- You definitely take up valuable screen space with ads.
- Site visitors may wonder about your focus and service attitude.
- Without significant monitoring, you can actually show competitor ads.
- They add no value for your site visitors, as you could link them to value content without being paid for it.
The fact is that screens are getting smaller, with more notebooks out there. The part of the screen visible before scrolling (called "above the fold") is shrinking. Wasting any of that valuable space for the tiny stream of revenue these ads might bring you is usually a big mistake.
What type of "tiny" revenue am I talking about? Most real estate sites don't have enough traffic to generate more than a couple of dollars a month in Adsense revenue. Think about it logically. If you have a real estate brokerage focused site, and it's so busy that you have plenty of leads and clients, then:
- You shouldn't be worried about a few bucks of ad revenue.
- Your high traffic site means that the screen space is even more valuable.
- Losing any screen space that could produce leads will bring in far less reveune from ads.
- With a lot of traffic, you have more to risk if they don't like ads.
Some agents and brokers have done local ads, setting aside space and building custom ads for title companies and others related to real estate. This could be a reasonable revenue stream if you charge them enough for the space. But, the amount of setup, maintenance and billing is a drawback.
In short, concentrate on your main business, real estate. Consider every screen pixel as extremely valuable, and use your screen area wisely. Provide interesting and valuable content for your visitors, and the commission income will be enough that you'll forget all about ads.
