No, it did not happened today. Not yesterday either. I was banned by AdSense just over two years ago. I was banned before I ever made my first $25. Of course I thought that I was banned unjustly, but it really does not matter. What matters now is that looking back, understand that being banned by AdSense was one of the best things that ever happened to me. How can that be? Simple, it made me mad and I became determined to find a way to earn money online without AdSense. As a result the world is better off.
If it did not happened, I would still probably be creating an multiplying my useless “made for AdSense” websites. Maybe by now I would be making more than few pennies a day, but I would definitely never experience the satisfaction that comes from being an affiliate marketer.
What kind of satisfaction? Although my AdSense adventure was short lived, I have always wondered- “What happens after some one clicks on that ad?” You may have satisfaction of knowing that your website delivers a visitor to the advertiser, but that’s about it. Unless advertiser begins to exclusively placing ads on your site, you don’t even have an idea if your are appreciated.
How is that different in affiliate marketing? Well in affiliate marketing you have access to more statistics. With Commission Junction for example, you will know not only that a sale took place after you’ve sent a visitor to your merchant, but you can also find out what product your customer has purchased. Also you have a opportunity to find out how much was sold by a merchant thanks to your traffic- source of my satisfaction. That being said, I was just looking through some numbers and turns out that one of my merchants last month sold $16,000+ worth of merchandise….. With contextual advertising of all sorts all you know that a click costs about $0.10 on your website, not a fair estimate of the true value of your work in my opinion.
Anyway, if you have been banned by AdSense you are not the only one and by no means the last one AdSense would ever ban. In my humble opinion contextual ads should be one of the las steps in monetizing a website just around the time when website achieves “critical mass” in terms of traffic . I would still argue that if your affiliate links are doing well, adding contextual advertising would only create a “leakage”, and you do not want that.
Tip:
Some people say if you follow these rules, you are not going to be banned.
Wow, this is the first time I actually hear the good side of being banned by AdSense. You are going to look for alternatives and sometimes the alternatives are more profitable than the idea itself.
I'm not banned and I'm not going to either because I keep reading the rules over and over every time I change something. It can be very tiresome but as long as AdSense is my number one revenue stream on Monetize Now I am not going to risk losing it.
I love commission-based structures because one sale instantly generates a lot of money. The problem is that you will have to deal with an income that fluctuates a lot because you need to attract new readers that have not yet bought the product or service you are marketing for once your current readers have already bought it.
Every affiliate opportunity has a certain lifespan, after that it needs to be replaced by something more profitable, that is the only downside. Google AdSense is just zero effort; you don't need to change anything once you have placed your ads right.
I believe CJ can be much more profitable, but it's not as predictable as Google AdSense where you just make the sum (visitors * CTR * average revenue per click). I wish you the best of luck, keep up the good work.
Kind Regards,
Chris Peters
Wow, this is the first time I actually hear the good side of being banned by AdSense. You are going to look for alternatives and sometimes the alternatives are more profitable than the idea itself.
I’m not banned and I’m not going to either because I keep reading the rules over and over every time I change something. It can be very tiresome but as long as AdSense is my number one revenue stream on Monetize Now I am not going to risk losing it.
I love commission-based structures because one sale instantly generates a lot of money. The problem is that you will have to deal with an income that fluctuates a lot because you need to attract new readers that have not yet bought the product or service you are marketing for once your current readers have already bought it.
Every affiliate opportunity has a certain lifespan, after that it needs to be replaced by something more profitable, that is the only downside. Google AdSense is just zero effort; you don’t need to change anything once you have placed your ads right.
I believe CJ can be much more profitable, but it’s not as predictable as Google AdSense where you just make the sum (visitors * CTR * average revenue per click). I wish you the best of luck, keep up the good work.
Kind Regards,
Chris Peters
@Peter
“I love commission-based structures because one sale instantly generates a lot of money. The problem is that you will have to deal with an income that fluctuates a lot because you need to attract new readers that have not yet bought the product or service you are marketing for once your current readers have already bought it.”
I am not sure I would agree with you on this one. There is a limit on what certain affiliate program can do. But I have programs that I been working with over a year now and they still are doing quiet well. In fact they are doing better today that they did one year ago.
@Peter
“I love commission-based structures because one sale instantly generates a lot of money. The problem is that you will have to deal with an income that fluctuates a lot because you need to attract new readers that have not yet bought the product or service you are marketing for once your current readers have already bought it.”
I am not sure I would agree with you on this one. There is a limit on what certain affiliate program can do. But I have programs that I been working with over a year now and they still are doing quiet well. In fact they are doing better today that they did one year ago.
I love AdSence, but I do also love being an affiliate marketer, it's funny how you always want to go that extra step.
I started with Affiliate Marketing, and got .. nowhere.. then I found a niche, and low and behold, I was an affiliate marketer, then I found Adsence.
I don't make a killing with them, but I do ok. Then I think.. I send traffic to these guys, and they make money.. I send traffic to these guys.. and THEY make money, sure I make money too.. but they pay me, so they make more..
All of this has had me sitting at my dads house the last few days, whining that I want to make something, create something, sell something!
My dad must just be giggling to himself constantly listening to me, his most successful daughter whine that I don't know how to make something.
Anyway, the good news is I own a little work at home forum and everyone I know, my entire family, all my friends know that I want to make something, so they've been calling and emailing me crazy with ideas.. and those that I don't like, or can't fathom, I've gotten permission to share on the forum.
I haven't yet, lol, but I keep a very looong to do list 🙂 and.. there are a few things on the list that I do believe I CAN do, and CAN market 🙂
I love AdSence, but I do also love being an affiliate marketer, it’s funny how you always want to go that extra step.
I started with Affiliate Marketing, and got .. nowhere.. then I found a niche, and low and behold, I was an affiliate marketer, then I found Adsence.
I don’t make a killing with them, but I do ok. Then I think.. I send traffic to these guys, and they make money.. I send traffic to these guys.. and THEY make money, sure I make money too.. but they pay me, so they make more..
All of this has had me sitting at my dads house the last few days, whining that I want to make something, create something, sell something!
My dad must just be giggling to himself constantly listening to me, his most successful daughter whine that I don’t know how to make something.
Anyway, the good news is I own a little work at home forum and everyone I know, my entire family, all my friends know that I want to make something, so they’ve been calling and emailing me crazy with ideas.. and those that I don’t like, or can’t fathom, I’ve gotten permission to share on the forum.
I haven’t yet, lol, but I keep a very looong to do list 🙂 and.. there are a few things on the list that I do believe I CAN do, and CAN market 🙂
I have been sitting here trying to articulate why this is such a great post. After much though I think it's because 1- it's honest in a revealing way, 2- it's comforting to people who have tried that road and failed, and 3 – it gives a different perspective than the prevailing conventional wiseom.
I make money at Adsense, and don't believe in spammy sites. I make real sites and pour my sweat into them. Not all of them make a lot of money, but a small group of them can make thousands a month. On the other hand, I wouldn't choose AdSense as a career, not exclusively. I believe you should specialize in one type of client, product or service, and then diversify – make money as many ways as you can once you automate a system. People really need to understand that there are more ways to make money from a blog than AdSense, or even advertising period.
And those other ways have MUCH higher rates of success for the average person….
Tinu,
Thanks for stopping by. I guess I just seen way to many “blog” start ups that intended to make it big with AdSense and got discouraged. If you do not diversify in this business you will not survive.
I have been sitting here trying to articulate why this is such a great post. After much though I think it’s because 1- it’s honest in a revealing way, 2- it’s comforting to people who have tried that road and failed, and 3 – it gives a different perspective than the prevailing conventional wiseom.
I make money at Adsense, and don’t believe in spammy sites. I make real sites and pour my sweat into them. Not all of them make a lot of money, but a small group of them can make thousands a month. On the other hand, I wouldn’t choose AdSense as a career, not exclusively. I believe you should specialize in one type of client, product or service, and then diversify – make money as many ways as you can once you automate a system. People really need to understand that there are more ways to make money from a blog than AdSense, or even advertising period.
And those other ways have MUCH higher rates of success for the average person….
Tinu,
Thanks for stopping by. I guess I just seen way to many “blog” start ups that intended to make it big with AdSense and got discouraged. If you do not diversify in this business you will not survive.
I was banned by Adsense too a few years ago. No explanation.
I only got a few cheques from them, but sure enjoyed them.
Like you, I decided to find other ways to monetize my time on
the Net. I do affiliate marketing now and just love when I get
an email telling me I sold something. Getting money in my PayPal
account , thanks to my efforts in advertising, is very satisfying.
Great blog by the way.
Marie
I was banned by Adsense too a few years ago. No explanation.
I only got a few cheques from them, but sure enjoyed them.
Like you, I decided to find other ways to monetize my time on
the Net. I do affiliate marketing now and just love when I get
an email telling me I sold something. Getting money in my PayPal
account , thanks to my efforts in advertising, is very satisfying.
Great blog by the way.
Marie
I haven't ventured into Adsense much yet and I'm wondering if it's even worth it. By my thinking, there are other avenues, such as PPP or TLA.
I really enjoy your blog too!
I haven’t ventured into Adsense much yet and I’m wondering if it’s even worth it. By my thinking, there are other avenues, such as PPP or TLA.
I really enjoy your blog too!
I was at a point where I was making $150 a month on adsense and out of nowhere I log in to find out that I had been banned…. because some of the text on my tag cloud was too small. I was very angry to say the least, however, since then as you were, I've been force to try ventures that I would have never tried before – I hope I find the same realizations as you in the long run.
I was at a point where I was making $150 a month on adsense and out of nowhere I log in to find out that I had been banned…. because some of the text on my tag cloud was too small. I was very angry to say the least, however, since then as you were, I’ve been force to try ventures that I would have never tried before – I hope I find the same realizations as you in the long run.
In my opinion Google has way too much power online and not just over their adsense program. People are so afraid of getting on the bad side of Google and having their pr lowered that pleasing Google is the number one priority in all they do online. It's just a shame that we all have to be so dependent on them for traffic in order to survive. Of course we receive traffic from other sources, but Google is still number one.
In my opinion Google has way too much power online and not just over their adsense program. People are so afraid of getting on the bad side of Google and having their pr lowered that pleasing Google is the number one priority in all they do online. It’s just a shame that we all have to be so dependent on them for traffic in order to survive. Of course we receive traffic from other sources, but Google is still number one.
I've been afraid of pissing off the Adsense gods for a couple of years now, but your post puts things in perspective pretty well. Sometimes it's those adversities that ultimately help us pull it together, and as your case illustrates, help us in the end. Good stuff.
I’ve been afraid of pissing off the Adsense gods for a couple of years now, but your post puts things in perspective pretty well. Sometimes it’s those adversities that ultimately help us pull it together, and as your case illustrates, help us in the end. Good stuff.