As a website publisher, you are probably considering different options for getting revenue from your site – and there are definitely many options to choose from. The two most popular ways to earn revenue from a content filled website today are Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network. The terms of service for each program, however, state that it will be a violation to run their ad units on the same page with similar ad units from a different company. What this means is that it is Google AdSense vs. Yahoo Publisher Network – which one will win the race to be displayed on your website?

Many publishers have tested both Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network ads on their pages. The most accurate findings were from sites that ran the AdSense ads on a specific page for a specified period of time, and then ran the Yahoo Publisher Network ads on the same page, for a specified period of time. The website owners compare results from the same time of the day on the same day of the week as when the alternating ads ran. This gives us the most accurate insight into which advertising network produces the best revenue.

The majority of these tests have shown one common result. You profit more with AdSense, even though Yahoo Publisher Network offers higher paying ads. The findings were quite odd in fact. Not only did these publishers make more money from ads that paid less, they also found that while Yahoo Publisher Network ads were usually ‘top of the line name brand ads,’ the AdSense ads were mostly for smaller companies and startups – yet these ads were the ones that produced the most overall revenue for the website owners.

Most publishers who have done these tests agree that this oddity is probably due to the fact that Google uses more advanced technology to determine which ads are most likely going to be clicked on, while Yahoo only shows ads that match the content of the page, with no regard to how clickable the ad may be.

Unfortunately, many publishers quickly change over to YPN when they realize that the payouts per click are higher, without doing any testing – or even any research on the testing that has been done. If the publisher was doing well with the AdSense program, that publisher can expect a call from the Google AdSense team, in an effort to convince the publisher to return home to AdSense.

From what some of these publishers report, Google tends to negotiate higher payouts with these successful publishers in order to get them back into the AdSense program – and they live up to their promises. This may be incentive to switch to YPN– just to get asked back to Google – at a better payout rate…but don’t try this tactic if your site doesn’t produce well for Google’s advertisers!

If you are considering a switch, make sure that you do your own testing to see if the switch is really what is best for you and your site. Try AdSense on some pages, and YPN on other pages – and do some ‘same page, same day, same time of day’ testing as well to get a good sense of what will happen to your revenue should you make the switch!

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Michael Cheney's AdSense videos  allow you to look over his shoulder and see what he does to make$19,000 per month in AdSense revenue. 

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