Understanding adsense - super tip for adsense publishers

I hear a lot of publishers complain about adsense, saying things along the lines of "adsense doesn't care about me".

The real way to success with adsense is to understand the balance of power, and play the game correctly.

The Rich Jerk once said "in any business, whether you work for an employer or for yourself, you still have a master to serve". Another nugget of pure gold from RJ, but I digress...

The interesting (and important) thing is this: This rule of having a master to serve applies not only to you, but to Google themselves. They have a master to serve too - and understanding what Google needs to do gives a great insight into the best strategy to follow.

People running adsense forget this.

The master, for google, is the advertiser - not the publisher. This is because the advertiser pays Google's wages.

Therefore, Google's "job", as it were, is to provide them...

Quality traffic. Targeted leads. Clicks that convert and give a positive Return On Investment.

YOUR job, as a publisher, is to provide high quality traffic. Real clicks, from people who are interested.

A number of publishers have no focus on "doing their job". Their only aim is to try to squeeze money out of Google, and they don't really give a damn whether their clicks convert or not.

Kind of like an employee who doesn't care about making a good widget and who wants to do the least they can possibly get away with and still get paid.

- And they wonder why Google wants to fire them.

As with any high paying job (Adsense is one of the highest, if not the highest payout ad system), there are more applicants than there are positions.

In other words, publishers are somewhat disposable. G is trigger happy because they can afford to be, and can't afford not to be.

And google is going to do everything they possibly can to weed out the good apples from the bad. The ones who are trying to game the system and get something for nothing.

That means using whatever statistics technology they can concoct to detect invalid clicks; smart pricing, etc. And that is going to be hardcore, because Google is rather good at data mining. In other words, you'll probably get busted.

At the end of the day, if advertisers can't make money from Adwords, i.e. if adwords traffic sucks and loses money, they will "fire" Google.

Google's ass is on the line, ultimately - just like everyone else's.

It's simply the way things are. It's the way the game is played... the balance of power - and understanding the dynamic of power is the first step towards getting some.

In other words, when it comes to Adsense you'll get a lot further by playing the game than by trying to upset the apple cart. The old rule still applies - you'll ultimately get the furthest by being the best...

Focus on creating high quality content.
Become a true authority in your niche.
Develop your own "real estate" rather than someone else's.
Don't try to fool people into clicking ads.



Alex.