I logged into my Google AdSense account today to be greeted by a large message telling me about Google’s new AdSense Direct feature.  As someone who manages his direct ads through a third party software, I quickly took notice and started playing with it.

First off, AdSense Direct is a way to sell advertising directly to a company that wants to advertise with your website.  Here’s a video describing the service:

Here are the Pros and Cons as I see it today:

Pros:

1. AdSense Direct allows you to sell directly to an advertiser
2. The Advertiser can pay directly to Google, thus eliminating the need for payment collection.
3. AdSense Direct hosts and serves the advertisement for you
4. There’s a calculator that recommends what you should charge. This appears to be based on your current RPM
5. Once the advertisement campaign is over AdSense reverts back to their normal ads

Cons:

1. Campaigns are limited to 90 days
2. A campaign takes up 100% of AdSense inventory – meaning no other ads will show if this is your only ad source
3. Google takes 15% of what the advertiser pays you
4. Campaigns must start 5 days from today and no sooner

I’ll continue to play with AdSense Direct and will update you on what I find.  In Google fashion, I’m sure they will improve upon the feature as more and more people use it.

Here are some more tips on monetizing your blog or forum.