BetterTextAds.com

This question is coming up more and more frequently as the number of members of BetterTextAds.com grows.

I’ve been avoiding the question to some extent because I’m not a lawyer and I can’t give you advice on interpreting contracts you have entered into with another party (ie., Google). But, I’m getting asked the question so often that I thought I would do a little research and give you my thoughts on the matter.

I will point you to a passage in Google’s Adsense terms and conditions:

“If You have elected to receive content or Site-based Ads, You further agree not to display on any Serviced Page any non-Google content-targeted advertisement(s).”

This seems to indicate that Google doesn’t want you display other content-targeted ads ON THE SAME PAGE where you have adsense ads. Of course, that begs the question, what constitutes a “content-targeted” ad. Seems to me that ANY ad you put on your website is content-targeted (you wouldn’t put ads for Viagra on a website for kids, for example).

And BetterTextAds.com is not content-targeted in the same way that Adsense is. The Adsense technology actually reads the content of your page as it is displayed to a visitor to determine what ads to show. But with BetterTextAds.com, you, as a webmaster, have to select the category of ads you want displayed when you create your BTA ad block code. And isn’t that the same as deciding which ad banner to display at the top of your site?

But I’m getting off-track. My advice to you is to take a close look at Google’s full terms and conditions to determine if you should put BetterTextAd.com ads on the same page with Adsense ads. Get some legal counsel to help you if you still aren’t sure.

The bottom line is that you are responsible to make sure that you adhere to the terms of the contracts you enter into. BetterTextAds.com has no provision that prevents you from displaying BTA ad blocks along with Adsense ad units. And that is all I can say on the matter. It’s up to you to determine whether or not Adsense has such a provision and whether or not you are willing to risk your relationship with Google if you violate it.

That’s my two-cents for today,

- Dan

PS: Please feel free to post comments on this. I’d love to know what others think about this topic.

A BetterTextAds.com member recently cancelled his membership. This in and of itself is not a big deal. As anyone who manages a membership site or maintains a list can tell you, members unsubscribe all the time for a variety of reasons. Some discover that the service or list was not what they expected. Some are trying to simplify their lives by limiting the number of opportunities they participate in. And, on rare occassions, a person may be unsatisfied with the service he or she receives.

But on this particular occassion, the member left a comment explaining his decision to leave. It was a one line comment and it said, simply:

“I dont(sic) work for others. I work for myself.”

I found this to be a rather odd statement. And it’s probably indicative if this person’s level of understanding of sales, service, marketing and economy in general.

No one works for himself. The owners and CEO’s of the biggest and most successful companies don’t work for themselves. They work for their customers and shareholders.

So, too, the lone Internet marketer. His job-his responsibility-is to find or create products and information FOR his customers that fill some need they have. If he can’t do that, if he can’t provide value for his customers-actual or perceived-then he is not going to be successful.

Now, let’s talk about you and your membership in BetterTextAds.com. As a member, you definitely have a job to do. You have to bring at least 3 unique visitors to your website each and every day and show them each an ad block on behalf of those who brought you into their Affiliate Marketing Team (AMT). And you know what? This is the same job that the members of YOUR team have to do for you.

We are all working FOR each other, folks, and FOR our website visitors. And because we are working in teams rather than on our own, we are multiplying the effects of our efforts so that we can all benefit.

John Donne put it best when he wrote, “No man is an island…” He was absolutely right. None of us can make it in online marketing, or in anything else worth doing, entirely by ourselves. We need teachers and mentors…we need writers and programmers…we need friends, advocates and partners…and of course, we we need our customers.

Before I close, I’ll leave you with another famous quote, this one by Bob Dylan:

You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Until next time, take care of each other…

- Dan