Is Using RSS to Create Content Allowed by AdSense?

[alexawy]

Hi,
I am working at a newspaper as a developer for its online website.

I made a website based on the RSS from my newspaper website, and put google ads on it.

I started marketing the website on many places and I get about 50,000 unique daily visits.

I am surprised that Adsense is paying me about $400 per day! CRT is aroung 6%

It is a one page with 3 ad blocks, and an RSS reading from my newspaper websites.

Is there something strange about this!

I am really surprised as by this rate I would gain > $12,000 per month!

Is it possible for Google to pay this much on such a simple - well marketed website!

[DanAbbamont]

There was a case with the New York Times and somebody where the NYT was syndicating their feed as provided with links to the full content, just like this guy says he's doing.

They settled, so no money changed hands. The NYT did have to agree to stop syndicating their feed though.

Unfortunately there was no ruling so it's not exactly a legal precedent, but the basic message is that if you offer up RSS feeds, it's implied that people will syndicate them unless there's a special terms of use included with the feed. At the same time, if you for any reason don't want someone syndicating your posts, they have to honor that.

[d3vrandom]

Whats ironic is that google itself is in the business of scraping content and presenting it as search results! But yeah they don't allow you to monetize autoblogs and the like using adsense.

[DanAbbamont]

Yeah it's funny isn't it? I just think there are different degrees of scraper sites. If I had a blog with good content but wasn't any good at ranking or marketing, I'd be pretty happy if someone syndicated my summaries and sent me tons of traffic. If I had good rankings and they came up and stole those out from under me I'd be a little upset.

[rajivatre]

In your newspaper RSS feed it is written
"Updated every 5 minute of every day - FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY"
So I am sure NewsPaper can take action against you or anybody who is using it on their site.

Thanks
Rajiv

[koan]

But yeah they don't allow you to monetize autoblogs and the like using adsense.

It's not "ironic". Google can do what they want with their ads program. One of their entry criteria is actual original content and I would agree with them.

[wyweb]

Whats ironic is that google itself is in the business of scraping content and presenting it as search results!

We've been here a dozen times already. If you don't want them doing it, there's an easy way to stop them. Ban them with robots.txt.

I'll bet you don't do it though...

[Rockyou]

Google closed my account today. I was expecting this and am not surprized at all. although there was about $2000 :'(
Buy what's my fault! they are who decide the payment. my CPR is 5% and this is fair.

They closed the account for invalid clicks! I don't have control on the 300K visits to my website who made 10K clicks in few days.

When I started the site I NEVER though of such an earning, when I found it is like this I searched and asked.

G doesn't state reasons for closing an account but a pre-set messages.

I read this in another forum, Your dream is over Mr.alexawy, Next time do read adsense policy.

[alexawy]

Yes, my account was closed.
But they didn't tell me was it closed because the site content, or because I earned $2000 in less than 1 week.

My page CRT was 5%, My website visitors was around 300K, clicks may reached 2000 clicks.

My dream is not over, I shared with you BEFORE my account get closed, and I expected it to get closed, I was not surprized but just was waiting for this.

Yes, Google are paying to many and made a revolution on web ads publishing, but they are not fair enough, and know how to control their game.

I've to get back to my business again, much time was lost in this issue :)

[wyweb]

Yes, my account was closed.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that but you were warned.

but they are not fair enough, and know how to control their game

They control their game quite well. With an iron fist in fact. Control is extremely important to the borg.

As to being fair.... It's their ball. It's their court. It's their game. It's their rules. You're a participant. Actually I felt I was more of a by-stander at times.

But being a participant, you have the option to opt out any time you like, which is what I'm doing now, and what you should have done from the start.

We live and learn, eh?

[alexawy]

yes, I agree.
But adsense system is based on US, without US they are nothing. We must at least know the reason why we were out.

If someone searched for the definitional of the term "monopoly ", he will find this: a monopoly exists when a specific individual or an enterprise (Google) has sufficient control over a particular product or service (Adsense) to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals (US) shall have access to it.

[Karma]

You found out you were breaking the rules, expected to get your account closed, had your account closed (including the reason why), and you're still complaining!?

[alexawy]

The new rule or policy was update at Jan 2011, my account was from 2007.
plus I found I'm breaking rules after searching many forums and blogs, no one gave me a sharp answer. Even Google in their suspend email said you are ALLOWED to take contents from RSS feeds.

Why people at forums posts useless replies? are this for increasing post counts?

[Karma]

*bites lip*

[wyweb]

alexawy there are other ways to monetize traffic. Get your superiors permission first though.

[wyweb]

no one gave me a sharp answer.

You're not alone in this. There have been many who never received adequate answers.

[alika]

The new rule or policy was update at Jan 2011, my account was from 2007

Sorry to hear your account was closed.

However, there's no such thing regarding exemptions to the new rules/policies simply because your account existed prior to the rule change.

You are supposed to keep abreast of their policy changes, and make sure you comply to the rules. Even those who started their Adsense when it was opened in 2003 are not exempt from any policy changes.

[darkyl]

no one gave me a sharp answer.

Why people at forums posts useless replies? are this for increasing post count

Actually many people told you that this was going to happen at the beginning of this very thread.
You didn't seem to listen and now you blame those who answered you and Google itself.

[wyweb]

Get up off him. He knows he did wrong.

If he was still saying, 'I don't have a clue what happened.' Then yeah, go for it.

He's down though. He's on the ground and he knows why he's there.

Now you pick him back up and offer advice.

I swear some of you people are like piranhas. You smell blood and go on a feeding frenzy.

What the hell's up with that anyway?

[edited by: wyweb at 1:46 pm (utc) on Apr 11, 2011]

[alexawy]

I came to ask because it was something unusual to gain $400 per day for nothing, and I expected closing my account.

I didn't fake clicks or abuse google at least from my opinion, I just brought visits to my website, who don't do!.

For Google to be fair, they must at least state a reason for closing the account, not the canned email that was sent.
They could cancel any earning for this period if there was something wrong. Although I at least sent 3000 visitors per day to their advertisers, and other 50000 saw the ads.

I posted this issue at 2 forums seeking answer. 95% of posts was saying either this was a lie or crab or stealing bla bla bla, 5% only was helpful with replies, although NONE knew what was right in this issue but this is not a problem because they may knew it now. That's "experience".

I lost hours for replying to out of topic posts or defending myself!

[darkyl]

When people told you what you were doing was "stealing" and "copying" they implied that your business model wasn't allowed by Google.
Here are some quotes from the beginning of the thread:

Google's also not crazy about serving up ads on repurposed content like that, so they'll probably throw you out too.

your site is banned for massive content scraping

Does G allows RSS sites with ads on it? yes. But you are not the owner of the material, so at any moment they can complain and get your account closed.

And that's exactly what happened, your account was banned because it made money from copied content alone (rss), so I'm not sure what you're complaining about.

@wyweb

No one is here to rub salt into wounds. You say we should offer advice and that's what people did since the beginning. He didn't listen and now complains about the "useless answers" he received.

[wyweb]

@darkyl

No one is here to rub salt into wounds. You say we should offer advice and that's what people did since the beginning. He didn't listen and now complains about the "useless answers" he received.

No, I'm saying get up off him. He's done. He's toast. He's on the ground and you don't get any points for beating up a guy on the ground.

Go toe to toe with him when he's standing up and if you take him down, you've got bragging rights. That's how we do it where I'm from.

Beating up on a guy that's already down just makes you look bad. It makes you look like a coward hiding behind a keyboard.

He's confused why the borg won't give him an accurate and timely answer. Well, welcome to my world. Don't expect accurate and timely from google. Those two words don't exist in the borgs vocabulary when it comes to adsense. It needs to be explained to him though, not drilled through his head.

There's a language barrier here too. Be sensitive to that as well.

And get up off this boy. He KNOWS he fuucked up. Leave it.

Move on folks, nothing left to see here.