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How To Get Reinstated In Google AdSense

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:26am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is constantly banning AdSense publishers - it is nothing new.

What is new is publishers being reinstated into the Google AdSense program.

An article named Regulator helps David beat Goliath Google via theAge tells a story on how after months of being banned, Google reinstated his account but only after the regulators got involved.

First, he appealed directly with Google but was denied. Then he took his case to the NSW Fair Trading, a regulator in Australia. They did their investigation and shortly after, Google told him that after "thoroughly reviewing" his account, they have decided to reinstated it and refunded him the $131 it had withheld when it had suspended his account last September.

These cases are very rare.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google To Complete AdSense Report Migration By End Of Month

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

In November 2009 Google introduced the new AdSense interface and we are now well over two-years into it where I believe all publishers have been migrated but we still have migration issues from the old interface to the new.

One of those issues are old legacy reports from the old interface.

Google AdSense Engineer Guillaume said they hope to wrap up those last issues by the end of this month. He responded to a complaint that there are these old reports in the new interface that are not usable, nor can they be deleted. Guillaume said in a Google AdSense Help thread:

We aware of the issue; it's an unfortunate side-effect of the migration of saved reports from the old to the new interface. The migration is taking longer than initially planned, precisely due to some old reports not having exact equivalents in the new interface. We're hoping to complete the migration soon, hopefully by the end of this month.

Google is known for giving timelines and missing them. One specific example is the Google Apps and Google+ migration issues that was promised months ago and is still lingering on.

So if you have these AdSense issues - hopefully Google will hit this target and your reporting issues will be resolved by the end of this month.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Jef Poskanzer ACME Banned From Google AdSense

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is constantly banning AdSense publishers but this new ban is very interesting.

About two weeks ago, Google banned Jef Poskanzer, a computer programmer, known for being the first person to post a weekly FAQ to Usenet, and the owner of acme.com. He is incredibly well known in the Internet world - so this is ban is a big deal.

Yesterday, he informed the world of his AdSense ban and explained how he has no idea how it happened. Google basically told him that his site generates too much invalid clicks and Google needs to protect their AdWords advertisers. But in the 8.5 years of his site running AdSense, he never had an issue before like this.

Even Google's Matt Cutts got wind of the news and posted it on his Google+ page where you can see he is torn. He wrote:

I just saw that we terminated Jef Poskanzer from AdSense, which caused Nelson Minar (former Googler and one of the creators of the Ads API) to give up on defending us. . I can't easily imagine Jef Poskanzer was click-spamming AdSense, while at the same time I trust the judgment and abilities of the AdSense team. +Jef Poskanzer , I hope someone digs into the case to investigate deeply and reaches out if there's any more info we can share.

Yea, read the post by Nelson Minar at somebits.com - he writes "Google is too powerful, too arrogant, too entrenched to be worth our love. Let them defend themselves, I'd rather devote my emotional energy to the upstarts and startups. They deserve our passion." I rarely ever see a former Googler badmouth Google but it is happening more and more these days.

Anyway, I wonder if Google will reverse their decision on this quickly or share more information. This is pretty huge.

Forum discussion at Hacker News and Google+.

Google Engineer Explains Why Your AdSense Earnings May Drop

Fetched: January 31st, 2012, 5:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Guillaume, a outspoken Google AdSense engineer, has spent a lot of time replying to complaints about pricing in a Google AdSense Help thread.

He goes through why a site may see a reduction in the dollars they make per click even after the estimated earnings are a certain price.

Of course he posts the "Smart Pricing" video:

But he also adds a lot of detail about how the AdSense pricing algorithms 'think.'

From a technical point of view, the question is ill defined. Google does not "consider traffic from social media sites" to be anything. Instead, quality is an intrinsic property of the traffic:
1) Invalid clicks. Google examines individual clicks and impressions, and tries to figure out if they are valid or not. A source of traffic is not low or high quality because Google considers it is, but the reverse: Google's algorithms try to reflect the quality of the traffic by detecting invalid clicks accurately.
2) Conversions and smart pricing. Are users genuinely interested in the ads they click? Are they generating conversions to advertisers? Again, Google does not decide in advance that a kind of traffic is high-value. Instead, Google measures the conversion rate, and applies Smart Pricing accordingly.
There might be patterns emerging from this, for instance related to social media sites. As an engineer, I have no idea. Personally, I believe that there is no such general rule, all depends on the specific case of each publisher.
I think that trying to correlate general problems and disconnected symptoms with rumors or the experience of a few other publishers who are probably very different, then extrapolating what could have happened, is not a successful approach in general. Instead, publishers should try to understand their own traffic in isolation. Measuring, gathering facts, looking carefully at reports (like I did with all accounts I looked at so far) works better, because it does not rely on statistics. Most of the time, the questions of the publisher can be answered by a report showing a peak or an anomaly. (Then the problem is often that publishers think or hope that their traffic is high quality, and refuse to admit that it may not be the case all the time, and that the problem is not Google's fault but their's.)

If you have been hit by something like this, I strongly recommend you read the Google engineers posts in the Google AdSense Help thread and see how you can change your content and traffic to drive better quality users to your site.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Did You Get Your Taxes From Google AdSense?

Fetched: January 30th, 2012, 6:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has begun sending out the 1099 tax forms to qualifying Google AdSense publishers last and this week.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers claiming they have received theirs. Not every publisher gets one. You have to be U.S. resident, the income has to be paid to an individual and you have to earn over a certain threshold I believe.

Google has some of their AdSense tax information over here, if you are curious on the details.

Here is a sample 1099, and yea, I wish, of my earnings. :)

I mocked this up myself.

In any event, I hope your 1099 looks excellent for 2011!

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Publishers Want Refund For Google AdSense Outage

Fetched: January 23rd, 2012, 2:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

This Friday, dozens of reports came from the Google AdSense Help forum that Google AdSense ads were simply not loading.

The reports continued throughout the day and publishers were not making money, at all.

The reports were sporadic, not all publishers saw their ads as being offline, only some.

Google confirmed the issue at Marketing Land and in the Google AdSense Help forums. Chris from Google said:

Thanks for posting about this here. I'm working to get you more info on what happened, but in looking at many sites it does appear that ad serving has been restored.
I'll try to post here as soon as possible, as well as updating the Known Issues page.
Thanks for your patience.

Then later on in the day, he said it was fixed:

I just got confirmation from our engineering teams that ad serving is back to normal for all partners at this point. Thanks for your patience and attention here!

But even after that post, some publishers said there was still an issue. But now, a few days later, it seems everyone now is serving up ads properly. It is however still listed on the known issues page as an issue.

One publisher asked a legit question:

Our ads are back too and working fine but we've lost income. It means that our lost on that day is not recoverable?

Yep, if no one saw the ads - I doubt you'll be getting paid for it.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Kindle Fire Android Don't Show Google AdSense Ads

Fetched: January 10th, 2012, 8:23pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Did you know that your Google AdSense ads won't show up for Kindle Fire users? Don't you find that interesting? The Kindle Fire runs Google's Android OS but when you try to view AdSense ads with them, you won't get them.

A Google AdSense Help thread has reports from AdSense publishers and those advertising using AdSense that the ads do not render on the Kindle Fire.

I snapped a picture using my iPhone of the iPad next to the Kindle Fire and showed how the iPad loads the ads but not the Kindle Fire:

Chris from Google said in the thread:

Thanks for posting about this here. I will investigate and get back to you as soon as I can.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Publishers Excited For 2012

Fetched: January 3rd, 2012, 8:35pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has several Google AdSense publishers already excited to kick off the new year in anticipation for strong earnings in 2012.

Publishers are expecting 2012 to be their best year in terms of earnings with the Google AdSense product.

One publisher said:

Must admit I've had a very fine AdSense year in 2011, and I am working on building my site so that next year is even better! Looking to hit my first triple digit day in 2012, came very very close in 2011, I'll work hard to see it does in the next year.

Another said:

I had a good run in 2011 - managed to add one more figure to my monthly AdSense earnings.
January historically is not a bad month for me. What are your hopes and plans for January and the new year?

So what are you planning to do to maximize your Google AdSense earnings?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Image credit on ShutterStock for 2012 growth image.

Google Now Selecting Your AdSense Fonts

Fetched: December 30th, 2011, 9:05pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google announced that they may now auto-pick the font size and face depending on the viewer's screen.

Google said they will "optimize your ad units for your unique site and users." That means, if you selected to use the "default" font option, Google will select the "best-performing option" automatically for you. The "best-performing option" may differ based on the type of user visiting your site, so to determine that, Google looks at operating system and browser and the ad unit itself (language, size, number of ads, etc).

Google said this only will work if you have your fonts set to âAdSense default font familyâ and âAdSense default font sizeâ selected.

Back in July, we reported users noticing Google testing font size changes with their ads - I guess it was a test for this.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Blue Arrows In Google AdSense Ads?

Fetched: December 20th, 2011, 1:21pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help have people noticing a new format for Google AdSense ads.

The ads have large blue curved arrows and appear to be showing when viewing AdSense ads on iPads. Here is a picture:

I tried to see them myself of my iPad but I cannot see them - at least not on the sites I tried to see them on.

Do you see them? Is it just viewable on the iPad?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

CTR Dropping For Google AdSense Publishers?

Fetched: December 13th, 2011, 4:42pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has complaints from some Google AdSense publishers of low click through rates (CTR) compared to the average.

I don't use AdSense that much, so my data looks fine but there are a few people complaining about a recent huge decline in CTR on their ads. One said their CTR dropped as much as 40%.

My CTR dropped 40% on Thursday Dec. 9.
I don't know how they do it.
From 8% a few years back, to 5%, to 3%, to 2%, to ?%.
Reverse Fibonacci comes to mind - 13 - 8 - 5 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 0.
Is zero a number in the series? Here she comes.

One publisher said it is normal for December:

My CTR has dropped to that low too Sally, but this is normal for December and it might not pick back up until the second week of January. This is normal for at least for me and I know a few people on this board that know the same. I wouldnt panic over it.

Have you noticed a low CTR recently?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Ads Behind Login Can Be Relevant

Fetched: December 13th, 2011, 10:20am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense post shares an old tip to AdSense publishers about how Google can return relevant ads even when there is a login required to see the ad.

The issue is, Google's ad targeting feature works by sending a Google spider to read the page. If the spider/bot cannot read the page, the ads might not be on target to the content on the page.

The way around that is to give Google's ad bot a way to read the page behind the login.

To grant the AdSense crawler access, log in to your AdSense account and click on 'Account settings.' From there, scroll down to the 'Access and authorization' section and click on 'edit logins' next to crawler logins.

Then click on 'Add a Login.' You'll be prompted to fill in pertinent information that the AdSense crawler will use to log in to your site and crawl your content.

After that, you'll need to log in to Webmaster Tools to verify your website, if you haven't already done so. Once verified, the crawler will be able to log in successfully and scan your content to deliver more targeted ads.

Again, this is not new, it is pretty old but a reminder doesn't hurt.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Ads Covering Ads Upsets Google & Facebook Advertisers

Fetched: December 13th, 2011, 10:20am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

The Wall Street Journal has a story on how a new ad platform is gaining in popularity that basically seems to cover up the ads on other networks such as Google and Facebook.

Users download a decoration tool for their Facebook or other social networking pages and when they do that, it enables the tool developer to place ads on top of ads displayed on Google, Facebook, Yahoo and others. The WSJ said they are "inserting a layer of ads on websites or covering up other paying ads."

Here is a video from the WSJ on this:

AdSense publishers have a reason to be upset. They might be paying a CPM basis and get nothing out of this because their ads are covered by third party ads.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Best Google AdSense Tips

Fetched: December 7th, 2011, 1:08pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread is sharing tons of Google AdSense tips from Google publishers.

The thread is named "top 25 AdSense tips" but there are many more than just 25 tips.

Here are some, but please join the thread to share your tips:

Use recommended ad sizes
Use ad links near links
Switch text ads to mostly image/text ads
Track each individual Ad Unit with a separate channel
Make your site mobile friendly.

Again, there are many more tips and please share your own.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Updates AdWords Editor Update

Fetched: November 29th, 2011, 3:45pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google released a new update to the AdWords Editor - we are now at version 9.7.1 up from version 9.5.1.

The new features and changes include:

Improved targeting options

User interest categories: On the audiences tab, target user interest categories in addition to user lists. You can also copy audiences with user interest categories across accounts.
Advanced location options: On the campaigns tab, edit settings for targeting method and exclusion method.
Wi-Fi traffic: The option to target Wi-Fi traffic is available in your campaign device targeting.
Target all languages. It's now possible to target a campaign to all languages by leaving the language list blank.

More data available in AdWords Editor

Campaign experiments: Experiment serving status, name, start and end dates, %, and other fields now appear in the campaigns tab. All fields are read-only.
Top of page bid estimates: Top of page bid estimates appear on the keywords tab, in the "Select duplicates" menu, and in advanced bid changes.

Updated campaign editing

Capitalization tool. Quickly change the capitalization of selected text. Go to the Edit menu > Change text capitalization.
Bidding strategy enforcement. For example, AdWords Editor automatically prevents editing CPC bids in ad groups and keywords in an automatic bidding campaign.
Automatic destination URL corrections. AdWords Editor replaces %, <, and > symbols in destination URLs with %25, %3C, and %3E, respectively. Exception: If % is followed by two hexadecimal digits (numbers 0 through 9 or letters A through F), such as %AB or %23, it remains unchanged.
Consolidated options for copying campaign settings. "Copy campaign shell" (in the Edit menu > Copy special) replaces options for copying campaign targeting and ad schedules.

Performance improvements

Faster copy, cut, and paste (including drag-and-drop).
Faster downloading for large accounts.

If you have any issues, Google AdWords representative said in the Google AdWords Help thread to post those concerns there.

Forum discussion at Google AdWords Help.

Old Google AdSense Interface Now Gone

Fetched: November 17th, 2011, 6:31pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

As expected, Google has finally and officially retired the old Google AdSense interface for the new one that rolled out two years ago.

Now when you login to the Google AdSense console, you will be taken to the new interface without a link to "return to the old interace."

There are many many complaints about this in the WebmasterWorld forums.

Personally, I switched over to the new interface years ago. But many did not and now have no choice. One publisher said:

Google needs to put a giant banner over the employee entrance -
"Just because you CAN do something, does NOT mean that you should."
Rather than -
"Let's try everything - something might work."

Another publisher said, "That ruined my afternoon!"

Anyway, we had two years and Google was very transparent about the switch over.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Search Now With Images

Fetched: November 16th, 2011, 2:45pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Over the past week or so, some of you may have noticed that the Google AdSense custom search engines powering site search across many web sites, including this one, now displays thumbnail images in the search results.

Google announced this on the Google Custom Search Blog but made no mention of it, yet, on the AdSense blog. Which is why I think most people didn't know it was coming.

Here is a picture, but feel free to try it out by searching for something on this site:

I did not have to do anything, Google did it for me. Which personally I am happy about on this site but not too happy about on other sites.

Want to disable them? You can under the Control Panel, on the left-hand menu, click Look and feel.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

AdSense Reporting Delays Expected Today

Fetched: November 10th, 2011, 4:15pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Today, between 2pm and 4pm EDT there may be reporting delays on Google AdSense consoles.

Chris from the Google AdSense team said in a Google AdSense Help thread:

Just got word from our engineers that they'll be performing some routine maintenance tomorrow morning, and it might cause stats reporting to be delayed. The maintenance is slated to begin at 11am PDT, and may last as long as 2 hours. Stats will catch up gradually after maintenance is completed, and should be totally caught up by the end of day.
Of course, impressions, clicks and earnings will be recorded as usual, and you will be paid for all activity on your account.

AdSense reporting delays are nothing new but we rarely are given a heads up about it, leading to tons of concern and complaints in the forums.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

AdSense Actual Earnings 50% Lower Than Estimated Earnings

Fetched: November 7th, 2011, 2:31pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There was a flood of reports over the weekend by Google AdSense publishers complaining their AdSense earnings was as much as 50% lower than the estimated earnings they were projected to earn for the month of October.

We have threads at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help with complaints of the major earnings difference. Here are some select complaints:

Yes, I just noticed the same for myself. The estimated earning for Oct where on par with how it has been for the past 20-30 months, but the finalized earnings are way lower. Only 56% of the estimated report.

Same here. earnings of $927 and they say finalized earnings of $292

For October i see in Payments an amount with -20% lower than Estimated Earnings. Also, in main interface of Adsense Last Month shows the correct amount (not lowered with -20%).

I personally checked my earnings and they are pretty much the same as my estimated earnings. But there are tons of reports of huge differences between the estimate and actual numbers in the forums.

I have yet to see an official Google response yet.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Reports For Ad Network Performance

Fetched: November 1st, 2011, 2:48pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google added a new report that breaks down your earnings on Google's certified ad network through DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

In March 2010, Google launched the Google certified ad network and it concerned many publishers. In fact, many publishers blocked it leading Google to warn them not to block the ad network.

In the end, publishers just wanted more transparency and almost 20 months later, we have it.

Even more so, Google said they are "confident" that their "AdWords inventory can provide the highest paying ad." But advertisers are confident in Google, not the 3rd party payouts. The question Google is proving, is Google showing 3rd party ads when it is best for the advertiser.

That being said, you can look for yourself by going to the Performance reports tab and clicking on the âAd networksâ in the side navigation.

Here is a screen shot of the report:

What have you learned from these reports?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Enables Changing Color Of Hover Over Links

Fetched: October 31st, 2011, 2:23pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google announced you can now control the color of the link text when a user hovers over that link. You know, when you mouse over a hyperlink, the color of the link on mouse over is now controllable by you, for the AdSense ads.

Google wrote:

As we continue to improve and launch new features, we're always interested in hearing your ideas and feedback. Many of you have shared that you want to be able to change the title color of ads when a user moves their mouse over the title link. After a period of testing, we found that this feature resulted in higher earnings for publishers while also increasing user and advertiser value. We are pleased to announce today that we have updated all text ads with this change.

Google has tested this a few months back and decided to enable it for publishers. Give it a try and let us know if it works for you.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Reporting Stuck, Publishers Freak

Fetched: October 19th, 2011, 5:26pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

It is not uncommon to see posts in the forums about the Google AdSense reporting being slow or even being "stuck," stop reporting. But normally it doesn't last this long and the reports are not this widespread.

There are many reports but the two main threads are at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help where there are hundreds of complaints from publishers.

Again, I am sure the reports will be back to normal soon, if not already.

The first reports came in early yesterday evening, a little before 6pm EDT. There are some people saying the reports look fine this morning whereas some are still saying there is a delay or complete stoppage of the reporting.

Are the reports delayed for you also? Do you freak out or just decide to wait it out?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Ad Styles

Fetched: October 18th, 2011, 5:08am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has now introduced Ad Styles for the 'new' AdSense interface.

Ad Styles is a new way of managing the color palettes for your AdSense ads. Google said this is a feature that was "missing from the old AdSense interface" and now you have it on the new interface.

When you edit a style, it will automatically update all the ads using that style, which can be a good and bad thing. So keep that in mind.

Here is a screen shot of the ad styles console:

Forum discussion at Cre8site Forums, WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Google AdSense Gives Design Update To Link Units

Fetched: October 11th, 2011, 5:17pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense announced they have updated the design for the link units and landing pages that those link units end up on.

In short, the link units are now easier to read, have less keyword suggestions and are more spacious.

Here are before and after shots:

Before:

New:

As you can see, the difference is pretty noticeable.

They also revised the landing page when you click on the text links in the AdSense link unit to look more like the new overall Google design.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Check Payment Details For YouTube AdSense Earnings

Fetched: September 29th, 2011, 1:23am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There has always been complaints about how YouTube AdSense earnings are represented in the AdSense reports. The issue is, the earnings publishers make from their videos are always delayed and thus do not show up on the daily reports.

The best way to see your YouTube earnings is to go to the payment screen and click on "details." It will open up the details of how you were paid out. Here is a screen capture:

This question was just recently brought up again in the Google AdSense Help forums based on Google announcing they are retiring the old interface.

AdSense engineer, Guillaume, explained:

YouTube earnings are visible in the payment history of the new interface. You should see the same number as in the old interface in one of the two line items on each month, under the "YouTube" label visible after clicking "details".
It's difficult to do better, because YouTube earnings are available only on a monthly basis to AdSense, while the new interface is designed for more granular data (daily).

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google Mixes Up Exchange Rate For Canadian AdSense Publishers?

Fetched: September 29th, 2011, 1:23am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There are new reports via WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help that Google has mixed up the exchange rate for the Canadian to US dollar, leading to publishers getting paid less than they should have.

One Canadian publisher explained it:

They used an exchange rate of $1 USD = $0.977 Canadian dollars, and so if your earnings were $1000 USD, the EFT was for $977 Canadian.
However, the actual exchange rate in the market lately has been the other way around, i.e. $1 Canadian = 0.977 USD, or alternatively $1 USD = $1.0235 Canadian. So, US $1,000 should have converted into $1,023.50. The Canadian dollar had been trading above par for several months, but is definitely below par again.

This is not the first time Canadians had this issue, they also had this issue in 2008 and Google fixed it for them.

Overall, this isn't too uncommon. This has happened with the Indian rupee, Australian dollar and others.

There is no word from Google on this yet but I assume they will make things right.

Forum discussion at

Image from banderlog/Shutterstock.WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Two Years Later, Google To Retire Old AdSense Interface

Fetched: September 29th, 2011, 1:23am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

We knew this day would come eventually, but two years later seems like an awfully long time.

Google announced they are going to be retiring the old AdSense interface in mid-November, replacing it with the "new" interface. The new interface first began rolling in November 2009, and has slowly been rolling out to more and more publishers since. Now, everyone can access it but they have not forced anyone to switch yet - not until November of this year.

Google said:

Over the past months, we've been working to improve the new AdSense interface and develop features that provide you with additional insights, control, and efficiency. Beyond the visual redesign, some of the new features only available in the new interface include multi-dimension reporting, reporting by country and platform, and search functionality in the Ad review center.
We've also heard your feedback on features from the older interface that you wanted to see in the newer version. In response, we've recently rolled out top-requested features like the ability to create scheduled reports and view channels on the Home tab.
While we've been investing in new features within the new interface, we've also been discussing our plans to move away from the older version. With that in mind, we'll be retiring the old interface in mid-November. Weâre continuing to focus on building new functionality into the new interface, and are excited about the additional improvements we plan to deliver.

I personally switched a while back and have not looked back. What about you?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Enabling Gambling Related Ads

Fetched: September 26th, 2011, 6:58pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

On Friday, Google informed AdSense publishers and AdWords advertisers that they will begin allowing ads with gambling related themes in some cases.

Google told publishers:

Beginning on September 27, we're expanding the inventory of Google ads eligible to show on the AdSense network to include gambling-related ads from trusted advertisers.

Google clarifies some of the limitations saying it depends on the gambling site, the user's location and so on. Google said:

Please note that the AdSense program policies will continue to prohibit the placement of ads on sites that accept money or allow users to place bets in exchange for an opportunity to earn cash or other prizes, directly from the site. In addition, these new ads will only be shown to users in regions where gambling is legal, which is determined by the location of the end-user. A full list of these locations can be found at the following link. Finally, publishers may not opt in to receiving ads from this new category if their sites are intended for individuals under 18 years of age.

Finally, the only way to see gambling ads on your site is to opt into it. Otherwise, at this time, Google will not show the ads. To opt in, read these instructions.

For more on the AdWords side see this link.

This is a change from a policy change Google made back in 2007 related to gambling ads, while in the UK allowed gambling ads.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Image from Sergey Mironov/Shutterstock.

Bug: Hold Alerts On Google AdSense Payments

Fetched: September 24th, 2011, 10:06am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Chris from the Google AdSense team posted in the Google AdSense Help forum that there is a bug with some publishers seeing that their AdSense payments are on hold.

Chris said:

Some of you may be seeing an alert on your home page that your payments are on hold. I believe there was an error on our side that has caused this message to be surfaced for a number of publishers incorrectly. I apologize for any inconvenience.
We're working to resolve the issue, and hopefully this message will be removed soon.

About ten days ago we reported on earnings report issues within AdSense.

I am not sure if this is related, but it seems like some publishers are having this payment on hold issue now.

There is not estimated time for a fix.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google +1 Button To Influence AdSense & Display Ads

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is now bringing the +1 button to AdSense and display ads within the Google ad network. You will start to see the +1 button on these ads in October.

Google said, "+1's will be one additional signal that help determine an adâs relevance." Not only that, if a friend of yours +1'ed an ad, they will see their friend's face on the ad and maybe, the ad will more likely show up for your friends.

Here is a picture:

Pamela Parker has a deeper look at this at Search Engine Land where she has a nice quote from Google:

"When an ad is personally annotated, there's a positive impact on click-through rate," Christian Oestlien, Lead Product Manager for Social Advertising, told me. "You get this great win of users becoming advocates for your product...you can take advantage of social and you don't need to come up with new metrics. All of this is baked into all of your existing ad campaigns."

You can block these from showing on ads, if you like.

There is a detailed help document on the details of this over here.

Some folks at WebmasterWorld are calling this as if Google is crossing over the "creepy line again."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google +1 Button To Influence AdSense & Display Ads

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is now bringing the +1 button to AdSense and display ads within the Google ad network. You will start to see the +1 button on these ads in October.

Here is a picture:

Pamela Parker has a deeper look at this at Search Engine Land where she has a nice quote from Google:

You can block these from showing on ads, if you like.

There is a detailed help document on the details of this over here.

Some folks at WebmasterWorld are calling this as if Google is crossing over the "creepy line again."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google +1 Button To Influence AdSense & Display Ads

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google is now bringing the +1 button to AdSense and display ads within the Google ad network. You will start to see the +1 button on these ads in October.

Here is a picture:

Pamela Parker has a deeper look at this at Search Engine Land where she has a nice quote from Google:

You can block these from showing on ads, if you like.

There is a detailed help document on the details of this over here.

Some folks at WebmasterWorld are calling this as if Google is crossing over the "creepy line again."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Some Publishers Complain About Late AdSense Payments

Fetched: September 13th, 2011, 3:02pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There is a group of Google AdSense publishers complaining in a Google AdSense Help thread that they are without payment for August earnings.

There are literally dozens of publishers complaining.

Personally, I believe I received my payment. The picture above is something I doctored to make it appear like I did not.

One publisher said the other day:

So this is a widespread, known issue. In the NEW Adsense page you can click on "Report issue" which is in the upper righthand corner next to your email. It is very clear and simple. Obviously each and everyone of us who is having a problem with August's payment should contact Adsense.

Netmeg said:

I'm sure we'll get paid too, but to be clear - the "report an issue" link is for reporting a problem with the new AdSense user interface. Pretty sure it won't be of use in a stats dust up.

Did you get payment?

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense New Approval Process Is Now Two Staged

Fetched: September 1st, 2011, 4:43pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense announced a new application approval process for new publishers.

The process is now two phased:

(1) Submitting the normal AdSense application

(2) Adding the code to your site and having Google review the code.

Prior all you had to do was be approved on the first step. Now, Google is requiring a second step, reviewing your ad code.

When the ad code is added, the ads will be blank. But "soon after the ad code has been added to the submitted site, a final approval decision will be made and the applicant will be notified by email. Newly approved publishers will see live ads automatically appear in the existing ad units on their pages," Google said:

Threads at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums are both happy and upset about the additional step in the approval process.

Some think it won't help with those abusing the system. Some think it just slows down the process. Some don't care because they are already publishers.

What do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Poll: Hurricane Irene Hurt Your AdSense Income

Fetched: August 30th, 2011, 5:33am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

I hope all you east coasters (I am one of you) made it through Hurricane Irene without much of an issue. I was very lucky myself.

But even those not in the path of the storm were nervous about the impact Hurricane Irene would have on their business.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers asking if the hurricane had any negative impact on their AdSense income. With millions of people losing power and still many without power, it can cause a major issue for sites who depend on their AdSense income.

If people cannot turn on their computers or access the internet, they cannot navigate the web or search the internet. If they can't do that, they can't click on ads and make money for publishers.

The big question I have is, is your weekend traffic and income down from a typical weekend? Here is our poll:

Google AdSense Income Down Due To Irene?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Wage Garnishment

Fetched: July 26th, 2011, 11:01am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Anyone who runs a business likely had to deal with wage garnishment for one of their existing employees. It is the process of holding funds earned by your employees or contractors and giving a percentage of those funds directly to the government.

Why does this happen? Well, either the courts decided they owe a third party money and for some reason the employee/contractor isn't paying, thus they put the burden on the company that is paying the employee/contractor. Or they owe the government taxes and for some reason they aren't paying that either. Yes, it might be a dispute and the other party might be wrong, but the courts decided who was right and thus judgement has been set.

I personally never knew that the government goes to Google to withhold AdSense earnings from a publisher. But it happens.

A WebmasterWorld thread has two stories from different publishers, both who experienced their AdSense income being garnished by the government.

One who was hit by this shared his personal experience:

You will not get a payment check from Google, or any other company that may have gotten the same letter. They are BOUND BY LAW to withhold your payments, until they get ANOTHER LETTER, clearing them of the responsibility. (Your debt is now their responsibility as well)
In my case, I called the IRS immediately and paid off the debt. It was the ONLY way to immediately get it cleared up and remove the garnish, even if they are wrong! After the debt is cleared up, THEN you can figure out why it got to that point.
If you don't clear it up immediately, they will just keep coming, The IRS does not go away. One day you will go to get gas in your vehicle and the card wont work... because your bank accounts were frozen. If you cannot afford to pay them right now... they will let you setup a pay plan, but ALL GARNISH ORDERS will remain in effect until your debt is paid in full, and the companies are released of their liability.

From my experience, I only had to withhold a percentage of the employee's earnings, not all of it. So I am not sure why Google would hold ALL of the money but I do not have experience with wage garnishment for independent contractors nor with AdSense.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Shrink The AdSense Interface Font?

Fetched: July 19th, 2011, 11:00pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld has several Google AdSense publishers complaining the the AdSense console has shrunk!

Specifically, the font sizes within the AdSense interface, where Google AdSense publishers maintain their ads, view reports and make tweaks to the ads and targeting, has all shrunk.

One publisher said:

For the past 2 days, the fonts on the AdSense Interface have been ridiculously small. At first, I thought I somehow mucked up my browser settings, but it's the same on other computers I use.
Is the AdSense Team trying to push people to the new interface by slowly shrinking the fonts to minuscule size?

I personally cannot replicate it on my browser, but it seems to be affecting some users. So if things look really small, don't blame your eye sight - it is likely a bug.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Ghost Cookie

Fetched: July 12th, 2011, 2:44am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Spending an hour or so every day scanning forum threads, you are bound to find some of the wildest theories on SEO, search and AdWords/AdSense. In fact, I likely spot a few a day and rarely report on them.

But I have to write about the latest AdSense myth I spotted in a WebmasterWorld thread on the topic of AdSense Ghost Cookies.

The publisher, who was obviously banned a few times from using Google AdSense, said (I have to quote it):

I have heard that Google writes a âGhost Cookiesâ to a person's pc when his Google AdSense account disabled, So he cant reopen a new account from this PC. Is this is right? Thanks

Seriously? Anyone with half a brain looking to scam this system would simply delete their cookies. If not that, then download a new browser or use a new computer.

Amazing how these theories get out there.

Yes, Google uses pretty detailed methods for preventing repeat AdSense abusers to register new accounts. No, they are not perfect but maybe cookies is one of dozens of methods to prevent this from happening.

So I doubt deleting your cookies or using a brand new PC would get you back into AdSense without having to do other things.

At least I got to post a picture of a cookie in this post.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Shows Earnings By Device/Platform Type

Fetched: July 7th, 2011, 8:11pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

The Google AdSense Blog announced Google is now displaying a new report named the Platforms report.

You can access the new report within the new AdSense interface and by clicking on Performance Reports on the top. Then on the left menu, there will be a new option for "Platforms."

Then the report should load and tell you how much money you make with AdSense on each platform. It is broken down by:

Desktop - all traffic coming from desktop users
High-end mobile devices - includes smartphone devices
Other mobile devices - includes low end and mid-range phones

Here is a picture of a report, click on it to see it larger:

As mobile usage grows publishers must learn how to best monetize that traffic. These reports help publishers segment out those users and better learn how well they are monetizing for those platforms.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google DoubleClick Marketplace Discontinued

Fetched: June 25th, 2011, 7:02pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Less than a year after Google introduced the DoubleClick Ad Planner Marketplace Google is shutting it down.

Google told us back then this was their "solution to help connect buyers and sellers of online advertising." Now Google is telling publishers via email that they "have found that the current beta does not fit existing market needs of our partners and we will be discontinuing any further Marketplace development."

Google said:

Over the next few weeks, your DFP Small Business inventory will no longer be viewable in DoubleClick Ad Planner, and the ability to promote your DFP Small Business inventory in Ad Planner will also be removed. To connect with new advertisers, we recommend that you enable your ad units for AdSense and then make your placements available to AdWords buyers to directly target your inventory.

Publishers are a bit upset, wanting to give this program a try to help boost their earnings and income.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one publisher saying, "too bad, I had high hopes for the marketplace becoming another way of generating more direct advertising customers."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Earnings Down? Join The Club

Fetched: June 23rd, 2011, 7:28am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

In May, we reported that Google made adjustments to how they handle the daily reporting feature and it might result in publishers assuming their earnings are lower than they should be.

But despite those changes, June has been one of the most active months of complaints from publishers I have seen about earnings in a while.

A WebmasterWorld thread started on June 1st now has over 250 posts from publishers. Most are complaints that the earnings are much lower than previous months. Some are questions asking if the reports are stuck and not updating. And a few are happy publishers claiming their earnings are way up.

Sharing earning success and failure can be a great way to shake off some nerves and at the same time be a great support group.

I do wonder if people are comparing apples to oranges, due to the changes implemented last month or if something else is up.

How have your Google AdSense earnings been this month?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Allows IFrames In Some cases

Fetched: June 14th, 2011, 12:11pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A couple weeks ago, we reported Google updated their terms of service to disallow AdSense via IFrames.

Google has now clarified why they changed their terms to mention IFrames and explained that in some cases, IFrames are necessary and thus they provide exceptions to the rule.

Google said:

Our policies have always disallowed the misuse of iframes, and recently we clarified our language to explicitly prohibit the misuse of iframes in our program policies.
Improperly iframed ads are a disservice to our advertisers since the ad itself can be obscured. Not only are they not viewable, these implementations can lead to accidental clicks if these hidden ads are placed in a location that users frequently click. Please see below for an example of a partially hidden banner.

Google added:

Hidden iframed ads is one form of misuse. The other is cross-domain iframing abuse. Cross-domain iframes are used to frame content from a different site. This type of implementation can allow other sites to frame ads that belong to another site without the publisherâs knowledge.

So there you have it - it is not black and white.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Phone Support Coming To AdSense Publishers?

Fetched: June 14th, 2011, 12:11pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Search Engine Land confirmed reports that Susan Wojcicki said Google testing phone support for AdSense publishers.

Google told Search Engine Land that they are "testing additional phone support."

A question was asked at the annual shareholders meeting about one hour and nine minutes in where a person asked if there is a good way to communicate with Google. Then a minute or so later, Larry Page agreed they need to improve communication for publishers. Susan followed up saying they are working on adding phone support for advertisers and publishers. Within the next quarter everyone will be able to contact them via phone number.

Susan obviously lumped in advertisers, which is a known change as of recent times where Google is giving AdWords advertisers phone support. When Google was asked for confirmation of this by Search Engine Land, Google confirmed it is being tested for publishers but I do not think they confirmed it will be out for all publishers by next quarter - yes on the ad side not on the publisher side.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Ad Choices Now On Google AdSense Ads

Fetched: June 6th, 2011, 6:33pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has replaced the Google AdSense "i" button on the AdSense ads with "Ad Choices." We knew this was coming and now it has happened.

When I go to a page with an AdSense ad, it loads the ad and shows AdChoices in the top right.

Then it removes the word AdChoices and shows just the logo.

You can see the word again by hovering your mouse cursor over the ad or logo.

Clicking on the AdChoices logo takes you to the What are Ads by Google? and then lets you report an issue at the bottom of the page.

So do not be surprised when you see the "i" replaced by "AdChoices" - it was expected.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Ads No Longer Allowed In IFRAME

Fetched: May 31st, 2011, 7:27pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Amit Agarwal reported that Google AdSense updated their program policies to specifically mention you cannot place AdSense ads within IFRAMES.

If you check out the WayBackMachine you will see the "Ad Behavior" policy was:

AdSense code may not be altered, nor may the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of ads be manipulated in any way that is not explicitly permitted by Google. For instance, clicking Google ads may not result in a new browser window being launched.

But now it reads:

AdSense code may not be altered, nor may the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of ads be manipulated in any way that is not explicitly permitted by Google. This includes but is not limited to the following: clicking Google ads may not result in a new browser window being launched, nor may Google ads be placed in an IFRAME.

The bolded portion is what Google added.

I am not sure how many publishers this may impact but the policy was not made explicit on this topic.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Daily Earnings Declining? Here Is Why.

Fetched: May 25th, 2011, 9:14am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There have been many complaints in the Google AdSense Help forums from publishers complaining their daily earnings are fluctuating and less than they should be.

The answer to why people are seeing huge differences in the past week or so is because Google AdSense changed how they manage the reporting pipeline.

Google AdSense engineer, Guillaume, said, "since May 14, earnings for the current day reported in the interface may now fluctuate, due to a change in the reporting pipeline."

Google has a document explaining the issues, saying that now they show gross click counts before they may discount those clicks due to invalid clicks. The document explains it well:

You might see fluctuations in earnings reflected in your Performance reports due to the lag between gross click counts and invalid click detection. Total clicks are reflected quickly and then adjusted downward for any invalid clicks, which take longer to process.
After clicks occur, estimated earnings are increased based on these recorded clicks. However, processing for invalid clicks is completed after this initial estimate, and the corresponding earnings might then be revised downward in your reports.
This behavior is noticeable mostly for accounts with low traffic volume or a high proportion of invalid clicks.
Please be assured that after these initial fluctuations, earnings eventually stabilize, and earnings are computed in the same manner as they were prior to this change, which was effective beginning May 14, 2011. Note that finalized earnings, which are reported at the end of every month, might also reflect further adjustments.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Publisher Claims Facebook Bug Spikes Earnings

Fetched: May 16th, 2011, 3:34am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A month ago there was a bug with the Facebook Like button. It was reported to have an impact on some user's analytics packages but I didn't hear much from AdSense publishers on this topic.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one publisher claiming he saw a huge spike in AdSense income when the bug was happening and then a huge decline in that earnings once the bug was fixed.

He shared a chart showing the traffic just from the Facebook Like button:

The Google AdSense publisher explained:

On April 10th, my Adsense earnings went to the roof. I couldn't tell the reason for that, but I decided to be glad and do not bother about it.
Much to my surprise, my earnings kept going up over the last days (with a quick weird drop on the 16th), until they came back to the regular levels on April 20th.
The only unusual thing that I could find was an amazing raise on the number of times the page "?fb_xd_fragment=" was opened on that golden period. For those who don't know, that's an URL that shows due to a bug on the Facebook Like button, which doesn't support some browsers.
The rest of the site's traffic was exact the same, so why the Facebook Like button error started showing up A LOT more often on the logs? And even weirder, why did it impact on the Adsense earnings?

Of course with huge surges in traffic and unusual spikes, you need to be considered with Google investigating the reason for the surge - it can ultimately lead to your site being banned from using Google AdSense.

Did you notice a change due to a bug like this in this date range?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Color Palettes Feedback Wanted

Fetched: April 16th, 2011, 3:51am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Chris from the Google AdSense team posted a thread in the Google AdSense Help forum asking for feedback on Google's color palette.

Chris said, "I'm curious to know more about what you think about color palettes, and how you use them. Got any thoughts you can share?"

Here is a picture of the tool within the new AdSense interface:

Chris went on to add that any feedback he receives will be passed to the right people at Google. He said as a disclaimer that he can't promise all the suggestions would be implemented. Chris said:

I'll collect the most interesting feedback as a way to arm myself for meetings with the rest of our product development team. Your feedback may influence our feature development roadmap!

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Court: Google Must Share Data Metrics On AdSense For Domains

Fetched: April 11th, 2011, 9:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

MediaPost reports Google has been ordered by a U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Harold Lloyd in San Jose, California to hand over data on the metrics around the Google AdSense For Domains program.

AdSense For Domains and Error pages are domains that have little or no content that are sitting idle but have Google AdSense ads on them. This program was formerly known as DomainPark and has always been controversial in the SEM industry. Reason is, is because the ads only target based off of its domain and has little contextual relevancy. Back in the day, the parked domains ranked well in Google, thus creating a circular pattern of searches, to parked domains, to AdSense back to more searches on AdWords.

In any event, advertisers are suing Google via a class-action lawsuit. The court ruled Google has to share metrics that show the quality of sites with these ads on them, including conversion scores and "smart pricing" discounts for the ads.

What is funny to me is that Google claims these ads "perform as well as or better than ads on Search and Display Network sites." If they do, why not share those details with those paying for those ads?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Court: Google Must Share Data Metrics On AdSense For Domains

Fetched: April 11th, 2011, 9:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Court: Google Must Share Data Metrics On AdSense For Domains

Fetched: April 11th, 2011, 9:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Mocking Those Impacted By Farmer/Panda Update?

Fetched: April 4th, 2011, 2:36am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There are many sites suffering by the Google Farmer / Panda update and you'd think Google wouldn't want to pour salt on an open wound but some are experiencing just that.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers complaining that the Google AdSense team is emailing publishers that their AdSense income is down. They are trying to find out what Google can do to help the publisher bring up their AdSense income to the levels before this update.

The thing is, the AdSense team doesn't realize that Google is the reason that these publishers have drastically lower AdSense income.

Google hit a ton of sites with this update and if they do not rank well, they do not make money for the publishers or Google.

Some feel these AdSense emails are insulting and downright hurtful.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Our ongoing coverage and stories on the Content Farmer/Panda update:

Image credit Jamie De Cesare on Flickr.

Google's New AdSense Custom Search Ads

Fetched: March 31st, 2011, 2:26am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google announced they are launching a new beta AdSense search product named AdSense Custom Search Ads.

What does it do? In short, they are AdSense ads designed for search results pages. But isn't there already an AdSense for Search? There is, but the ads here differ in that they are based off your site's search queries and not directly off the context of your pages.

How are these better? Google said:

Custom Search Ads uses the search query to deliver highly targeted, relevant ads. The result is satisfied users and more revenue.
Leverage the expertise and unique ad formats found on Google while accessing our partner network of over one million advertisers.
Custom Search Ads can be customized to the look and feel of your site. Size, location, color and font are all in your control.

Honestly, I do not see the full differences between the two products. I.e. the one Google launched in 2008 and this one. I always felt the AdSense for Search ads were from the queries not the context. So this is very confusing to me. Yes, there are some added features here but how it is more relevant?

For more information and to get started, see this page.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Adds More Earnings Data To Overview Section

Fetched: March 25th, 2011, 11:05pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

One of the most requested features for the new Google AdSense interface was to add more earnings data to the home page of the console, the overview page.

Google has finally done so this week, by adding the following data to the home page.

Estimated earnings: Today so far
Estimated earnings: Yesterday
Estimated earnings: This month so far
Estimated earnings: Last month
Finalized earnings: Unpaid earnings
Finalized earnings: Most recent payment

Here is a picture of the overview now on the new AdSense interface:

Here is a picture from when the new AdSense interface first launched.

A WebmasterWorld thread has many publishers happy with the change. Google AdSense representative explained:

Remember when I asked for your feedback on the new AdSense interface? One of the main pieces of feedback was to have relevant charts showing on the home page. We listened and now will be showing you earnings for today, yesterday, and a few other measurements. See today's blog post for more info, and thanks so much for your feedback.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

AdSense Mobile Interface Now Live

Fetched: March 4th, 2011, 3:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has announced the new AdSense Mobile interface.

Yes, you can finally login to Google AdSense on your smart phone and see earnings and reports. Google said you can view "your earnings, get important alerts, and view reports (without the need for Flash) on your phone."

If you do not see it, then it might be because you are not on the new interface and still using the old one. You would need to switch to the new interface.

It is a limited release and more features are coming. Like, you cannot create new ads, block sites, and so on.

To give Google feedback, join the conversation at the Google AdSense Help.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help and WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Killing PSA Ads

Fetched: February 9th, 2011, 3:26am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

The Google AdSense Blog announced they are retiring the legendary Google AdSense PSA, Public Service Announcements, ads that Google AdSense has been using to fill ads when they can't otherwise.

Google AdSense would show PSA ads, free ads for non-profits, for a number of reasons including the page is new, the page has sensitive content, Google can't access or understand the page, the account has been disabled or pending approval, and so on. Google described the PSAs as, "PSAs are unpaid non-profit organization ads that are served to pages when targeted ads are unavailable, or when Google is unable to gather content from the page. Publishers do not receive earnings for clicks made on PSAs."

But they are going away. Google said:

We frequently review our product and feature offerings to ensure they're as effective as possible. Based on these reviews and on feedback from our non-profit partners, we'll gradually begin retiring public service ads (PSAs) from AdSense sites so that we can focus our efforts on developing new opportunities for these partners.

Now keep in mind that PSAs on AdSense have been around virtually since AdSense launched.

Google says they are not doing away with Google Grants, where non-profits can get free ads on AdWords and AdSense. Google said, "we're committed to supporting our non-profit partners, which is why we're continuing to offer free AdWords advertising," but not in the form of PSAs.

As a publisher, Google will begin to fill PSAs with blank space. If you do not want that, you need to select other options. To select other options, you can do so as follows:

New AdSense interface: Visit the My Ads page and select the ad unit you'd like to update. Then, change the settings for 'Backup ads.'
Old AdSense interface: Visit the Manage Ads page under the My Account tab, and click 'Edit Ad Settings' for the unit you'd like to change.

Here is a screen shot of the options I see today:

A WebmasterWorld thread suggests that if you are upset that charities might lose out, then "consider setting up an alternate ad of your own that gives exposure to a charity of your own choosing."

Goodbye PSAs.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Tell Google Why You Are Using The Old AdSense Interface

Fetched: February 7th, 2011, 8:21pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google's AdSenseAdvisor asked in a WebmasterWorld thread all of those who have not yet switched to the new AdSense interface, why they have not done so yet.

The new AdSense interface was first introduced to some publishers back in November 2009. But in November 2010, it was rolled out to all to use. Google has made it optional for all publishers, leaving a way for publishers to jump between the old and new interface.

AdSenseAdvisor is asking publishers what is holding them back from switching. Personally, I use the new interface but there are some things I have to do under the old interface, such as set up AdSense channels for Google's mobile app ads. The functionality is not yet in the new interface, so I have no choice.

But there are plenty of reasons why publishers are not migrating to the new interface and they are being shared at the WebmasterWorld forums. Here are some:

Easier to see earnings for the day
Easier to block advertisers in old interface
Managing multiple color palette with an ad
View ads by targeting type for a channel or individual site, not just whole account view.
Sometimes I just want a quick view of daily earnings for all channels (url and custom combined)
Speed issues
Many more...

If you want Google to know why you like the old interface, let them know at the forums.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Shocks Some Publishers Saying They Can't Use AdSense With Auto Generated Content

Fetched: January 17th, 2011, 10:51pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Recently, Google wrote one of those fact vs fiction posts, this time on the topic of "sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content." In short, Google said they do not allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program.

Google explained:

Fact: We don't allow sites with auto-generated or otherwise unoriginal content to participate in the AdSense program. This is to ensure that our users are benefiting from a unique online experience and that our advertisers are partnering with useful and relevant sites.

I spotted discussion around this post at DigitalPoint Forums where some publishers were shocked to hear this. One said, "I think content generated with article spinner softwares is also not allowed." Really, you think? Do you live under a rock?

But honestly, they have a reason not to know this. There are plenty of sites out there scraping and auto-generating content with AdSense on them. Google doesn't always do a great job preventing this from happening. Yes, it might be against their guidelines, but it still happens.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Sends Malware & Low Earnings To Publishers On Christmas

Fetched: December 28th, 2010, 3:05pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

It seems like this Christmas wasn't all that Christmassy for some Google AdSense publishers. Some are complaining that it was the worst earnings day in their history, while others are saying they found malware on their site published on their sites from Google's ad network.

A Google AdSense Help thread has a post from an AdSense publisher on the malware issue. He said, "My Christmas present from Adsense was a malware attack."

My Christmas present from Adsense was a malware attack. I have turned off the certified ad networks and will discontinue Google ads if it continues. The income is not worth the risk.
I have reviewed all the code. Everything is my HTML except for adsense. This happened once before and after a review Google reported the site clean. I hope it is just the networks and not all of adsense.
Merry Christmas

Google has not confirmed any malware attacks on their network, so this is all hearsay right now.

Meanwhile a WebmasterWorld thread has reports that it was the worst earnings day of all time for most publishers. Now Christmas is normally expected to be lower on the earnings scale, but publishers are saying it was worse than all previous Christmas days. A WebmasterWorld senior member said:

From an Adsense revenue point of view this has been BY FAR the worst December ever (for me) in a year which can only be described as by far the worst ever.
Without quoting exact figures, I can say I am earning a mere fraction of what I would normally this time of the year. Even my first Adsense year which was previously by far the slowest (before this year) was better performing.
Merry Christmas

So how about that, low earnings and malware for Christmas?

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help and WebmasterWorld.

Unwanted Borders Come Back To Some Google AdSense Ads

Fetched: December 28th, 2010, 7:03am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports some Google AdSense publishers complaining that Google is adding borders around the ads they place on their web sites.

One AdSense publisher said:

Perhaps it's just me, but twice now I've seen my Adsense Ads with a border. This happened on two different domains.
What is strange, is that I did not make any changes to the ads and I originally set them up without a border. In both cases, they go back to borderless ads if I refresh. If I refresh again, it won't happen and seems to be simply by chance that I'm catching it.

I believe Google tested adding black borders around AdSense ads back in 2008.

I personally see a black border around the AdSense ad on my personal blog but I am not sure if I added it myself or not.

Anyway, publishers do not want to be forced into specific designs for the ads they place on their web sites. Google has been pretty good at giving flexibility on the ad formats and colors. So I am not sure what is going on here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google: 3rd Party Ad Tracking Not Accurate & Can Hurt AdSense Income

Fetched: December 9th, 2010, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

There are often complaints that the Google AdSense reports do not match up with third-party tracking software. In reality, there are complaints that they don't even match up with Google's own tracking software, Google Analytics.

In a Google AdSense Help thread Google AdSense Engineer, Guillaume, responded to complaints on third party tracking and serving software reports different numbers than that is reported in the Google AdSense console.

Guillaume said, "Third-party click counter are often not accurate, and could even negatively impact your earnings due to latency increase and interference with AdSense."

You got that, he said, not only are third-party counters "not accurate" but even more so, they can reduce your AdSense earnings. He goes on to explain why.

For instance, it is difficult for third-party click counters to exclude clicks where the user interrupts the loading of the advertiser page.
Please read [1] and [2] for additional information; it is about a different third-party click counter, but seems to apply to OpenX as well.
Please note that third-party click counters can only but over-estimate click counts, since they don't know about invalid clicks [3]. So if you think that something is not right, I'd recommend stopping paying attention to the misleading information provided by third-party click counters.

So you'd have to assume that using Google's own tracking and ad serving technology would match pretty closely. So using Google Analytics and Google Ad Manager, now known as "DoubleClick for Publishers" would match virtually exactly, but they never do.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

User Access Controls Lost In New Google AdSense Console

Posted: December 2nd, 2010, 1:55pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

If you go to your account settings in the new Google AdSense console, known as version 3, you won't be able to remove those listed as "Users with sign-in access."

The issue was reported back in early November at the Google AdSense Help forums. It may have been reported even earlier.

Google recently responded to the thread. AdSensePro Annie said:

Thanks for your patience. We are aware of this issue and are working on it as fast as we can.

It seems like just one of those features they did not get to yet. It sounds like it is on the todo list and they will get to it soon.

This does seem to be a huge issue for many folks, so I don't know why it is taking so long to tackle.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google Instant Previews Loading AdSense?

Posted: December 1st, 2010, 1:36pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google AdSense

Google launched the new instant previews in early November. Since then, we have seen it cause some serious damage in Google Analytics, but now I see reports of people claiming it is damaging their AdSense ads.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one person claiming he sees some AdSense ads being displayed in the Google Instant previews. If they are, it may mean that those ads are being fetched and counted on some cases when someone mouses over a search result as opposed to clicking on it.

I tested it out by searching for my personal blog, [cartoon barry] and my AdSense ads are being blanked out. Here is a picture:

Sadly, I just don't have time to spot check this on other sites right now. But this guy claims he sees AdSense ads in some previews. He is a member of WebmasterWorld since 2004 and someone else said he saw them too. Have you? Should we be worried? I am sure publishers don't mind the extra impressions but what about advertisers?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: So the Kosher Food Reviews site has AdSense displayed in the preview. Here is a picture:

Update 2: I forgot, as Googler, JohnMu commented:

As we mentioned in our FAQs ( https://sites.google.com/site/webmasterhelpforum/en/faq-instant-previews ) we sometimes generate previews on-demand, when we don't have an image cached. In cases like that, we'll generate the preview similar to how a user would in their browser, including content that's embedded using JavaScript (such as those ads). Our systems generally know not to count those previews as page-views, though :-).

Google AdSense Ad Review Center Polluted With Unrelated Ads?

Posted: November 5th, 2010, 2:14pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has several Google AdSense publishers complaining that the Ad Review Center is polluted with ads to be reviewed that are totally off target to the web site they are wanting to be placed on.

One publisher said:

I decided to post this now that it's been four days and nothing has changed. When I check my ad reveiew center for targeted ads, I'm getting 12 or more new advertisers UNRELATED to my website (teeth whitening, spa treatments, etc.), each day. I'm spending a lot of time checking and blocking these ads from showing. Is anyone else seeing this since Nov. 1, or is it my issue?

There are several publishers posting "me too" style replies.

Personally, I don't manually approve ads, I should, but I am lazy. So I took a look at what was automatically approved by Google on my blogs and I saw an ad for the Cocaine Cowboys show or something. No idea what it is, but I doubt it is related to most of my blog posts - it may be, who knows but just found it to stand out from the crowd.

Some are even reporting that these ads lead to "non-existen domain and broken links in placement ads."

You having issues? There is a large help section for the ad review center at Google.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

More Publishers Seeing New Google AdSense Interface

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 1:27pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

I'll be honest, I really thought virtually all Google AdSense publishers were part of the new AdSense interface, known as V3. They have been beta testing it for over a year now and I personally have been using it for a year or so now.

A year of beta testing a beta? Yea, Google is known for keeping things in beta - but they do deliver the beta to everyone sooner than a year. Meaning, they may be known for keeping the beta label on products, but it doesn't typically shy them away from releasing the beta to more and more people. A year long beta push, to me, seems long.

In any event, there are tons of threads from Google AdSense publishers on the AdSense beta console. Like I said, I have screen shots from a year ago, and yea - they have slightly changed. Some threads are at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google AdSense Help, and WebmasterWorld.

The main questions I have seen are what is the "coverage" metric and the "RPM" metric. A thread specifically about the coverage metric has Googler Guillaume explaining that:

This is a good question. Unfortunately the documentation is not complete yet, so here is a temporary explanation:
Coverage is the percentage of ad unit impressions or queries that showed ads:

- A coverage of 100% means that AdSense was always able to provide ads to match the content of the page (Content) or the query keywords (Search).

- A coverage of less than 100% means that AdSense was not able to find ads for some ad units or search queries, which didn't show ads as a result.

RPM is calculated by adding up the price charged to advertisers (CPM) for each ad block on the webpage, then subtracting the cost of delivering that advertising.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums, Google AdSense Help, and WebmasterWorld.

Some IE Users Experiencing Bugs With AdSense Ads

Posted: September 22nd, 2010, 3:14pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There are several reports of users surfing sites with Google AdSense on them and receiving Internet Explorer saying, "Internet Explorer Cannot Open Internet Site." I spotted threads on this topic at WebmasterWorld and several at Google AdSense Help.

Here is a picture of a warning:

I don't see a response from Google on this issue or how wide spread it is. But as you can imagine, this can be pretty annoying for some users.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and several at Google AdSense Help.

The Return Of The Google Affiliate Network

Posted: September 17th, 2010, 2:56pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Two years after Google closes their affiliate network they have announced they are re-opening it.

The concept is basic, you refer someone to a site, they buy something on the site, you may a percent of the sale. You are only paid when you refer a sale or a desired action.

To sign up for it:

Sign up for a Google Affiliate Network account with your AdSense Publisher ID.
As soon as you're approved for Google Affiliate Network, sign in and apply for advertiser programs.
Follow the instructions to start displaying cost-per-action ads.

There is forum discussion on both the advertiser and publisher side on this topic at Webmaster World.

Some are skeptical and some are eager to try out this old but yet new revenue and advertising model from Google.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World.

Most AdSense Publishers Happy With Google Revenue Share

Posted: September 9th, 2010, 2:37pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A few months ago we ran a poll asking if they find the Google AdSense revenue share percentage to be fair or not.

I wanted to share those results with you. We had a total of 126 votes from Google AdSense publishers.

47% said the share is "Just Right"
32% said the share is actually "High"
20% said the share is "Low"

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Note: This post was scheduled to be automatically posted today.

Does Google AdSense Automatically Show Your Best Color Ad?

Posted: August 20th, 2010, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has Google AdSense publishers wondering if Google automatically shows the best performing ad color.

As you know, you can allow Google to rotate the AdSense color templates for you. But is that purely random or is Google showing your best color?

Most publishers suspect Google automatically shows the best performing colors. Netmeg said:

I always just assumed they rotated them. It's a good question.

The help document on this say sit is completely random. I'll quote it:

You can select up to 4 palettes that will rotate randomly.

Would be nice if Google did the best performing color more often?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Updates AdSense Layouts

Posted: August 10th, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

It has been a while since we have seen an update to the Google AdSense unit layouts. But today that has changed, Google announced new layouts are coming to the leaderboard, medium and large rectangles units. Here is a picture of the change:

The changes include:

Leaderboard (728x90): the title, description, and URL are now arranged in rows instead of columns (except in the case when only one ad is showing)
Medium and large rectangles (300x250, 336x280): the URL is now in the same line as the title
Font size changes on some units

Did you notice any changes on your sites? Good or bad?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Should Google AdSense Do Away With Pub IDs? Go Allowed Sites Only?

Posted: July 26th, 2010, 3:44pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A featured WebmasterWorld thread is titled "Shocked to See Many Sites Using My Adsense Code." It is a common story, you have a popular site with Google AdSense ads on them. There are many people out there that copy your site and put it on their own spammy sites. They not only copy your content, but copy your AdSense code.

Great! You get money for people stealing your content! Not so fast! Yes, you may get some incremental income from those who stole your content, but it may also lead to Google thinking that site is owned by you and ultimately get you banned from AdSense due to violating their spam guidelines.

Seems ridiculous? Perhaps, but it is not unheard of. Some have thought that this is why DigitalPoint was banned from AdSense until someone at Google took a closer look.

Heck, even Brett Tabke, the founder of WebmasterWorld, said:

That is a classic AdSense attack. Someone is trying to get you kicked out of AdSense by linking you to a bad neighborhood.
Getting a site listed on a block list such as repetitive email spammer, malware host, or phising host will get a hand check on that site 100% of that time if it is in the AdSense program.

People specifically try to get sites banned from using AdSense over this type of spam attack. It works and it is hard for both the publisher and Google to stay on top of.

Yes, AdSense built an allowed sites feature, but I never use it. I don't care to spend my time allowing each site manually. Plus, this feature was added as an afterthought years after AdSense went live. Honestly, I am not sure why it was ever set up this way. Allowed sites should have been the method originally.

You sign up, you add a site/application to the list of sites allowed to show ads and you stick generic ad code on the site. Google then determines who the ad income goes to based on the site or application showing the ad. Yes, this would kill revenue sharing forums and sites as they are set up now, but there are other ways to set that up.

As a publisher, I don't and I won't spend my time looking for sites trying to hurt me. I will spend time trying to build relevant, useful content that helps my audience and I enjoy writing.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Restores Hacked & Robbed AdSense Account

Posted: July 19th, 2010, 4:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

We have been providing ongoing coverage of the AdSense publisher who was hacked into and had $25,000 or so stolen from him by someone in India. It turned out, after three months nothing has happened.

Well, that has changed. Google and the publisher finally got together and were able to restore the account.

In the updated WebmasterWorld thread, the thread the publisher was publishing his notes, he said on July 14th:

It's fixed! Google Adsense called a bit ago; the guy said it was a hairball of a mess.
My accounts go back to 2003; there are Adwords accounts, MCCs, Adsense, etc. They moved things around; I can finally log into my original (and primary) Adsense account again; and I tied the Adsense account to my Google Analytics account.

Many thanks to Google Adsense.

How about his lost money? Honestly, I am not sure. After repeated questions about the lost earnings, he replied one more time saying, "Yes, the account was recovered. All is well now." But that does not answer if he has the money that was lost.

In any event, he seems happy and I guess we should leave it at that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

DigitalPoint Banned From Google AdSense. But Why?

Posted: July 19th, 2010, 3:18pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

On July 15th, DigitalPoint Forums, a forum we cover here often, no longer was showing Google AdSense ads on their pages. Rumors began spreading so Shawn Hogan, the owner, posted a blog post saying A 3rd Party CAN Get You Banned From AdSense.

He claims that his account was banned due to third-party web sites. He said:

While I still think the majority of people who claimed to have their AdSense account unfairly terminated are probably just whiners that got caught doing something they shouldn't be, I can say for 100% certainty now that it can (and clearly does) happen sometimes.

He showed how many sites were using his code on their own site in the wrong way. Why? He doesn't know for sure but maybe to get him banned from AdSense. He said he began using the Whitelist feature after Google suggested it to him, but a few days/weeks later, he was banned.

I guess anything is possible and I doubt Google will go on record as to what has happened. I have no insider information, all I know is what was posted in the public.

So either he will remain banned or the ban will be lifted. People make mistakes, Google is human, lots of things can happen.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Fixed The AdSense Logout Bug?

Posted: July 8th, 2010, 3:32pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

We have been covering the random issue with the AdSense login/logout issues for several months now. It appears some are now saying the issue is resolved.

A WebmasterWorld thread has several AdSense publishers claiming the logout bug is resolved. They said they no longer get automatically logged out after 10 minutes or so.

Yep, either they've fixed it at last or the autologout kicks in after a longer time - for me it seemed like every 5 minutes, not 30. Let's hope it's the former, that was annoying indeed!

Yeah, I've noticed it too. It used to toss you out after about 10-15 minutes. Now, it tosses you out after an hour or two. Not fixed, but much better.

Two hours of inactivity and logging you out, in my opinion is fine. Personally, I never really had this issue but many many publishers have.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Publishers Abusing Google's DMCA Policy?

Posted: July 6th, 2010, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that some publishers have had their Google AdSense ads deactivated over bogus DMCA filings.

DMCA, is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and Google has a policy of "removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity and/or terminating subscribers," when in question. Google allows those served with a DMCA notice to appeal the process, but that can take several days. Several days can mean big money for some publishers.

The publisher in the WebmasterWorld explained his case:

We received a DMCA Notice this morning. The "infringing" article has been on our site since 2006 (this can be verified at archive.org). We BOUGHT a license to USE the article at constant-content.com in 2006. The article in question is still available at constant-content.com, for any person to purchase. There is no unique/full rights available on this article.

He said "it took two faxes, two electronic counter notices, and a few emails, but this morning I received the email from Adsense Support to say they have re-enabled ad serving." He was without ads for about 6 days and he will never recoup that lost income.

Should there be a counter-claim with financial penalty for filing false DMCA requests?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Testing Google AdSense on Mobile Sites?

Posted: June 18th, 2010, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

As more and more people are utilizing their mobile phones to access web content on a daily basis, more and more publishers are looking for ways to monetize that area better. A WebmasterWorld thread has several Google AdSense publishers discussing tactics, strategies and stories on what they did to help monetize their site's with Google AdSense mobile ads.

Most of these publishers are sticking to monetizing for full-size mobile browsers, such as iPhones, Android devices, Palm Pre and some Blackberries. While others are also looking to monetize for WAP based browsers, which support less features but do render content specially formatted for those non-full-size mobile browsers.

Personally, I don't bother with WAP, I go for full size browsers, such as those found on iPhones, Android devices, Palm Pre and some Blackberries. Why? Simply because those with those types of devices are consuming the mobile web at a much higher rate than those without those devices.

I shouldn't probably talk, since this site isn't really mobile friendly. But discuss techniques on this over here on some level.

To discuss strategies and techniques, join the WebmasterWorld.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Did Google Beef Up Their Interest Based Ads?

Posted: June 1st, 2010, 2:58pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday I was searching for [ipad cases] and then have been noticing AdSense ads with ads for iPad Cases, even though the ads were not relevant to content on that page.

I then spotted a thread on WebmasterWorld from the AdSense moderator, martinibuster who said the same thing but dug deeper. First let me show you what I mean and then I'll share martinibuster's comments.

I was searching for [ipad cases] and clicked on a bunch of search results. I then was checking some feeds and web sites and noticed ads for iPad cases, such as this one:

So it seems to work and work quickly. Try it yourself. Search for something that would generate ads in Google, then go to a web site with AdSense ads on them. They should show you interest based ads, which technically launched a year ago. I should note that AdSense publishers can choose to disable IAB (interest based ads) from showing on their sites.

Now, read martinibuster's post:

I have been clicking AdSense ads like a chicken on corn for the past two weeks. I've been researching fishing gear and keep seeing these ads for fishing outlets and sales on fishing gear.

I needed photos for a project I'm working on. Researched at different sites. Then I started seeing ads for discounts on stock royalty free photos at leading websites. My fingers started clicking on ads everywhere I went, chasing down offers like 10 free and 15% discounts.

I have never clicked on ads before. Since IAB rolled out I have clicked on dozens of ads. I buy stuff online. So yes, I have made purchases as a result of the IBA's. I was researching my purchases. Ads for discounts popped up. For me, as a consumer, IAB worked.

Is IAB resulting in an increase in earnings for me? No. I have not noticed a dramatic increase in earnings. But I'm not seeing a decrease either. Earnings are doing fine, but I can't say positively whether that is a result of IAB because I have not seen a dramatic lift in earnings.

I am not saying that IAB is a good thing. I am only stating that for the first time in my life I am clicking on AdSense ads.

Do you agree? I mean there is something a bit creepy about seeing ads on third-party sites based on your Google search query. But there is also something nice about it as well.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Now Displaying Revenue Share in AdSense Console

Posted: May 25th, 2010, 3:30pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday, Google revealed the revenue share of their AdSense program. They said within the upcoming months they would be adding the revenue share figures to the AdSense console. But it is actually in there as of yesterday.

AdSenseAdvisor, or Google's Rohit, said in a WebmasterWorld thread:

The AdSense for Content and AdSense for search revenue numbers mentioned in today’s blogpost are now being displayed in the new AdSense interface (still in beta). These numbers will also be available in the existing interface soon as well.

My first instinct was to check the AdSense reports and see a new column for revenue share, but it was not there. A Google AdSense Help thread aided me in finding it under the "account settings" section of the AdSense console.

Here is a picture:

As you can see, Google lists the revenue share by product under the "Active products" section. They only list the revenue share for "AdSense for Content" and "AdSense for Search," the others they are not sharing the information on yet.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google AdSense Help.

AdSense Publishers Earn 68% of Revenue Says Google

Posted: May 24th, 2010, 6:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

I am shocked that Google is revealing the revenue share split of the AdSense content and search network. Google said today they give publishers 68% of the ad revenue earned on the content ads and 51% of revenue earned on the search ads.

Google told me on the phone that this is the same share worldwide for all publishers who signed up online. There are special deals made for partners, I guess such as Amazon.com. But the majority of publishers make 68% or 51% depending on the network type.

I did expect Italian publishers to get this information. But I guess Google felt it was easier to just share it with everyone.

Google promised to add these revenue share details to the reports within the AdSense console within the upcoming months.

A very active WebmasterWorld thread already has a lot of discussion around it. Most people are saying they are surprised Google gives so much. 68% is pretty high, but I think our estimates show overall it was about 70 to 75% share. Keep in mind, our estimates included special partners, which obviously have a higher share of revenue, when compared to the 68% shared with most publishers.

Do you think 68% revenue share on the content network is high or low?

68% AdSense Revenue Share Is...online surveys

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

AdSense Optimisation Best Practices Webinar on Wednesday

Posted: May 10th, 2010, 3:36pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense publishers, there is a new free webinar coming this Wednesday named "AdSense Optimisation Best Practices." It is taking place Wednesday, May 12th at 5pm (GMT), which is 1pm (EST) or 9:00am (PDT).

The topics that will be covered include:

Optimizing your AdSense for Content implementation: placements, formats, coverage, color palettes
Tracking the performance of your optimizations via Channels
How to attract placement targeting
Making the most of AdSense for Search

Google is even asking you to ask questions before the webinar at Google Moderator.

To register for the webinar, learn more or see others coming up in the future, click here.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google Posting Warnings To AdSense Publishers

Posted: May 7th, 2010, 3:07pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports Google has been sending warning notifications to some publishers via the AdSense console. The publisher said, "I just happened to log into adsense today and noticed a warning from yesterday about adsense on some adult focused pages." He even posted the warning:

Google AdSense: You have 3 working days to make changes to your website.

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

Hello, While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as *********Birmingham_Fun:_An evening_with_an_Escort_Girl. Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your website. As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers may not display Google ads on pages with adult or mature content. While we understand that it may be challenging to monitor user-generated content, such as comments, on your site, we require publishers to check that the webpages containing their ad code complies with our program policies. Please make any necessary changes to your webpages in the next 72 hours. We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) to ensure that all of your other pages are in compliance. Once you update your site, we will automatically detect the changes and ad serving will not be affected. If you choose not to make the changes to your account within the next three days, your account will remain active but you will no longer be able to display ads on the site. Please note, however, that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team

Issue ID# 1000033 ----------------

For more information regarding this warning email, please visit our Help Center: https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113058.

Indeed, there is some interesting information in the help center about these notifications. They have them broken down into three groups:

(1) Ad serving has been disabled to your site
(2) You have 3 working days to make changes to your site
(3) Your Google AdSense account has been disabled

Have you ever received a warning from Google? If so, were they different from the three listed above?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Future of Google AdSense From a Publisher's Perspective

Posted: April 30th, 2010, 3:08pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has publishers talking about what they see the future of the Google AdSense program is. Some are talking about how earnings will continue to decline as the program matures. While others say it will increase as the economy recovers.

How about any danger to Google? One publisher said:

The only danger to AdSense is if advertisers discover a better advertising model.

Publishers here are not really talking about features expected in the future. But we have already seen Google expand AdSense from ads on a web page, to mobile pages, mobile apps, in YouTube videos, TV ads, radio and so on.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Tries New Layouts & New Features Ads Light Bulbs

Posted: April 29th, 2010, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has a couple AdSense publishers reporting that Google is testing a new AdSense layout. The new layout hows the ad title and ad description on a single line. This is instead of showing the ad title and then a break and then a ad description.

Here is a picture of the new ad format, which I found on Digital Inspiration:

Another thing I noticed, which may not be all that new, is that Google AdSense Featured Ads, which were initially marked by a gold star are now marked by yellow light bulbs. Here is a picture of what those light bulb ads look like:

Here is the previous version, the gold star version:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

When Will Google Deal With AdSense Issues On Their Cached Pages?

Posted: April 28th, 2010, 3:46pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A new WebmasterWorld thread brings up an old issue with Google's AdSense ads rendering on the Google Cache results. Some ads, depending on the site's layout and html, won't render properly. Let me quote the complaint in the new thread:

When showing the cache of URLs of a site I see something strange. A lot of public service ads or no ads at all as well as ads not related to the content appear. Using the adsense preview tool everything looks fine.
I have checked the cache of a different site in the same niche, it has 100% better CTR and the ads in the cached version look completely on topic without any PSAs.

This is something we reported a year ago and a year before that on some level. Here is what incrediBILL, the moderator of the WebmasterWorld AdSense forum said:

I posted about a year ago about the ads in cache displaying improperly most of the time, not always but frequently, and Google acknowledged there was a problem, it was escalated, and we never heard about it again.
Another problem I raised was whether we got credits for ads on those cache pages because I use allowed sites and there was possible an issue there too, no resolution has been heard on that topic either.

We've been abandoned.

Did Google abandon us?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Has Over One Million AdSense Publishers

Posted: April 26th, 2010, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense blog post from last week was the first time Google told us a number of how many AdSense publishers they have. Google said they have "over one million publishers" in their network.

Google, I believe, has never given a size of their publisher network, outside of revenue earned as reported in their financial reports. But I do not believe they ever told anyone how large, in terms of the number of publishers, the AdSense network is.

A WebmasterWorld thread has some publishers saying they are shocked Google has so many publishers. Honestly, does one million sound like a lot? I am not sure. What do you think?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Bug: Google AdSense for Search Code Error

Posted: April 12th, 2010, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Those trying to go through Google AdSense to generate a search box for their web site might be out of luck. According to a Google AdSense Help thread, the ability to create valid code to place on your web site, so that you can enable Google search and monetize that search on your web pages has been buggy.

Early reports came March 31st, with no answer until Friday. The first report said:

I followed step by step instructions to generate code for adsense search box, when I click Submit and get code button it isn't showing the code for adsense search box, When I click the button it becomes unclickable and shows the message 'Saving your settings', I have waited for many minutes but nothing happens, seems like it never stops saving my settings.. Tried in Firefox, IE and Chrome, not working on any of them.

Finally, this past Friday, April 9th, Google's AdSensePro Annie replied to the thread confirming the issue:

Thanks for reporting this bug. We are aware of this problem and our engineers are in the process of fixing it. In the meantime, you can generate the same code at: http://www.google.com/cse/.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

There is no ETA for the fix and it appears the issue is still there for many publishers.

So if you want to monetize your search pages, maybe try google.com/cse as a work around.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Apple's iAd to Compete With Google AdSense Mobile Ads

Posted: April 9th, 2010, 3:39pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday, Apple held their iPhone developer preview event and announced the 4.0 iPhone OS. I summarized the key points in bullet point fashion at RustyBrick, my corporate web site but now you can watch the keynote on Apple.com if you missed it. But one of the big announcements that impacts Google is that Apple will be starting an ad company named iAd.

iAd competed directly with the already popular beta version of Google AdSense for Mobile Applications. I can tell you first hand, as a developer, that AdSense in mobile apps works incredibly well for monetizing these free apps. That is why Apple wants a piece of it with iAd. The funny part is that Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO made a comment that Google tried to prevent them from getting into the market by buying AdMob, so Apple had to buy another company. In any event, Appel describes iAd as:

Apple's new mobile advertising platform, combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. When users click on mobile ads they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser's webpage. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it is often difficult or impossible to return to exactly where they left. iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iPhone OS 4 lets developers easily embed iAd opportunities within their apps, and the ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive 60 percent of iAd revenue.

The demo at the yesterday's keynote was pretty impressive and being that Apple holds the keys to all the apps - I am sure they will make it incredibly easy to add to apps. So we will see how this impacts Google's mobile ad product.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense EFT Issue Impacts Canadian Publisher Payments

Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 2:30pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There are dozens of complaints, that I found, of Canadian Google AdSense publishers complaining about issues about being paid this month. It appears that Google used the wrong exchange rate, which is not uncommon, and then cancelled certain payments to fix the issue. Somehow this technically caused EFT, or electronic funds transfers, settings to go bad in some accounts and stop payments from going forward.

I have not seen an official Google response outside of someone posting the transcript of an email he received from Google. That email said:

We're writing to let you know about an issue with your March 2010 AdSense payment. As you know, the full amount of your most recent Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payment was not transmitted all at one time, due to the use of an inaccurate exchange rate. You’ve already received a payment, which is the bulk of the amount you're owed. The remaining amount will be sent in a separate transaction in a few days.
In order to process this second payment, you’ll see several transactions on your Payment History page which we will explain below. You may also notice a hold on your account and/or a change in status to your EFT account, however we kindly ask that you disregard both of these, as we’re working on a resolution on our end.

Your Payment History page in your AdSense account will show the following over the next few days:

1) A 'Payment issued' line posted on March 25, 2010 calculated in USD. (If you click on the 'details' link next to this line you'll find this payment was calculated in CAD with an exchange rate of 1 USD : 0.950 CAD.)

2) An 'EFT not successful - earnings credited back' line has posted today, March 31, 2010. This doesn't mean that your EFT was unsuccessful and please rest assured that no money is being withdrawn from your bank account. It's only displayed to balance the amounts within your AdSense account.

During this time, you may happen to see messaging that your account is on hold and to select a new form of payment. Rest assured this is a normal part of the process and we kindly ask that you do not make any such changes until both these payments have been finalized.

3) Then, a 'Payment issued' line will also post, for the actual USD amount of the initial deposit that was sent to your account on March 25th. (If you click on the 'details' link for this payment you'll find this payment was calculated in CAD with an exchange rate of 1 USD : 1.026 CAD.)

4) In a few days, an additional 'Payment issued' line will post when the additional payment is processed for the remaining amount that you are due. (When it posts, if you click on the 'details' link for this payment you'll find this payment was calculated in CAD with an exchange rate of 1 USD: 1.026 CAD.)

The sum of these two last 'Payment issued' lines will reflect the correct amount of your payment. So next week, your Payment History page will appear something like the following example:

Payment issued (US $100.00)
EFT not successful - earnings credited back US $100.00
Payment issued (US $96.00)
Payment issued (US $4.00)

Please be assured that the remainder of your payment will be deposited into your account soon.

Once again, we appreciate your patience as we work to fix the error.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

I am sure Canadian publishers will get paid in full soon, so hang tight.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google Ad Sense Help.

Google Says Ads Should Not Open in New Windows, Unless You're In China

Posted: March 18th, 2010, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Via a FAQ on Google, which asks "Can I open the ads in a new window?" It says that you are not allowed to force the ads into a new window. But Google may open these ads in a new window for specific users, if those users are in China.

Here is what the answer Google provides for this question:

Generally, it is our policy to not allow Google ads to open in a new window. However, in a few markets, including China, we've found that opening ads in a new window better aligns with expected internet behavior and provides a more consistent, intuitive user experience.
Keeping in mind the importance of the user experience, we've enabled Google ads to open in new windows in locations where this is expected browsing behavior. This functionality is determined by the IP of the user, and is not an option you can select your AdSense account.

We also ask that you don't modify the AdSense ad code or alter the result of clicking on an ad on your website, as such behavior violates our program policies.

I guess Google would know what most U.S. based users expect, they have crawled most of the web and know how many ads open in a new window and how many do not. So I trust Google on this.

However, netmeg said in a WebmasterWorld thread that you can use Google Ad Manager to display AdSense and you can set those AdSense ads to open in a new window via Ad Manager. However, please read all of what netmeg said, he said:

If you use Ad Manager, you can set them to open in a new window. I did find this seemed to drastically inflate impressions, leading to lower CTR though. And I don't know if CTR has a direct influence on smart pricing, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. It's pretty important on the advertising side.

I doubt all my readers would agree that (1) it's best to keep users in the same window and (2) it impacts CTR.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Opens 3rd Party Ad Networks To All AdSense Publishers

Posted: March 17th, 2010, 2:08pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last night, Google announced they are opening up the "Google-certified ad networks" to all AdSense publishers. The Google-certified ad networks are 3rd party advertising networks that are thrown into the bidding war with your AdSense powered ads.

Google initially tested this back in September 2009 and in October publishers began thinking that it lowered their revenue with Google. So some publishers decided to block these ads. Google then came out and told publishers not to block them because it was only a limited test and the lower earnings likely had nothing to do with the 3rd party network.

Now, it is available to all publishers, so publishers can test it better. As Google notes, you have control over it in the ad review center. So give it a try and if it doesn't work for you, kill it.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Forcing Some AdSense Publishers To Select a Local Currency

Posted: March 11th, 2010, 3:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that some Google AdSense publishers are being forced to pick a local currency, instead of using the U.S. dollar.

Three publishers claimed it happened yesterday, where they logged into AdSense and had to pick a local currency. Here are some of the messages in the forum thread:

I think it is not possible to skip it any more.

They should have waited untill march 31 or april 1 to let it synchronize with taxes cycles. For those of us living in the EU but not in Ireland, it makes necessary new taxes forms.

This obviously should not impact U.S. publishers and publishers who live in countries where Google cannot pay out in that local currency.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

AdSense Data Link With Google Webmaster Tools Failure

Posted: March 5th, 2010, 12:21pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google Webmaster Help thread has confirmed reports of an issue with authenticated your site via Google Webmaster Tools to allows AdSense's bot to crawl password protected sections of the web site.

One of the steps of authenticating AdSense to allow the AdSense crawler to access pages that are behind a login is to verify your site with Google Webmaster Tools. The data feed to pass over the authentication authorization between Webmaster Tools and AdSense was offline for a few days.

Dennis G. from the Google Webmaster team said:

Our data feed from Webmaster Tools to AdSense slowed down significantly for a few days. It's getting back to normal now; please try again, and post back here if it's not working by tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience.

We have not had any real confirmations from publishers that this has been fixed, but hopefully it has.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Brazilian Google AdSense Publishers May Not Be Paid This Month

Posted: March 3rd, 2010, 1:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Found via a WebmasterWorld thread, a Google AdSense Brasil thread has a note from Marcelo from the Google AdSense team that some Brazilian publishers won't be paid this month.

The translated version of what he said is:

Due to a problem in the payment process, some publishers will not be paid in February, but their gains have accrued and paid at the end of March. As some publishers may have seen, we send an email to all those affected about what happened. Please be advised that this was an exceptional occurrence, and not repeated.
We appreciate your understanding and patience.

This has happened before with publishers both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. It has also happened to mass numbers of publishers and individual publishers.

So if you do not get paid this month, this is why.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google AdSense Brasil.

Twitter Users Don't Click on Google AdSense Ads?

Posted: February 26th, 2010, 9:37am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has Google AdSense publishers talking about how well traffic from Twitter converts in terms of clicks on AdSense ads.

The overall consensus from the thread is that Twitter users are too cool to click on AdSense ads. One person even kept tabs on that, saying:

Created about 500 targeted follows, got 120 followers, this converted in about 40 visits to my sites and 1 click.

I can tell you that for both this blog and my personal blog, which receives traffic from Twitter in the top ten of their referrals, that traffic does not convert into the top ten referrals for AdSense revenue. Let me explain again. For this site, Twitter is within the top 5 sources of traffic to this site. However, if I sort that traffic by top referrer by revenue earned with AdSense, Twitter is not in the top ten list.

Do you agree?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Poll: 60% of Google AdSense Publishers Say Earnings Down

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A bit over a week ago, we reported that AdSense publishers were complaining about lower earnings. So to get a better and wider count of those who agree that earnings are indeed down, I ran a quick poll.

We had just over 85 responses to the poll and I wanted to share the results.

I asked, Have Your AdSense Earnings Dropped in February, from January?

51 people or 59.3% said Yes, 31 people or 36% said No and 4 people had other things to say. Here is the chart:

So what do you make of this?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Video Ads, Video Ad Overlays

Posted: February 15th, 2010, 2:57pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Two DigitalPoint Forum threads have reports, of what I think are new ad formats by Google. These Google AdSense ads have a play button in them, that launch a video ads directly above the ad.

Here are pictures, one of the pictures is from rudefox.com:

I believe Google has test these types of ads in the past - but I do not see them all that often.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forum.

Google AdSense Now Using Previous Search Queries For Ad Relevancy

Posted: February 12th, 2010, 2:39pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

The Google AdSense blog announced they are now using the query data in the referrer URL to better target and match the AdSense ads on your web site. Basically, if you go to Google, type in a query, click on a site that has AdSense on it, Google will use the query you entered on Google (or any search engine) to match the ads to the query and the contextual nature of the page.

Supposedly, Google has been doing this for a while. I think that is news to me. But what Google said they recently changed was now storing the query for a few hours, so if you visit other sites with AdSense on it, hours later, it will continue to use your search history to match the AdSense ads on third-party web sites. Of course, Google said you can opt out of this.

Google explained:

Let's assume the user in our example leaves your golf website and browses through to a news website that is also an AdSense partner. Since [golf shop atlanta] is in a referral URL that was visited in the past few hours, we may use those query words, along with the content of the news webpage itself, to determine the most relevant ad to show the user on the news website.

Google supposedly also emailed publishers about this change, but publishers did not understand it, from what I take.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Sends Valentine's Day Card to AdSense Publishers

Posted: February 11th, 2010, 2:48pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Valentines Day is around the corner and some Google AdSense publishers are reporting at WebmasterWorld that they received a card from Google, wishing them a happy Valentine's Day. The card also includes a $100 promo code to use AdWords.

The front of the card reads:

Others will fill your heart this Valentine's Day

When you open the card, it reads:

We want to overload your servers.

Because nothing says "I love you" like free traffic to your web site...

I found a picture of the front and inside of the card on Flickr from devanjedi. Here they are:

The best comment from the WebmasterWorld thread is, "who said romance was dead."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Upcoming Google AdSense Webinars

Posted: February 9th, 2010, 3:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google's Ashley posted a thread at Google AdSense Help forums announcing upcoming AdSense Webinars. The upcoming webinars include:

AdSense Optimization Basics - Wednesday, February 10, 2010 5:00 pm GMT/ 9am PST
Advanced Optimization - Wednesday, February 24, 2010 5:00 pm GMT/9am PST
Improving AdSense Performance using GAM - Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:00 am GMT
Realizing the potential of AdSense for Search (AFS) - Wednesday, March 3, 2010 5:00 pm GMT/9am PST

You can register for the webinars by clicking here.

Technical requirements: To participate, all you need is a computer with an Internet connection and speakers or a pair of headphones. Note to Mac users: The current version of WebEx Event Center does not support Internet Phone (VOIP) for Mac users.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google Sending Emails Notifications to Publishers Regarding Payments

Posted: February 4th, 2010, 3:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that many publishers have received an email recently from Google notifying them that they have been paid. Some, initially, felt the email was spam or a phishing attempt, but after closer review, the emails do appear to be coming from Google.

I personally did not receive such an email. Some reported the email being sent to their junk filter. Some reported not receiving it at all, like me. Some felt it was spam, like I said above. I do not have a copy of this email to share with you.

Google did not yet chime in about this email, but from what I am seeing, it does seem to be a new feature. It is nice that Google lets publishers know, via email, when they were paid - but they can give publishers a way to opt out of such notifications.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Blogger Reporting Bug

Posted: February 4th, 2010, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense Help thread has confirmed reports of Google AdSense reports not showing earning values.

It was reported several times in the forum, but a top contributor confirmed the issue on January 26th.

Many publishers using Blogger have been reporting that their earnings are not displayed under the Monetise tab. If you have this problem, please post here, so that the scale of the problem can be gauged, and avoid duplicate questions and answers.

Yesterday, a Googler said they are aware of the issue:

Our engineers are aware of this issue and are working on a solution. In the meantime, you can access your earnings data by logging into AdSense directly.
I apologize for the inconvenience.

There is not estimated time as to when Google will fix the issue, but they are aware.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google Double Pays Publisher, Apologizes Via Email

Posted: February 3rd, 2010, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense has paid a publisher twice as much in December, so they decided to apologize to the publisher and withhold the funds from their January check. A WebmasterWorld thread has the story from this publisher.

The publisher said:

I checked that I had ben paid the other day and thought did I really earn that much in December but didn't think any more about it.

Have just received an email from Google Ireland saying they paid me double and they will take the extra amount off the next payment - oh well!

We have seen reports of duplicate AdSense checks going out to publishers before, but never a case of where a publisher received twice as much as they should have in a direct deposit or on a single check. In any event, the publisher is not upset - since Google is letting the publisher hold the funds an extra month early.

There were two other publishers who claimed they received twice as much in December. Both expect not to get paid in January. One said:

I got a double payment too for December, but I wasn't going to say anything in the hope that it passed through the system. No such luck. At least I now have the next month's payment even before I earned it.

I am surprised I did not hear about the over payments earlier, I guess either publishers did not notice or they didn't want anyone to know.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

What's New With AdSense Publishers?

Posted: January 29th, 2010, 2:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There is a useful WebmasterWorld thread that has summarized some of the larger issues that have rose to the top discussions in the various forums on AdSense. They point out three main topics disturbing publishers:

A number of publishers complaining about making less money.
Some publishers reporting a general increase in average EPC
Lots of noise on the AdWords board about advertiser accounts being shut down by Google

I have honestly seen threads contradicting the average EPC discussion but in any event, this is the bulk of the complaints these days on Google AdSense.

What publishers are doing now is trying to figure out if any of the above correlate to each other. Would accounts being banned have a direct impact on the remaining publishers making less money? I can see how AdWords account bans, which have been on the rise, do have an impact - but AdSense accounts? Maybe I am not thinking hard enough - due to the early hour.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Why Does Google Sometimes Show PSAs for Cumming Georgia Pages?

Posted: January 28th, 2010, 2:18pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has a unique discussion going on about Google AdSense and their stop words. In this discussion, some publishers have landing pages targeting the city, Cumming, Georgia. Clearly, the word 'Cumming' is an adult word, but it is also a fairly populated city in Georgia.

The question is, why are some of the pages that target this city, showing Google AdSense ads that are PSA (public service ads), while others seem to show related Georgia based ads? Is Google confusing some of those pages as being adult? Or are there other reasons?

I decided to track down two pages that have PSAs and two that don't, and they all target the city in Georgia.

PSAs for Cumming, Georgia:

Non-PSAs for Cumming, Georgia:

Why would some serve up PSAs and some not? It doesn't seem like Google is stupid enough to not know the city?

Let me try a real live Google AdSense here and see what happens:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Paying AdSense Publishers Less & Less

Posted: January 26th, 2010, 2:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Often when Google releases earnings, AdSense publishers try to extract how much share Google is paying them of the earnings. Ad you know, a publisher places an ad from Google on their site, the advertiser pays Google and then Google pays a share of that to the publishers. Looking at Google's earnings, you can somewhat figure out how much share publishers make. Always, keep in mind, certain publishers likely get special arrangements.

Labnol posted the latest look at this share, showing that in the first quarter of 2009, Google paid an even 75% to the publishers. However, in the fourth quarter of 2009, that share dropped to 72.06%.

Here is a graph I made showing the decline in 2009:

Here is the data:

	Q1 ‘09	Q2 ‘09	Q3 ‘09	Q4 ‘09
Google AdSense Earnings (in billion)	$1.64	$1.68	$1.80	$2.04
Google Payments to AdSense Publishers (in billion)	$1.23	$1.24	$1.33	$1.47
Percent Given to Publishers	75.00%	73.81%	73.89%	72.06%

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Kaspersky Blocking Google Ads Again

Posted: January 25th, 2010, 2:09pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Two months ago, we reported that Google AdSense was being blocked by Kaspersky Internet security software. That was fixed pretty quickly. But now, we are hearing new reports that the latest Kaspersky update is blocking Google ads again.

The alert people are seeing from Kaspersky is:

Virus detected Severity: Critical event Application: Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0 for Windows Servers Enterprise Edition Version number: 6.0.2.555 Task name: Real-time file protection Computer: DRxxxxxxx Group: xxxxxxx Time: 25 January 2010 09:26:00 Description: Threat detected: Trojware Trojan.JS.Redirector.ar. Object name: C:Documents and SettingsxxxxLocal SettingsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5CGQQTE3Hshow_ads[1].js

They are being triggered by pagead2.googlesyndication.com.

We have threads on the issue at WebmasterWorld, Kaspersky Forums and Google Web Search Help.

I have not seen a comment from an official Google represenative or Kaspersky representatives as of yet.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Kaspersky Forums and Google Web Search Help.

WebmasterWorld's Tabke: Google "Stiffed" Webmasters on Christmas

Posted: December 23rd, 2009, 2:45pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday we reported that Google donated $20 million to charity instead of giving out their typical holiday gifts to publishers. We initially thought Google would not send out gifts this year, and we were somewhat right. They did not give publishers, advertisers or webmasters anything really - outside of what they earned.

Brett Tabke, the owner of WebmasterWorld, commented in a WebmasterWorld thread with his true feelings. He felt Google stiffed webmasters, advertisers and publishers this year. Let me quote him:

Lets get real. A $20m tax write off to charity has nothing to do with AdSense or AdWords swag gifts. If you were expecting a gift from Google - you got stiffed. Your "gift" did not go to charity. If it did go to charity in your name, then ask Google for documentation to that effect so that you can take it off your taxes. To even mention the two in the same breath is a disservice to the charities and to AdSense operators. Google gives money every year to charity - so do alot of businesses. $20 million isn't even good pocket changes to google. These two events are totally unrelated. Nothing but political pr slight-of-hand at work.

Do you agree with this?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Tests Searching For Targeted Ads in Console

Posted: December 23rd, 2009, 2:34pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last night I received an email from Google about a new feature available in my AdSense account, as a beta. The feature basically allows me to search for ads that are targeted towards my site. Searching for ads makes it a bit easier to find and block or allow these ads from being shown on my pages.

Here is a picture of the new feature:

Here is a copy of the email:

Subject: Announcing Search in the AdSense Ad Review Center

Hello,
As a beta tester of the new AdSense interface, you'll soon be able to use the Ad Review Center to search for ads that are targeted to your site. This new search functionality is designed to improve your efficiency when finding ads to review, based on feedback we've received from publishers.

To start searching for ads, sign in to your AdSense account. If you're presented with the previous interface, click the "Try new AdSense" link in the upper right-hand corner. Then, visit the "Allow & block ads" tab. You'll find the "Search ads" link in the left-hand navigation bar, where you can search by keyword text or ad URL. Learn more about search in our Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/as/bin/answer.py?answer=167309.

We invite you to provide us with your feedback about this new beta feature, using the 'Provide feedback' link in the upper right-hand corner of your account. Thanks in advance for your input, and we look forward to incorporating your suggestions into this new feature.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

The feature doesn't seem to work fully for me yet, but I suspect it to be very useful for many publishers once it goes fully live.

Forum discussion at Search Engine Roundtable Forums.

Rendering Google AdSense on iPhone or Android Has Minor Quirk?

Posted: December 21st, 2009, 2:33pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that when you try to login to Google AdSense using your Android device or an iPhone it rendered the reports all weird. I tried to reproduce this on my side, but I am currently not able to.

What many are reporting is that the report seems to load in an iframe below the login box, after you login. Let me quote one of the reports:

I typed my username and password.
The report appeared just at the place where I typed in username and password.

It seems like the report is in a not scrollable IFRAME starting at the position of the input for username and password

I think I am not having the issue because I am logging in automatically. Google AdSenseAdvisor replied to the thread saying:

I'm investigating. I'll let you know when I hear something back. Thanks for flagging this.

We have no ETA for a fix or even a solid confirmation what type of bug this is.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Tells AdSense Publishers, Your Earnings are "Estimated"

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 2:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday at about 3:30pm (EST) Google changed the AdSense console overview page to show the word "estimated" by "Today's Earnings." So now it reads, "Today's estimated earnings" instead of just "Today's earnings." A WebmasterWorld thread was started to ask questions about this change, and then the Google AdSense Blog confirmed the change.

Here is a picture highlighting the change:

Google explained:

In order to be more transparent about how our system calculates earnings, we've added the words "Estimated" and "Finalized" next to "Earnings" throughout your account. Rest assured these terminology changes don't reflect a change to the way your finalized earnings are calculated. It's simply intended to give you a clearer idea of what's our estimation of your earnings and what's finalized.

Don't like it? Not happy? Got more questions?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Job Applicants, Google AdSense Can't Be Used As a Job Reference

Posted: December 11th, 2009, 2:31pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A person seeking new employment asked in a WebmasterWorld thread if he can use Google as a reference for his interviews. Why does he feel he might be able to use Google in this way? Well, he never really worked as a Google employee, but he did get checks from Google via their AdSense program.

AdSenseAdvisor, from Google said:

I love that AdSense has been your primary source of income. Sadly, I don't personally know enough about you or your work to provide you with a reference.

Yes, it doesn't work that way does it? How can Google vouch for someone that they do not directly manage?

Ironically, this is not the first time we covered this topic. We said it clear with Google AdSense Publishers Are Not Employed By Google over two years ago. You simply cannot put down Google on your resume, even if you made money with Google AdSense. That doesn't mean you cannot show interviewers how much you made and what tactics you deployed to make your sites successful.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Promises to Speed Up AdSense for GoogleBot

Posted: December 10th, 2009, 2:46pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Since Google has released the Site Performance reports in Webmaster Tools and page speed is Google's 2010 ranking factor promise, Webmasters have been somewhat obsessed with speeding up their sites.

Webmasters are concerned with scripts they do not control. Such as Google Analytics slowing down their page load times. In fact, we just reported that Google is going to add a trustworthy indicator to site performance reports in order to alleviate some of the webmaster stress over speed performance.

Now, we see reports that Google AdSense is slow. But instead of Google just telling us not to worry about it, which they have told us for this. Google is actually going to speed up the AdSense load time specifically for GoogleBot.

AdSenseAdvisor said in a WebmasterWorld thread two things. The first was not to worry about it and the second was that they will be improving the speed of AdSense specifically for GoogleBot.

Let me quote AdSense Advisor:

(1) "The Page Speed suggestions on Webmaster Tools are based on the content served to Googlebot. In this case, AdSense serves the javascript uncompressed to Googlebot, but does actually compress it with gzip for regular users. So, the AdSense javascript is already optimized for your site's users. AdSense works very hard at making sure that it doesn't slow down the page load."

(2) "We are changing AdSense to send compressed content to our Googlebot so that the recommendation in Webmaster Central accurately reflects how AdSense works."

Now some may ask if this is a form of serving different content to GoogleBot versus a human - i.e. cloaking. I don't think this falls under that.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Got Ideas for Google AdSense? Let Them Know Here

Posted: December 4th, 2009, 1:42pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Are you frustrated with Google AdSense? Do you love them? Do you have ideas that you think would improve the product or service? If so, Google is now asking for feedback on Google AdSense. Do not submit the ideas here, you have to go to a Google Moderator area and submit your ideas there.

AdSense Pro Jennifer said in a Google AdSense Help thread:

I just wanted to let you know that we've launched an AdSense Product Ideas page on Google Moderator. It's a great way to get your ideas heard, vote on other publishers' suggestions, and share your thoughts on AdSense product updates. As the blog announcement says, "While we aren't able to guarantee that all the ideas on this page will be implemented, we can guarantee that we'll take the top ideas (as voted by you), and bring them to the AdSense Product Management team for review. By submitting an idea, you agree that Google may use the idea to develop and enhance Google's products and services."

Again, if you have ideas for Google on AdSense, don't comment here, go to the Google Moderator area and submit your ideas or vote on ideas.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Bans Publisher For Copyright Infringement Over Their Own Copyrights

Posted: December 1st, 2009, 2:20pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense Help thread reports that an AdSense publisher was banned or disapproved from Google AdSense because the content on their web site is copyrighted. This happens all the time, but in this case, the content that is copyrighted is copyrighted by them and they have the right to use this content - since it is theirs.

The publisher wrote:

I am the one and only owner of the copyright of all my books (they are in print for more than 10 years) presented on my site. However my site hasn't been approved for Google Adsense because "it contains copyrighted material". Yes, the material is copyrighted. But it is copyrighted by me.

The email that said that rigmarole to me is "noreply". How can I point out the silly mistake to the Google worker who made it?

You just have to laugh, don't you?

Googler, Jennifer, replied to the thread saying, "I'll look into this and get back to you."

Can't wait to see the outcome. Either this person is lying or something weird is going on.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google Disabling AdSense Accounts For Using Tamper Data Firefox Plugin

Posted: November 19th, 2009, 3:10pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

I have been seeing reports of Google banning and disabling AdSense accounts due to using a Firefox plugin named Tamper Data. Tamper Data allows people to view and modify HTTP/HTTPS headers and post parameters, which can be helpful, but also used for evil.

The emails being sent to these publishers read:

During a recent review of your account, our specialists found that tamper data was used to modify the country listed in your account. Changing your address in this manner is a violation of our policy guidelines.

What appears is happening is that publishers are signing up using Tamper Data to fake their location. You can read why and how this is done at this blog and this one.

In summary, certain countries are not allowed to sign up for AdSense so people fake where they are from. I am not sure why people would use this technique when they are in an approved location, unless I am missing something?

You can read the dozens of threads about this at Google AdSense Help or a thread at WebmasterWorld.

Beware: Google AdSense "Account Disabled" Phishing Scam

Posted: October 16th, 2009, 3:28pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday, I, along with hundreds (if not thousands) of others received an email that appeared to be from Google. The email's subject line read "Google Adsense Account Disabled" and the email's from to looked to be from Google Adsense . It was actually caught by my spam filter and as I dug into the source code of the email, I noticed it was a scam. Beware, this is a recent phishing scam.

Here is how the email looked in my mail client:

There were a few glaring issues with this email:

(1) The source showed a few things, but here is one item that jumps out at me:

Received-SPF: softfail (google.com: domain of transitioning adsense-adclicks-noreply@google.com does not designate 64.26.60.146 as permitted sender) client-ip=64.26.60.146;

(2) The email had an attached HTML file, when you open the source of that file (which I don't recommend most people do), it has a redirect to a non Google domain (phishing site):

(3) I checked if my ads were displaying and if I had any message in my AdSense console and I did not.

So I trashed the email and went on. Then I noticed other people receiving this phishing email, which is why I am writing about it.

Do not fall for the scam!

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help and WebmasterWorld.

Public Service Announcements (PSAs) Ads Showed On All AdSense Sites Yesterday

Posted: August 26th, 2009, 3:59pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday, for about five minutes during the day, any site that had AdSense ads on them, showed what is known as Public Service Announcements (PSAs). PSAs are ads that are free and don't earn money, and are shown when Google cannot find a contextually relevant ad.

AdSenseAdvisor confirmed the issue in a WebmasterWorld thread, saying:

We experienced a very brief (under 5 minutes) issue that caused Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to appear on publisher pages for a few minutes this afternoon. Our engineers diagnosed and resolved the issue immediately, and your ads should now be back to normal. Thanks for reporting this, and we appreciate your patience.

This also seemed to impact publishers who use Google Ad Manager to serve up their ads (which is what we use on this site). Steve from the Google Ad Manager team said in a Google Ad Manager Help thread, "We experienced a brief issue that caused PSAs to appear on publisher pages for a few minutes this afternoon. Our engineers quickly diagnosed and resolved the issue, and your ads should now be back to normal. Thanks for reporting this, and we appreciate your patience."

This is not the first time PSAs invaded the bottom-line for publishers. We reported a similar issue back in 2004 and also earlier this year, in January.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld & Google Ad Manager Help.

Google AdSense Welcomes Third-Party Ad Networks

Posted: August 26th, 2009, 3:26pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

The Google AdSense blog announced that publishers in the Google AdSense network now have the option to allow "Google certified" third-party ad networks to compete for the ad space on your web site.

In short, this should help publishers earn more money, due to adding more competition into the network. But you have to opt into this and allow image ads. You might not be able to add this today, since it is "slowly roll this out over the next several months."

Here is a picture on where you will be able to activate third part ad networks in the AdSense console.

The overall impression from publishers is positive and they are eager to give this new feature and program a try.

For more details on how this works, see the AdSense Help Center.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Publishers Cannot Submit Tax Information

Posted: July 24th, 2009, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There seems to be a bug in the Google AdSense console that is preventing Google publishers from submitting tax information to Google. There are several reports in the Google AdSense Help forums with complaints about this issue.

The issue is, when one clicks on the "Submit your tax information now" button, nothing happens.

This was first reported on Wednesday and Google confirmed the issue saying:

Thanks for bringing this to our notice. I've consulted our specialists on this issue. I'll follow up once they respond.

It is still an issue this morning.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

56% of Google AdSense Publishers Say Earnings Are Down in July 2009

Posted: July 22nd, 2009, 4:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Every now and then we reach out to our Google AdSense publisher readership and poll them on how their earnings are doing month to month. Recently, I have been hearing buzz around the community that earnings are down, so I decided to run an anonymous poll asking if that was true.

56% of the responses said their earnings were down, while only 25% said their earnings were up and 20% said earnings were about the same. Here are the results:

Question: July 2009 AdSense Earnings: Up Or Down?

:: Way Down said 36 respondents or 35%
:: Down said 21 respondents or 21%
:: No Real Change said 20 respondents or 20%
:: Up said 18 respondents or 18%
:: Way Up said 7 respondents or 7%

I hope you are on the up side of this poll.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Google Pays Out YouTube Earnings Differently Than AdSense Earnings

Posted: July 14th, 2009, 4:02pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

I recently signed up to enable YouTube revenue sharing on my search videos. It was part so that I can try to get my YouTube videos into Google News (still working on that).

One thing I noticed was that while my AdSense reports update daily, my YouTube data in the AdSense reporting tool shows "no data available." I then spotted a thread about this "issue" today at Google AdSense Help. I dug around and noticed that this is by design.

YouTube earnings are documented to be 30 days back dated. So the YouTube earnings will first show 30 days after the previous month, for that previous month and then it would be paid out 30 days after that, if you have $100 of earnings or more. Google said, "AdSense for Content Host revenue is paid 30 days after the month's end. "YouTube" includes revenue from ads placed next to your videos. YouTube revenue is paid 60 days after the month's end."

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Earnings Down in July 2009?

Posted: July 14th, 2009, 3:56pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There are dozens of threads at the Google AdSense Help forum and a thread at WebmasterWorld with complaints from publishers that their July 2009 earnings are way down, relative to past months.

There are of course a few publishers who are noting that their earnings are actually up. But like most threads, people only come to complain and those that complain, are those that have seen their earnings drop.

So I ask you, the publisher, are your earnings up or down in July 2009? Please take our anonymous poll:

July 2009 AdSense Earnings: Up Or Down?(trends)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Site Authentication Control Bug

Posted: July 8th, 2009, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There seems to be a persistent bug with the site authentication tool in the Google AdSense publisher controls.

Some publishers are complaining about errors being returned when trying to use the feature. There is a Google AdSense Help thread that says the issue has been happening for about a week now. Google said it was fixed, but some publishers are still complaining about it not working. One posted the error:

Error
We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it

Yesterday, AdSensePro Jennifer, an official Google representative, said, "Should be fixed now. Let me know if it's still not working." But a few publishers came in afterwards to inform her that it is not working.

This site authentication feature launched in July 2007, but has been seen since June and early May of 2007.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Poll: Did AdSense Font Control Help You Earn More Money?

Posted: June 23rd, 2009, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

The other week, Google released a new feature to allow AdSense publisher to control the font size of the text within their ads. This comes a few months after Google gave publishers control over the font type/style of their ads.

With all this control, I was wondering if it is actually helping you make more money with AdSense or not. Please take our anonymous poll and have your publisher friends take it as well.

Has AdSense Font Controls Helped Me Earn More Money?(polls)

We will post the poll here in a couple weeks.

Some are convinced it is helping with earnings and some are not too convinced.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Your Google AdSense Earnings Reports Not Adding Up?

Posted: June 22nd, 2009, 3:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Recently, there was a swarm of threads of complaints in that various AdSense forums about how it appears the Google AdSense earnings reports are not adding up correctly. I'll isolate two Google AdSense Help Threads that have discussion about this.

The issue is really not a calculation error but rather that you are looking at the wrong date ranges.

Alan7769 explained in the thread that the problem is, "since last payment reporting is going back exactly 30 days from the current day, instead of back to the first of the month after your last payment was done." Alan recommends you use the "advanced reports and put in the actual dates from and to for your report, at least until adsense fixes the problem with the since last payment reporting."

There is a terrible amount of confusion now about this so hopefully Google will make things a bit clearly on those default reports.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help Threads.

Update: Google has posted a statement:

If you've seen a sudden drop in reported earnings, please note that it likely isn't due to a decrease in earnings but more because of a change in the date range.
You can confirm this by going to the reports section of your account and selecting the correct date range and running a report. For instance, if you were paid on May 26, then the Overview page will show earnings from May 26 to today's date, when you select 'Since last payment' from the drop-down.

However, when you run a report in the 'Advanced Reports' section and select May 1 to today's date, you will find the actual unpaid earnings for this period.

I've consulted our specialists and will follow up once they revert.

In the meantime, please refer any affected publishers to this thread.

Still, not all publishers are convinced or happy.

Google AdSense Gives US Font Size Control

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 2:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Back in February, Google gave us font type selections for our AdSense ads. Now Google announced the ability to control the size of those fonts.

Here is a screen shot of the three sizes you can pick:

Google has been testing both larger fonts sizes and smaller ones here and there, so this was expected, and it is now here.

To learn more about this, see the AdSense blog post and chat about it at WebmasterWorld.

One important note that AdSenseAdvisor said in the thread:

I also wanted to give you a heads up that soon we'll be setting the default font size a little bit bigger based on your feedback that sometimes the text ads on your page are hard to read. I'll keep you posted.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Are AdSense Publishers Losing Out from Google Translate & Cache

Posted: June 18th, 2009, 2:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that in some cases the Google AdSense ads will not render when using Google Translate or viewing the page on Google Cache. We reported about the Google Cache issue about a year ago, and back then I believe it was temporary.

The issue is that in some cases, people use Google Translate to view web pages and if Google doesn't show the ads, these publishers (as well as Google) is missing out. The same with the Google Cache. Some sites are hit up worse than others and it isn't impacting all ads.

WebmasterWorld moderator, martinibuster thinks it might be a simple issue of miscommunication:

It's been noted that the teams developing these tools don't always communicate with other parts of Google. This may be an instance of that.

Possibly and if that is the case, hopefully an AdSense representative will chime in on the thread.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Adds More Local Currencies to Reports

Posted: June 16th, 2009, 7:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

The Google AdSense blog announced they have expanded the local currencies in the reports to nine more countries. The countries include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK.

Here is what Google said, and read it carefully before you make any changes:

If you're located in one of these countries, you can now update your account to display earnings in your local currency. After you've updated your account, any earnings generated from advertisers paying in currencies other than your local currency will be converted daily. If you receive payments in your local currency, this means that there also won't be any additional conversions at the end of the month. However, you can still choose to receive payments in U.S. Dollars or change your payment method at any time.
Before enabling local currency reports in your account, we recommend downloading and saving copies of your past reports in U.S. Dollars for your records. You can then update your account by signing in to AdSense and clicking the link in the green prompt on your Reports Overview page. You'll be asked to review and agree to a new set of Terms and Conditions. Unfortunately, we're not able to interpret the meaning of changes in our legal documents for publishers -- if you have questions or need legal advice on interpreting the new Terms, please don't hesitate to contact your attorney.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Publishers: What Do You Call Yourself?

Posted: June 15th, 2009, 3:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread is asking AdSense publisher what they call themselves. They said, often when they met people or speak to people, they are not sure what to say when people ask them what they do. Are they are publisher? Maybe a webmaster? How about an online marketer?

I am sure on many levels, AdSense publishers are all of the above. So I decided to create a poll to allow you publisher to answer anonymously what you would call yourself. Feel free to pick more than one choice or add "other."

AdSense Publishers: What Is Your Title?(opinion)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Sent AdSense Publisher Wrong Check

Posted: June 10th, 2009, 3:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense Help thread reports that one publisher not only received his check in the mail this month, but also received the check for another publisher in the same envelope.

The publisher said in the thread:

My payment cheque arrived with someone else's cheque too. I don't in the least mind posting it on, but I feel I ought to let Google and the cheque's owner know what's happening. Who do I email?

Google emailed this publisher directly, to not drive more attention to the issue in a public setting.

I assume the automated check machine and mailer accidently had some paper glitch and one check got stuck to another and both were placed in the same envelope. This is the first time I heard of such an issue with Google AdSense before.

It is funny in that Michael Arrington received a $1.3 million check by accident the other day.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Reporting Delay on June 9th

Posted: June 10th, 2009, 3:35pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google's AdSenseAdvisor posted a thread at WebmasterWorld notifying AdSense publishers that there will be a reporting delay and we should not panic.

Normally, when the reports lag, you see hundreds of posts in the various forums with publishers panicking. It is no surprise some people worry, because some people are fully dependent on the income they make from Google through AdSense.

AdSenseAdvisor said yesterday at about 2pm (EST):

Just writing to confirm that you may be seeing a temporary delay in the reporting of clicks that started this morning (June 9). We're still recording clicks and your stats will catch up. Ad targeting and ad serving are not affected. While this is well within the "no need to panic" window of reporting time, I wanted to give you a heads up in case you see impressions registering normally but a lower-than-usual number of clicks showing up in your reports.
I'm sorry if this has caused you any stress.

Hopefully the reports are now up to speed.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense To Host Webinar On Channels/Advanced Reporting

Posted: June 3rd, 2009, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has been holding these webinars to help AdSense publishers pick up new tricks and tips. The latest webinar is on the topic of Channels/Advanced Reporting. That topic includes:

Learn how to set up channel tracking in your AdSense account
Find out how you can optimize AdSense using channel data.
Track AdSense performance for a specific ad placement
Measure the performance of individual sites

The webinar is tomorrow, June 4, 2009 at 6:30 pm PDT. You should be able to sign up via this page, but for some reason, the signup link doesn't seem to be working for me at this moment. I posted the issue to Google, so hopefully it will work shortly.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Earn More AdSense Money By Slowing Down Your Server

Posted: May 20th, 2009, 3:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has many experienced publishers talking about a tip they never talked about before. The tip is about how slowing down your server, actually increases your AdSense CTR and leads to higher earnings.

WebmasterWorld moderator, incrediBILL, said that by accident he noticed that when his server is slow and bogged down by traffic, his AdSense CTR climbs. As soon as he posted it, Moderator martinibuster and Senior Member, youfoundjake both said he let the secret out.

They both confirmed that slowing down your server will make people impatient and encourage people to click on the ads, assuming they load faster then the rest of the page.

One member points out that "smart pricing" is linked directly to how fast your pages load. So in the long run, it might hurt your earnings. But I guess if you make it slow enough to not be considered slow by Google's standard but yet slow enough to make people want to click on ads, you win?

In the past, we heard reports that speeding up your server increases AdSense earnings by as much as 25%.

Who knows? Do you think faster or slower servers have an impact on earnings? Take our quick poll:

How Does Speed Impact Google AdSense Earnings?(opinion poll)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Webinar on Getting Paid Scheduled for Tomorrow

Posted: May 20th, 2009, 3:43pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has been holding webinars for both new and expert AdSense publishers. The next webinar is tomorrow, Thursday, at 6.30 pm PDT. It is on the topic of getting paid.

The topic is named "Understanding the payment cycle" and is described as:

De-mystifying the AdSense payments system. Learn about the various payment options and understand the payment cycle.

One of the most discussed topics in the various AdSense forums are about payments, so a webinar devoted to payment topics, makes a lot of sense.

Keep in mind, Google caps the attendance to 500 people. So go register for the event now and don't forget to be there.

AdSense experts will be on hand to answer questions submitted from the audience.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Empty Google AdSense Ads is Linux Bug

Posted: May 14th, 2009, 3:49pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help thread reports seeing more of empty or test AdSense ads. We have seen them back in March 2007 but they have disappeared until now.

Here is a screen capture of one ad that reads "text goes here" in the ad and the URL reads yoururlgoeshere.com.

Google replied to the threads confirming this is a Google bug with Linux operating systems. Google said:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This issue is isolated to Linux users, and our engineers are looking into it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Lack of Google AdWords Coupons Causing Lower AdSense Earnings?

Posted: May 4th, 2009, 4:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread started by moderator martinibuster has been getting a lot of attention over the weekend. MartiniBuster asks other members to come up with theories on why it appears AdSense earnings are lower these days then a year prior.

MartiniBuster's own theory is pretty interesting. In short, he says that there are less AdWords coupons floating around these days, so less people are experimenting with the content network. Let me quote MartiniBuster:

As I recall, there were thousands of dollars worth of AdWords coupons flooding Internet conferences. Those AdSensers who have not attended conferences several years ago won't know what I'm talking about so before you comment on this theory, hear me out.
Every conference I went to there were thousands of dollars worth of coupons available from denominations of $250 on down (as I recall). I think there may have been $500 coupons available, too. There were so many coupons floating around that some people were selling them, exchanging them between themselves, and opening multiple AdWords accounts to take advantage of them.

Could part of the higher payouts have to do with there being less publishers in the system? Is it possible that another contributing factor in those early days of higher ECPM was the flood of AdWords coupons?

Now, there are many other theories for the lower earnings, outside of the world being in a recession. They include:

Google needs to take a bigger piece of the AdSense pie
Slow down in new fresh to the net ad clicking users.
Ad blindness for veteran net surfers.
Less MFA has to affect a segment of publishers.
Landing page rules turning off some advertisers.
AdWords complexity
Google dropping the ball on code quality due to lack of competition for too many years leading to data loss that is later artificially unfairly balanced out.
More advertiser control positively affecting few and devastating the rest.
Google silently taking a bigger portion of publisher's earnings to meet the market expectations.
Smarter advertisers
Over saturation of content

There are many more ideas and theories being debated in the thread.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Not Paying Some Israeli Publishers

Posted: May 4th, 2009, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense Help thread has many reports from Google AdSense publishers based in Israel, that Google has not paid them yet. There was an issue last week with publishers getting paid late, but most of those issues are resolved by now. The issue seems to be a problem for Israeli Google AdSense publishers, even today.

Google AdSense representative, Obair, confirmed the issue:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We've noticed this issue with a few accounts in Israel. Rest assured, we've notified our payments specialists have been notified. Thanks for your patience. Please also direct any other publishers with this issue to this thread. Thanks!

Hopefully this issue will be resolved shortly.

Also over the weekend, a WebmasterWorld thread reported that the ad statistics were "frozen." Meaning, the reports in the AdSense console seemed to not be updating. That issue seemed to resolve itself over time.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help and WebmasterWorld.

Swine Flu Concern Helping With Google AdSense Revenue?

Posted: May 1st, 2009, 3:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Profiting off of medical concerns, such as with the recent Swine Flu outbreak, is something most people don't think about. But in a WebmasterWorld thread, some people are suggesting that if people are afraid to go out, they might spend more time on their computers.

Clearly, more people sitting front of a computer, surfing the web, can lead to higher AdSense earnings. So technically, publishers and Google may profit off of this concern. At least, indirectly.

The thread said:

I believe if this flu does take hold, then it could be good for adsense members, due to the amount of people staying away from shops etc. More online shopping, more clicks :)

Sad, but possibly true.

In any event, Chris Sherman posted Tracking the Swine Flu Epidemic at Search Engine Land the other day.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Filter Google AdSense Ads By Category

Posted: April 24th, 2009, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

The Google AdSense Blog announced they are beta testing a new feature for publishers that allow them to filter ads based on category. So if publishers don't want ads that are about dating, religion or "get rich quick" type of ads, they can block those ads from showing on their site by blocking the whole category.

Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? In fact, They shared a screen shot that details the various categories. In addition, it even shows you how much money you are making from each category. This way, you don't block your most profitable category.

Here is a screen shot:

So what is the issue? A WebmasterWorld thread asks a very important question. Who is classifying the ads into categories? Is it Google or the advertiser? One member said that when someone asked a Google rep about this at the ADSPACE conference (where this was announced), Google said the advertiser is categorizing their ads.

Here is the post from the thread on that:

Someone asked this question at the google panel at adspace today, and the way i heard the answer is that the _advertiser_ sets the category.
Both the questioner and the answerer were not too clear, but this is what i gathered from the exchange.

The concern is that advertisers will make sure not to categorize their ads in certain categories that might be perceived as negative towards publishers. Now, I am not 100% sure if advertisers to categories their own ads, we will have to wait and see how this all works.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

AdSense "Orientation" Webinar on April 18th

Posted: April 15th, 2009, 2:18pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

This coming April 18th, at 11am PST, Google will be hosting a free AdSense Webinar on the topic of "Orientation" for the first 500 people who sign up. To sign up, go to this URL and click on the "Sign Up" link in the middle of the page.

The first Webinar is to give you the "understanding of the basics of your AdSense account. Learn more about the program and get familiar with your account."

AdSensePro Obair said in a Google AdSense Help thread, you can expect to learn the following from this Webinar:

Learn how to make the most of your AdSense account
Get an opportunity to chat with some AdSense Specialists
Get detailed insight in to different account features

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

This article was written earlier this week and scheduled to go live April 15th.

Bad Idea: Google AdSense Twitter Units: Twitter Streams in AdSense

Posted: April 6th, 2009, 3:29pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

On Friday, I reported on an AdAge article that showed Google was testing incorporating Twitter streams in AdSense units. The first test, which was confirmed by Google as a limited beta, would show TurboTax's Twitter stream in AdSense units, likely on pages about taxes.

If you scan the recent @turbotax communication via Twitter, you can see why I am nervous about this implementation. If it was purely marketing speak, showing promotions or helpful tax tips, then I would understand it. But as you can see from the stream, TurboTax is having disconnected conversations with other Twitter users. If you see the latest five Tweets from TurboTax in an AdSense unit on a page on taxes, you would have no clue what the ad meant - in this case.

I have asked Google to provide a sample of what this ad unit looks like, but they did not comply. They did give me this statement:

To provide more marketing opportunities for our advertisers to reach users in moments that are relevant and useful to them, we are currently testing different ways that allow advertisers to better update their ads in real time. We are currently in a limited test with a small number of advertisers and publishers.

I understand that Intuit wants to grow a following for @TurboTax on Twitter, but is this the best way to do it? A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this news. Many are skeptical, but skeptical for the wrong reasons. I am fairly confident I understand Twitter well, I have been on it very early, before most people and I am fairly active on it, under @rustybrick, but using it in this manner, at least the way I understand how it is being used, seems off.

Problems with showing your last five or so Tweets in an AdSense unit?

The Tweets may not be relevant to the content of the page
You may display disconnected conversations that the public won't be able to understand
Many people still are clueless as to what Twitter is
Followers are great, but will it lead to sales (many cases, yes, it will)

In this case, I am very skeptical that this type of ad unit will work for Google and advertisers. I am sure publishers won't like to see someone else's Twitter stream on their pages.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Bug Still Holding Payments For Publishers

Posted: April 6th, 2009, 3:15pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

It has been about five to six months now of us reporting that Google has a bug that holds payments to some publishers. In fact, many publishers have been waiting months to be paid and some seem to still be waiting.

A Google AdSense Help thread has confirmation from Googler, Obair, who is still manually removing the hold status on publisher accounts.

It is sad to see that publishers are still experiencing major slow downs in being paid. In fact, if they don't reach out to Google via the help section, they may never get paid. The issue goes back months and months, but was initially confirmed in January 2009.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Funny & Sometimes Evil Google Ads

Posted: April 1st, 2009, 3:26pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forum thread has a collection of "weird" or "funny" ads people spotted through Google AdSense or AdWords. I thought I share them in text format, but feel free to see the thread to see screen captures.

AdSense shows ads on a skydiver accident for American Airline with the slogan, "we know why you fly."
AdWords shows ads for Big Daddy and Big Juicy Butts
AdWords ads for used toilet paper
Hillary Clinton Naked ads?
Amazon selling "human remains."
A search for world of warcraft showing an ad for virgin males (I guess that makes sense)
You can visit hell on ebay
Or sell your kids on ebay

Feel free to add more to the forum.

Forum discussion and pictures at DigitalPoint Forum.

Google Fixes AdSense Impression Glitch

Posted: March 27th, 2009, 7:13am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday we reported that AdSense impressions were double reporting. Well it turned out to be more than just a reporting error. Google was double or triple serving the same ads on the same site, which is not something they should have been doing. In any event, Google has announced they fixed the issue:

If you're displaying multiple ad units on your pages, you may have noticed that your pageviews were higher than normal for part of yesterday and today. Our engineers identified a bug which prevented ad units from detecting other units on the same page. As a result, our system logged a pageview for each ad unit that was loaded on a page, instead of a pageview for each page containing ads. In some cases, this also may have caused specific ads to appear in multiple ad units on the same page.
Please be assured that ad unit impressions were still logged correctly and ads were still displayed on your pages, so you were properly credited for all earnings generated from your ads. We've resolved the issue, and although you won't see the pageview count in your reports retroactively changed, your pageview tracking is now back to normal.

But like I said, some ads were double or triple served on the same page.

Forum discussion at Webmaster World and Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Reporting Off Again: Impressions High & CTR Low

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 11:18am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Feels like at least once a week, I write about how Google AdSense has reporting issues. Today, I spotted a WebmasterWorld thread that has dozens of AdSense publishers complaining that the reports seem off again.

Specifically, the issues are as follows:

Impressions are twice the normal expected amount
Click through rates are about half of the normal expected amount
Earnings are (obviously) on target with what is expected

In summary, many publishers are noticing high numbers in impression reporting, but lower in the actual click through rate, which leads to the same earning reports as they historically see.

AdSenseAdvisor said a few hours ago:

I'm happy to look into this, but please forgive me if it takes some time (it's pretty late in California right now).

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Update: This is now fixed but ads were double or tripled served in some cases.

AdSense Comes To Twitter Via Hex To ACSII Tweet

Posted: March 26th, 2009, 10:49am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

We know Google is on Twitter, so is AdWords and we know at least two AdWords reps are also. Yesterday, AdSense joined Twitter @adsense. The way AdSense joined was in Google style, the first Tweet was:

Ads by 47 6F 6F 6F 6F 6F 6F 6F 67 6C 65

What does that mean? Well, if you use an Hex/ASCII converter and plug in 47:6F:6F:6F:6F:6F:6F:6F:67:6C:65 it translates it to "Gooooooogle." As you see on many Google AdSense ads, they have a line that reads "Ads by Gooooooogle."

The Inside AdSense blog officially announced the new Twitter account. So feel free to follow it on Twitter and while you are at it, follow @seroundtable and @rustybrick.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google: More AdSense Ads = Higher Revenue Per Impression

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:51pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

AdSenseAdvisor said in a WebmasterWorld thread that having more ads on the page will lead to higher revenues per impression.

This may be obvious, that showing more ads, will lead in more revenues per page view, but not for all publishers. Some are of the belief that showing less ads increases the value of each click and then might lead to more revenue per impression.

It is nice to see that a Google representative has went on record as saying that this is generally the case.

I assume many of you disagree, if so, why?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense With Matt Cutts Banners

Posted: March 25th, 2009, 12:40pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forums thread posted a screen shot of an unusual Google AdSense ad. Here is a picture of the ad:

Matt Cutts is the head of Google's web spam team. I am not sure how many sales this type of banner would lead to, since those who are looking for SEO services, may not know Matt. But it might lead to conversion for those prospects that do their homework.

In any event, this was a funny thread to spot.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

23% of Google AdSense Publishers Say 75% of Their Income Comes From Google

Posted: March 24th, 2009, 1:19pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last week, I ran a poll asking if Google AdSense made up most of your income. The 129 responses are in and I wanted to share them with you. It seems like 47% of those that make money will AdSense say Google makes up more than 25% of their income. 53% said Google makes up less than 25% of their income. Here is the breakdown:

:: Less Than 25% of My Income said 58 respondents or 45%
:: Over 75% of My Income said 25 respondents or 19%
:: Not Applicable To Me said 20 respondents or 16%
:: Over 50% of My Income said 14 respondents or 11%
:: Over 25% of My Income said 12 respondents or 9%

Is it possible that 23% of publishers make 75% or more of their income with Google? The 23% is when you take out the "Not Applicable to Me" results, since they likely are not AdSense publishers.

Forum discussion continued at DigitalPoint Forums.

AdSense Publishers Not Happy With YouTube Earnings

Posted: March 23rd, 2009, 1:03pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There are two threads at Google AdSense Help discussions with AdSense publishers who are simply not happy with the earnings they have been reported to receive from their YouTube content.

Let me quote you some upset publishers:

My revenue is down more than 50%. There were people who were expecting to earn $200 in January and instead earned $80. I was expecting $1000-$2000 and earned a little over $80.

Received my report. 1/5th of my Content Host earning. Shame.

63. Wow. Just as we're writing about it, the amount posted. And it ain't pretty. I had $67 in Content Host earnings (63,600 views/1000 clicks) and only $17 in YouTube earnings... sheesh, that sure wasn't worth the wait!

Some feel ripped off by Google while others feel that there may be a glitch in the system. But one publisher recommends "patience," explaining:

Settle down guys. The Partner program is definitely not a "get rich quick' program. Part of the low revenue is the economy and the other part might be the simple fact that an advertiser does not want to pay a lot to run ads on your videos.
I have seen my YT amount drop to 1/20th or so what I would expect but content host amount is going up and that is fine with me.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

AdSense Stats Issue Maybe Related To Google's Contextual Relevancy Failure

Posted: March 10th, 2009, 2:58pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

This and last week we reported issues with Google reporting up to date stats. Many publishers felt that Google had a major reporting delay and they were very concerned. Typically, it turns out to be nothing and the numbers tend to update themselves over time. But this time, it was a little different.

Google admitted to a bug in the AdSense contextual targeting system that returned irrelevant ads on publisher sites. Typically, Google AdSense ads are relevant to the content on the page, but something went wrong where Google's contextual targeting went off. On Thursday of last week at 2pm (PST) a bug for "approximately 10 hours" triggered these issues. The issue was resolved by Friday morning, according to Google.

Google admitted that non-contextually targeted ads may result in lower earnings and impact your earnings for those ten hours. Google said:

You were still credited for all valid clicks and impressions on the ads which appeared on your sites, but this bug may have impacted your overall AdSense for content revenue if you had visitors to your pages during these hours. Please note that because we're unable to determine which ads would have been viewed or clicked on by visitors to your sites in the absence of the bug, we will not be manually adjusting yesterday's earnings.

The big question was, was this a reporting glitch or were these publishers that severely impacted by the relevancy issue?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Ignoring AdSense Font Selection

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:50pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A few weeks ago, Google finally gave AdSense publishers a way to specify the font type they want to show on their web sites. AdSense publishers were really happy with the added control and Google was happy to give publishers this level of control.

So why am I seeing reports that Google is ignoring these AdSense font preferences and overriding them with something else?

A WebmasterWorld thread has several publishers complaining that Google is not using the font they picked in the AdSense ad set up.

One said, he doesn't mind, because it helps against "ad blindness." But why give the publisher the option. If I set my preferred font, then use it. If I don't set it, then feel free to experiment.

One publisher said:

just curious whether anyone else has set up their ads with a fixed font, only to see them carry on changing.
i know it's probably just google testing the fonts again, but why are they carrying on testing them when they've already given us the option to change them

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Frozen Google AdSense Stats Continues to Plague Publishers

Posted: March 9th, 2009, 2:32pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense statistics have been having issues updating since March 4th. In fact, we have seen reports prop up again and again since then. March 6th, people were complaining and people have been complaining since, including this morning.

We have two threads, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at Google AdSense Help. Each thread complains about the same thing, over the course of the weekend and today.

There are also dozens of threads at DigitalPoint Forums on the issue.

We have no official word from Google on these recent issues.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Google AdSense Help.

Take Google to Small Claims Court: You Might Win

Posted: March 6th, 2009, 2:58pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Huffington Post has a story about a Google AdSense publisher who had his account terminated by Google for "posing a signficicant risk to advertisers." That advertiser sued Google in small claims court for $721, the amount of money he had accrued for clicks on his site. Guess what? He won! Seriously, go read the story, it reads very well.

Let me now give you the AdSense publisher reaction from DigitalPoint Forums.

Its small claims court. Google didn't even have lawyers representing them - a paralegal instead.
All you'll win is the few bucks Google owes you. Better than nothing I guess... but you cannot get your account back via small claims court.

Sounds like a rare exception, doubt others would be able to do it.

Very nice article. I'm happy for the dude. Everybody whose account got cancelled, sue Google!

You can see his original posts in the Google AdSense Help Forum.

Is this going to spark a ton of law suits for Google?

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Ad Blindness: Google Introduces Expandable AdSense Ads

Posted: March 5th, 2009, 2:43pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

In a day and age where 70% of Google publishers are reporting less earnings with Google, Google needs to take bold moves to get more people to see and click on their ads.

Google introduces expandable ads. The ads will be displayed on publisher sites and they can click on the ad to make them expand into a much large ad that overlays over the content of the page. The expandable ads can contain movie streams, show video game clips, or display various views of an item for sale.

Google said this won't disrupt the end user because it has to be clicked on to be expanded, will never be "double its width or height," the "user may close the expanded panel at any time," it won't change your content, and it has to comply with their terms. There is a comprehensive help section devoted to expanded ads at Google AdSense Help.

Here is a sample ad:

Publishers await to see if this helps earn them more money. Who is the real loser here? I guess the searcher or the average consumer. Outside of that, the advertiser, publisher and Google are all winners.

Also, this may lead to publishers trying new tricks to get people to click on the ad. Note, clicking on an ad to expand it does not generate cost to the advertiser, it is only the click that leads to the advertiser's landing page that has any cost.

By the way, Google is also testing more interactive ads, according to Amit Agarwal.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Google AdSense Updates Home Page While Stats Lag

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 11:16pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

If you visit the Google AdSense home page you may notice that the login page has been redesigned. Here is a picture of the new page:

The old one looked like this:

We anticipated the new home page would be coming soon this morning, when we reported about the recent login issues with AdSense. This also probably means that many (not all) AdSense counters, notifiers and trackers are having issues operating now.

Note that this is occurring while there are major stat delays with the AdSense reports.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google AdSense Publishers Unable To Login Last Night

Posted: March 4th, 2009, 2:38pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last night, I noticed dozens of reports that Google AdSense publishers were unable to login to their AdSense consoles. The first report came in at 1:59am (EST) from a Google AdSense Help thread.

Most of these publishers noticed a new Google AdSense login page. The page then wouldn't allow them to login. The question is, is Google testing a new login page for AdSense? I know a lot of third party AdSense tracking tools stopped working last night as well. Maybe Google tried to change things up to prevent those scraper bots from bogging down their system? I don't know.

At 5:57 this morning, a Google AdSense representative, William, confirmed the issue and said it was fixed. Some publishers may still have issues logging in, if you do, he recommends "clearing the cache and cookies or try using a different browser."

At about 2:50am, I saw first reports at a DigitalPoint Forums thread that publishers were able to login again. But there are still lingering reports of publishers not being able to login. So make sure to listen to William's suggestion above.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help, DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Account Console Goes Offline For 90 Minutes

Posted: February 27th, 2009, 2:49pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There were reports this morning at about 1am (EST), that the Google AdSense console was down. A DigitalPoint Forums thread has several publishers upset with the downtime, but soon later it came back up.

The Wall Street Journal blog has confirmation from Google about this downtime. I am a bit shocked they bothered to cover AdSense console downtime, but as they said:

AdSense is the online-ad server of choice for thousands of Web sites, and while it’s not unheard of for it to experience down time, it comes in a week that’s already seen the catchphrase “Gfail” bandied about.

Google told the Wall Street Journal that the downtime was for about 90 minutes and did not impact all publishers.

This news comes days after Gmail went offline for a couple hours.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Tries To Get Organized On AdSense Payment Issues

Posted: February 26th, 2009, 2:05pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

One of the official representatives in the Google AdSense Help Forums, AdSensePro Jen, has posted three threads in an effort to help publishers who are having payment issues. Those threads are named:

The first thread is the only thread that has any current complaints in it, but the threads are less than 12 hours old anyway.

Let me break out the payment issues with each thread:

(1) I have no visible holds on my account, and have not been paid:

Please reply to this thread if you meet the following criteria:
- you have no visible holds on your account
- you have over $100 in earnings
- you have not yet been paid

However, please keep in mind that the payment hold issue that was occurring earlier was fixed after the 2/15 Feb payment cycle deadline. As a result, if you believe you were under this issue, you should be paid in the next cycle at the end of March.

(2) I have requested a check reissue but not received a confirmation:

If you have once submitted a check reissue request and never received a response, please reply to this thread.
Keep in mind that if you requested a reissue and received a reply about your earnings being credited back in 15 days, the request was processed and there is nothing more you need to do.

Moreover, if you are using EFT, you cannot request a reissue, you must check with your bank as to why the earnings were not received.

(3) My check/payment was returned or expired and I'm unable to remove a hold on my account:

Please reply to this thread if you have a payment that was returned or expired and after you entered your updated address/account information, the hold still hasn't been removed from your account.

Hopefully, you don't have to reply to any of these threads.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

70% Of Google AdSense Publisher Report Lower Earnings in January '09

Posted: February 20th, 2009, 3:11pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Earlier this month, we polled Google AdSense publishers, asking how their earnings from Google is working out in this recession. After receiving about a 120 responses, I thought I share the results with you.

About 70% said they are earning less these days, whereas 22% said their earnings are the same and 8% said their earnings have increased.

Here is the break down:

:: Earnings Have Dropped said 82 respondents or 68.91%
:: Earnings Remain The Same said 27 respondents or 22.69%
:: Earnings Have Increased said 10 respondents or 8.4%

Yes, this recession is likely cutting AdWords budgets, impacting both publishers and Google.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Google Finally Gives AdSense Publishers Font Selection

Posted: February 20th, 2009, 2:47pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

After years and years of testing different font types and styles in Google AdSense, Google is now giving the publisher the option of defining which font they prefer on their sites. The AdSense blog finally announced this feature last night and the new fonts include Arial, Times and Verdana. Here is a screen capture:

Plus, publishers can set their default font preference over here.

Google has been testing font styles since early 2007 and then began aggressively testing fonts in May 2008, using fonts such as comic sans both then and in June and August.

Publishers are very happy about the extra control and already want more font options.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google's Search Partners Ignoring Match Type Controls?

Posted: January 29th, 2009, 9:52am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

An advertiser notes in a WebmasterWorld thread that Google's Learning Center module has an interesting piece of content, under the section 3D, Targeting/Keyword Targeting. It said:

Note: Partner sites don't recognize keyword matching options. Therefore, all keywords on these sites are treated as broad-matched keywords.

This means, that when AOL displays Google AdWords ads on AOL Search, they might not listen to if you want to only show an ad for blue shoes, as opposed to red shoes. As you can imagine, this really got many advertisers worried.

The original poster brought this to the attention of his Google representative, who told him, that note needs to be clarified. He basically said, match types do apply to the search network, including search partners, but does not include the content network.

So match type controls do not make a difference on the content network, but they do make a difference on the search network and search partners.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Is AOL Testing Google AdSense Ads in Messenger?

Posted: January 29th, 2009, 9:38am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Before starting, I am finding this very hard to believe. A fairly active member at DigitalPoint Forums, posted a thread linking to his blog, where he has a screen capture of Google AdSense showing up in place of the ad spots of AOL's Instant Messenger software.

Here is his screen capture from his blog:

I was going to dismiss this post completely, but then I looked at the members history at the forum. He has over 700 posts at the forum and has been an active member since February 2007. So it seems like this member has some history.

I am still very skeptical that this image was not 'photoshoped' to look this way.

So I will leave it at being extremely skeptical if this is a true screen capture or something that was made up. I simply do not know.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Out Dated Sites Earning More Money with Google AdSense Then Fresh Sites?

Posted: January 29th, 2009, 9:12am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

An interesting WebmasterWorld thread has several publishers claiming that they make more money with Google AdSense with their old, not updated sites, as compared to their larger, more updated and cleaner looking sites.

In the past, we did discuss how ugly sites earn more with AdSense and most agreed that this is true. But outdated, old sites are earning more than updated and fresh sites?

Here is a poll, which one makes you more money?

Which Site Earns You More with Google AdSense?
( polls)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google's SVP Rosenberg Said AdSense Revenue Down Due To Arbitrage Cleanup

Posted: January 23rd, 2009, 12:39pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

In the Google earnings call, that we reported earlier, Google's Senior Vice President, Johnathan Rosenberg, said on the earnings call:

AdSense revenue was weaker, though AdSense for content was strong. When it comes to AdSense for Search, we did a lot of arbitrage cleanup in Q3 and Q4.

This quote comes from a WebmasterWorld thread, and discusses the significance of such a statement.

Made for AdSense sites (MFAs are banking on arbitrage and Google promised to shut them down in May 2007. But stronger action appeared this past May. It seems like it has impacted Google's earnings.

In Q4 2007 Google earned 1.31 billion with AdSense (and that network), but in Q4 2008 Google earned 1.29 billion. Even in the third quarter, Google earned 1.33 billion. So there did seem to be a downturn recently in that area.

Some are using this statement to reduce their estimated tax payments in 2009.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Inauguration Day A Big Bust for Google Advertisers & Publishers

Posted: January 22nd, 2009, 11:46am CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has a lot of discussion from Google AdSense publishers on how poor of a day they had on Inauguration Day.

Traffic and clicks and earnings were way down for most of these publishers on the day. It seems like very few web users were out and about using these sites.

So let me poll our audience, how did you do on Inauguration Day?

Did You Earn More or Less Money via Google AdSense on Inauguration Day?
( surveys)

I know this site's traffic was pretty even, but I think that was because we wrote a post about the day.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Confirms Not Paying Some AdSense Publishers

Posted: January 21st, 2009, 1:49pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

There is an extremely large thread at Google AdSense Help group with publishers complaining that they have not received payment this month from Google.

Jennifer, a Google AdSense representative, confirmed that Google did not pay some publishers due to a bug of some sort. She said:

We've been monitoring this thread and I can confirm that we have an issue on our back end that is preventing some publishers from seeing payment holds on their accounts. We are working with the YouTube team to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we have been working to contact affected publishers individually. Thank you all for posting in the forum. The faster we can aggregate data on a possible bug, the faster we can fix it, and forum threads like this are hugely helpful in surfacing these issues.
We appreciate your patience, and I assure you that we hear you and are taking this issue seriously.

Jennifer makes it sound like this is just impacting YouTube partners, but I am not too sure about that.

Google is known to have made many mistakes paying publishers in the past.

Forum discussion at Google AdSense Help.

Google AdSense Ad Filter Problem Might Be Related To Definitions

Posted: January 20th, 2009, 2:52pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Last week, I really gave it to Google hard with my post named Publishers Feeling Screwed By Google AdSense Competitive Ad Filter. In short, the complaints about the Google AdSense competitive ad filter not working had lingered on with no response from Google.

Google caught wind of the increased level of dissatisfaction from publishers and finally posted in the WebmasterWorld thread saying:

Sorry, guys. This one is entirely my bad. It's not that AdSense dropped the ball, it's that I dropped the ball.
We've been looking into it, but I haven't provided updates because I've been out of the country. I apologize for not giving you all a heads up.

I'm going to message a few of you privately to get more specifics if you don't mind providing them (for troubleshooting use only) so we can determine if there is an issue on our end.

One quick question for all of you: what method are you using to determine the destination URLs you're adding to your filter?

Okay, fine, so she/he is human and missed this thread. We forgive you. But what I find very interesting is the last line of the response. AdSenseAdvisor said:

What method are you using to determine the destination URLs you're adding to your filter?

To me, that implies that the issue is not necessarily with the competitive ad filter not working, but it not working as publishers think it should work. Publishers might be blocking URLs, thinking they are blocking a whole domain, when in fact, they are not. It seems to me, that this may be more of an issue of education then of bugs. Or maybe not?

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Google's New AdSense Code Might Invalidate Your HTML Code

Posted: January 20th, 2009, 2:34pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has a lot of discussion around the AdSense code not complying with the W3C validation requirements. Some webmasters want their pages to be 100% validate, and adding this code may ruin that.

I am told the piece that invalidates the HTML is:

id="cse-search-box"

There is no word from a Google representative on this issue, yet. But I suspect we should hear soon about this. I mean, the thread is pretty active and it should be an easy fix for Google, I would suspect.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Publishers Feeling Screwed By Google AdSense Competitive Ad Filter

Posted: January 16th, 2009, 2:21pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

In late December, we reported that Google's AdSense Competitive Ad Filter stopped working for many publishers. Guess what, it is still not working for many of them and they are feeling very let down by Google. If you don't know what Google's competitive filter is, it basically gives publishers the functionality to block specific ads from appearing on their pages.

Successful AdSense publishers depend on the competitive filter to block out the MFAs and poor quality sites from displaying on their sites. But since late December, the filter stopped working for many. Here are some of the continued complaints in the WebmasterWorld thread:

I've managed to keep earnings up by constantly monitoring and blocking ads but my filter is filling up with garbage. Once it's full and my site visitors see nothing but crap ads and stop clicking, that's it, buh bye AdSense.
I'm with coach. This is pretty sad.

I let it go a few weeks to see what would happen- Sounded like ASA was all over it. I guess not. I tried blocking a few more today and they were already in the ad filter. Nothing can be done I guess.

I am surprised the ASA has become quiet over this. It is not as if he/she isn't aware of the problem.

Is it intentional? Is Google doing this to earn more money? They recently cut jobs and products, plus they have been spewing ads everywhere and anywhere. Time will tell.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Now Pushing Fat Ads: Is this Offensive?

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 2:55pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

If you're fat and get offended easily, don't use any service that uses Google AdSense. That's what WebmasterWorld members are spotting -- ads targeting the "fat" people of America. Apparently there's a conception that the holidays may have gotten people overweight. Or perhaps this is a way to ring in your New Year's Resolutions.

But that isn't satisfying publishers who are using Google AdSense. On top of other offensive Google AdSense ads, this isn't faring well for Google.

In reality, though, not every publisher is that disappointed in these ads. Some are considering clicking on the ads because they are looking to lose weight. Others are seeing a fair share of earnings from other clicks. It's certainly not as bad as ads featuring naked people, but it's not necessarily in the best taste for everyone.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

How'd You Do With Google AdSense this Holiday?

Posted: December 26th, 2008, 2:53pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Do people really use the Internet during the holiday season? According to the activity on Twitter yesterday, perhaps they actually do. But elsewhere on the 'net, that may not necessarily be the case. Publishers report that they get the lowest earnings during the holiday time, for the most part.

Of course, like any industry, there are always anomalies. A few publishers, but hardly the majority, report that the performance has been pretty good.

I guess I'm not too surprised.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google & Yahoo Pay Publishers Early for Holiday Season

Posted: December 24th, 2008, 2:25pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Both Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network publishers are reporting getting payment early this month. Some suspect it is due to being closed during the normal pay period, due to the holidays. Some suspect Google and Yahoo are being nice for the holiday season. Some suspect it might have to do with making sure payment goes out before the end of their fiscal years (due they even go by the calendar year?).

We have a Google AdSense related thread at WebmasterWorld where many have reported already receiving the money in their bank accounts. We also have a Yahoo Publisher Network related thread at DigitalPoint Forums.

For whatever reason the payments are going out now, many publishers are finding it to be a nice holiday gift.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

Google AdSense Hiccup Reported on December 19

Posted: December 22nd, 2008, 3:38pm CET by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

On Friday, a number of Google AdSense publishers reported that AdSense was down. The cause was unknown and Google officially never actually volunteered more information about it.

Google AdWordsAdvisor was able to provide the publishers with information -- mostly ensuring them that Google was prioritizing the issue -- but there is no further information on behalf of Google's actual AdSense team.

AdWordsAdvisor does say, though, on a completely side point, that "In the AdWords side of the world, though, the stats that advertisers see in their account are delayed by up to three hours as a matter of course, under normal circumstances." We're not entirely sure how this factors into reporting on Google AdSense's side, but this is interesting information regardless.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google Promises They Don't Cap AdSense Earnings

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 2:07pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

We have questioned if Google limits how much an AdSense publisher can earn in the past. We even ran a poll where the majority of publishers felt Google did not have a glass ceiling for AdSense earnings.

Now, a WebmasterWorld thread pulls out a quote from the new AdSenseAdvisor that Google does not cap publishers. Let me quote you:

I 100% guarantee that there are no earnings caps on AdSense accounts. I will swear it on a big stack of Google search results. No earnings caps.

That is believable to me. Do you believe it?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense's Two Hour Reporting Outage

Posted: November 14th, 2008, 12:59pm CET by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense had a two hour outage yesterday morning causing lots of concern amongst the publisher groups.

There are two long threads, one at Google Groups and another ad WebmasterWorld discussing the outage.

The first report came in at 4:09am (EST) Thursday morning and at about 6:44am, first reports came in that the statistics started to populate in the AdSense reports. At 1:05pm (EST), AdsenseAdvisor and AdSensePro Jennifer wrote the same message, a minute apart, at the respective forums:

There was a minor reporting issue for about 2 hours. This should be back to normal, and all data form that period will be restored.
Thanks for your patience.

Jennifer

All looks good now.

Forum discussion at Google Groups and another ad WebmasterWorld.

Google's Geolocation API Comes to the Browser

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

First go read Greg Sterling's write up at Search Engine Land named Location in the Browser: What Does It Mean?

Now that you read that, you will realize that the implication of Google adding geolocation capabilities to your desktop browser can be huge. The Geolocation API can run on any browser that has Google Gears and automatically will run on Android and Google's browser, Chrome.

Google currently knows your approximate location for when you do searches only via IP data, personalized search data or other, less exact methods. But now, if the browser can detect wifi locations and/or cell towers, Google will know where you are, almost to your exact location. GPS is supported, but most laptops or desktops do not have GPS devices built in yet (yes, yet).

The reaction to this from advertisers and searchers are split. A WebmasterWorld thread has advertisers excited that Google's geolocation capabilities will be able to target their ads better. But searchers are not yet 100% comfortable with Google knowing their exact whereabouts, at all times while using Google properties. Personally, I am not about privacy - I actually am considering wearing a GPS enabled device with me at all time to track me where ever I go and then publish that data on my personal web site. :)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Poll Results: Google AdSense Publishers Discuss 2008 Earnings

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 2:32pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

In late September, we ran a poll asking AdSense publishers if they are earning more or less than the previous year. The results are now in and honestly, don't tell us much.

Most said they earn more but just about the same number of respondents said they are earning less.

Here is the break down:
:: Earning More said 49 respondents or 42%
:: Earning Less said 43 respondents or 37%
:: About the Same said 19 respondents or 16%
:: Other answer said 5 respondents or 4%

So the results are pretty much all over the place.

Tamar covered the question on if the economic downturn is hurting publishers or not. We have added a new poll to that thread, so please participate!

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 14th.

Has The Economic Downturn Resulted in an Google AdSense Downturn?

Posted: October 14th, 2008, 2:22pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Are you a Google AdSense publisher who has taken a hit from the recession? A few forum threads, one at WebmasterWorld and the other at DigitalPoint Forums, discuss the impact of the economic crisis on money earned through the Google AdSense program. What have publishers noted?

Some publishers haven't observed a thing. The behavior is expected with no indications of decline. On the other hand, though, there are a few publishers who have spotted some decline, though they have no idea about whether to attribute the financial crisis to it. Some have seen reduced click-throughs, and a small percentage of folks are actually making more money.

Where are you at?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.

This post was pre-written and scheduled for publication on October 14th.

Does Google Allow Ads that Mock Suicide?

Posted: October 13th, 2008, 5:01pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Michael VanDemar blogged about apparent Google AdSense insensitivity as it relates to the recession. He says that there's a possibility for the suicide rate to skyrocket, just like it did in the Great Depression. Thus, he's a little disturbed by a Google AdSense ad for Woot.com which said the following:

"Before you jump out of
that window, why not spend your
last remaining dollars at Woot?"

Naturally, Michael has found that quite offensive and tasteless, and many users agree. It's possible, though, that Google missed this one for removal. I think it may be questionable, but I understand the sarcasm in Woot's usual marketing messages and this is no exception.

Should it be removed? You tell me. Take the poll.

Forum discussion continues at . And a hat tip to Gary for spotting this as well.

Google Messes Up AdSense Exchange For Indian Rupee

Posted: September 26th, 2008, 2:19pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forums thread has a three page thread on the topic of Google messing up yet again with the exchange rate given to publishers. This time Google equated one US dollar to one Indian Rupee. The true current exchange rate is $1 US to 46.555 INR. Yes, a huge difference.

The main questions Indian AdSense publishers are asking themselves are:

(1) Is this just a reporting glitch?
(2) If not, how long will it take for them to get the difference they are owed?

We have seen this happen in the past. First with Australian publishers and then with Canadian publishers, every time - it benefited Google.

I know the US dollar is at risk, but $1 US to 1 INR?

Honestly, don't panic, I am sure Google will make things right.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Update: Google is aware of it and will let us know what they will do to fix the issue.

Google to Adjust Canadian Exchange Rate Used for AdSense

Posted: September 3rd, 2008, 3:04pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Recently, there have been many complaints about the exchange rate used in Canada by Google to payout AdSense publishers. A DigitalPoint Forums thread says the rate was 1 to 1, calling the US dollar equal to the Canadian dollar. Plus, Google charges a fee on top of that, according to the thread.

But it seems like Google is making a change to that Canadian exchange rate.

Both the DigitalPoint Forums and a WebmasterWorld thread said Google has sent out a notification to Canadian AdSense publishers that the exchange rate will be changed.

The email sent to these publishers said Google used an "incorrect exchange rate" for Canada. The WebmasterWorld post said:

Did anyone else receive a notice from Adsense about being issued a payment with an incorrect exchange rate? Apparently they're going to issue another payment to correct this. I remember that this happened before last spring and they recalled a whole bunch of EFT payments and reissued the corrected versions immediately. I'm in Canada, by the way.

This is not the first time Google reissued payment due to exchange rate issues. Google inverted the Australian exchange rate and had to reissue payments in the past. Plus, often publishers complain about the exchange rate Google uses.

Forum discussion DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Adds Western Union Option To Five Countries

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 3:05pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

One of the most sought after payment options for Google AdSense publishers is the ability to be paid via Western Union.

Google had announced at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld that they have expanded Western Union payment to the following five countries:

Bulgaria
Egypt
Lithuania
Morocco
Taiwan

Western Union payments are also currently available in other countries, including Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Romania.

If you are in any of these 14 countries and would like to receive payment via Western Union, follow these instructions. You must also be set up as an "individual" publisher to qualify.

AdSensePro Ashley added that "payments will be made in US dollars, but your Western Union agent may be able to convert your payment to your local currency."

Forum discussion at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld.

What Exactly Happens During Google AdSense Maintenance?

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 4:15pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday, AdSenseAdvisor posted on WebmasterWorld that there would be an outage for Google AdSense tomorrow, August 9th, between 10AM and 2PM PDT. Ad serving isn't affected but AdSense addicts won't be able to check their accounts.

Usually, these announcement threads go unanswered. This time, though, someone asked the details behind such a maintenance procedure. At first, AdSenseAdvisor gave the generic answer: "our engineers carry out all the tasks required to keep our systems running as they should."

Did the political answer suffice? Not so much. Forum members started speculating what would happen. A good explanation (though purely speculation) was offered by Hobbs, who said:

During maintenance, raw data is redirected from processing into storage mode, this includes all the traffic and clicks logs plus every thing else Google collects, think of it as a huge bucket filling up.
Post maintenance: First a raw data sample is processed and analyzed for consistency, click fraud, earnings .., if all is well the data processing tap is opened and reports start to trickling in till the bucket is empty.

So why can't you access your data? A few reasons are proposed: it may be on hold until this is complete, or if there are any problems, the reports would be inaccurate anyway so Google tries to avoid displaying it until everything looks good again.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Advertisers Are Happy But Scared Over New Google / DoubleClick Cookie Tracking

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday Google announced that they will utilizing the DoubleClick cookie-based tracking technology to bring more targeted ads and better targeting features to adveristers. You can read most the blog and news commentary via Techmeme.

The features are simple:

Frequency Capping to enable advertisers to say, show my ad to this specific user only X times.
Frequency Reporting so advertisers can see the frequency data.
Google says this will provide "Improved Ads Quality."
And better conversion tracking with "View-Through Conversions".

So, there are many good features here for advertisers. But it also scares many people.

DoubleClick is huge, they run a huge portion of the ads across the web. In fact, some of the ads on this site are powered through DoubleClick. But then, look at the number of sites with AdSense on them. Now combine them. Google will be tracking individual computers from all sites containing a DoubleClick served ad and a Google AdSense served ad. Of course, Google the opt out details.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google in Class Action Lawsuit Over AdSense for Parked Domains

Posted: July 17th, 2008, 5:14pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

InformationWeek reports that there's a class action suit against Google about having AdSense on parked domains when they aren't likely to yield conversions. In the specific case, a legal services provider had his ads running for about 6 weeks on parked pages. He received over 200,000 impressions, 668 clicks, and zero conversions. The plaintiff spent $136.11 and is disappointed that he had nothing to show for it. By forming a class action suit, he and his lawyers are hoping that this affects other Google advertisers.

Barry writes about the lawsuit at Search Engine Land and makes sure to point out that the ads were running when Google announced that advertisers can opt out of AdSense for Domains.

Meanwhile, forum members say that this can put a damper on the domaining industry. It also makes the lawyer (specifically the one behind the lawsuit) look silly for suing Google when he isn't seemingly reading the fine print and learning how to use Google AdWords effectively. They feel that the plaintiff, an individual named Hal K. Levitte, is just looking for a big fat check from Google but that he's wasting his time. Other people think that Google's "AdSense for Domains," specifically for domains that lack content, is a bad strategy.

This sentiment is echoed by others as well. Why would you want to spend your money on parked domains? And why would visitors actually hang around?

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld.

A Reminder to Update Your Google AdSense Login to a Google Account

Posted: May 27th, 2008, 4:16pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

We posted about the requirement to link Google AdSense accounts with a Google Account in February. As indicated in the comments of that blog post, the frustration of doing so is still there and a lot of publishers are not taking the plunge as a result.

Well, Google is reminding you that you have no choice. You'll need to do it, according to a Google Groups thread. AdSensePro Ashley refers to a new post on the Inside AdSense blog which states that if you don't make the change, you'll be locked out of your account -- for good. (Roger, I'm sorry.)

There's no exact date for when this will be rolled out, but Google states that it will be a requirement "in the next few weeks."

Forum discussion continues at Google Groups.

Publishers Upset with Poor Google AdSense Quality Targeting

Posted: May 23rd, 2008, 4:16pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

What's worse than having pop-up ads on your website? Having ads on your website that aren't actually contextual and aren't properly matching the text of your website to draw in prospects. (Well, maybe it's not worse, but it's surely frustrating a lot of publishers.) At WebmasterWorld, incrediBILL says that "[t]here were ads for all sorts of junk linking to sites that didn't have what it claimed, Amazon affiliates, off topic garbage, even phone company directory listings." He started trying to weed out the bad ads by hand, but says that his filter list is already full, so it wasn't easy to do.

Bill is not alone. It seems that a lot of other publishers are starting to filter out up to 90% of new ads that are using the Google AdSense program. Publishers complain that "[a]pparently the targeted ads aren't quality/relevance checked at all by Google," which doesn't make the viability of AdSense a strong one at this time.

Is there a correlation to a holiday weekend? Some forum members suggest that to be the case. One member says that "[l]ow advertiser inventory lowers the threshold to the bottom feeders." But others contest this claim, saying that bottom feeders should cease to exist if Google is really screening them for quality. This is a valid point.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Getting Married: How To Change Your Google AdSense Payee Name

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 2:26pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

First, congrats on your wedding - I like to personally wish you both a long happy life together.

Now, let's get down to the money... You make a lot of money with Google AdSense. But now that you are married and you are taking on your spouse's name, you want to get the checks made out to your new last name. How do you go about changing your name on Google AdSense, so that you and your new spouse can share in the huge amounts of money you are making with Google AdSense?

That is the question asked at a Google Groups thread. AdSensePro Stephanie offers a link as aid on changing one's payee name. The process is fairly simple, you simply fill out the Change Payee Name AdSense form and wait. But here are some of the rules behind changing the payee name:

According to our program policies, AdSense accounts cannot be transferred or sold. If this is your reason for requesting the change, we will not be able to update your payee name.
You won't be able to change your payee name if you already have another AdSense account under that name.
Once we've updated your information, you'll need to re-enter your tax information and form of payment.
If you've received a payment to the old payee name that you're unable to deposit, you'll need to request a reissue after the 25th of the month following your payment.
We start processing payments on the 16th of each month. If you're scheduled to receive a payment this month and the payee name in your account is updated after the 16th, your payment will be issued to your old name.

Again, to change your AdSense payee name to your new spouse's name, use the Google AdSense Change Payee Name Form and congrats!

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

Image sourced from Steena on Flickr

Google Says They Fixed AdSense Reporting Bug But Publishers Not Convinced

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 2:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Yesterday we reported about a major reporting bug that impacted both AdWords & AdSense users. Yesterday at about 9pm (EST), Google's AdSensePro Stephanie said the reports were now fixed. Yes, that is about 40 hours after received our first reports of the outage. Stephanie said:

This reporting issue has now been fixed, so you should now see all of your missing data from yesterday in your account. (We've also reflected this update on our Known Issues page at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=92365.) I'll leave this thread pinned to the top of this category for another day, to make sure more forum members see this update.
Thank you all again for your continued patience, and our team sincerely apologizes for the delay.

Even though Google said the issue is now fixed, many AdSense publishers are not convinced. All the replies to Stephanie's post claim the reporting issues were not resolved. Of the five replies, all five said the reports still seem way off.

AdSenseAdvisor posted an updated at the WebmasterWorld thread also, this reply was at 4:06 am (EST) this morning saying the issues have been resolved. But like the Google Groups thread, the publishers in that thread are all not convinced the reports are bug free.

Forum discussion at Google Groups and WebmasterWorld.

Monday: The Biggest Pay Day For Google AdSense Publishers

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 3:47pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A few weeks ago, I ran a poll asking Which Day Do You Make Most Your Google AdSense Income?

We now have 92 responses, over the course of the week and most people voted that Monday they earned the most revenue on average from Google AdSense. Note that this is a very small sampling. I am not surprised that Saturdays and Fridays are the smallest earning days for publishers (being a publisher myself). I am a bit surprised by the Thursday response, but again, this is a small sampling.

Here are the results:

:: Monday - 24 responses - 26%
:: Tuesday - 18 responses - 20%
:: Sunday - 14 responses - 15%
:: Wednesday - 12 responses - 13%
:: Thursday - 8 responses - 9%
:: Friday - 8 responses - 9%
:: Saturday - 8 responses - 9%

Forum discussion continued at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google AdSense Test Four Text Ads In Large Rectangle Unit

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Honestly, I am not sure if this is brand new, but a DigitalPoint Forums thread reports the Large Rectangle (336 x 280) unit as having four text ads within it as new.

Here is a screen capture of the ad unit:

A typical ad unit looks like what you see listed on the Google AdSense ad formats page. I.e. four lines of ads and not four boxes of ads. Here is a live ad from my AdSense account for testing purposes:

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google AdSense & AdWords Reporting Still Showing Incorrect Data After Over 24 Hours

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:34pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Starting at about 5am (EST) yesterday, I have been noticing reports in the forums about Google being slow to update both the AdSense reports and the AdWords reports. The two largest threads discussing the issues can be found at WebmasterWorld and Google Groups, but there are plenty of other threads throughout the forums with complaints.

Again, first reports came in at about 5am (EST) yesterday and the issues have still not been resolved. We do have reassurance from Google in the WebmasterWorld and Google Groups threads that the issue is only reporting related and all the data is being tracked. When the reporting issues are fixed, it will show correct data.

AdSenseAdvisor posted at WebmasterWorld saying:

Thanks for your comments and your patience, and apologies for the delay. Our engineering team is working to address this issue as soon as possible. Please be assured that your account statistics have still been tracked, and we are working on displaying them in your account.
I will be sure to post with any additional updates.

AdSensePro Stephanie posted twice in the Google Groups thread (and other Google Groups threads) saying:

I've escalated your reports to our engineers, and they're currently investigating the issue. I'll be sure to update this thread as soon as I have any more info -- thanks for your patience in the meantime.

She then added a little bit later:

I've just received an update from our engineers: they're still working on resolving the issue, but they have confirmed that no statistics or data have been lost from your accounts. I'll let you know when I have more info about when you might expect to see updated stats. Again, we appreciate your patience.

The WebmasterWorld thread has over a 130 posts, and the Google Groups thread has almost a 100 posts.

In addition, you can see the brand new AdSense Known Issues page for an update that shows the issue is still not resolved, as of 7:45am (EST) today.

Forum discussion on both the AdWords and AdSense side at the following threads:

Google AdSense Adds "AdSense for Search"

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 5:07pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

The Inside AdSense blog talks about the newest feature available to Google AdSense users: AdSense for Search is now powered by custom search. This new feature gives you the following benefits: site search, improved indexing of pages, vertical search, the ability to fine tune search results and ads with keywords, selecting ad location, and more.

Check out the video for more information:

As someone who had an extremely difficult time trying to get Google Coop with AdSense installed on my site in the past, this was a breeze. Literally. I'm so glad that the Google AdSense team fixed it up. Thank you. :) (On that note, I *strongly* recommend that you set up your Google Custom Search Engine through the Google AdSense control panel, not through google.com/cse -- that's where my problems started!)

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums, Google Groups, and WebmasterWorld.

Screen Shots of New Google AdSense Font, Comic Sans

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 3:13pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Friday we reported that Google is testing new fonts in AdSense ads. Well, I finally found a screen capture of this in action via DigitalPoint Forums.

Here is the screen capture:

Pretty funky looking, no? If anything, this is a Google test and if they launch this new font, I hope they make it an option for the publisher. Personally, I find the font a bit unprofessional for many sites. But it may work for a specific type of site.

This may show signs that Google may be enabling the ability for publishers to pick a font style for their AdSense ads. If so, that is great news.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Fishing Out AdSense Arbitrageurs Through AdWords Accounts?

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 3:05pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has speculation that Google is now seeking out AdSense arbitrageurs through AdWords accounts. The rumor is that Google is banning AdSense publishers by looking to see if their AdWords accounts are sending traffic to pages with AdSense on them.

About a year ago, we reported, Google To Shut Down AdSense Arbitrageurs. But then learned it was more focused on made-for-AdSense (MFAs) AdSense arbitrageurs. Google didn't deny that they have been going after some arbitrageurs but the topic died down a month later.

What this recent speculation is causing, is a rush for AdSense publishers to close out their AdWords accounts. They do not want their AdWords accounts to be tied to their AdSense account and possibly give Google a reason to ban them from AdSense. So many have reported that they shut down their AdWords account.

Is there sound reason for this or are publishers acting out of fear? I honestly don't know.

Hat tip to Frank for blogging this last night.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Adsense Testing New Font Styles?

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 3:24pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google AdSense publishers are reporting via WebmasterWorld that Google is testing new fonts for the ad titles of the Google contextual ads.

The new font styles seen include:

Comic Sans
Times New Roman

The folks in the forum find the Comic Sans font to be funny. FYI, I am really font blind - if that is a real eye condition. :) In any event, this is what Comic Sans looks like, via Wikipedia.

Seems somewhat curvy and cartoon-like. I personally have not yet seen this test on ads that I have been looking at. But this is not the first time we had reports on Google messing around with the title fonts. Google tested italics font titles in the AdSense ads in the past.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Publisher Prepping Site For New York Times Feature

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 2:51pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forums thread has the owner of a Google Maps mashup named Speed Trap get ready for being mentioned in the New York Times. The publisher said his site will be featured in the NY Times online site and in the physical paper and he wants to prep his site for the traffic.

On one hand, he is worried about the traffic raising a red flag and possibly, as he puts it, getting him "dinged" in Google. But at the same time, he would like to optimize the AdSense ads on his site to ensure he places the ads where they will get the most valid exposure and make the most money.

So the other AdSense publishers are offering him advice on ad placement, server requirements, general usability and giving him a shout of support during this exciting time for him.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Which Advertiser Types Do You Put in Your Google AdSense Filter?

Posted: April 30th, 2008, 3:10pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion on what type of advertiser would you automatically add to your AdSense competitive filter list. I.e. which type ads do you not want showing up on your site?

Here are some of the responses:

Adult Related Sites
Ringtone Sites
Win Free Stuff Sites
Irrelevant Sites
MFAs
Deceptive Sites
Parked Domains
Work From Home
Etc.

I would create a poll here, but the answers can be so open ended. Which type of ads would you block immediately?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Click Fraud Rate Decreases Across Yahoo and Google, Says Click Forensics

Posted: April 28th, 2008, 4:10pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

In the first quarter of 2008, Click Forensics announced that click fraud has decreased across Google and Yahoo to 27.8% (from 28.3% in Q4 2007).

Is that a number to be worried about? As Barry says on Search Engine Land, these numbers may not account for discounted questionable clicks. Google has said before that click fraud only accounts for 0.02% of clicks.

Meanwhile, forum members believe that the report by Click Forensics may be misleading. After all, they are a traffic quality management firm and as such "has an interest in reporting exagerrated click fraud rates," according to martinibuster. He says that if the numbers were in actuality this high, "I am certain we'd hear about it in the AdWords forum." After all, that translates to millions of dollars lost.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Which Day Do You Make Most Your Google AdSense Income?

Posted: April 28th, 2008, 2:48pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks other Google AdSense publishers which day of the week, do they make the most amount of money with Google. Most say, Monday and Tuesday are their highest yielding days, while some say the weekends are.

I am very curious, which days our readers do best on. Please take the poll below, you can select multiple days.

Which Day(s) Do You Make Most Your AdSense Income:

I promise to report the results of this poll very soon.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Banned in Google Adsense? Appeal vs. New Account

Posted: April 24th, 2008, 5:13pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

A WebmasterWorld member has been banned from Google AdSense and wants to try again after several years on hiatus. He says that the past banning was due to fraudulent clicks but does not know the origin, and he'd like to start anew from a clean slate.

Is it possible, or is the ban for life?

AdSenseAdvisor says that you are able to appeal your account termination, but if you get banned for invalid clicks, you cannot participate in the program again. Since it's been several years for the publisher, it appears that the appeals process is the only way to go. In other words, you can't reapply, but you can certainly try to talk to Google about your previous banning and see if there's any recourse.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Publishers Report: Clicks Not Being Counted

Posted: April 21st, 2008, 3:00pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

WebmasterWorld members are reporting that they're logging into their Google AdSense accounts due to an addiction that needs to be stopped and are finding that AdSense is reporting much lower clicks. One person in particular said that his ads are showing zero clicks but even had it clicked on by someone "overseas" to see if it was a problem on Google's end).

Everyone agrees that "something is weird" and only martinibuster suggests that you should check your server logs for an indication of what's happening with your ad clicks. Till then, though, on April 17th and on the 18th, this seemed to be a problem. (Ed note: As of this writing -- the 18th at 4PM EST -- this issue hasn't been resolved as no forum members report anything but strangeness.)

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

This post was written on April 18th and was scheduled for publication for Monday, April 21st.

The Most Annoying Google AdSense Unit Is: The Large Rectangle

Posted: April 21st, 2008, 2:50pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

About 6 weeks ago, I polled our readers on which Google AdSense unit they found to be the most annoying. The results are in and the winner of the most annoying AdSense unit is the large rectangle unit.

As you can see, the Large Rectangle, by far, beat out all the other units. What does the large rectangle look like? Here is a live large rectangle:

google_ad_client = "pub-0102506597954630";
/* 336x280, created 4/18/08 */
google_ad_slot = "5515056076";
google_ad_width = 336;
google_ad_height = 280;
//-->

src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">

Here are the full results from the 108 responses:

Large Rectangle (336 x 280) - 29 - 27%
Medium Rectangle (300 x 250) - 21 - 19%
Leaderboard (728 x 90) - 14 - 13%
Wide Skyscraper (160x600) - 14 - 13%
Skyscraper (120x600)v8 - 7%
Banner (468 x 60) - 7 - 6%
Square (250 x 250) - 5 - 5%
Small Square (200 x 200) - 5 - 5%
Small Rectangle (180x150) - 3 - 3%
Vertical Banner (120 x 240) - 2 - 2%

Forum discussion continued at Google Groups.

Note: This article was written the week prior and scheduled to go live on August 21st.

Reminder: Don't Publish Test Ads on Google's Ad Network

Posted: April 21st, 2008, 2:11pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

A DigitalPoint Forums thread kind of laughs at an ad they spotted within the Google AdSense network. An ad leading to Fragrance Net shows how sometimes advertisers can get too busy to remember to not publish an ad that is just a test.

To be fair, this doesn't have to be an ad from Fragrance Net, it can be from one of their affiliates.

In any event, the lesson is the same, be careful with your creatives before publishing. An ad like this may jump out to readers and people might click out of curiosity or just ignore that ad. The creative is one of the most important criteria in qualifying the click before they click. So instead of wasting $0.10 or $10, whatever that click might be, hopefully your ad content will qualify them beforehand.

In this case, it likely can lead to a wasted click.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Note: This post was written last week and scheduled to be published automatically on April 21st.

Google Pays AdSense Publishers Larger Share Overall

Posted: April 18th, 2008, 2:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Whenever Google announces earnings, we have a thread at WebmasterWorld that summarizes how much share Google is taking from the earnings AdSense publishers make.

So if you click on an AdSense ad on my personal blog, how much of that cost-per-click am I get and how much is Google getting.

Based on the earnings report, Google is taking 21% and the remaining 79% is going to me. Now, I doubt this is an exact number, because this includes premium publishers, special partners and so on. So I am sure some of those partners get a higher or maybe even a lower share than the typical AdSense publisher.

But overall, Google is being fair. In fact, Google seems to been paying out publishers more then they have done historically. The thread summarizes:

The past few quarters have been between 75% and 79%.

One other member has a nice post as well:

Revenues up 41%, earnings up 31% - doesn't sound like they're ripping anyone off to me. Now if revenues were up 30% and earnings were up 40%, that would be a different story.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Adds "Choose Units" Reporting Option

Posted: April 15th, 2008, 2:45pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

I am not a huge report guy on Google AdSense, but according to a WebmasterWorld thread, Google has added a new filter option on their advanced reports. You can now filter the reports by unit type.

If you want to see how much money you are making from "ad units" versus "link units," you can now easily do that via the "Choose Units" option in the Google AdSense advanced reports section. Here is a screen capture:

Honestly, I would not have known if this option is new or not myself. So I am going by the word of three different WebmasterWorld members, who are reporting it is brand new.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Low CTR: Is Google AdSense Encountering a Glitch?

Posted: April 11th, 2008, 4:38pm CEST by Tamar Weinberg

Tags: Google AdSense

A Google AdSense publisher at WebmasterWorld is reporting that his highest earning day had poor performance. He wonders if it has something to do with a new AdSense glitch or if this problem is just personally impacting him.

Fortunately for him, he's not alone. One member reports that the ads were not very contextually relevant. Another reports that it may not be a glitch after all but is reporting instead that his earnings dropped after Google added scrolling arrows to AdSense adds.

What recourse do you have? Martinibuster lists four things you can check in your website's log files:

What keywords did your visitors use to access your site? Is it different than previous days?
What are your most popular pages? Are those different than previous days as well? What were the earnings on those pages?
Are more people abandoning your pages than in previous days?
How deep did your visitors venture into your pages? Is this any different than how they performed previously?

Martinibuster (and other forum members) also report that he didn't have a problem with AdSense during this time. Other members believe that it may just be tax season playing into the behavior of some website visitors who cannot make a purchase until they finish paying their dues to the IRS.

I guess you never know.

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Tax Season Advice

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 3:20pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

It is that time of the year again, just a few more days until Tax Day in America. That reminds me, I need to call my accountant and see the status of my returns...

In any event, this is typically when AdSense publishers try to come up with a list of what they can deduct from their AdSense earnings. Keep in mind, I am not an accountant, so any advice here must be run by someone who is a professional in this area.

A WebmasterWorld thread has a list of items you may be able to deduct. I have complied some of the items into this bulleted list below:

Internet Connections
Hosting Fees
Tax preparation fees
Bank fees
Computer Costs
Forum Membership Fees (i.e. WebmasterWorld)
Conference Fees (hotel, food, travel and event - careful with this)
Lunches & Dinners for Business
Office Furniture & Supplies
Ads & Site Promos
Health Insurance
Telephone
Postage
etc

You can find our coverage of this from two years ago at Tax Deductions For Google AdSense: It's Tax Season.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Blocking An Advertiser Via The Adsense Ad Review Center

Posted: April 8th, 2008, 3:16pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: Google AdSense

Google has been rolling out a new AdSense feature that you can likely see by going to the "Ad Setup" screen and clicking on the "Competitive Ad Filter" link. Then you should see access to the "Ad Review Center" (aka ARC).

It gives you more granular control over the ads displayed on your site. Here is a screen capture:

But it does not work exactly like the "competitive ad filter." In fact, in a WebmasterWorld thread, AdSenseAdvisor confirms that if you block an advertiser in the Ad Review Center, it will not block that advertiser from showing up in the contextually relevant area. So, it will only allow you to block ads for placement targeted ads and not contextually targeted ads. Here is more Q&A from AdSenseAdvisor:

There is no limit on how many ads/advertisers you can block in a session.
An ad group is either placement or contextually targeted. If you block a placement-targeted ad, it will not then appear on your site as a contextually-targeted ad.

If you add a site to your Competitive ad filter, ads for this site will not appear in your ARC.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

UK Google AdSense Publishers Payment Delay

Posted: April 1st, 2008, 3:06pm CEST by rustybrick

Tags: AdSense Google

If you are based in the UK and are awaiting your Google AdSense payment, you might have to wait a little longer. A Google Groups post from an official Google AdSense representative, Stephanie, said that due to Easter coinciding with the first payment processing day, payment will be delayed in the UK.

I've checked in with our payments specialists about your reports of not seeing any 'Payment in progress' links yet (especially for publishers located in the UK).
Because the Easter weekend coincided with the start of the March payment process, payments to the UK will be slightly delayed this payment period. If you're eligible for a payment, please be assured that it will be issued and details posted to your account by the end of the week.

Thanks for all of your reports, and we apologize for the delay.

You will receive your payments by the end of the week, and Google apologizes for the delay.

Forum discussion at Google Groups.

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