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After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

blog.ericgoldman.org

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Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#51

Post by sanswork »

breput wrote: post #39
sanswork wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been like 10 years since I worked in the space but I'm pretty sure showing adsense on search results like that has been against the tos for a very long time unless you get a specific search feed(which is basically impossible these days and even 15 years ago was limited to companies like ask.com)

Interesting. It seems like a ToS violation would have been worthy of a warning and revoking the offending earnings, but nope, it was no mercy or review.

The person would have agreed to the placement rules when they signed up then went and broke them leading to Google and advertisers being defrauded by a bot. Why would you expect mercy there?

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#52

Post by kdheiwns »

glaslong wrote: post #41
beloch wrote: post #19

"I never saw most of the offending ads because of my adblocker, so I didn’t notice the changes or experience any irritation personally. " -------- If you run a website that serves ads, whitelist it in your adblocker so you can see what your own damned site looks like to people who are still rawdogging the world wide web.

This is why I greatly prefer podcasts where the hosts read the ads. If you're going to take ad money, you better be willing to sell it with your own voice. All else is a descent into scam ad hell.

Everybody does that and has for the past 10 years. People sell the scammiest stuff then completely dissociate and say "sorry guys I didn't know that was a scam haha. I won't do it again. This program brought to you by Honey. I use it and it's great." Their viewers always forgive them.

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#53

Post by boplicity »

freitasm wrote: post #25

I joined AdSense in 2003. At peak it was generating US$15k a month. Nowadays it will be a miracle if it passes of US$800 a month. I think the shift to a more localised audience (NZ), diversion of ad spend to large social networks are responsible. Our traffic is similar in volume but nowhere near as "valuable" apparently.

I have a similar story -- we peaked at around $20k USD per month for quite a while. However, when ad-rates started declining, we changed our business model, and are now earning much more without any ads at all. I have to say, I'm glad to be rid of Google Ads, as they're full of many, many scammy advertisers.

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#54

Post by quantummagic »

donatj wrote: post #21

I have a tool on my website that gets about 250k unique views per day. During COVID I decided to put a single ad on the page to try to make up for my wife's lost income. It was for a time bringing in close to $500 a month, and was a nice little side income. My wife never returned to work, we had kids and she has stayed at home with them. As such the ad has stayed up. Last I checked though it is bringing in something…

Slightly off-topic, but several small-to-medium Youtube channels I watch, mentioned that their yearly Youtube earnings are way down, by two-thirds in one case. It may be that Alphabet is dialing back their profit sharing - across the board.

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#55

Post by b00ty4breakfast »

breput wrote: post #39
sanswork wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been like 10 years since I worked in the space but I'm pretty sure showing adsense on search results like that has been against the tos for a very long time unless you get a specific search feed(which is basically impossible these days and even 15 years ago was limited to companies like ask.com)

Interesting. It seems like a ToS violation would have been worthy of a warning and revoking the offending earnings, but nope, it was no mercy or review.

or at least an explanation. That would of course require a customer service apparatus designed to service customers rather than one designed to force them to become tangled in the abyssal morass.

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#56

Post by fearless1ron »

vitorgrs wrote: post #35
influx wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who ran AdSense were extremely careful not to look at the ads on their own site, because Google might flag them for intentionally inflating clicks or views.

When I was a teen, like, 15 years ago or so, my Google Ads account got permanently banned because I made the mistake of clicking on my own ad. :)

[flagged]

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#57

Post by fearless1ron »

freitasm wrote: post #25

I joined AdSense in 2003. At peak it was generating US$15k a month. Nowadays it will be a miracle if it passes of US$800 a month. I think the shift to a more localised audience (NZ), diversion of ad spend to large social networks are responsible. Our traffic is similar in volume but nowhere near as "valuable" apparently.

All ad networks are cancer, in my humble opinion. Adblocking is a security requirement, so I have no compassion for anybody who bases their economic success on any ad network.

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#58

Post by willio58 »

breput wrote: post #13

Several years ago, I ran a niche hobbyist website and incorporated Adsense (because why not?!?). The site featured a fuzzy search function since it referenced tens of thousands of named parts. The search result page would echo the (sanitized) search term followed by the matching results - along with recent search terms in the right sidebar. One day, some spambot hit the site and started searching for terms like "meso…

I was dumb enough when I was 11 to sign up for Adsense under my Mom’s name and put it on a php-based meme sharing site I made that my fellow 5th graders used.

Anyway, I noticed I could make a couple dollars a week. So I had my friends sit there and spam load the site. Made about 80$ until Google banned me (my mom) for life from Adsense

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#59

Post by fearless1ron »

drnick1 wrote: post #8

Aren't most people using ad blockers these days, making the revenue that one can generate with ads trivial unless traffic is enormous?

Unfortunately not. Adblocking is a security requirement and should be enforced by any enterprise.

Re: After 20 years I turned off Google Adsense for my websites (2025)

#60

Post by akoboldfrying »

> I never saw most of the offending ads because of my adblocker

Using ad blockers is unethical. No one who uses one (probably 99% of people on HN) wants to hear this, but the conclusion is inescapable really.

You may commence your downvoting.

ETA: Why do I claim it's unethical? Every ad-supported page is an implicit contract: If you want the good stuff on this page, you need to pay for that by giving some of your attention to . Nothing more. If the trade-off isn't worth it to you, that's fine: you have the right, and the ability, to reject it -- to cease interacting with the site at all. OTOH, using an ad blocker to access the site without "paying" (with your attention) is violating the contract in the same way that hacking a parking meter downtown to park your car for free is. Running websites isn't free, and even if it was, it's the site owner's prerogative whether and how much ad-attention to "charge". If the fundamental idea of capitalism is sound (and perhaps it isn't -- but then let's discuss that), exorbitant ad burdens attached to desirable content will eventually be outcompeted by other sites offering similar content for free with fewer ads, or for actual cash.

There's a more self-serving argument, too: If everyone used 100% effective ad blockers, Alphabet (minus GCP) and Meta would not exist, and nor would the very large number of free-as-in-beer services that make up a large part of what makes the internet useful to people. Using ad blockers is only "sustainable" in the same way that mafia protection rackets are "sustainable" -- by being a sufficiently small drain on the rest of society.

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