There have been many debates about using Adsense on E-commerce sites.

One theory suggests that to include Adsense on a site that sells a product or multiple products is a distraction for the customer. After all you want them to buy from you and not leave through a link – possibly to a competitor – that only pays you $0.25, if that.

The other theory is – and actually this is a fact – your visitor will leave your site at some point. You might as well provide choices for them which will pay you something. Even if its just a little bit of money, its better than nothing.

We all know that the online surfer is an information seeker first, buyer second. He/she will usually visit the same web site multiple times before making a purchase. The exception to this are the visitors who have searched for something specific, found your web site, see that you have what they need – so they buy. But generally visitors come – look around and then they leave.

I was reluctant to put Adsense on my E-commerce sites because I didn’t want to distract them from making a purchase with me. Boy, was I wrong.

One of my niche stores DoodleMyShoes.com has an average of 12,000 unique visitors each and every month. Considering that the average conversion rate for a web store is less than 10% – that means 10,800 people are leaving that store without putting any money in my pocket. If they are going to leave – and they will – I want them to leave a few pennies with me.

So, why not include some Adsense on your web site?

I did. I added Adsense to DoodleMyShoes.com and was amazed at how many people clicked through. I’ve made the ad block quite bland – it blends in, too much actually. But, people are still clicking them.

I know there is no point crying over spilled milk, but I was leaving an average of $50 per month on table by not having Adsense on that site. So, for the year I didn’t include Adsense, I lost $600 in revenue. Kinda stupid huh?

Oh and the best part – my average monthly sales have not dropped since adding the Adsense block.

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