AdSense is Alive and Well, Thank You

Death of AdSense?
Now, I don’t profess to be a “guru” with AdSense by any means, but I do fairly well. There is a report floating around that many of you have asked my comments about, so while I watched football yesterday, I downloaded the report and read the PDF - 18 pages in all. It was a quick read.

Now, before you go and read my commentary, you may want to give it a read yourself.

Here are my thoughts on the report:

The “real” information isn’t in the report - it is one of those “to be continued …” things. Hey, I hated getting those when I watched the “Batman” series as a kid, what makes you think I am going to like it now?

I should state that I don’t know Scott Boulch, and this is the first time that I have heard of him.

When I first read the report, it screamed of “Link Bait” - and we will have to wait until the 21st when the second part of the report hits the streets to see if it is.

Citing the AdSense “died” in November 2005 doesn’t match with the earning reports that I have: not in CTR, CPM or Total Earnings. Nor does it match those who I called to ask about the “death” of their earnings.

Stating that an advertiser who pays $10.00 per click in search and only 5 cents in the Content Network is misleading, as that advertiser may be #1 on the search side, but #40 on the Content side. This is not an “apples to apples” comparison.

Reference to Google “Big Daddy” Update. Um, “Big Daddy” is a datacenter, not an update. Whoops.

Showing off checks - bad move.

To me, the examples that are given on why AdSense is dead are very poor. The sites that AdSense revenue was being generated was “garbage, machine generated sites and content”. Of course AdSense revenue has fallen off. What did you expect? Google is on a mission to “punt” MFA sites as quickly as they can. Were there stats shown that showed the traffic levels on the domains in question the same, but the revenue earned fallen off? No. Instead, a simple statement of “3,000 websites generating barely $500.00 per month”. For all we know, nearly all of the sites were banned for scraped, spam content. This just smells of “gloom and doom” preaching that the “sky is falling” and a pitch is coming shortly about a new “money making system” that cannot fail.

Let’s shift gears and let me share with you why I believe showing off checks is a bad move. First of all, it can be taken as bragging, or other ways that it wasn’t intended to do. Next, what is their motivation for showing you these checks? Do you know how they were made? What was the basis? How much money was spent to make this check? Why am I skeptical?

That’s simple.

Back about 15 years ago, I was “recruited” by a neighbor to attend a “workshop” that he was giving. He wanted me there to observe and give him feedback on his presentation. I agreed. What was really happening was I was being railroaded at a network marketing meeting and I wasn’t there to observe, rather I was there as a prospect.

Nice.

In their bid to “win me over” and convince me to sell their overpriced skin care products, they mentioned this single mom who was earning $30,000 a month. The “closer” actually said to me, “If a single mom could do it, anyone could, so why not you?” He even showed me a photo copy of the check. And right there was “Lisa Fairbanks” in Bethesda, Maryland, and the amount was over $30,000.

Hmmm. Interesting.

“If she is so successful, why is she living at home and her parents are essentially supporting her and paying for her living expenses, including a nanny?” They were shocked. “How do you know this?” Easy. She’s my cousin.

It turns out she was, in fact, pulling $30,000 a month, but she was spending more than that to earn it. Why? Because it made a great story. Her upline reassured her that if enough people heard her story and saw the check, they would all be convinced and jump on board. It was to be a great closer. And it was - just not to me who knew better.

When you see large checks, or outlandish claims, don’t get swept in the emotion of it. Settle down, think about what their motivation is, and ask the right questions. One of my personal favorite questions to a “big time” MLM is, “That’s a nice check, may I see your tax returns?” What comes up next is usually a creative backpeddle excuse, filled with lots of “ums”, shifting eyes, and their head swiveling trying to locate the nearest exit.

Again, before you make up your mind about the report, I would recommend reading it - Death of Adsense. You can read the whole thing in about ten minutes. And if you do, you’ll pay for my cup of coffee tomorrow. Sorry, the report is copyrighted, and while it is free, I cannot legally post it in the back office, you have to go there to get it.