The removal of all eBay advertising from Google began when Google attempted to crash eBay’s user conference, in Boston, this week.  eBay is holding their annual user conference, this week, in Boston.  Google, in an effort to promote their Google Checkout program, unveiled plans for the Google Checkout Freedom Party.  The event was intended to try to convince eBay - via lobby from eBay users - to start accepting Google’s Checkout, a direct rival of eBay-owned PayPal (eBay has banned Google Checkout from their system, stating that it has yet to prove itself in fraud protection).  All attendees of eBay’s user conference were given special invitations to attend Google’s Checkout Freedom Party, for free food, free drinks, and free massages.

Google backed down at the last second, when eBay expressed serious reservations, publicly, about the Google event, and Google’s actions toward the advertising partnership.  On Wednesday Google canceled the event, only one day before it was to take place several blocks (a quick trolley ride) away from the eBay event.  Google’s blog stated that, “eBay Live attendees have plenty of activities to keep them busy this week in Boston, and we did not want to detract from that activity. After speaking with officials at eBay, we at Google agreed that it was better for us not to feature this event during the eBay Live conference.”

Spokespersons for both companies have made a few choice comments on the issue:

Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, declined to say whether his company pulled advertising on Google in retaliation for the party. But he did voice disappointment in Google for the event, saying, “We didn’t think it was the way for one partner to treat another.”

Durzy decided to cast the advertising freeze as an experiment, news articles say, in an attempt to see if the money eBay has been using on Google will yield better results, elsewhere.  Neither Durzy, nor any other eBay representative, has mentioned where eBay will next advertise.

Derek Brown, an analyst for Carter Fitzgerald, stated, “We’ve seen that the two companies (eBay and Google)  have been on a collision course for a long time.  This seems to be the latest and most bizarre twist.”

eBay’s advertising funds were withdrawn from Google, this past monday, and AdSense publishers are already feeling the pinch.  Although the majority of eBay ads were relatively low cost per click (most in the two to five cent range), eBay was still Google’s biggest advertiser.  According to comScore Networks, eBay’s ads showed up on Google a whopping 188.3 million times in March.  More than double the number shown by Target, Google’s second largest (now first) advertiser.

What does this mean for AdSense sellers?  Those profiting off of eBay-related AdSense sites will find themselves in a sudden financial loss.  Publishers whose sites deal with specific products, auctions in general, and/or brand specific information, will find a good portion of the advertising on their site has disappeared.

In some cases, this may be a windfall for some publishers.  Almost every publisher would have had eBay ads on his or her website a few times a day, regardless of the theme.  Now the eBay ads that were so prevalent, and out of place, will be replaced with more highly targeted ads with potentially greater cost per click.

It will be interesting to see how this affects each individual publisher’s income.  This particular publisher has noticed a slight increase on one site, and a noticeable increase on another.  Time will tell how well publishers will fare with the loss of Google’s largest advertiser.

Technorati Tags: Google, eBay, AdSense, eBay User Conference, Google Checkout, Google Checkout Freedom Party, Target, PayPal

Go check out the Google International Zeitgeist for information on who is searching for what, from where.  You’ll be surprised.

Welcome to a brief primer on my version of a channel naming scheme…

Where I come from:  I use AdSense… a lot.  I run four blogs, one forum site, a few single-page AdSense pages, and a website specifically designed to make money via AdSense and affiliate links.  I’ve been with AdSense since early 2005, most of that in the blogging arena.  I’ve learned a lot since I started, and have spent a lot of time playing around to get the most out of what AdSense offers.

How I do things:  My naming scheme is very, very simple (yet the explanation is a bit complex, heh)…

I use the following method:

Site designator-Unit Type or Location-Page or unit type(size)

Site Designator: This is a one or two alphanumeric (letter/number) designator that tells me, at a glance, which site the channel is on.  For instance, for <a href=”http://www.topdogdeals.com”>Top Dog Deals</a>, I use “d”.  For MindBlog, I use “mb”.  For MindSpeak, I use “p” (politics).  For my single page sites, I use “sp”.

Unit Type or Location:  This varies depending on the individual usage.  For Top Dog Deals, I use a combo type/location.  In other words, I might have: d-content, or d-side, or d-links.  Since I know I am only using 300×250 medium rectangles for content, 160×600 for sidebars, and 728×15 for links, I don’t need to be more specific.

For MindBlog, I use designators like: mb-links, mb-top, mb-pages, and mb-sidebar, and mb-content.  I know that the pages only appear on WordPress “static” pages, Top, Sidebar and Links are on every page.

For the single pages, I use: sp-desklamp, and sp-chess.  In other words, the secondary designator tells me the specific page the unit is on.

Page or unit type(size): This tells me the specific page the unit resides on, or the specific unit type and size.  For exmaple, for Top Dog Deals, I do: d-content-dogfood.  I know that that unit is for the Top Dog Deals site, it is a 300×250 medium rectangle in the content area, and it is on the dog food page.

For MindBlog, I use mb-content-inline250×250, or mb-links-series, or mb-top-768.  In order these tell me: MindBlog, on content pages, inline with the entry text, 250×250 rectangle.  MindBlog, link unit, in the “series” location on my top bar.  MindBlog, top of each page, 768 banner.

For single page, I simply use location designators: sp-desklamp-bottomleft, sp-chess-side.  Single Page, Desk lamp page, bottom left of page.  Single Page, Chess page, sidebar.

In short, my naming scheme is usually:
Site Designator-type-location&size.

This way, when I go to AdSense to view my reports, I can rapidly select which channels I want to view, and know what they represent.  I can also tell, at a glance, which pages, and units are performing the best.

One more suggestion.  When designing channels for a blog, try to seperate your channels by type of pages, and location.  Since AdSense limits you to 200 channels, you’ll not be able to have a seperate channel for each entry.  That’s a bitch, I know, but you can make due.

For static sites, like my <a href=”http://www.topdogdeals.com”>Top Dog Deals</a>, you’ll notice I have a seperate channel for each and every unit, on each and every page.  This means I have a total of 29 channels for that site, alone.  This way I can spend time seeing which pages and units perform the best, and make adjustments over time.

Spend some time exploring the channel options, and developing your own naming scheme.  You don’t have to use mine, the key is to find  a scheme that makes sense, is easy to remember, and works for you.

It appears, however, that this is not working.  The ad unit does not display the alternate url, however.  The unit simply displaying nothing - a transparent area.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue, or is something funky with my blog?  I’ve got an e-mail into Google, so we’ll see what they say, but thus far I can find no problems with the code I’m using - especially since I copied and pasted it directly from Google’s create ad unit page.

When I responded to the compliance notice, letting them know I fixed the issue, I asked if it was permissible to single out and mention clicking on specific ads that were not a part of Google’s AdSense program.  Google responded:

In response to your question about encouraging language, our program policies do not allow publishers to encourage users to click on advertisements, regardless of whether or not the encouragement is ad-specific or whether the targets of the encouragement are Google ads or not.

I was a bit surprised, and felt that Google’s policies regarding this were a bit draconian.  Essentially, Google is stating that I cannot encourage a user to click on an advertisement, even if the advertisement is not a google ad, and the encouragement is addressed to that specific advertisement.

Certainly, the defense of this policy is that encouraging a user to click on any ad - whether from Google, or not - will put them into the mindset that they should click on the ads, and it may influence them - unintentionally - to click on Google ads, when they otherwise would not.  Unfortunately, I have no choice but to accept that reasoning as valid, as I cannot find a way to refute it.  While I may find the policy to be a bit draconian, I can still understand where Google is coming from.

So, folks…  Add that to your list of things you can/cannot do to remain compliant with AdSense policy.  You may not ask a user to click on any advertisement, even if the advertisement is not from AdSense.

For more information on AdSense policies, and to ensure your blog is compliant, please see https://www.google.com/adsense/policies.

Technorati Tags: AdSense, AdSense Policies Share This ]]> http://www.fyreplace.com/2006/04/21/adsense-policies-prohibit-all-encouragement/feed/ http://www.fyreplace.com/2006/04/19/google-adsense-doing-compliancy-checks/ http://www.fyreplace.com/2006/04/19/google-adsense-doing-compliancy-checks/#comments Thu, 20 Apr 2006 04:19:16 +0000 Fyre http://www.fyreplace.com/?p=451 Hey, folks.  It appears that the AdSense team is doing random compliancy checks.  I received an e-mail from them, earlier today:

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 [URL]

In this specific case, I had a paragraph at the end of the post telling users to click a specific ad.  Unfortunately, the site layout changed, and that particular ad expired, so it appeared as if I were encouraging clicks on Google ads.  Needless to say, I’ve corrected the issue.  If it weren’t for Google’s e-mail, I probably never would have know about it.  In case you’re curious, the page in question was over two months old, so they’re checking
back a ways.

Additionally, Google’s e-mail included some information, explaining in no uncertain terms what we cannot do to, near, or with our ads:

Publishers are not permitted to encourage users to click on Google ads or bring excessive attention to ad units. For example, your site cannot contain phrases such as “click the ads,” “support our sponsors,” “visit these recommended links,” or other similar language that could apply to the Google ads on your site. Publishers may not use arrows or other symbols to direct attention to
the ads on their sites, and publishers may not label the Google ads with text other than “sponsored links” or “advertisements.”

Check your sites, folks, and make sure they’re compliant, and keep them that way.  If you’re not positive whether or not you’re in compliance, check Google’s AdSense Policies for more information, or send them an e-mail.

Technorati Tags: adsense, adsense policy

Previously, when one looked at the overview screen, one was presented with the totals for each type of product (AdSense for Content, AdSense for Search, or Referrals), and a link to “Channels”. Clicking on the “Channels” link revealed all channels, in no particular order, with no way to sort the list.

Now, AdSense reporting overview shows total information for each product, along with a “Top channels” link. Clicking the “Top channels” link, reveals only those channels which have had activity within the specified time frame, making it much easier to see - at a glance - which ad units are performing well, and which are not performing at all.

Primarily, I will be using AdSense and Chitika.  If one does not perform well, it will be removed and replaced.  As you can see, I am also using Amazon.com.  I don’t know how well my amazon link will do… we’ll see.

I’ll be creating more pages, some with only AdSense, some with only Chitika, and some with both, in the coming days.  For now, I’m starting with a page about halogen desk lamps.  Yes, for those curious, I am writing the articles, myself.  I can’t afford to pay anyone to write them, and Google frowns on multiple sites having the exact same content (ala e-zine articles, etc).

Let me know what you think of the page, and this rather ambitious plan.  I’m hoping to see a pretty decent return from this.

According to the Google AdSense Terms of Service:

Participating in Google AdSense does not affect your site’s rank in Google search results and will not affect the search results we deliver. Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web. Our search results are unbiased by our relationships with paying advertisers and publishers. We will continue to show search results according to our PageRank technology.

Adding the Google AdSense ad code or AdSense for search code to your site will not queue your pages for crawling by our main index bots. While our bot (starting with ‘Mediapartners-Google’) does crawl content pages for the purpose of targeting ads, this crawl is not associated with our main index crawl.

…What could this mean for publishers?  It’s possible that you could end up with a duplicate content problem, especially if you use a special template to serve data to the AdSense crawler.  On the upshot, it may mean that AdSense publishers will find themselves added to the Google Index more quickly and readily than non-adsense publishers.  …Makes you wonder if this will affect PR, and/or if this would be affected by the Google Sandbox.

It is possible that there was an accidental cross-over issue taking place between AdSense and the search index.  I’ll keep following the issue, and see what pops up.

Technorati Tags: mediapartners-Google/2.1, GoogleBot, AdSenseBot Share This ]]> http://www.fyreplace.com/2006/04/18/adsense-mediapartners-crawlerbot-adding-to-google-index/feed/ http://www.fyreplace.com/2006/04/18/im-back-with-adsense-news-and-interesting-info/ http://www.fyreplace.com/2006/04/18/im-back-with-adsense-news-and-interesting-info/#comments Tue, 18 Apr 2006 07:54:54 +0000 Fyre http://www.fyreplace.com/?p=445 First off, let me apologize for being gone for so long.  There are a lot of things going on in my personal life that I don’t talk about on here.  From time to time, they effect me in ways that cause me to drop off the face of the Internet for a week or two.  Let’s just say that there are some things I’m trying to work out and take care of.  Hence the reason I was looking (and continue to look for) guest bloggers (fyre@fyreplace.com if interested).

So, let’s get down to business.  For starters, the Official AdSense Blog has an entry entitled “Earnings: Your Questions Answered“.  Many of us will think that everyone should know the answers to the questions presented in the post, but for an AdSense beginner, they are asked fairly often.

Moving from the making money through advertising, to the arbitrage vein, Shoemoney has started something called the $10,000 experiment.  You can read bout it in his first post, and his second post on the topic.  Essentially, he’s using Arbitrage-type manuevering (more on this later.. if it doesn’t make sense,
don’t worry), to make money off of affiliate links.  He’s essentially advertising to get people to come and click on his links so he will make money from said links.  So far, it appears to be a success.

There’s a technique called AdSense Arbitrage that concentrates specifically on AdSense/AdWords combinations.  I’ll post more about this in the next couple of weeks (someone remind me, if I haven’t by the end of the month), and introduce you to the basics, as well as pimp a great ebook on the subject.

Finally, I’m coming back from this break in a big way.  With the success of the past few months, I’m ready to spread some of it around.  I’m beginning a few case studies.  Basically, I’ll be asking for applications from beginning and new-ish bloggers who want to use my SEO and AdSense knowledge to help them maximize their profit potential (buzzword, buzzword, buzzword).  I’ll also be including a fair bit about affiliate marketing, and other possibilities in the study.  Stay tuned for
more information, and the requirements to submit an application.

First, they have brought back the old style single-page AdSense code generator. When going to AdSense Setup, and selectiong AdSense for Content, you now have the option of using the wizard, or the single-page method.

Secondly, AdSense had changed the reporting of the CTR amounts to two decimal places. It’s a smal change, but it allows you a better grasp of the true CTR. Although programs like the AdSense notifier, etc… will still round up, meaning your 1.57% will display as 1.6%.

Thirdly, Google has added an AdWords referral program for its AdSense publishers.

By using a button, much like the one to the left of this paragraph, you are able to allow people to sign up with AdWords through your affiliate link. Once the new sign up has spent at least $100 (within 90 days), your account is credited with $20.

…yeah, I thought that seemed pretty low, myself. JenSense believes it’s because the old Adwords affiliate program (for Adwords members) was a $20 credit when the new folks spent $20. When they didn’t elect to change that, I’ll never know. The other factor is the 90 day time limit. Then again, spending $100 in 90 days is pretty danged easy in AdWords. My proposed budget for the initial AdWords marketting campaign for my up and coming website, was $500 in 90 days. Not too shabby, eh?

So, go and enjoy all of the new AdSense toys… If you don’t yet have AdSense, well, what’s keeping you? Go and sign up:

The data I’ll be using is from February and March. I did an AdSense report looking at each ad unit, seperately. I looked at Feb data, and March data, and compared the two. While I can’t show you specific amounts/totals (TOS forbids it), I can tell you the percentage change.

Let’s break it down by ad unit… Remember that March is not complete, yet. We’re not even halfway through the month, so these numbers will likely continue to improve. We’re comparing an entire month to a half a month, so…

LINK UNIT: Total clicks have doubled, thus far. CTR has increased 400%, and eCPM has increased around 700%. That’s pretty astounding. I’m pretty certain that this is based entirely off of a traffic increase, as I have not made any changes to the link unit, or its layout/appearance.

TOP Unit (468×60): This unit has actually declined. I have had no clicks on it, so far, this month. Why, I’m not sure. I have made no major changes. Perhaps I need to revisit this ad unit, and see if some changes will garner more click-throughs.

SIDEBAR (160×600): This unit is down, across the board, for this month. However, the month isn’t over, yet. I think I’ll see a slight decline in this unit, for the month of March, due to increased traffic (page views), but not increased clicks.

CONTENT INLINE (300×260): This unit it up, and is showing the most promise. Although the link unit is way up, I believe that’s a fluke that will level out. The Content Inline has shown continual elevation across an extended period of time. Realize that I’m only at about half the page views, so far this month, compared to February’s page views. Having only half the page views, and showing this much change, is extraordinary. So far, my clicks are up, the CTR is up 140%, the eCPM is up over 150%, and earnings are up as well. This unit shows the most promise, for this month.

Overall, I’m showing less than half the traffic as I had in Feb (as I’m only halfway through March), yet my total clicks are only four less than my February total (I’ll surpass Feb in total clicks, easily). My overall CTR is up 100%, my eCPM is up around 95%, and my earnings are on par for exceeding February by quite a bit.

I’m very impressed with the amount of increase over the past month. This is on this site, alone. I’m anxious to see how my other blog, and sites, do when I start getting traffic to them!

You may have noticed today that the time limit for AdSense referrals is now 180 days. Based on the feedback we heard, we agreed that 90 days may not provide enough time for your referred publishers to complete earning $100. Therefore, we decided to double the window. This change is retroactive, so it will also apply to AdSense signups that occurred more than 90 days but less than 180 days ago.

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The official e-mail from Google states, in part:

As part of our efforts to continually improve the advertising experience for our users, advertisers, and publishers, we wanted to inform you that over the next few months we will be testing new ways to serve ads to your site. Specifically, we will be running a limited number of site-targeted campaigns that will leverage 3rd party ad-serving/tracking technology.

The letter then goes on to explain the mechanics of the bit, which are precisely as you’d expect. It seems that third party ad servers may place a cookie on visitors’ computers that will capture “standard wen traffic information such as time, date, IP address and browser information.” Interesting.

According to Gokul Rajarm, Senior Product Manager of Google AdSense:

We will be working with a number of different 3rd parties during the course of this experiment, since different advertisers use different third parties to measure effectiveness. Google will not have any access to the 3rd-party cookie information, and these 3rd parties do not collect or track any individually or personally identifiable information. Of course, publishers can opt out of this if they so choose. Finally, this is an experiment, and we will evaluate the results of this experiment in a couple of months to figure out how to proceed.

Again, interesting. I wonder if “opt-out” means “you are in to begin with, and you can find the truly obscure link on the AdSense system, to opt out.”

According to Google the affected ads “will be image ads, and will be in all the sizes that support image ads.” Those would be:

• Leaderboard (728×90)
• banner (468×60)
• skyscraper (120×600)
• medium rectangle (300×250)
• wide skyscraper (160×600)

This is quite an interesting step Google has taken. It seems that since this is such a limited beta, those who are participating in it will likely see increased revenue, as advertisers begin to purchase advertisements on their domains, for the purposes of the beta. Then again, it’s also at the cost of consumer privacy.

For those who want to play at being conspiracy theorists, you can imagine that the United States government may well be placing tracking cookies in ads, now. Then again, you’d be going out on a pretty thin limb.

As such, I’ve decided to take on a bit of an SEO challenge, and attempt link exchanging. I’m going about if through a new web forum set up by the editor of The Blog Herald (Duncan Riley). The forum is called Web Log Empire, and it is dedicated to blog link exchanges.

A lot of you are about to say “WAIT! Didn’t you speak ill of link exchanges, before?” Yes. Yes, I did. However, I spoke ill of only a certain type of link exchanges. Those being the “pay for play” exchanges - where you pay to have your site listed (usually in hidden text) on many other sites. I also spoke a bit negatively of the automated link exchange systems. The reason being is that both of these systems can actually hurt your performance within the SEO spectrum. Search Engines looks very negatively on the pay-for-play exchanges - especially when they utilize massive amounts of hidden links. The automated exchanges, usually aren’t what they’re cracked up to be, and thus far I’ve yet to find one that is as good as offered.

Therefore, I’m going the “old fashioned” route, of seeking out individual blogs with which to exchange. How will I be exchanging links? All exchanged links will be set up in categories using WordPress’s links system. Then, they will be listed on my sidebar. Additionally, when I find a blog that I really like (or one that will do the same for me), I’ll make a post about it.

These exchanges are the simple, old-fashioned way of doing things, and they provide the most quality control. Every. Single. Blog. I exchange with will first be explored by me. If I don’t care for the blog, or the writing, I won’t offer (or accept an offer) to exchange.

For those of you who are wondering, “what about when you said no, before,” let me put it this way: That was before. This is now. Formerly, I didn’t want to do link exchanges, primarily because I thought they were too much work, and not enough reward. I’m doing this now, as an experiment. If it works, WONDERFUL! If it doesn’t, no harm done. If it crashes and burns, and Google throws me back in the sand box, then - well - I’ll have learned a very valuable lesson.

I will give you one tip, though. Be, at least, pretty sure that the blogs you’re exchanging with aren’t splogs (spam blogs), and don’t engage in underhanded SEO tactics. Sometimes you can’t be certain, but trust me - look over things, carefully.

Oh, yes, monetization report. I’ve done some re-arranging of ad units, etc… on the blog, as per the case study. Well, to be honest, I’m not sure I’m happy with things, as they are right now. I think the site looks a lot more “ad heavy” than it did. Primarily because of the 160×600 skyscraper in the right side bar. I’m not sure if I’ll keep that as a full skyscraper, or if I’ll shorten it to a verticle banner. Once I get to the traffic level I truly want, I might even remove it, entirely, and go with Adbrite, or Bidvertiser. No, no, I’m not trashing Google, I’m just saying that when you combine aesthetics and bang-for-the-buck, it’s not adding up to brilliant, in my mind. I do have to say, though, that I’m already seeing an increase in my Adsense CTR, with these changes. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s increased, and even a slight increase is a good increase!

You may have also noticed some changes in the monetization of this website. Can ya blame me? heh. I never said I wasn’t going into this to make money. I just said I’d never let making money overrule my passion for blogging. As soon as making money becomes more important, well, blogging just isn’t as fun.

So, in an attempt to not only make more money, but also garner some powerful and beneficial knowledge of both SEO and monetization, I’ve partnered with One Way Adversiting and Design and Chitika News (blog) for a case study.

Originally, OneWay was going for a case study surrounding Chitika. However, with so many of the applicants using both Adsense/YPN and Chitika, the rules have changed. Now it’s the best bang for the buck (so to speak). I’m relatively free to talk about things, as they happen, and at the conclusion of the study, results will be compiled into an ebook.

If you want to play along, I highly suggest signing up with Google Adsense, and/or Chitika E-Minimalls for your own website. Referral links (and I’d appreciate it if you’d use them) are on the permalink.

So what’s happening so far?

So far? Quite a bit.

SEO-type changes were made, including methods for titleing entries, and changing the title format of the blog, itsself (although if advertisements about rogue mimes start to appear, I think I’m going to run scared). Additionally, section targetting for Adsense was implemented.

Also, Chitika has been removed from the main ad rotation, as - due to the topics I cover - Adsense is seen as the better fit. While Chitika has been removed from the main add rotiation, I will still use it for specific products, when/where appropriate.

Changes involving Adsense were made, as well. First, an Adsense skyscraper is replacing the Chitika unit on the left-hand sidebar (resulting in my questioning my own layout, and wondering it it would make more sense to move the affiliate links I use, elsewhere (more on these, later)). Additional changes were made to the Adsense unit in the comments section of each page (color change, and type/size). Also, considerable thought is being given to removing the links unit, in favour of it within posts, when appropriate. I doubt that will happen, though.

So, there you have it, folks. Those are the major changes. It doesn’t seem like much, but that, coupled with some additional information and tips - which I will impart to you as time goes by - it will probably make a striking difference. Of course, getting myself listed higher in search engines is a big start (*cough*link to me*cough*). heh.

Feel free to leave comments on the changes, or even contact me via e-mail if you’d like. I value your opinions, my readers.

More, as time goes by. As I mentioned before, why not use the above image links to sign up with Chitika and/or Google, and play along.

Their suggestions? Place ads where your readers will notice (duh).
On the main page, they suggest an ad after each post, and a link unit on the lower right (sidebar).

On the individual entries page(s), they suggest placing ads near the content. For longer entries, a blended medium rectangle within the post, and a banner at the end. For shorter entries, forget one of those units. If there’s a comment section, place a banner or horizontal link unit, just above the comment box. Then, rather than the traditional skyscraper in the sidebar, use a link unit.

They also highly suggest using section targetting, which is something I highly suggest, as well. Using section targetting has dramatically improved my ad relevancy - especially on individual entry pages.

For coloring, Google suggests blending the ad units into the background of the blog (using the same background color as your blog, and no border), while using a bold color for the title (that does not match the link color of your blog) to help draw attention to the ads, while keeping readers from confusing them for content.

Google also provides the following heat map (click for full-size image):

This map illustrates the best places to have Google ad units, link units, and search units.

Remember, you can ahve up to three ad units, one link unit, and a search box on every page. Thousands of layout options are availible with that method!

How have you found success in the AdSense layout of your blog?

However, if you look further down his page (what would normally be “below the fold” for most people (I run at a rediculously high resolution), you see ads that look very much like AdSense. They aren’t, however, as the “Ads by Yahoo!” statement, clearly points out. The image below shows what I’m talking about:

I just find it amusing that you would use a Google referral banner on a website that has Yahoo ads. In fact, wouldn’t that somehow be against the terms of service for one of the companies (if not both)?

Just one of those amusing things.

(Before anyone accusses me of using two seperate images, here’s the full page with only minor modifications (I’ve dimmed the page, except for the apporpriate areas, and drawn a little arrow. Since the image is so large, you can click here to see it, and it will open in a new window/tab. Alternatively, you can go to http://elliottback.com and take a look.)

Initially, the referrals page read: “When a publisher signs up for Adsense through your referral and earns $100, we’ll credit your account with $100.”

The page now reads: “When a publisher that signed up for AdSense through your referral earns their initial $100.00 and is eligible for payout, we’ll credit your account with $100.00. *”

Note the asterisk. At the bottom of the page, the asterisk is explained as: “* An AdSense referral is counted when a publisher, who has never previously enrolled in AdSense, creates an account and earns at least $100.00 within 90 days of sign-up. The referred publisher must be eligible for payment to qualify as a successful referral.”

Google has changed their requirements for payout without informing anyone of their intention to do so. Not only have they changed their requirements, but they have only changed the wording in one location - on the referral page, itsself. No where else in Google’s documentation does that caveat exist. Additionally, on the screen capture image on the referral program information page (https://www.google.com/adsense/referrals), Google has the old wording visible.

Additionally, it is possible that the referral may need to earn their first $100 during the first two months, as the wording in the clause states “…and is eligible for payout…” An adsense publisher is not eligible for payout until 30 days after the end of any given month. Therefore, it is highly possible that Google may consider eligibility to only be within the first two months after signup.

I agree with Jensense in that it makes sense not to have to track and pay out on referrals, years down the line. I further agree that it makes a lot more sense to extend the deadline to 180 days (six months). That way a new publisher could have a reasonable amount of time to earn their first $100.

Whether this is a result of having my sitemap published and dynamically updated (wordpress plugin) at Google Sitemaps, or not, I don’t know. Regardless, that’s a blazing fast response, in my opinion. Especially if you consider that I’m nowhere near a top performer with Adsense (have yet to get my first check). Those Adsense spiders are quick!