I recently had some issues with Google Adsense regarding a forum I operate that deals with various methods people use to Earn Money Online. The forum covers an ever-increasing number of topics and we value Freedom of Speech but we are constantly fighting spammers and scammers who post their referral links, porn links etc…Well, we got a warning from Google Adsense regarding having a folder for “Get Paid To” programs after two years of having the folder onour forum. Apparently Google changes their AdSense TOS and neglects to inform their publishers unless it’s to send them a warning or to disable their Adsense accounts. Although this flippiant behaviour gets on my last nerve, it’s not the main point of my post today. The Adsense issues we were having have been resolved, however, during the course of resolving those issues I came across something utterly pathetic and it has me wondering if Google Adsense even cares about us publishers because it seems they have all of us swimming in a goldfish bowl wondering if/when they will decide to ban our accounts and keep all of our earnings for whatever infraction they can dream up.
To make matters worse, Google Adsense Support is nearly invisible as far as offering support to Adsense publishers. As per their FAQ, Google doesn’t offer a phone number for publishers to contact them ( Google AdSense Help Center: Do you have a customer support telephone number?)
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Do you have a customer support telephone number?
Our goal is to give all of the AdSense web publishers the support they need. At this time, we are best able to respond to our publishers’ needs by email. Please use our contact form if you have any questions or concerns. One of our specialists will personally review your email and follow up shortly. |
That in itself strikes me as a considerably shady business practice. As a publisher, I have a contract with Google to display *their* ads they deem fit on *my* website that I am paying for *my* bandwidth and I am building *my* content the same as any other publisher. Google has a responsibility to that advertising contract as per the FTC’s guidelines in that they *MUST* provide reasonable means of contact as per the *the agreement*. After all, we as publishers have supplied more than enough personal data to Google including our address, phone numbers, SSN/TIN, bank information (if direct deposit). It just irks me that a company who is handling people’s Social Security numbers or Taxpayer ID’s and bank account information is so inaccessible and can’t even supply a phone number… How the heck has this company managed to get their stock shares to surge past the $600 mark ?
Now that I’ve got everyone worked up, let’s leave this issue aside and I’ll get to the point of today’s post.
Considering Google Adsense doesn’t offer adequate contact details, I joined their AdSense Forum hoping that some kindly fellow publishers might be able to assist me in my quest for information. I checked out a few of the threads and noticed this user named JDSense was making quite a few comments on the forums and was getting a pretty bad rating from other users which made me think this person might be an actual Google appointed moderator to the discussion forum. So, I did what any typical nosey person would do and I clicked on JDSense’s Profile. Well, here’s a picture of what I got when I viewed this person’s profile…
Ok, so now we know “Jenny de Sense” is quite a prolific member of the Adsense Forum and that he/she has made thousands of responses to people questions. Wow, I’m thinking this Jenny person must have a kickass Adsense website at the url listed in his/her profile (http://www.jdsense.com), so I absolutely have to go and see what the ever helpful Jenny is up to. Well, suprise, suprise, when I get to Jenny’s site, it’s nothing but an MFA (Made for Adsense) site that is violating Google’s terms by not only altering the link structure, this site is targeting the highest paying keywords. Have a look at some of the source code for this site….
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<a href=”http://www.jdsense.com/search/redirect.php?f=http%3A%2F%2Fpagead2.googlesyndication.com%2Fpagead%2Ficlk%3Fsa%3Dl%26ai%3DBIGGS_TsQR7i5FonQ-QKtsLm3CZm7gyr1qa-9A8CNtwHAixEQARgBIMydzAMoCjgAUK6Nv8z8_____wFgyfamjNCk5A-yAQtqZHNlbnNlLmNvbcgBAdoBE2h0dHA6Ly9qZHNlbnNlLmNvbS-AAgGoAwHoAxnoA6gE6AM19QNCAAAA%26num%3D1%26adurl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fpluginprofitsite.com%2Fmain-18141%2Fdotcomology.html%26client%3Dca-dp-sedo-03_xml&l=YzJmM2E1OTcxZjUzYzYwM2RmMmIzY2RmOTA2ZDllYWEJMC4xODE5CTMJMTMJMQkwCQkxMAkxCTAJMmEwMTA1ODM1MjFiNjk0MmZjZjBjZTAwMWFlMjUzZmIJd3d3LlBsdWdJblByb2ZpdFNpdGUuY29tCTI1MDIzNTI2CWMJMzYwNDk5NTYJMAkzCW1vbmV5dGl6aW5nIHdlYnNpdGUgdGhyb3VnaCBhZHMJMzcJMQk1CTU5CTAJMC4yNzM2MDAJTgkyNQk2ZDMwNTNmMDE5M2E1OTcxMDA4ODJmMzEzOTJiMzY0YgkwCTAJMA==” class=”googlelink” target=”_blank”><span class=”googleheader”>Don't Get Scammed</span>
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and a picture of the site…
Ok, at this point I think anybody with half a brain reading this will agree with me that apparently Google can’t even manage their own Adsense Support forum if there are people like this Jenny flaming other Adsense publishers in response to their questions. Click this link to view JDSense’s profile and a few of his/her responses and tell me if this person is not trying to present themselves as an authority on the Adsense Forum. Of course, many of the innocent people looking for answers who get flamed by Jenny will visit his/her site listed in the profile and if they happen to click on one of those high paying ads, of course he/she will get paid for an MFA site.
So, I ask you, my readers, Is Google Adsense a joke ?
Please leave a comment with your opinion on this article.
Thank you.
Dave
50 Responses to 'Is Google AdSense a Joke ?'
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If you think Google cares about publishers forget about it. They have the most advertisers and they have a huge network but they don’t care about the little guy who is the backbone of their business.
I seem to hear more people crying they were banned by Adsense than people claiming they are making real money through Adsense.
Google Adsense sucks for earnings and they suck for support. I only keep them on my site bcoz any little bit I can get from Google helps to make them have less money. I don’t click on my own ads or encourage clicks and I have content but I see so many gambling and porn sites with Adsense but they don’t do nothing about it,
Yeap. This person is a fricken American Pie hole. JDsense is the ghetto of Adsense. Hell, she’s the underbelly of society as far as I’m concerned.
http://www.jensense.com/ is this the same woman by chance?
Thanks your article is stunning.
I like your site..
bye
Cool post on ogle AdSense a Joke ?!
Yes, that’s the one. What an absolutely horrible person. Well, after a few days on the Adsense Support forum I’ve noticed there are some very nice and helpful people there.
After I read the article and it reminds me of a tool I downloaded month ago. Its called g(oo)gle(sc)rambl(er) and is written in C#. —- There is a problem with copying content from other websites - google will kick your (sub-)domain very quickly. So you have to scramble the text before you put it on your website. The tool helped me very much to get a lot more visitors and the ads I host are clicked much more often. The project seems to be a non-profit project, very nice of the programmer. - Sarah
Well Dave, you have a very nice site. So what possessed you to dedicate a post about this freak Jenny Slegg ? Curious. Everyone seems to be scared of her because of some click-bomb activity that went on around the Adsense forums.
Evidently she must be the one who just tried to Click Bomb me but if you read my post from last night about Adsense’s new “Allowed Sites” feature I’m very proactive about maintaing my Adsense account. I’m also very much against dishonest people who cheat and sabotage people. If this person is really click bombing people and sabotaging their Adsense he/she’s going to wind up in jail. Click fraud is a crime and people have already be prosecuted for it.
The reason I chose to post about the truth I saw and my feelings about it is that I’m not just in this to make money. There are a lot of very nice, legit people out there who get their dreams shattered by the bad apples and if somebody doesn’t stand up and voice their opinion, everybody will remain under the control of the bad apples.
I get what ya mean. Well, just be careful and keep your eyes open. I refuse to ever post my urls in forums and groups because of this ILLEGAL activity.
This is so funny! Thanks, Dave!
Yes, over at the Adsense-Help group, “JDSense” has been like a bad yeast infection you just can’t get rid of. Adsense employees will not tackle the problem despite many reports of “JDSense” click bombing rival publishers (resulting in the unfair banning of at least a dozen people). This creature “JDSense” is the perfect illustration of how impotent Google is.
I only hope that one day soon “JDSense” will stumble into the real world and get hit by a truck for giving bad advice on how to cross the street. Good lord deliver us from that abomination!
The person you refer to makes a mockery of the Adsense help forum. She only got on the Adsense forum at the start of THIS summer and within a week was trying to answer every siingle query as though she was a lifetime expert. She has yet to show anyone there that she actually has created anything worthwhile by way of a site. Indeed for a long time she had alink to her blog which contained only one minimal post and was plastered with Ads.
Yet somehow she leads a charmed life. Claiming to have been clickbombed with thousands and thuousands of clicks yet she didmnt get banned while others who left their web addresses on the forum got hundreds of click bomb clicks and got banned.
She is an absolute pest on that forum and although no one can prove it she is the leading suspect as the Adsense forum clickbomber - she even had issued threats to clickbomb peoples sites.
The Google Adsense Forum is a joke and the Adsense program itself is increasingly looking like a fraud as far as the small publisher is concerned. Tiem after time people are getting banned befor ethey reach their first payout. Do you think all those advertisers gget their money back? I doubt it. This money just goes into the Google bank account.
That site has a long and sordid history.
Google don’t give a crap about it.
Its so sad, there were some really good helpers there and someone click bombed them out of adsense, because they were trying to help they lost their accounts. Google didn’t reenstate them and other good publishers left to protect their sites
The google webmasters group is a fine example of what the adsense forum could aspire to be, but with little or no moderation of the members the spammers, attackers and crazies have taken over.
Don’t waste your time there unless you are lucky to get one of the last good members to help you.
However you can’t tell without reading their posts just who are the good ones, as the spammers and hostiles have downgraded their stars as well.
I suggest that people post some names of good members here so others can go directly to them.,
Excellent article. We have complained to the [nonexistent] Adsense forum moderator as well as Adsense support. It’s always the same, we get some canned response about how they take these issues seriously. Oh really? They could’ve fooled me.
This JDSense character is singlehandedly destroying the entire system with her click bombs and deceptive lies (targeting the poor Adsense noobs who come to the forum for advice). Google can’t even take care of itself, let alone its publishers. Adsense *IS* a joke.
Great investigation as well as great comments!
http://www.cruisecareerpath.com/cgi-bin/blog
Do not confuse JDSense with the Jensense.com
Jensense is a well established website and Jenny is very well known and respected in the affiliate market.
Google AdSense is not a joke, the AdSense support forum is a joke. I have long since left the support forum for two reason:
1- I don’t need help/support as I already have a very good CTR and revenue.
2- Any help I try to offer gets me verbally attacked.
AdSense is a great monetization tool for people with great sites…the only people that generally find the system a joke are the people who’s sites are a joke.
True, there have been a few unfair bannings from a couple of raging clickbombers that are attacking people, and it’s true Google could do more to combat invalid clicks, however, personally, I get hundreds of thousands of impressions every months and make hundreds of dollars every month, and never had a problem personally. When I see odd spikes in traffic I notify Google and they work with me.
To be taken seriously by AdSense support you need to take your web site seriously, a two post blog isn’t going to give you any revenue, and it’s not AdSense that is a joke, it’s your site.
Holli, Dave & et al, a few people sent me emails with a heads up about this blog post and comments. I am Jennifer Slegg of JenSense.com and I am definitely not this JDSense/Jenny DeSense person that I am getting confused with, I hadn’t even heard of her until yesterday. I am guessing whoever it is did a play off my blog name.
@Jenstar - Hello Jennifer, I’m fully aware of your JenSense.com blog, it’s one of the best Adsense blogs out there (just added you to my blogroll). If you look at the next post after this one ( Protect Your Adsense Account From Sabotage), I give you full credit and thank you for the informative and essential blog post about “Allowed Sites” (Allowed sites now an option in AdSense). That article was invaluable to me (and many members of DigitalPoint Forums) because most of us have networks running Adsense and somebody trying to Click-Bomb a site is utterly pathetic. No confusion, as far as I’m concerned between JDSense and JenSense. I’d definitely say that the person on Google Adsense Support Forum is playing off your genuinely informative blog and good name. You might want to check out the Forum.
@dan - If your site is so great and you make so much money, why are you afraid to post it in your comment? Also, why are you using a proxy to comment here (your ip = http://76.164.48.159/ ) ??? Do you have something to hide??? That’s what I thought….
Dave, it might be purely for protective reasons.
Only the tough survive on the adsense forum, and the rule there is NEVER give out your site address.
Thats also why I use this nick.
Isn’t it sad that such actions have to be taken to post there. If you look at the google webmaster forums they are great, people interact with each other on mature levels, and help each other with their sites.
Personally though I lay the blame at teh feet of google itself. If you have an unmoderated forum you will get such disruptive elements. That google refuses to ban people, or even really moderate and help out means its a doge eat dog forums.
I would love to show my site, I am pleased with its google adsense income and think I have lots to offer new publishers, but I am unable to be of service beyond the few posts that I make there.
Another bone of contention are the “help me” posts from people who start a blog and put adsense on it and don’t make any money. The illusion is that you will get rich from a 1 page blog about adsense, or “make money online” it takes a long time to disuade people from that dream.
JDSense is not JenSense or Jen de sense. They are two different characters.
I used to love the forum and adsense and never had any problems or fights..
But after that jdsense person came its been total shit, she attacks everyone and i got click bombed for the very 1st time back when all that crap was going on luckly they didnt close my account but im sure it was her.. I emailed them about the bad words she used on the forum and the abusive behavior towards people but got no response..
So i just left and havent posted anymore..
I go back from time to time and just look and each time i see the problem growing worse its nuthing like it was a year ago.. it used to be nice but now the forum is defintly a JOKE and a distastfull one at that,,,
haha, funny… I just got banned by Adsense (after this post and the one that follows it)… I guess they have to keep their “bottom line” because their pathetic stock is over-valued… OK, so I lost $150 in earnings - no big deal, but I’ll never use Google search again and beside that, I’m a “BIG MOUTH” who spreads my word everywhere I go. but I’m an honest “BIG MOUTH” and I never clicked on my own ads or engaged in “Invalid Clicks”, in fact I quite resent the fact that Google labled me a cheat… Well, they are the cheats, and this “BIG MOUTH” is going to spread the news far and wide.
Kudos to you Dave!!!!!!!! I saw you ripping on that scumbag Vision i.T Services on the adsense forum. I watch that board because my dreams of publishing on the internet were smashed because of those scumbags on the Adsense forum. They destroy people’s dreams and that makes them evil in my eyes. Paul (Vision i.T Services) is just like that scumbag Jenny (JDsense) and they are pieces of dirt who deserve to be drawn and quartered. I hope you will keep fighting for the little people like me. My fight is done but if you can save one person from going through what I went through, GOD BLESS YOU DAVID.
http://www.e-visionit.co.uk/
That;’s the site of the phagg Vision i.T Services on Adsense forum. I hate that punk bytch bcoz she’s so smug about peeps gettin ripped. she’s jenny sense’s best phag pal. Hack those krunts sitez..
@Dave - Why do you assume just because somebody says they make decent money, they are lairs or hiding something? There are a few people that do make money, I am not getting rich off of it, but it’s great side money…if you don’t believe me, that’s fine I don’t care, but at the top you asked you readers to say if they thought it was a joke, I answered, then you bash my answer. Your mind was already made up, now everybody that feels otherwise is an idiot or a scammer in your mind, so why even ask for input
A lot of things about AdSense is a joke, their forum is, it wasn’t always, but it is now, I agree, the member you called out is an idiot, the bannings for things the publisher didn’t do isn’t fair, support is slow and/or non-existent, but money CAN be made with the right traffic and content that pulls the right ads. Saying you cannot make money is just a lie…saying it doesn’t work for everyone, well, that’s true, it won’t work for everyone. But nothing does.
Dan, need I remind you that you’re posting from behind a “proxy” and that your initial post here was very pointed and agressive. Nobody questioned the fact that you can make money through Adsense, the point here is about unjustified bannings and Google’s slack for not being able to do the simplest of things like *auditing* an account for invalid clicks instead of *banning* an account for invalid clicks. For Christ’s sake, I’m a programmer and it’s nothing to do a *unique* on an IP to find duplicates. Furthermore, I offer a software package called DetectAProxy, if Google’s supposedly brilliant programmers haven’t yet discerned how to detect a proxy and discard those clicks, well, they’re not deserving of their $150K+ per year plus benefits positions they occupy.
Point blank, Google is supposedly trying to move into “enterprise software” yet they can’t even audit duplicate IP’s and weed out proxy clicks.
Hell, how do you think I know you’re posting behind a proxy ??? Maybe Google should hire me because I know how to de-dupe ip or database records and how to detect a proxy…
For shame on Google, they don’t want those capabilities because it’s more profitable just to ban people and keep the money innocent publishers have accrued in their accounts. Ever notice people get banned right before they’re about to get paid ??? … Don’t worry Dan, you’re number will get called one day and when you come crying, nobody will listen because you’ve chosen the anonymous path…
Actually, I am in a company network, I am not behind a proxy by choice trying to be anonymous.
That said, I reread my first post, and yeah, I can see where it could be read as aggressive, as I said “your site is a joke”, by that, I did not mean YOUR site, I meant “your” as in the general person AdSense isn’t performing for, it was not meant as an attack on your site, as I actually like your site. So, just know that, it was meant generically, not aggressively. I can see the ease with which it could have been misread however…that was my bad for making it that way.
Yeah, my number may get called someday, I have long ago accepted that, and when it does I’ll be pissed off too, but there are also a lot of options to choose from to replace it, however, as long as it’s performing, I’ll leave it alone and cross that bridge when I come to it.
As far as the anonymous thing goes, well, the support forum is a good reason to remain that way, as you have seen, and actually been part of, it’s a very hostile, mean, and typically non-productive place to hang out. Try to help somebody, get called an idiot by JD, post your URL, get blacklisted as MFA by Vision, try to help a little to much and somebody click bombs you, ask a question, get asked for your URL and let the clickbombing commence, so anonymity is simply a matter of self-preservation.
You must understand that.
Peace, and sorry for the misunderstanding in the alleged aggressive nature of my first post, it was unintentional.
No problems Dan, honestly, I don’t care what kind of network you’re on or where you’re coming from, all I know is that if I were running an affiliate program, I’d sure know how to audit statistics. Funny, AdBrite, Chitika, Bidvertiser, etc.. all perform auditing before earnings are released. Only Adsense has these archaic policies of convicting and banning people without recourse. Then again, Google turned a profit this quarter and their stock is still shooting up like a 90yo man on a dose of V*i*a*g*r*a… I just dumped my 400 shares of GOOG for 670@ so I made 100X my Adsense earnings over the last two years in two minutes… but, that stock is going to fall flat on it’s face once the business/broker community realizes that Google is engaging in blatant fraudulent activities to turn a profit they’ll drop it just like they did Enron and Global Crossing.
The DOJ, FTC, FCC, SEC aren’t going to turn a blind eye to all the complaints from Adsense publishers forever. Considering 99% of Google’s earnings come from Adwords, they are only digging their own grave by not modernizing their auditing procedures. God forbid the world’s biggest technology company can’t honestly audit and de-dupe clicks :-(
I hear ya, and like you, I am a programmer, have been for a long time, done some time as a network admin, server security admin and more…so yeah, I know my way around IT a bit.
AdSense has it’s problems, I’ve always admitted that, I have used AdBrite and BidVertiser and find them both laughable in terms of revenue compared to AdSense (just my experience with them all) which is why I stick with it, the bottom line, once my number is drawn, then I’ll be poking around for another solution…and I remain hopeful they are working on better ways of fraud prevention in the mean time.
AdSense Money Maker
Do you know how to make money from AdSense automatically? You don’t!? I’ll teach you how!
adsense ctr
I thought Adsense was dead - until I read about www.adsense.com - so you might want to add this to your thoughts you did share at your blog here!
Actually I’m begining to wonder about this adsense thing. We keep hearing everyone say those MFA sites are all illegal and everyone hates yet I keep on seeing more and more of them. Now, is it because these MFA sites keep on making money and Google not targetting soon enough that they’re still around, or is it just so many is slipping through the cracks?
Personally, I don’t think they make money, the people selling them make money by scamming people that think they will make money with them.
The problem, as I see it, is once you get a web site approved by AdSense, you can add as many other sites as you want without additional approval, so someone can get approved for a decent site, then use that same code one dozens of MFA sites.
The guy that posted above you is a good example of what is killing AdSense, garbage sites that serve no purpose but I can bet that guy will make money selling his “product” to lots of people, so HE makes money on MFA, not by having them, but by selling them to others.
My next article here is going to shed some light on something sinister google is doing behind publisher’s backs, specifically in regards to the proliferation of MFA sites on the internet.
@Dan, I usually wouldn’t approve the type of spammy comment from Adsense Money Maker but I just wanted hsi comment spam to be a part of this discussion because it makes a point that Google is not effectively weeding out unscrupulous publishers and punishing honest publishers.
Dave - I found my way back to this post after your recent message on the ADsense story thread in the adsense help forum. I understand why your still pissed about what happened re getting banned because of a clickbomber - the ame happened to me. Its totally frustrating because we all know that Google couls sort this problem easily.
The only possible conclusion is that the current state of affairs actually suites them and thatthey are making money from the situation. do you think they refunded all the money in your account to advertisers ?? - did they shit, it stays in Googles fat pockets. Its obvious.
It suites them to let invalid click activity ride for a while. Why review acounts before $100? Why not just discoount invalid clicks as they go along? They obviously have the technology do do it.
Think about their new sign up rate for publishers and lets say they have a 20% banning rate atthe 100$ mark. Thats gotta be a fair amount of cash.
Theres definately more to this than meets the eye.
Doris
Wow?! Well I would better be safe than sorry. Even I have my own set of computers that I do not share with anyone, I still want to make sure, I am not all of a sudden under fire.
That site, jdsense.com, is a Sedo parked domain that uses Adsense for Domains, the awful Google’s legal way to make a Made for Adsense website.
I have also adsense ads on my blog, but have never had any problems.You should have other sources of income besides adsense if you cannot be sure that your account stays live.
I don’t use adsense to make money. They don’t produce much money for me and i feel its a waste to space. However I use adsense to get pages indexed :-). Once its indexed, good bye to adsense until I start another domain.
Of all the startups/websites that use Google Adsense as their main revenue model (according to Bizak.com) their earnings per visitor (EPV) is just $0.06. That’s not what they earn per click but rather based on the number of visitors they have. In order to make $1,000/month they need over 16,000 monthly visitors - not an easy feat. Better to monetize with services ($1.67 EPV) and/or subscriptions ($1.02 EPV).
Even with these poor earnings 22% of startups/websites rely on Adsense as their main revenue source. 17% services and 8% subscriptions. Source: Bizak.com
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You need hundreds of thousands of visitors to earn any kind of money. Its ridiculous
Adsense customer service is a joke, but that doesnt detract from the solidity of the program itself.
PPC income is on a steady decline, IMO. In the future, having a large , regular user base is become more and more important if you want to make money.
le AdSense a Joke ? thanks for this post!
In my honest opinion Adsense is a horrible program for webmaster to use to monetize their sites. My account was banned after two years of no problems with Google but one day somebody came and click-bombed my site.
Google did not give me any information on who did this and told me I should look in my logfiles. What am I going to find in there???
Once I removed the Adsense code from my site and looked for something to replace it, I relaized there is a whole world of programs out there that pay much better than Google.
“Hostmonster on June 24th, 2008
You need hundreds of thousands of visitors to earn any kind of money. Its ridiculous”
I disagree with you, you need quality traffic not quantity traffic. If you have a site that is a computer repair site and you have adsense on it, if someone lands on your site from another website odds are they will not click the links, on the other hand if they come from google for Computer Repair they have a higher chance of clicking links on your site as they are already interested in computer repair. Thanks!
I didn’t agree with you first because I love Adsense , but last paragraph makes sense for me and it makes me scared of using Adsense to monetize my site
Google is fraud company