Proof Ugly Websites Convert Better For Adsense
October 27th, 2007
Written By: Adam Sussman
I hope Jerry Alonzy does not take this post personally but after reading about this retired Boeing engineer in a recent USA Today article I thought I’d point something out.
Both of his websites, smpstech.com & Natural Handyman.com are ugly! And when I say ugly, I mean 1995 ugly.
That’s not stopping Jerry Alonzy from making $120,000 a year from the ads he places on his sites.
So what’s the trick? How is Jerry making this much money?
Screw Usability, it worked for myspace.
Just browse his sites and see how his ads are placed. Check out the use of the “navigation” bar which is really Google ads. Notice the placement of the 2 block ads running down the left site of the page.
I’ve seen this approach work with quite a few friends who earn all their income from adsense.
Just make sure your content is unique and make sure your ads are placed in the most common clicked areas on a website and you can make money with adsense.
Side note: It’s nice to see another friend mentioned in a major publication. Jennifer Slegg (JenSense) was cited in this article.
November 1st, 2007 09:14
The Natural Handyman site is definitely ugly. But it has a lot of traffic. I just submitted an article there because I run an ecommerce site in a related industry hoping to catch at least some of it. Most of the sites in this industry are ugly, even corporate ones.