We operate dozens of websites. And nearly every one has Google’s Adsense as a form of revenue. But while we are strong advocates of adsense we’re growing wary of the burgeoning number of “adsense” websites out there.

A quick cruise of eBay or just about any popular webmaster forum highlights just how pervasive “adsense” websites have become. These are sites made specifically to generate adsense clicks. Using tactics to “blend” adsense into site content these sites are engineered for revenue only.

Many will argue that revenue is the only reason we all really have websites. We’ve all got our babies to feed, after all. And running a website, especially one with traffic, isn’t free.  

Years ago, as we all knuckled under books from the library to learn HTML, we built websites around our passions. These were the days of $70 domains and $50 per month hosting. That was when running a website cost money and we paid it gladly because the Internet allowed us to pontificate and become an expert in our own chosen passions. We saw a rebirth of writing and communication through text by this thing called the Web to ignite interest and provoke conversation about those things that mattered most to us. From niche specialities like car collecting to wildly raucous forums discussing politics, the Internet used to be about what mattered — and not what it could make.

As we went from less than 100,000 people online in 1994 to billions today, the money naturally changed us. And for some, we’ve been suckered into forgetting what makes our websites so important in the first place. It isn’t us, as webmasters and developers. It is about the audience we reach. It is about our customers.

And that’s the first rule of understanding and mastering this nonsense called adsense.

Stop building your site for the ads. Go back to building your site for the user. It is the classic business theory: begin with the end in mind. The end isn’t the dollar in the pocket at the end of the month. It is the ability to stay in business next month because those customers have to come back.

Here are some tips for avoiding adsense-mania:

1. A click is just a click — away from your website. So while you want the ads to justify the space you are dedicating to them you have to acknowledge that once you lose a site user to an ad you might not get them back. Is it worth it to you more to lose the visitor for a .25 cent click…or would you rather have the $20 dollar sale or, better yet, their loyalty to return again and again to your site?

2. Adsense is a win-win. The beauty of it (and likely Google’s reason for the runaway success of adsense) is that the ads shown relate to the content you generate. Your customers see relevant links. Don’t make adsense more valuable than your content. Content is what draws repeat visitors to your website. Make it better and adsense will serve you well. Diminishing your focus on content to generate greater adsense clicks will only cause you to throw that site up on ebay before too long.

3. Get away from adsense as your only source of revenue. It makes a great revenue stream…but a lousy sole provider of income. Offer a service, sell a product, or even delve into selling your own links, banners and sponsorships. Magazines and newspapers have survived more than a century that way. Why not your website?

We’re not saying to do away with adsense. We still love it. But for Pete’s sake — adsense is not what your site is or should be about.