...arketers, are a long way from understanding whatmarketing really is.As is often the case, there were those who saw Google as a greatogre out to stop them making a living, and these people were theones stimulating a discussion on Google Adsense.Google Adsense - Who Is The Customer here?As far as online advertising goes, Google is a market leader,and deservedly so. Their pioneering approach has always beenwell ahead of the opposition, although others are trying hard tocatch up....

... However, they have a dual role, as reflected by twoproducts, Adsense and Adwords.For the purpose of this discussion, I will concentrate onAdsense, as this was where many online "marketers" seem to getconfused. For those who do not know about Adsense, this is apartnership product of Google, through which Google and web siteowners come to an agreement for the web publisher to show Googleads on their web sites, and share on any income when somebodyclicks on the ads. Adsense has given many web site owners thechance to bring in some extra income.What I found so strange about one of the discussions I mentionedin the first paragraph, was that some people who own web sitessee themselves as the customer, and Google as the supplier, whenit comes to Adsense. Coming from the real world of magazineadvertising, I have no problem understanding that it is thepublisher who is the supplier, and the advertiser, or theiragent, who is the customer.Those who seek to attract advertising of any form to a magazineknow that, as a publisher, they need first to look after theirreading customers. To do that, they seek to provide good qualitymaterial for the magazine, and present it in an attractive waythat will attract and retain readers. Only when they have donethat can they expect to attract good advertising customers.Ultimately, those who survive in online publishing in the longterm, and who will depend on advertising revenue, will recognizethat an advertiser is a customer, and needs to be treated like acustomer, not a provider of a service. Google may not be atraditional media buyer, but they are the first of a new wave ofmedia buyers who will yield a lot of power for the long term.For now, though, it appears that many web site owners thinkGoogle owes them a living, and that they, the publisher, are thecustomer. Such people may well benefit from a journey intoreality, to a bookstore or magazine stall where they can browsethrough magazines and see what publishing is about.Why Should Web Site Owners Write Copy?The second discussion was, in a way, related, as it reflectedthe way many internet marketers do not see themselves as webpublishers, but people who have to use the latest tools to trickthe search engines. That discussion related to duplicatecontent, and whether using such content will get publishersbanned by Google. It rapidly moved on to public label rightsarticles, and the degree to which, if any, that they should berewritten.Some, like I, argued strongly for rewriting to make a web pagecompetitive. There was no notable disagreement on that, but whenone individual took the idea on board, the reaction was: "Ok,what tools do you use?"This reflects a tendency, amongst those trying to make a livingonline, that the solution to any problem is a tool, a piece ofsoftware that does the work for you. That's all very well forsome things, but for writing an article? Would a genuinepublisher want software to do an article rewrite? No, of coursenot.In the long run, it is those businesses that understand theirmarket place which will survive and prosper. Recognizing acustomer is not a bad place to start; and understanding thatthey will expect good quality publishing is another.