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Yesterday, I posted a thread at our forums named Do Ugly Sites Earn More With AdSense? I wrote about a recent popular article named The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites. The article discusses how a site named Plenty of Fish, an ugly dating site, made over $10,000 from AdSense in one day. The logic as to why Plenty of Fish and other ugly sites (i.e. Craigs List and IMDB) make money, is because they are extremely functional, the author states. But, in my opinion, these sites are not all that functional.
Maybe Craigs List is a bad example, but consider the site that reportedly made $10,000 in one day from AdSense. Plenty of Fish is not functional, not easy to use and, in my humble opinion, hard to look at. The reason why it made so much money with AdSense is because it drives search traffic organically, people land on the site, and immediately want to click off. They find the nearest ad, and most attractive part of the page, which happens to be the AdSense ad, and clicks off. Phew, they are saved and they move on to a real dating site, that is both professional looking and functional.
Forum discussion on this topic at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.
Comments:
comments
03/21/2006 03:28 pm
i think it made 10,000 in one day, not in a month, as you posted.
Barry Schwartz
03/21/2006 03:42 pm
Yes, sorry about that, it was a typo.
Nadir
03/21/2006 08:00 pm
The site probably gets a lot of traffic because it's free? Maybe these people don't care if it's hard to use a site, as long as they get something in return for free.
Jaimie Sirovich
03/21/2006 08:03 pm
Hey Barry, Maybe this means RustyBrick should change its business plan and make lousy dating affiliate sites instead of custom e-commerce sites. If you could make me a site that made 10,000 in a day, I'd write you a nice fat check. J.
ogletree
03/21/2006 09:34 pm
I think your confusing making money with adsense and getting conversions. I'm not saying ugly sites don't sell. I am saying that pleny of fish makes money off of PPC. That is all we know. We don't know if the click turn into sales. Getting people to click on adsense is very differnt than getting actual conversions.
Jaimie Sirovich
03/21/2006 11:29 pm
Why would an individual care if he's getting actual conversions or just getting PPC money? This is the same reason I don't use SiteMatch ads, but the difference is not material if they both fill your wallet. TBH, if ugly sites get good ad "conversions" people will make them. Again, why I don't do this kind of advertising.
comment
03/22/2006 08:50 pm
If you believe that you can get 14 million pageviews a day from being in search results I have a bridge to sell you.
Napolux
03/27/2006 03:07 pm
LOL. I set up an adSense account today. Hope I'll get money, but for other reasons ;)
RegDCP
03/31/2006 01:18 am
It seems that Plenty Of Fish read the article. They have cleaned up the site a lot.
Satyajit
06/26/2006 10:43 am
How does Google Adsense pays money? What's the calculation of their payment? I am using the google adsense for 2 months over now but the payment method is still unknown to me?
No Name
08/20/2006 10:02 pm
I have copule of websites and having about %45 click through ratio don't have much traffic though :) My websites definitely not ugly.
שש בש
08/31/2006 06:37 am
Its because they have high PR and because of that they have lot of movement in there site
Joost
06/07/2007 02:21 pm
One newsletter site was getting more new members with a plain sign up form then a cool looking one. (newsletter was about making money on the web - on how important a newsletter is for a site and stuff like that)
010081
09/01/2007 11:47 am
yea thats what it it,because people come to ugly sites with SE traffic and when they see more good ads then they move to another by clicking adsense ads. and ugly get paid more.
Juli
02/14/2008 11:06 pm
colopotay is right thats how they do what they do
Jake
03/31/2008 05:02 am
good thinking.. My site is not listed on google.. but i'm still getting decent $$ (15 a day) its just from affliates.
Tom Lee
06/24/2008 01:15 pm
Yes, I think you are right, ugly site works well and they are making tons of money. POF is making in 2 days what i make in a whole year..
Shaikh Izaj Ahmed
10/10/2008 10:12 am
Yes Really a good content, but i think it is not correct that ugly sites earn money, when we are creating content rich sites then only it is possible to create money
aceadi
11/01/2008 04:13 pm
Its a myth that people click on relevant ads when google atches them keyword to keyword. Most people click ads when they are leisure, not really looking for anything, just surfing. Dating sites like plenty off fish attract people who are at leisure and since they do not have any real purpose of being there they dont mind clicking and surfing.
Kim
03/17/2009 11:40 pm
I'm not saying ugly sites don't sell. I am saying that pleny of fish makes money off of PPC. That is all we know. We don't know if the click turn into sales.
Islam Abou El Ata
04/30/2009 05:00 pm
I will build a female beauty website with poor design and a frugly woman face in it, people will freak away .. through the ads ;) xD
Pooja Sharma
05/03/2009 07:13 pm
Make the site like http://h1.ripway.com/google126/ I found above the best way to earn from google. (It is generating $1300/Mon)
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06/07/2009 02:09 am
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Deanmcman74
12/12/2011 09:20 pm
Dont judge the book by its own cover
raphaelnikolai
05/17/2012 07:26 am
IMO, websites can become ugly with adsense... it earns more by placing adsense inside the content, thus becoming ugly..