Lately many of my customers have been asking me this question:
Which program is better Adsense or Yahoo Publisher
It sounds simple, but the answer is not. The reason being is that both programs work well, but both also have different places when considering whether or not to use them for a specific website.
Heres why.
Adsense has been around for a while now, and at the moment has the lions share of the market in the PPC (Pay Per Click) game. But anyone who has been promoting them on their websites will tell you that the payouts have also gotten gradually smaller as time has gone on. Why Well its easy, they are still the best game in town, so they arent worried about losing their publishers to another PPC.
But then came Yahoo Publisher. Which unless youve been living under a rock for the past ten years, you already know the name, and know how big that company is. And with the purchase of Overture, Yahoo is coming into the game well equipped and ready for a fight.
So, whats the difference between the two
Here is what Ive been able to learn from my own websites. Yahoo, overall, is paying more per click then Adsense. But before you jump from this article and start changing your code, read on a bit more.
Yahoo Publisher seems to be paying more then Adsense on similar content, BUT... Their ads are not nearly as contextually targeted as Adsense. So this can present a problem for website owners. For example, if you have a website that its primary topic is HOME MORTGAGES, Adsense will display ads that only link to mortgage sites. But thats not true with Yahoo Publisher. Yahoo Publisher might display some mortgage ads, but also might display a Payday Loan ad (BTW if you need a payday loan, check out this page http://www.thegiftedone.com), Vonage ads (Vonage must pay them some big money, as they seem to be the default when the script doesnt know what to do), or some other ad that does not relate to the content of your website.
How do you choose which program is right for your site This depends on the site itself and the type of surfers that frequent it. If you have a site that is highly targeted for a certain keyword, then I would suggest you stay with Adsense. This will keep the ads focused and targeted to your customers, presenting them with content that they will click. If they came to read about cooking recipes, they probably wont click the Vonage ad. Heres an example of a content targeted website: http://voip.magicanswers.com
However, if your site is more of a surfer hangout, where people go when they are bored, or if your site covers a multitude of topics, then you might be better off loading it up with Yahoo Publisher ads. This type of surfer is more likely to click an ad thats off topic, which in turn would pay you better.
At this point what it comes down to is the click thru ratio. If monitored closely, you can determine what your surfers like and what they dont like. What they click and what they dont click. If one program is not performing well for you, then try the other.
Im sure that as time goes on, Yahoo Publisher will become more targeted, and surely will be more competitive. With Googles Adsense as an adversary they have quite a fight on their hands.
My advice to you is this. If you have one website, then optimize your PPC links for YOUR website surfers. If you have many, optimize each site accordingly, but do take the time to test each program. Find out which one will pay you more. Whether you own a giant corporation with hundreds of websites, or a home based business branching out to the internet, the bottom line is always the bottom line. Which comes down to the paycheck. A simple test might lead you to more money, which is always the goal.
Till next time,
Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic development, and website financial analysis. He has been helping people design and develop their internet business since 1996.
This article may be reprinted freely as long as all links remain active.
Well to start with, if you are already an established webmaster, then you need not heed my words. Because, you would then know what works on a site and what does not. This article is meant for newbie webmasters and bloggers who are in the dual search of gaining traffic to their websites and making money from their pages.
I presume that you have already zeroed in on the concept of your site or a blog. The next thing you would think on is what are the subcategories(you know them as Links) that you can sum up on the main page, and also what else you are going to present on the main page so that the visitor understands what this site is for.
Now comes the question, To Adsense or not to Adsense...(If you do not know what Adsense is, they are Google Sponsored context-targetted ads that you can place on your sites which can earn you money when someone clicks on them).
I will take two similar examples and bring out the subtle difference between them to let you know which site will make profit from Adsense. Let us consider two hypothetical sites A and B.
Let us say that site A brings out reviews of all science-fiction books in the market. The homepage gives a brief idea about the site and this is linked to all the reviews, one review per page.
And now take site B which also deals with science fiction books, but focussses on the writing aspect. In short site B teaches people how to write such a book.
Now, guess which will make more Adsense money Lets take it on a case-on-case basis. Site A, no matter brings out the review on every possible Science fiction book in market. But Adsense ads are context targetted. That is, Google scans through the page and provides ads based on the words it sees on a page. That means the first book could deal with Michael on his time machine and second book could deal with Rob on his rocket. Do you think the ads would be very relevant to the visitor. The ads would then pertain to rocket science books and stuff which the visitor is not likely to click.
But take Site B. Here every page is likely to deal with how to write such a book. And when Adsense scans through such a page, it provides ads about sites that also provide writing skills and techniques; very relevant to the context of the site. That means the visitor is more likely to click on the ads.
And what about the owner of Site A Will he make money Why not, since the site deals with book reviews, the visitor is more likely to proceed to purchase the book. So provide Amazon links to the books which is likely to get you commissions in tens of dollars rather in cents in case of Adsense ads.
So, it should always be a wise decision to choose the kind of ads that you serve on a site, because too many ads on a site is likely to make the visitor tired of your site and you might end not seeing him again.
Anand Srinivasan is a Software Engineer by profession and a part-time webmaster. Look for other articles by him at or visit his message boards at