There are times Google's heralded ad affiliate program isn't inyour long term business interest. Oh no I said it!

AdSense isn't the unstoppable revenue engine for everyeBusiness. Before I am taken out and flogged by the eCommercepundits -- please let me explain what I mean in my defense.

I make revenues from AdSense at a very high click-through rate.I experience high click-through rates with AdSense withoutresorting to questionable tactics like tricking site users withphotos (the AdSense trick and tip dujour).

So my perspective is from one who has made decent income fromAdSense to fund aspects of his business like advertisingseminars -- and outsourcing to his virtual assistants. Yes,AdSense is a legitimate and significant revenue source. Howeverevaluate AdSense with some type of balance.

By now you may have heard about people like Joel Comm's sixfigure income with AdSense, or Jason Calacanis of Weblogs beingon his way to generating 1 million dollars in AdSense revenue.Google's Ad revenue sharing affiliate program for publisherscertainly seems to be an eSales Nirvana for many webmasters.

But there are obvious and not so obvious times not to useAdSense ads on your sites. Let's list - examine - and explainthem below.

~~~~> 1. On Sales or Mini-sites

This is a no-brainer. If you are trying to sell a particularproduct that is important to your bottomline, you don't wantAdSense ads distracting your customers from either joining youremail list, or hindering your site's online sales process.

However I do see hybrid sites that are mini-sites or full scaleeCommerce sites, with AdSense at the bottom of their pages.This might not be so bad since only 1% - 15% of your sitevisitors will either buy from you or fill out a form.

The thinking with this approach is you might as well make moneyfrom disinterested parties using up your server's bandwidth.

~~~~~> 2. SEO Business Sites

If your livelihood depends on search engine optimization ormarketing for a living you might want to think twice aboutdisplaying AdSense Ads on your site. I can tell you this frompersonal experience. I once was on top of MSN for search enginemarketing in my local area. I concentrated on my local areabecause I found people felt more comfortable hiring an eCommerceconsultant locally.

One day my site fails totally out of the MSN index. Afterintense study I noticed that I obviously had a filter on my sitefrom MSN.

I analyzed all the top ranking sites in MSN and noticed the onlydifference between me and the other top ranking sites was I hadGoogle AdSense ads on my site. Someone at MSN felt that myAdSense ads, and perhaps to a less extent, my book on SEO, wasgetting a free ride in the MSN search engine database.

In fact I noticed that there were no sites with AdSense ads forat least the first 3 pages. Plus the sites with AdSense wereonly using 1 ad unit at the bottom of the home page (there werevery few of them in the top 5 pages).

I knew it was strange to not have AdSense ads on the topInternet marketing sites. This prompted me to scan otherindustries where I noticed the same trend.

Many of the leading SEO gurus have sites that have been bannedfrom the top listings by the search engines. It seems the morevisible you become, the more of a target your sites are to thesearch engine auditors.

Some of my sites are still on the top of MSN with AdSense adsbut that doesn't mean they won't also be targets in the future.

Let's face the facts. MSN and Yahoo! have competing ad networksto Google's, and this competitive situation is rife for apotential backlash against SEO sites with AdSense ads.

Many SEOs will point to exceptions to this position. Howeveryou have been warned!

Think about it, how long will MSN and Yahoo! sit back and watchSEO driven websites use their search indexes to fund Google?Did you know SEO in MSN and Yahoo(!) --- is much easier toobtain.

Therefore optimized sites are creating an ad sales wealthtransfer from MSN and Yahoo into the pockets of Google! Itwon't be long before Yahoo! and MSN begin to devalue ranking onAdSense sites in their databases -- if not outright ban them.

If you are in the search engine business stay search engineneutral, or create multiple sites for different search engines.

~~~~~> 3. When AdSense Becomes Your Only Business Model

When you become so myopic in your thinking that you build abusiness solely on AdSense revenue -- think again my friend.Why build a business solely on the largess of Google?

I don't know if your realize it or not, but the sites making thereal big AdSense money usually have a following that doesn'tdepend on the search engines. Internet mavens like ChrisPirillo or Joel Comm have been on the Internet a while and havefollowings for their websites. Therefore they can consistentlymake six figures with AdSense.

These content powerhouses are an asset to Google and not theother way around. But do you think Google is going to sit backand watch just anybody make big bucks off of their top rankings?

If you do a search on most keywords you will notice many of thetop ranking sites are news sites, .gov sites, or .org sitesthese days. The only exception is in industries where thesesites don't really exist like eCommerce industries (clothing,shopping, etc.).

No doubt in most industries you will notice a conspicuousscarity of AdSense sites in the top rankings. In other wordsdon't bet your future fortunes on AdSense.

An IPO based on projections of AdSense revenue isn't in thefuture for the average eBusiness. Think of Google AdSense assupplemental income. Building a business solely on AdSenserevenue isn't just silly -- it's just plain stupid.
About the Author

Kamau Austin is the publisher of over ten websites. See more ofhis eCommerce and Search Engine Commentary can be found at:www.eInfoNEWs.com and www.SearchEnginePlan.com .