Forum Moderators: martinibuster
1) Lack of quality
The Adsense system is so full of $§%#! "advertisers" that it is NO WONDER that income is dropping across the board for me, and for several other WW members as well. As long as Google is completely unable/unwilling to clean their house with regards to both advertisers or publishers, prices will continue to drop. Like a rock.
If I were a quality advertiser, I would not want to be associated with (i.e. see my ads running on) some of the sites Adsense is running on. But also I would not be happy with the guys I am sharing the adblock with. The quality of the other ads in an adblock reflects on MY brand as well. And Adsense quality is simply down the drain.
I was running an empty filter list for some time now. Then I had a look at the preview tool again. All the usual suspects were there, grinning at me happily: the guys who are still switching the domain names every other week for their fishy "campaigns", the guys who are removing browser controls, several dozens of parked pages, a handfull of email harvesters. Quality score? User experience? Hah.
WHY DOES GOOGLE ALLOW SHADY ADVERTISERS IN?
WHY DOES GOOGLE ALLOW SHADY PUBLISHERS IN?
I do not get it.
(Of course, I understand. The only possible answer is - money. They need the money, and they do not care how the money comes in.)
2) Lack of information and control
Yeah, this one is a big issue for me since the very first days of Adsense: the absolute lack of information coming from the holy guys in Mountain View. I hate it. Really. I want to be able to control which ads run on my sites, I want to see how they perform click-wise, and I want to see how they perform money-wise. I want to be able to kick out any "advertiser" who does not perform well and/or who does not pass my quality check. But Google is apparently unable to even announce system maintenances in a meaningful way.
WHY IS GOOGLE SO RESTRICTIVE WITH INFORMATION CONCERNING ADSENSE?
WHY IS GOOGLE SO RESTRICTIVE WITH INFORMATION IN GENERAL?
(Duh! Of course, I understand. The only possible answer is money. They are so scared that the information they give out may blow down their house of cards, and all the money with it, that they just do not give out any meaningful information. How they can get away with this is beyond me.)
I am very close to pulling all Adsense blocks from my sites. Yep. Google has finally made it. They might not even notice, but I will have a very good feeling once I do that. I am beyond frustration. I am tired.
Tired of trying to understand Google, tired of reading "optimization tips" that do not work, tired of seeing eCPM fluctuating by up to 100% from one day to another, tired of playing whack-a-mole with shady advertisers, tired of reading threads like this one. In fact, I am tired of this whole Adsense stuff.
The idea of Adsense is brilliant, it's execution is mediocre.
Standard disclaimer: I know that some niches pay better than others, I know that I should not put all eggs in one basket, I know that I can leave Adsense at any time, I know that Google has all the right in the world to protect their valuable business information, I know that I should be grateful and humble that they let me make them money. I know I know I know.
I don't think i would get trashier after a certain period. Given the yin and yang nature of things, an open policy would find another equilibrium. WP is proof of that.
You have too much faith in yin/yang and equilibrium. Systems can die. (btw, what's "WP"... wordpress?)
I am considering to pull all Adsense ads
Please do.
It leaves more for the rest of us that truly appreciate the goose laying the golden eggs.
