How Confident Are You In Google AdSense Future? Results Are In. - Search Engine Roundtable

A few months ago we asked Google AdSense publishers Is Google AdSense Sustainable In The Future?

Since then we had about 200 responses to the poll and I wanted to share them with you.

Truth is, some are pretty confident, whereas many are not too confident. Here is the break down to the question, "Is There A Future With Google AdSense?"

Please read my poll disclosure policy before jumping to any scientific conclusions.

Note: This story was scheduled to be posted on this day, but was written earlier.

Forum discussion continued at WebmasterWorld.

Video Recap of Weekly Search Buzz :: September 14, 2012 - Search Engine Roundtable

In this video recap, I try to start off with a bit of humor - not sure if it worked. I announced SMX Israel, it happens on January 6, 2013 and will sell out fast. I talked about how Google handled all the web sites that were down because of the GoDaddy outage. Microsoft renamed adCenter to Bing Ads. Google now offers AdSense email support for some and also has a big blue arrow on iOS AdSense ads. Google is testing car insurance quotes in Google Advisor in the UK. Do you link build by asking your clients to help? Facebook is looking at doing a search engine. FeedBurner is probably doomed. Google easter egg for the Bacon Number is hilarious. Google logos this week for Clara Schumann and the 46th anniversary of Star Trek! I am offline Monday and Tuesday for Rosh Hashanah, have a happy and healthy new year! That was this past week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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Google Now Offering AdSense Email Support - Search Engine Roundtable

A WebmasterWorld thread by netmeg notes that Google AdSense is now offering some publishers email support.

There were rumors of better support coming for AdSense publishers for years but nothing really came until today.

Those publishers earning more than $25 per week, on a consistent basis, are eligible for email support from Google AdSense. Of course, those earning a lot more have their own Google AdSense representatives they can email directly or even call.

To check to see if you are eligible, go to this page. If it says you are eligible, then great. It should say, "The Google Account you're signed in to is associated with an AdSense account that is eligible for email support." Otherwise, you are out of luck.

Here is a screen shot:

For more on the support eligibility, see this page.

I do not believe Google has announced this formally on their blog yet.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Blue Arrows On Google AdSense Ads On iOS - Search Engine Roundtable

It appears Google is testing showing a new form of large blue arrows on AdSense ads when viewed on an iPad and iPhone. I suspect it shows for all iOS devices and maybe even all smartphones and tablet devices.

Although I did not test Android or other smartphone devices, I do suspect this is a new form of mobile ad unit designs.

I was able to replicate this on my iPad and here are a couple of screen shots of it in action.

I should note, the blue arrows are large and pretty bold on the page, especially on sites where the ton is not blue.

Now, this isn't exactly new. Google was testing a different form of these blue arrows back about 9 months ago.

Maybe now Google made it official?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Poll: Google AdSense Earnings Up Or Down? - Search Engine Roundtable

I'll be offline in the upcoming weeks due to religious holidays, so I am taking some polls and I will post the results while I am offline.

I wanted to know, historically, looking back at the years, are you earning more from Google AdSense this year versus the past years or less or the same?

Of course, many publishers were hit hard by Penguin and Panda but that should be factored in.

In short, are you earning more or less or the same this year as previous years?

Take my poll below and have your friends take the poll:

A WebmasterWorld thread has a very interesting post by martinibuster on why you might be earning less. I'll bullet point them here but go ahead and read the details at the forum:

1. AdSense doesn't siphon off ad dollars from the AdWords program

2. AdSense is good for Google because it's bad for affiliate programs

3. AdSense is good for Google because it is bad for competing search engines

4. Data, data, data... and more data (about Google collecting data)

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Rejected Ad Requests - Search Engine Roundtable

A month and a half ago, I reported on a weird bug that was affecting some Google AdSense publishers where they were receiving notifications of rejected ad requests.

Since then, it was pretty quiet on the front, that was until yesterday where I guess the bug started to impact more publishers.

The WebmasterWorld thread with the original complaint saw a huge increase in complaints yesterday and I received several emails about the issue from publishers. I sent them to my previous rejected ad requests story.

The thing is, this time, Google is working on a fix. If you look at the AdSense known issues page, you will see this issue being directly addressed, where Google said they hope to have a fix out in the next few days.

We recently changed the way our system surfaces alerts related to rejected ad requests. This has resulted in some publishers seeing an alert in their AdSense accounts about needing to fix rejected ad requests, though no action is required on their part.

We're quickly working to fix this so that only publishers who need to take action will see the alert. We hope to have this resolved in the next couple of days, and we'll update the known issues page when the update is live. If you are concerned about this alert, please check your account after that, and if you still see the notice, follow the instructions in the Help Center to resolve the issue. Note that the vast majority (over 90%) of publishers now seeing this notification will not see it after the fix. If the instructions in the Help Center don't seem to apply to you, you are probably one of the publishers who should not be seeing this alert notification.

So hang tight, I hope this doesn't have a negative impact on your income and doesn't cause any of you additional stress.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google AdSense Rejected Ad Requests - Search Engine Roundtable

A month and a half ago, I reported on a weird bug that was affecting some Google AdSense publishers where they were receiving notifications of rejected ad requests.

Since then, it was pretty quiet on the front, that was until yesterday where I guess the bug started to impact more publishers.

The WebmasterWorld thread with the original complaint saw a huge increase in complaints yesterday and I received several emails about the issue from publishers. I sent them to my previous rejected ad requests story.

The thing is, this time, Google is working on a fix. If you look at the AdSense known issues page, you will see this issue being directly addressed, where Google said they hope to have a fix out in the next few days.

We recently changed the way our system surfaces alerts related to rejected ad requests. This has resulted in some publishers seeing an alert in their AdSense accounts about needing to fix rejected ad requests, though no action is required on their part.

We're quickly working to fix this so that only publishers who need to take action will see the alert. We hope to have this resolved in the next couple of days, and we'll update the known issues page when the update is live. If you are concerned about this alert, please check your account after that, and if you still see the notice, follow the instructions in the Help Center to resolve the issue. Note that the vast majority (over 90%) of publishers now seeing this notification will not see it after the fix. If the instructions in the Help Center don't seem to apply to you, you are probably one of the publishers who should not be seeing this alert notification.

So hang tight, I hope this doesn't have a negative impact on your income and doesn't cause any of you additional stress.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Aggressively Pushing AdWords Express - Search Engine Roundtable

AppId is over the quota

A year ago, Google rebranded Google Boost to AdWords Express. It now seems like Google is cold calling AdWords advertisers to try to encourage existing advertisers to try out AdWords Express.

The early reports of the results were not too great, some even reported 400% lifts in cost per click (CPC) prices with this program. But time has gone by and things probably have settled since then.

A WebmasterWorld thread has a senior member saying Google cold called his son who has a significant AdWords spend to convince him to sign up with AdWords Express. And it worked, the son signed up.

The father feels this is against Google's terms of service to set up a new account within the same domain name. I am honestly not sure if it is.

Here is his concerns:

Just got a call from my son they have an adwords account and a pretty good spend active now. He got a call from Google to test adwords express and 100.00 free trial offer. The Google employee asked him what website he wanted the account built for so he gave them one he is using adwords for now.

I just confirmed with my son the domain Google setup for him is active in the other PPC account. So my son's company has a Google adwords account and Google sets them up an adwords express account, how is this not breaking TOS. The Google employee knows he already has an account they discussed problems he was having with terms in his active adwords account.

I am just wondering were Google is going with this and how can this be done because it breaks TOS or does it?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.