Google To Shut Down AdSense Arbitrageurs

seaeagle

Looks like there is some real upheaval in the online advertising world:

Google To Shut Down AdSense Arbitrageurs

Quote:

A WebmasterWorld thread that I have been tracking for a few days now has been getting a lot of attention over the weekend. In short, there are rumors that Google will be shutting down AdSense arbitrageurs.

Arbitrage and AdSense has been an issue basically since the day Google launched AdSense. Arbitrageurs would use Google AdWords and other means to send traffic to their site, and monetize that traffic with Google AdSense.

So if they paid $0.20 per click on AdWords and made $0.25 per click with AdSense, they made $0.05. Simple concept.

We discussed this way back on December 1, 2004 with In with Adwords, Out with AdSense. Chris Boggs then took two looks at it with Publishers and Arbitrage: Sucking the Life Out of Search Results? and Revisiting the Subject of AdSense Arbitrage. I also wrote about it again at MFAs (Made for AdSense Sites) Targeted by Google?

Well, it seems from the WebmasterWorld thread that those MFAs and AdSense arbitrageurs are being shut down. (continues)

Basically, an arbitrage site is one which is set up mainly for advertising income. So it might contain a small amount of content, but a lot of ads. Publishers pay Google to use the Adwords programs to send traffic to their sites, then Google pays them when people click on their ads. Some publishers are making $70,000 or more per month just by setting up sites full of ads, and then using the Adwords program to direct surfers to those sites.

tbernstein · Joined: May 16, 2003 Posts: 1508 Location: London

Personally, I understand what "arbitrage" is, but I kow nothing of Adsense and Adwords.
I use lots of Google stuff, but both of these have passed me by.
Is there a simple explanation?

seaeagle

Google AdSense is what publishers (site owners) use when they have Google ads on their site. They get paid when people click on the ads (pay-per-click). I use AdSense on my blogs.

Google AdWords is what advertisers use to drive people to their site. For example, a site might advertise with Google and have "wallpapers" as one of their AdWords. When people visit my wallpapers site, then an ad from that advertiser might appear as one of my Google ads. If someone does a search on Google for "wallpapers", the advertiser's site will appear at the top of the search results as a sponsored site.

You can read more about it at Google AdWords Help Center: What is Google AdWords? & What is Google AdSense? Google AdSense Help Center