Interesting question I got asked last week:
Hey $hoe, I have a question. Why do you think Google continues to allow high ranking spam sites to run Google AdSense? I thought they took a hard stance on this?
If you think about it what would be the most ideal webpage for Google AdSense. The way AdSense works as the publisher, you ONLY make money if someone leaves the website. So a site where you would want to actually retain the user with great content so they want to come back or book mark the site for later use would not be very ideal for Google AdSense.
This is also why you see a lot of SEO’s use Google AdSense as their main form of monetization. They rank for all kinds of terms but yet they don’t really have good content for them. Instead they put up a huge fat Google AdSense square because its more relevant content they have to the search.
Lets be honest it all boils down to money. While the user experience may be shit its super profitable for Google. Last figure I saw said that 90% of Googles income comes from AdSense and of that I would guess a HUGE percentage of that is sites that are purely made for AdSense.
Jason Calacanis said years ago while on a panel with Google AdSense Employees (SES San Jose 06) “I make Google AdSense too much money for them to ban me” in response to a person in the audience asking if he was worried about being banned since he was violating many of Googles Terms Of Service.
March 3, 2009 at 5:56 am
True.. But I din’t know google made 90% of the money from Adsense.. Whoa!!! But seriously, the TOS is very harsh. I still prefer Adbrite over Adsense any day!!
Those who have been banned by Google, can read this: http://www.sensonize.com/2009/02/22/adsense-vs-adbrite/
March 3, 2009 at 8:43 am
With everything Google gives away for free, the only way they can make money is through adsense, Google Earth Pro, & maybe a few other minor things at random.
Just like with any job you have, if you’re violating some rule they have in place, but are making them a huge profit, they’ll overlook it.
March 3, 2009 at 12:07 pm
If they are making 90% from adsense than they should seriously look for some other options as well.
As depending 90% on one source is a serious business.
March 3, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Interesting, but I can totally understand when the all mighty dollar comes into play like this
March 4, 2009 at 3:50 am
90% is a huge amount. I just cant believe that they earn so much through Adsense only
March 4, 2009 at 3:57 am
But isint it wrong for the advertisers who pay for nothing?
March 3, 2009 at 6:18 am
If you make money from adsense, it means G is also getting their share, there is no reason for them to ban everyone especially Big players. Though the adsense for domains is a useless program making the domain owners create MFA’s
March 6, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Mate if they have created this than certainly they will advertise a special part of same kind of advertisers at there.
They are not stupid and they know market as well. I am sure this is only trailer of coming movie.
March 12, 2009 at 11:04 am
seems you had a great time at TC.
March 3, 2009 at 6:47 am
Like you say Shoe… it all boils down to money at G. Whatever site, they will just include it onto Adsense without a care…
March 3, 2009 at 6:47 am
Google loves it because they make money. Big G isn’t always ‘Do no evil”… but how do you compete with these sites? Does buying links work? I bought a few via ebay from PR3 & PR4 sites… hope it helps me make more money too.
March 3, 2009 at 1:31 pm
They had to drop that slogan the day they became a public company. Stockholders are some of the most unforgiving people.
March 6, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Links from ebay … this is the new thing to me. Sorry if this sound awkward.
Would you like to share with us the price of such link for 12 months.
March 3, 2009 at 7:31 am
I think if the site is just bad content there is no reason to adsense ban this site. But if the website dont respect the rules of adsense they should be banned. But Money vs Rules money always wins!
March 3, 2009 at 7:40 am
Great answer ShoeMoney. Never tought about it like you said it.
March 3, 2009 at 8:21 am
I think if your blog is dup content, Google will ban your site ^_^ .
March 3, 2009 at 8:44 am
………..
March 3, 2009 at 8:56 am
The Big G will not ban your site for dupe content. It will just not rank it high enough for anyone to find it……
March 22, 2009 at 4:30 pm
I have mixed feelings about dupe content. I know personally I ran a test with 2 mini sites a while back one was ranking for a fairly competitive keyword. I put the exact same text onto another domain that was brand new and out ranked my older domain within about 4 weeks. Both had the exact same content just different templates
March 3, 2009 at 9:02 am
That 90% figure must be for paid search as a whole, not just Adsense.
March 3, 2009 at 9:08 am
hey shoemoney, I have seen you interviewing some black hats before, but the king of them is bluehatseo , is it possible to invite him on your show. I know he thinks you and John Chow are just celebrities. He did an interview with Aaron Wall so he would do one with you.
March 3, 2009 at 9:10 am
he knows he can come on at anytime
March 6, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Would you like to share such interview links with us … lets see what is King going to tell ?
March 3, 2009 at 9:36 am
I think what Google really love is when somebody searches using one of their competitors (Yahoo/Live) and ends up on a MFA site. Even though the searcher hasn’t used Google they still end up with the money. Splogs and crap are still very easy to rank on the other search engines but people probably wouldn’t bother if they were 100% banned by Google.
March 3, 2009 at 10:14 am
that was an insightful perspective…i agree that as long as a person is making money, why fire/ban them (this usually applies to all business) as at the end of the day, its all about revenue. We all wish it was not like this when it comes to those spam site ads but again, its the all might dollar that prevails.
March 3, 2009 at 10:45 am
It’s a real paradox…
Does anybody know how that spammy adsense site is ranked in Google?
March 3, 2009 at 11:19 am
I guess Google is big enough that they can pick and choose when to apply their own standards. It’s sick and twisted, but who’s going to stop them?
March 3, 2009 at 11:55 am
Through their blogspot program many people and kids are earning good money.
But however its good at least economy is rolling … lollzz
March 3, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Shoemoney,
You have to publish a guide to producing a MFA website then you can push profits lower.
But have you met this Eli, bluehatseo guy?
March 3, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Well of course – it makes sense that Google wants to make the most money possible from its own form of advertising.
Annoying, mind you, as I’ve had quality content sites banned while I’ve seen scraper sites like you mention rake in the big bucks…..
March 3, 2009 at 3:47 pm
If I could find a better alternativ to Adsense I’d drop them in a heartbeat.
March 3, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Awesome answer to that question. I never would’ve looked at it that way.
March 3, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Jeremy,
This is still the ‘Wild West’. The ones who have the biggest guns, and the most gold, still ‘make’ the rules and can ‘game’ any system.
My challenge is finding enough money to finance my campaigns.
Why don’t we form a Search Engine company of our own and leave Google in the dust?
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase
http://www.twitter.com/nachase
March 3, 2009 at 6:23 pm
It should be easy for google to get rid of MFA sites since entire networks use the same Adsense account.
March 3, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Do you have a valid data on this?
March 3, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Of course it’s about the money. We are all working online because of the money. And freedom…and we get to help people
March 3, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Brothersoft is a good sample. I used to search software application in Google search box. Now I goto Download.com directly to avoid spam site brothersoft!
March 3, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Somebody told me that google is getting like 75% of the CPC and the website owner gets 25%, anybody know if this is true?
March 12, 2009 at 1:09 pm
They have never revealed that information. If they don’t tell us they can change it whenever they like. AdSense used to pay much more than it does now – and AdWords used to be a blessing to advertisers.
March 4, 2009 at 1:33 am
It’s pretty sad really that sites with more interesting content where people actually sit and read it make less money than those where there isn’t really anything there and the ads are more interesting than the content!
There has to be better ways to make money than advertising, it just pushes things into the wrong direction.
March 4, 2009 at 3:01 am
Then Google should allow us to make a point on our sites to tell the lazy users to click our friggin ads!!!!!!!!!!
March 4, 2009 at 7:04 am
That’s cool if google is making 90% money from Adsense, Well if google is earning a lot then it can not ban the big marketers.
March 4, 2009 at 10:03 am
I totally agree with you, without those marketers, Google never make big money..
March 4, 2009 at 9:35 am
So MFA sites are only at risk until they start making G a profit?
March 4, 2009 at 9:42 am
We need to accept also that google ads is very powerful and one thing also their have many ads appearing on our site. Being tough with their TOS is not an issue since it started when publishers abuse their service.
March 4, 2009 at 10:46 am
Wow 90% damn are you sure? That is just to much!
March 4, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Google has as special program specifically designed for Parked Domains and Made for AdSense (MFA) sites. You can read the official information at http://www.google.com/domainpark/.
Those sites are only one of the ways that Google commits what ppc consultants refer to as “Distribution Fraud”.
Do a search on that phrase and you’ll see that it is a far larger issue for unsuspecting advertisers than Click Fraud.
March 5, 2009 at 5:00 am
I think nothing doing with being banned by Google’s Ads.Google also is eager to make big money and needs extra space.
March 5, 2009 at 6:58 am
Very good answer, the truth is that I never thought that Google would agree to the sites where readers leave the site quickly, but its true.
March 8, 2009 at 8:27 pm
They must agree, it the way they make more money.
March 6, 2009 at 8:45 am
ha people taking money to allow others to break their rules that is just crazy…right (sarcasm) 8^)
March 6, 2009 at 9:02 am
It does all boil down to money. Google’s a nice company but they ARE a business which means they care about profits. But mostly I think the problem lies in Google’s sheer size and the fact that 99% of all the work is handled by bots and things that aren’t human. If I had to bring in a star trek reference here. Google is like the borg meet vulcan… where they think that things like site relevance and content quality can be determined logically by a simple mathematical formula. Which really isn’t the case when you see some sites rank higher than others when any moron can tell the difference between an arbitrage site and quality content site lol
March 6, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I almost wish i could get banned from google for making too much money
March 6, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Why you do not like to have a hen who give gold eggs ?
March 7, 2009 at 9:26 am
I definitely agree with this. Lots of those SEO masters who earn some good amount of money from adsnese doesn’t really provide quality content for their readers although a lot of SEO techniques say that a blogger must provide quality content for a link bait.
But for my case, I try my best to write quality articles for my readers and not just pure SEO. A satisfied user can easily market the link of your blog thru word of mouth if he finds it useful.
March 8, 2009 at 1:51 am
Arron Greenspan Sued Google and Won The Case!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-greenspan/why-i-sued-google-and-won_b_172403.html
Issues with adsense.
Read and see how they are so mean to the publishers in court.. 
Glad Aaron win the fight and Google paid him 
If you feel being aggravated by google, sue them
March 8, 2009 at 8:26 pm
This sounds weird, sue G and win. I may take into consideration this If I felt aggraviated by G.
March 12, 2009 at 1:31 pm
The key to his winning was small claims court where they coul not use attorneys. It would take REALLY deep pockets to sue them in open court.
March 8, 2009 at 10:07 am
>90% of Googles income comes from AdSense
- you surely mean AdWords, as in overall PPC model run by Google?
As for “advertisers paying for nothing” – people, you are so wrong, imagine placing your ad on a site that gives you say 50% CTR – wouldn’t you as advertiser be happy? Do I as publisher have to pre-sell your products – of course not since I am not even supposed to know (by AdSense TOS) what sites’ ads are placed on my site. I just have to send you traffic and then it’s up to you what you do with it. The traffic is as targeted as your keyword choice in AdWords, so you get what you pay for.
March 9, 2009 at 4:09 am
that whats the questions i think, so i just know today.
March 12, 2009 at 1:15 pm
AdSense is Google’s primary source of income and I’ve seen posts claiming 30% of AdSense income is from MFA sites.
Google services are not free. Read the post linked to this comment to find out what they are costing each of us.
March 12, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Why should they remove sites that are actually making money for G?
They only ban sites that don’t convert for the advertisers to keep their program fair for advertisers… But, If a spam website converts in anyway they will never ban it
March 15, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Google adsense has poor customer service. They dont know how to handle their customers in fact they just leave you hangin when you have problems.
March 18, 2009 at 8:49 am
“I almost wish i could get banned from google for making too much money”
…Huh?
March 18, 2009 at 9:21 am
Hmmm Let me think the answer.. Well maybe because they are interested with the business’s standings? or maybe because they are also seeking for informations that will benefit them too.
March 18, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Hi friends, free finance PLR mega pack for your article marketing check its out at financeequityloans{dot}com ***download now before removed.
March 21, 2009 at 11:46 am
It would be a lot better if Google is actually able to curb these spams but since it is about making money which is what is the most important issue, I think they will continue to allow them.
March 24, 2009 at 2:06 am
Hi dears, free finance PLR mega pack, download for free at financeequityloans{dot}com
March 24, 2009 at 6:15 pm
OK then. What about the “making the world better” mantra though?
Wouldn’t it be better with better content and less (no) spams?
You bet
March 28, 2009 at 8:36 pm
You can buy text links from E-Bay? There has got to be a better way.
April 1, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
April 2, 2009 at 9:41 am
I wonder what they’re going to do once Microsoft’s pubCenter goes live for all US residents to join. They’re already a few steps ahead of Adsense with some of the things they’re offering.
April 14, 2009 at 2:02 am
Hey gang
Google does not derive 90% of its revenue from AdSense. A quick look at the SEC filings will tell you this. A lot of revenue comes from Google.com advertisements, which belong to the AdWords division and product line.
April 14, 2009 at 7:52 am
DUH adsense=adwords
April 28, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Problem is some of us like to share some valuable content on our sites and blogs. But it seems this means less adsense revenue. It really is exasperating
March 1, 2010 at 10:27 pm
It’s an amazing article,thanks for sharing this valuable resource.
April 15, 2010 at 2:57 am
Even if it does not matter if google makes 90%, as as long a there are humans on this earth there will ads and more on Online now onwards its a golden business for them and off course for publishers also….