No AdsenseNo Adsense

As you recall from my previous posts, Cover Your Adsense and Reinstating Adsense, I talked about the misguided decision by Google to terminate my Adsense account some time ago.  This was on my first blog, which has evolved into The New Blogged Word.

Based on a pattern of ad clicks that I don’t even begin to understand, they believed fraudulent activity.  My only thought is that due to very low traffic on that initial foray into pay per click advertising, someone decided to torpedo my account through repeated clicks that ultimately brought down my account.   It didn’t take very many bad clicks on a site with low initial volume to trigger the bad boy algorithm and summon the Termination Police.  I have submitted appeals on multiple occasions only to receive denials and most recently, no response.

With appreciation to Neville Medhora at Neville’s Financial Blog, I have used his image depicting his very early decision (May 2005) to eliminate Adsense.

A number of things have been brought to my attention, over the last few months.   Mainly, I’ve come to the realization that Google Adsense isn’t the only game in town.  Let’s recap, shall we?

Point 1.   Google Adsense seems to only make sense when there is substantial traffic coming to your site.  The purpose of the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit is to assist “average bloggers” with growing their sites.   If they already had substantial traffic, supporting the notion that the small percentage of visitors will click an ad – and that is enough to put bread on the table – then they have no business wasting their time with the Ultimate Blogging Toolkit.  I should be learning from them.

Point 2.  In growing a nascent blog presence to one that as I’ve said before, turns an avocation into a vocation, I don’t want to necessarily direct my traffic to another site.   One click and the visitor is gone.  Yes, I know, you’re saying, “isn’t that what happens when someone clicks on an Entrecard ad or an Adgetize badge?”  Yep, but with a twist.  Those are specific communities; ones where visitors continue to come back frequently because that is the point from where they usually start – their community.

Point 3.  There are many, MANY, MANY, MANY ad networks out there. Sure, Google’s Adsense it the big gorilla in the room, but I’ll do just fine with the other apes, chimps and orangutans who I’ve already found to be quite pleasant.

Point 4: I’m tired of defending myself for a transgression that I did not execute.   I’m done.

So, what’s your favorite ad network?  What’s the best for a blog with  low to moderate traffic?

Dave