You're actually losing money with Google Adsense
(This is a guest author article.)
Let me make it clear at once that this article is aimed more at my well-meaning friends in the blogging world who had this wrong notion that google adsense is actually a good way to earn money online with your website. If you're one of those google fans who think they can do no wrong, you can actually stop reading this now. Much of what I am going to say will be to your distaste.
First let me begin by saying that google adsense is actually a good way to LOSE money. Sounds screwy? Let's examine the situation as it exists today and see what "benefits" you get out of hosting google ads on your website.
- You sign up with the google adsense programme to get the "privilege" of hosting google's ad on your website. Note that you have agreed to a lot of terms and conditions at this point just to get this dubious privilege. I'll come back to the ToS later.
- Your advertisers pay google, not you, to have their links put up on your site.
- Google controls your rightful money until you actually receive the payment. There is no guarantee that google will honour their agreement. The slightest doubt on their part and they can easily withhold your payment (example, by citing ToS violations, fraud clicks etc.) Fighting them in court might end up being way too expensive and impractical.
- Since you do not receive payment as and when you get the clicks, you are losing interest on that money which you might have earned if it was in your bank account or you had invested it.
- You have to constantly keep worrying about whether your content is not in violation of google adsense. Furthermore, since anybody can advertise on your site with "targetted" content, your competitors can easily get valuable exposure on your own website and you have to constantly monitor the links which is a headache. While it might be possible to block your competitors, sometimes you have no idea who your competitors truly are.
- Finally google adsense isn't exactly free of spam either. In spite of their strict control, I have seen quite a few spammy links from adsense.
End result? You might not lose anything by putting up adsense on your blog or website, but if you are a small-to-medium site website with moderate traffic, it'll take you ages to earn at a few pennies per click enough to make it worthwhile. The return on investment is actually negative if you consider monetary inflation and interest rates. Finally, because google refuses to allow you to diclose or discuss anything adsense related you are left with no option to negotiate a contract with them. But by hosting adsense ads on your valuable cyber-real estate, you are giving google more advertising revenue and their clients more exposure with their ads. What you get is an undisclosed portion of google's earnings. How can anybody have any idea what percentage of the cut google takes?
And what would really hurt you is your credibility if people see advertising on your website and think that you're making millions off it. Sometimes people tend to feel that any form of advertising on websites is bad and google isn't an exception to the general rule. How can you be sure that they don't see an advertisement for product X, Y or Z which you have actually criticized in your articles? Wouldn't seeing that ad on the very page where you criticize it reduce the credibility of your opinion? How many people will be convinced that you had nothing to do with the links in your ads?
When google stop making their ads clicks-based and pay their content publishers up-front, I'll reconsider adsense. Until then, I will consider it an excellent way to lose money. Better to have no advertising than google advertising.
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I agree that there are better ways to make money then AdSense. But many people do not take the time to test other offers.
I test monthly to find new offers that convert.
BeachBum
hari, you hit on a point that describes why I don't host adverts on my website. I have a friend (lives in the same town, even) who has tried to get me to clutter up my site with a few (and some other money making schemes) again, but the upkeep is not worth it to me.
Beachbum, yes. Most people use google adsense because it is convenient and the google brand is quite strong. Otherwise I see no advantages.
MrCorey, true. People tend to get a feeling that you're earning loads of money with ads but reality is way different.
What you are saying makes sense. I have been looking around at replacements on our site, not because I expect huge money but because I don't like the ads displayed a lot of the time.
Actually, the things that bother me most is that there is no transparency in what percentage Google is paying their publishers, and it's expected for us to trust them to be honest simply because, well, Google would no wrong! Secondly, their TOS are a joke. I understand the need for some guidelines, but like was pointed out, they certainly aren't opposed to accepting revenue from spammy ads that appear on our sites. Finally, my first month of running AdSense I made around $250 … my first month, with very little traffic. Now that traffic is much much higher, well, about half that. I don't think it adds up.
Precisely. The lack of transparency is what really annoys me.
I dumped AdSense a few months back. I was making good money from them in prior months but out of the blue the bottom just fell out.
I went from making $10+ per day on one site to making 10 cents a day on that same site. My tracking data showed the same amount of clicks but Google no longer did.
I sent many emails to Google but no response ever came. So I dumped them.
I replaced them with CPM and CPA ads and I am making more now than I did when I ran AdSense!
The problem with AdSense is that Google holds ALL the cards. They tell you nothing unless they are about to ban you. The only exception are people who bring in tons of revenue for Google. If you are a major player they bend over backwards for you. Minor player? Ban.
The funny thing is that AdSense/AdWords is Google's prime income source. You can't have one without the other yet they treat their AdSense members as guilty criminals!
You cant prevent your enemies or competitors from clicking on your ads. Anyone who doesn't like you can get you banned by clicking fraudalently few dozen times. Google can only detect the clicks and have no means to findout who physically clicked. No alerts, No warnings, no second chance. You're banned.
On the other hand those who have mastered the art of cheating Google run full time business (even employing few people to click) elsewhere clicking on the ads…
Well, we certainly seem to have a one-sided discussion on our hands here…so let's try & play devils advocate. I have hosted Google Adsense on eJabs.com for around 9 months now…so let's review my experience.
I make around $70/mth via Adsense every month w/little to no interaction or maintenance. Not bad.
I have had no issues w/banning or false clicks.
I DO NOT like the fact that I have no idea how much Google is profiting on the ads hosted on my website.
Am I loosing money? Absolutely not…I believe that is the most ridiculous part of this article (in my experience).
Google's support for their Adsense customers sucks. That is the best point in this article. Also, the fact that Adsense is Google's money maker appears true, yet they still have an egotistical view of their ad hosting/money making "partners".
In the end, have I benefited from Adsense? Yes. Have I benefited fairly? I don't know.
Your article brings up good points, but is obviously skewed & therefore needs rethinking.
You're not physically losing money. You're losing money on the interest you might earn if you had direct control of your own money before google sends it to you.
Also if you think in terms of the few pennies/click rate the money value is actually a negative rate of income growth for you over a period of time (with the dollar falling adding to the decline).
You are losing money if you look at it this way. And no, I was no skewed. I hosted google ads for nearly a year before I gave up after I had earned just less than $100. I had no problems with their payment either as they sent me the cheque, but I decided to call it a day then since I was worried about their ToS.
If you put everything into perspective, you actually do lose money with AdSense. If you monetize in no other way, and have no desire to, perhaps not. If you do, you'll make less money with other monetization methods due to Google's ToS restrictions.
Sponsored posts is a good idea instead. I don't want Adsense there on my blog but I know not exactly of other such stuff that i can try out, for my bad luck, most of the things I hit upon turn out to be fraud. I found Bidvertiser a good choice but they require a credit card for crediting me, that I don't have.
What's the idea of drafting a list of all the services that can help ?
I would be open to alternatives if any exist. I don't necessarily want to do sponsored posts. But how does one find legitimate sources for persons who can (and will) pay to run an ad on one's page?
I agree with you on these points and Adsense is not the only way to make money, but the problem is that Google has started dominating the internet and we cant do anything about it.
I have been moving into the CPA field and doing better than I was under AdSense. Like I wrote above, I was doing very well with Google until they pulled the rug out from under me and stopped counting my clicks. I kept them on site just long enough to break the $100 mark and then dumped them.
[...] Adsense – Huge income potential (if done correctly,) but your account can be banned – Ouch! [...]
Truth of the mater is that Adsense isn't for every site. It is great for monetizing sites with lots of search engine. It is also create for cashing in on blog posts that get search engine traffic for competitive terms. You need to keep your CTR above 3% or you can end up with smart pricing…RT I know you knew all this already
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With CPC going down day by day its better to gain audience and replace your ad space with something worthwhile…
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I use adsense just to gain the benevolence of the GoogleGods.
I want traffic, Google is the dispenser of traffic.
I look at it this way: You want something from Google (we all do), Help Google and Google can make you rich.
What Simon said last year is spot on: Adsense is not for every site/blog what have you.
I don't make much… but it's extra money that I don't have to do anything to earn.