I really don’t know why there is a vast majority of Christian websites and blogs using the Google AdSense advertising network. Many of these sites that include AdSense have very small traffic ranks, with the majority attaining a meagre 100 visits per day.
This leads me onto the basis of this post. Many of these Christian websites have traffic ranks of between 1000,000 and 17000,000, which means their revenue could be anywhere from £10 to zero (I know this because I have the Alexa Toolbar installed in my Firefox browser, so when I visit a website, it shows me the traffic rank).
For a little bit of money, the Gospel of Jesus Christ may well be perverted with the kind of ads Google will display on these pages. In the past, I have visited well-meaning Christian websites which talk about Christianity and sex, for example (which is okay depending on the topic and purpose of the article and site). When a site like this runs Google AdSense, certain ads will appear on these sites. Such sites will lead to, let us say, very inappropriate and downright evil links.
Of course not! What many Christian Bloggers and site owners don’t know, is that Google AdSense ads are self optimising and work by choosing keywords from their pages. So if, for example, there’s an article about Christianity, they may be ads actually denouncing Christianity—or worse. I’ve seen such cases of “s*xy Christian singles” and of-sort.
Another thing to consider is that Google AdSense are sometimes targeted to users themselves. If a web user has a Google account and has web history turned on, AdSense will use a users history to determine what ads appear on any site which include the Google Ads network.
Recently, I was going to buy a garden shed, so I searched many web sites that sold them. For several weeks afterwords, all I saw where adds for sheds where AdSense were displayed. The most evil thing about this is that the shed adverts blatantly used a blasphemy against God to sell sheds! I emailed the company in question about it, to no avail.
If a blogger used Amazon Associates instead, he/she could actually make more money by selling Bibles. A widget that can displayed instead of ads could be used to sell Bibles and other Christian books. A single sale of a Bible could earn the blogger a percentage of the sale, which may be greater than a years worth of Google AdSense revenue. The added benefit is that the blogger would earn money by spreading the gospel message—and not worldly theories, false doctrine and sex.
There are also other add networks such as BuySellAdds, which lets site authors display adds on their sites which first have to be approved by the site owner. I’ve seen some low traffic blogs selling up to £100 worth of these adds per month.
Of course, there are many other affiliate schemes out there, too.
For these reasons, I choose not to run Google AdSense on this blog. Like I already stated, I run them on my main blog, but that one is just about graphic design in general so there’s no conflict of interest regarding Christianity. However, on this blog, they’re not appropriate. If you’re running AdSense on your Christian site, may I suggest you reconsider.
Also, every Christian site owner and blogger needs to consider why they’re running ads in the first place. Yes, we need to make money to live, but please consider what impact running adds has on the Gospel message—and whether or not these ads hinder it in any way. If they’re a benefit, then it’s worth consideration.
My final piece of advice is to pray about any decisions you make. All Christians are called to be part of the great commission, but this is in regard to the Gospel Message, not money.
Welcome to Pure Christian Graphic Design (PCGD). This site is authored by Andrew Kelsall, a Creative Designer from England, UK.
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6 Comments
A lot of this post is good advice for any blogger, regardless of religious belief or site theme. Many sites collect very little in Google banner advertising, yet it dilutes or discredits the site’s credibility and deters readers.
I also prefer Amazon, as I can very specifically target ad’s for my content, which is very factual stuff: data quality, web development, innovation, public health, immigration reform, educational opportunities and gentle humor (Twitter images, colorful cupcakes and cookies). I do NOT want my readers viewing ads for dating, sexual dysfunction or weight loss schemes!
I would mention though, that with Google AdSense, which is what publishers use, there is some opportunity to eliminate various broad classes of ads. But it isn’t easy to fine-tune, so your point is very valid.
Also, AdSense is for bloggers/publishers or those not using Google to sell a product. AdWords is for those who are doing the advertising in the Google banners, I believe. That might not be 100% accurate, as I only used AdSense, because I don’t sell any services or products. You mentioned AdWords and may have meant to substitute with AdSense (but I could be wrong).
Thanks for article!
24 Sep 2010 04:09 pm Ellie K
@Ellie → Yes, you’re right, it can be fine-tuned, however, like you said, it’s not perfect. It also takes technical SEO know-how which many bloggers don’t have.
I believe that the reason Google ads are so popular is that they’re initially easy to implement, with many site owners not being aware of alternatives available.
Oh, yes, I did mean AdSense, not Adwords. Apologies for the mixup. I’ve gone through the article and updated it—thanks for letting me know
24 Sep 2010 04:09 pm Andrew Kelsall
Very nice article, touches on a concern of mine as it relates to Google Ads on Christian Blogs. We have been using Google Ads for quite sometime now, the ads are not making us rich, but they pay for the server fees, so the site pays for itself and we can continue to offer free items on the site.
It has been quite a task to filter out some of the ads that come in to the pages, especially on post that relates to God, Christianity, Spirit, Spirituality, Bible, etc. We had to block so many ads relating to horoscope, witchcraft, wigi board, Tera cards, etc.
I also noticed that if I am in another State or County, the Ads on the site changes, so you are right, it is hard to know exactly what the viewers are seeing, since ads are targeted not only by the words on the blog post, but by the viewers web habits and other web technology. Thanks for offering some solutions to the problem, and for the food for thought, I will be checking out the Amazon option.
20 Apr 2011 06:04 am loswl
loswl → I’m pleased you found this article useful. Since writing it, I also decided to remove the Google Ads from all my other blogs, too.
In the near future, instead of running any ads at all on this blog, I’ve decided that I will “advertise” charities and external Gospel resources. I already pay my server costs from Ads on my other sites, so advertising revenue from this site isn’t an issue now, although I can appreciate your own reasons.
I hope you manage to find the right solution for your sites, too.
Keep up the good work…
25 Apr 2011 03:04 pm Andrew Kelsall
Have you looked at the Christian Advertising websites??? I had adsense on my website http://www.gotracts.com, but shortly started realizing that the ads they were displaying on my website were to much of a distraction, and the money wasn’t worth it… I’m trying to help save souls, and they had Toyota truck ads popping up on my Christian website… Anyways, here is a nice Christian advertising website, for advertisers and publishers, that you might want to look at if you have a Christian website… http://beaconads.com/
26 Sep 2011 01:09 am GO Tracts
(Twitter: @@gotracts)
Go Tracts → Thanks; I think I’ve seen Beacon Ads before, but totally forgot about it. The site looks identical to BuySellAds, so maybe they’re part of the same company?
I currently have a BSA (BuySellAds) ad on my other site, Andrew Kelsall Design.
Thanks for commenting…
05 Oct 2011 08:10 pm Andrew Kelsall
(Twitter: @ChristianDesign)