors.
Anyone who displays an AdSense ad is considered a publisher, whereas
anyone who purchases the ads that are displayed through AdSense is an
advertiser.
Now, this is where a lot of debate usually begins. Experts (who are usually
people who know a lot just about a given subject) tend to disagree about
the value of any type of advertising on your Web site. Some experts say that
any advertisement that takes people away from your Web site is a bad thing.
Others say that ads are okay, in the right places. You can read more about ad
placement in Chapter 3.
When placed properly, AdSense ads can add value to your Web site by pointing
users to other resources related to the topic of your site. This means
they’ll probably surf away from your site at some point. But if your site is
well built (which is essential if you intend to grow traffic over time), it’s likely
that users will come back to your site again in the future.
The value here is that users not only get what they’re looking for, but you get
return traffic; and because you’re using AdSense to help those users find the
information they need, you’re also making a little extra money in the process.