A reader asked me about my monetization plan for chrisg.com and was surprised that I didn’t feature Adsense. My answer? Adsense is too fragile for me. Then I read Darrens Speedlinking post
Shoemoney posts an email from someone trying to extort money from him as an AdSense publisher by threatening to close down his AdSense account. I got the same email asking me for $250 a month (woohooo – I beat Shoemoney by $50 a month). I guess I need to watch out for ‘special robots’—¦.
While this guy may or may not have an army of “special” robots, many forum posters have claimed that outsiders have managed to ruin their adsense accounts through over-clicking. Click fraud hurts advertisers but it can also be used to take out competing publishers.
My main dislike about Adsense though is I think to earn well from it you have to subvert your approach to serve Google rather than your reader. When I have had success with Adsense I have felt the ads have overpowered the content. For me any monetization source should be a positive for all, particularly your audience. Adsense elevates clicks to be far too important and reader-benefit as almost inconsequential.
I have nothing against Adsense or blogs that use it, I get a trickle of income over at my (woefully under cared for) Digital Photography blog. It just isn’t my go-to monetization strategy to build a publishing business around.