An insight into the AdSense-Good and Evil

Generally, web Publishers and bloggers prefer Google AdSense to other digital advertising platforms when it comes to monetization. I tried to give an insight into the AdSense network.

There were allegations on Google for making its AdSense approval process biased. Google seriously investigate publishers from third world like India, Pakistan and some African countries in approving AdSense accounts. The theory is that hundreds and thousands of publishers from these countries tried to cheat AdSense programs by fraudulent means.

For instance, Mr. X is an AdSense publisher from the third world and he started 100 blogger blogs. The content on these blogs is absolutely mediocre. He placed AdSense code on these blogs and asked his 100 friends to click them.

This is illegal and it directly harms AdWords advertisers. This made Google act rigidly in approving publisher applications. Unconditionally Google’s judgment is acceptable in this case.

Publishers and bloggers love AdSense advertising program for 2 reasons:

1.Brand

People trust established networks and more than 67% of people use Google search engine.

2. High CPC (Cost per click)

One couldn’t find any other advertising program offering High CPC as Google. It might be one of the reasons Google has still been dominating digital advertising space since 2003.

On the other hand, Google’s monopoly is condemnable. Hundreds of thousands of publisher accounts around the world got banned straightaway. The reasons according to Google are invalid clicks and page impressions, encouraging others to click ads, clicking your own ads, using automated software, paid traffic to click ads, placing ads on the positions which misleads visitors, modifying code and using code in other formats like Pop-ups. These reasons seem legitimate and undeniable.

But Google doesn’t furnish evidence of invalid click activity to publishers. The reason they say is to safeguard the advertisers. Moreover, AdSense will give publishers hard-earned money back to advertisers. This is something fishy right.

Know why new bloggers should not blog for the sake of AdSense

To make my readers understandable I’ve come up with 3 stories and related questions.

Story 1:

Mr. X is an honest blogger and he owns 3 blogs. He implemented AdSense on all his three blogs. He optimized his blogs well and promoted his blog posts on social media. Subscribers found his articles informative and insightful.

Mr. X is a disciplined blogger and he hates Blackhat techniques. He strictly followed Google terms of service and rules. So, life was pretty awesome for him. He could see a steady increase in AdSense income.

Google dispatched verification pin after 2 requests and Mr. X verified it successfully. The day finally arrived when his AdSense income crossed the $100 mark. Mr. X was confident and pretty excited to receive earnings. Next day he failed to sign in and was almost shocked to see the message below.

Yes, Google disabled his account for invalid click activity. Mr. X won’t get a single penny from his earnings. Google says the money will be returned to the advertisers. He failed in providing stats while applying for reconsideration. Google banned him for a lifetime.

Note: Many people provide the right stats to Google while reconsidering but most of the time their accounts are not reinstated.

Questions to Google (Part 1)

1. Why should publishers need to sacrifice their previous earnings for the sake of invalid clicks?

2. How can you blame a publisher if he can’t control the traffic and invalid clicks?

3. Failing to provide suspicious traffic doesn’t mean the publisher is guilty of invalid click activity. What is your stance on it?

4. If Google could sniff any unusual activity, then why can’t they distinguish between fake traffic and genuine traffic?

5. Google has a revenue share of 32% in AdSense for content and 49% in search. Google didn’t disclose revenue shares in other products. Will they return the revenue to the advertisers if a publisher is found guilty? If yes then it must provide evidence of doing it.

Idris Sami of MesTextos was an Adsense victim and he lost $46,416 in January 2014. To the surprise Google rejected his appeal.

Story 2:

Mr. Y is a small blogger and he hosted his 2 blogs on Blogger. He even has his own YouTube channel. He applied for hosted AdSense account and got approved as a publisher. He started monetizing his blogs and YouTube channel. Everything was working fine and his earnings were satisfactory. One day his AdSense account got disabled for some reasons.

Google found some suspicious activity on his blogs. Mr. Y was banned for a lifetime. He lost his earnings and he can’t monetize his YouTube channel any more. He tried other alternatives to monetize his blogger blogs. He was successful in attracting huge traffic to one of his blogs. One day Google removed his blogger blog saying that it seems like a spam blog.

Questions to Google (Part 2)

1. Many bloggers complained that when a blogger blog attracts huge traffic and popular Google removes it without any notice. If Google finds any suspicious activity on blog, why don’t they warn the blogger before removing it? This is insane.

Sometimes bloggers may not have a backup of their blog. Moreover, if a blogger applies for blog reconsideration it may take 15 days or more. In the meantime, traffic gets evaporated and bloggers are left with a bad reputation. Google may argue that it is offering hosting for free and they have their own policies. Then why the hell did they buy Blogger and maintain it if they are not concerned about the users.

2. If a blogger found guilty of invalid ad clicks on blog, then why should he sacrifice his YouTube earnings and monetization program.

Story 3

Mr. Z is a self-proclaimed Pro blogger. You could usually see unethical bloggers like Mr. Z in the third world. They are good at promoting their agenda and building networks with like-minded people. Mr. Z uses blogger blogs only to make money with AdSense. He fills out all the keywords on the page just to fool search engines and people.

Sometimes he starts blogger blogs exclusively for events like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving Day or friendship day and examination results. In simple words he does keyword stuffing which is illegal according to Google. Mr. Z also created secret groups on social networking sites to get his AdSense ads clicked by members. But he aggressively earns hundreds of thousands of dollars per month without adding any value to the readers.

Questions to Google (Part 3)

1. Is it not an illegitimate activity? Users are often annoyed to see useless sites with lots of keywords ranking on the first page of Google. They are earning thousands of dollars and Google doesn’t find anything wrong with event blogs.

Facts

1. Google’s support is worse for any publisher. They couldn’t be reached by phone or email. The forum is not helpful. Google really cares about their AdWords advertisers with whom they are generating revenue worth billions of dollars.

2. If a publisher gets banned for any because he can join AdWords in the next moment. AdWords representative calls you once you give your personal details.

Conclusion

Despite knowing about Google’s monopoly greedy publishers still crave AdSense. We need a strong alternative to AdSense in the near future. At least the innocent publishers could be saved.