In addition to my other thread about using templates, just curious if it would be a very bad idea to use adsense on the main site for a small hosting company? I'd like to be able to "monetize" the visitors so that even if they don't like what I offer and end up not returning to my site, I can still make some money, but I'm not sure if it would actually hurt me to do so.

I could probably get away with it on the site's blog and forums (maybe) but I know about the click rates on those sites being lower, so I'm thinking maybe it would be better to just scrap AdSense altogether. Thoughts?

Personally, if I were to go looking for a paid hosting service I would stay away from ad-ridden hosts. It simply doesn't look professional. Targeted affiliate ads, maybe, but definetely not Adsense. Also, the presence of ads would seem to imply that the host is hurting for money — which may be true, perhaps, but image is important.

As for ads in the blog or forum, well... normally I'd say no but I could make exceptions depending on the type of ad. Still not Adsense, though.

Thanks for the input.

Terrible idea for a number of reasons.

#1 You're a hosting company, so the ads shown will be for hosting. For other hosting companies. That means someone might be looking at your plans and then they see an ad for a competitor that offers more for less $$$. Bye bye customer.

#2 You do have an image to protect, you know? Ads on a site selling a service or product says "we're not secure enough about our business model that we are going to scrimp for every penny we can"

Makes sense. Thanks for the input.

Generating a little extra revenue from adsense can always be helpful but you should keep it separate from your hosting site. What you could do is start a blog or something and have ads on there.

You should work on to give your website a professional look , so that customers must attract visiting your site.

Using adsense will result you to lose number of customers.

Keep your hosting site clean and professional, then you can start another site about whatever you want and put the ads their.

Thank you all for the advice. I appreciate it.

I might not be a bad idea to use adsense on a compariaion page. You can use this page to compare your site to other hosts and maybe include some adsense.