After almost four months of beta testing, the Adsense Ad Scroller is now officially a part of Google Adsense ads.
Google’s April Fool’s joke: Adsense for Conversations
Google does have a funny side and it shows every year in its collection of April Fool’s Day hoaxes.
In the past, it offered TISP, a free broadband service that would make use of a standard toilet and sewage lines to provide free Internet connectivity.
It also launched Google Romance, an online dating service which uses “Soulmate Search” to get back search results that could, in theory, include the love of one’s life.
Google started venturing into food and beverage too by introducing Google Gulp, a line of “smart drinks” designed to maximize people’s surfing efficiency by making them more intelligent, and less thirsty.
This year, Google took the contextual advertising power of Adsense further by offering Adsense for Conversations.
Adsense for what? That’s Adsense for real and actual conversations, where people talking will “begin displaying ads that are relevant to the topics you’re discussing — in an unobtrusive screen above your head.” (see image)
How does it work? Read on.
New Adsense rule: No ads below misleading post titles
Google Adsense announced an update today regarding new rules regarding the proper way of showing ads.
The first one referred to advertisements placed under a title that may mislead visitors, while the second reiterated Adsense’s rule on ads that look very similar to website links.
The new rules are as follows.
Google Adsense earnings down?
Several website owners are reportedly seeing their Google Adsense income declining in the past months. A discussion over at WebmasterWorld got webmasters talking about the phenomenon and what supposedly is causing it.
We are also seeing that decreasing trend here in the site, albeit not consistently from month to month. Our monthly average income now is just barely half of what we earn last year.
In December, income dropped by 30% from the previous month. We don’t know what triggered this but we’re thinking the shrinking of clickable areas in Adsense ads and the PageRank penalty slapped on the site might be the culprit.
Fortunately, Adsense earnings reverted to its normal level in January 2008 but in February, income is back again in the same level as December 2007. Daily earnings during the first days of March this year are increasing but still nowhere close to the pre-December figures.
Why are Adsense earnings on a decline?
Do you really understand why you have a Privacy Policy?
Brace yourself for a deluge of Privacy Policies now that Google Adsense has required all publishers to post Privacy Policies on their sites. In the latest batch of changes in their Terms and Conditions, Google now requires publishers to:
have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
Google is here again playing God, dictating website owners what a site should have and how it should be managed. Nevertheless, this is for a good cause because sites really need to abide by certain privacy procedures especially at a time like now where personal privacy is shelved in exchange for profit.
So what really is a Privacy Policy?
Sample Privacy Policy for Google Adsense
Update March 23, 2009: The Privacy Policies shown here also abide by Google Adsense’s interest-based advertising (updates shown in red).
——————-
Last week, Google Adsense updated their Terms and Conditions as well as their Program Policies and required all users to abide by the new rules. Did you just click on the “Agree” button without actually reading what you are agreeing on?
That’s ok, a majority of Adsense publishers did exactly that. But you need to be aware of what Adsense now requires of you, because if they discovered that you are not following the new policies, you might be kicked out of the Adsense program without receiving any of your due earnings.
Jensense made a detailed analysis of the changes in Adsense’s terms and conditions, but the most important change of all is that Google now requires publishers to:
have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy that clearly discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on your website. Your privacy policy should also include information about user options for cookie management.
What this means is that your site must now include a Privacy Policy that (1) explicitly tells visitors that third parties (like Google Adsense) may place cookies on the visitor’s browser in the course of serving ads to them; and (2) mentions user options for cookie management, for example, what they should do if they don’t want to accept cookies or want to remove them.
I’m sure around 99% of all bloggers who have Adsense are guilty of not having a Privacy Statement. With this new Adsense rule, you are now required to have one. Don’t fret! There are a lot of free privacy policy statements online that you can use for your site. Simply customize them so that it fits your site and make sure it includes the two things that the new Adsense policy requires.
Here are some of the privacy policy templates that you can use.
The Top 5 Google Adsense earners
With amounts ranging from almost a million dollars to US$636,000 to US$132,000, the following are the biggest known checks ever received from Google Adsense.
Here they are.
Receive Google Adsense PIN once you’ve earned $10
Good news to Google Adsense publishers who still have not earned $50:
You can now receive the Adsense PIN (Personal Identification Number) after you’ve earned $10.
Previously, Google mails the PIN to a publisher whose balance has reached $50. Adsense announced just now that they are lowering this threshold to $10. This gives publishers enough time to get themselves verified, and to be able to quickly withdraw their earnings once they have reached $100.
Why is the PIN important? Does the PIN have a validity period? I still have not received my PIN after a few months!
For answers to these PIN-related issues, visit our Google Adsense PIN FAQ page here.
For those wondering what the Adsense PIN mailer looks like this, here’s a screenshot of the front and back side of the mailer.
Good news to Google Adsense publishers who still have not earned $50:
You can now receive the Adsense PIN (Personal Identification Number) after you’ve earned $10.
Good news to Google Adsense publishers who still have not earned $50:
You can now receive the Adsense PIN (Personal Identification Number) after you’ve earned $10.
Previously, Google mails the PIN to a publisher whose balance has reached $50. Adsense announced just now that they are lowering this threshold to $10. This gives publishers enough time to get themselves verified, and to be able to quickly withdraw their earnings once they have reached $100.
Why is the PIN important? Does the PIN have a validity period? I still have not received my PIN after a few months!
For answers to these PIN-related issues, visit our Google Adsense PIN FAQ page here.
For those wondering what the Adsense PIN mailer looks like this, here’s a screenshot of the front and back side of the mailer.
Good news to Google Adsense publishers who still have not earned $50:
You can now receive the Adsense PIN (Personal Identification Number) after you’ve earned $10.
Previously, Google mails the PIN to a publisher whose balance has reached $50. Adsense announced just now that they are lowering this threshold to $10. This gives publishers enough time to get themselves verified, and to be able to quickly withdraw their earnings once they have reached $100.
Why is the PIN important? Does the PIN have a validity period? I still have not received my PIN after a few months!
For answers to these PIN-related issues, visit our Google Adsense PIN FAQ page here.
For those wondering what the Adsense PIN mailer looks like this, here’s a screenshot of the front and back side of the mailer.
Good news to Google Adsense publishers who still have not earned $50:
You can now receive the Adsense PIN (Personal Identification Number) after you’ve earned $10.
Previously, Google mails the PIN to a publisher whose balance has reached $50. Adsense announced just now that they are lowering this threshold to $10. This gives publishers enough time to get themselves verified, and to be able to quickly withdraw their earnings once they have reached $100.
Why is the PIN important? Does the PIN have a validity period? I still have not received my PIN after a few months!
For answers to these PIN-related issues, visit our Google Adsense PIN FAQ page here.
For those wondering what the Adsense PIN mailer looks like this, here’s a screenshot of the front and back side of the mailer.