No More Google Ads Here
November 15, 2008 by J.C. Hewitt
One of the downsides of being a writer, especially an inexperienced one, is that there are people who will try to take advantage of you. This was true long before there was an Internet, and it is doubly true now that there is an Internet. Just as the web has made it easier for people to get information and publish their work, it has also made it easier for scammers to set up shop and take your money or your work. It can be very discouraging.
I got an email today from someone who was upset with my site. He wrote:
Freelancewriters.com is a scam! They offer you a start-up for $2.98 and then they bill your credit card for a full-month’s membership.
I have filed a dispute with my bank and am going to contact the proper authorities to get them out of business.
Your web site recommended them!!!
I was upset by this, so I went to check it out. There is no site at Freelancewriters.com, so I looked at the current ads running through Google on my site. I spotted one for freelancewritinggig.com. This caught my attention because I do frequently recommend articles at freelancewritinggigs.com (note the s). That site is run by Debbie Ng, and is an excellent FREE resource for writers. I typed in the link (I don’t click on my own ads) and quickly found myself at a site that demanded my email address before I could even get beyond the first page. I know better than to enter my own email address for such a site, so I used an address from my favorite temporary email service, mailinator.com, to get through, and there it was “Get Started Today For JUST only $2.95!” Just Only? Yeah, there’s some good writing.
It didn’t take me long to figure out why the person who emailed me thought that he had gone to freelancewriters.com. The graphics on the site could easily give you that impression. In fact, the site is a mirror of another site, freelancehomewriters.com, which I also found among my ads. I don’t know what you get for your money on these sites, and I don’t want to get into a fight over their quality, but I know that I don’t want these sites advertising at PoeWar. At this point, I was starting to wonder if any other ads were for these sites, so I followed workathometop10jobs.com. Here the fun REALLY began. This site presents itself as a site that exposes work-at-home scams. In actuality, the site was there to recommend the above sites, a little more digging found yet another one, home-job-opportunities.org.
To make a long story short, I no longer trust Google’s ad service to deliver advertising for this site. I followed several other links, and in my opinion at least half the ads that run through the Google service are for companies that I would actively dissuade people from using. That is a shame, because there are also ads for some very good services, but I am tired of fighting the battle. I get the feeling the names will keep changing and I just don’t believe that Google has enough quality control on their ads. I am eliminating Google Ad from this site. This move is going to cost me money. At this point I don’t have another advertiser lined up to take their place. Google ads provided me with over half of my site’s income, but the integrity of the site has to come first.
If any legitimate advertiser out there wants to pay $400 a month for a 300×250 Medium Rectangle ad on the top slot on my site (which gets about 1000 NEW visitors a day), let me know because as of now it is OPEN.
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22 Responses to “No More Google Ads Here”
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Good for you! This just goes to show that your site is sincere and honest, something that I’m sure everyone appreciates. It creates an atmosphere that feels friendly and safe for everyone, but especially for people who are nervous on the Internet (afraid of scams, etc). It can help them feel more comfortable and at ease about commenting and participating in discussions. Great to see ethics trimph over money!
John, I just wanted to say what an absolute shame that you’re going to lose valuable income because of advertising placed on your site through a third party.
I really do hope you find an advertiser to take the place of Google Ads and that you feel you are able to continue doing such valuable work for the online writing community.
While the legitimacy of the site in question is not for me to speculate on, having no experience of it, this should serve as a reminder to us all to continue to be vigilant both on the internet and in “real life”, as well as to read the small print in all offers.
Sarah Reids last blog post..Dealing with Rejection
@ Key
I really do try to provide a positive experience for the people who come here, so thank you for letting me know that comes through.
@ Sarah
Thank you for the well wishes. This site would continue on even if it earned nothing. Thankfully, that won’t be the case, but money is not my prime motivator for keeping the site.
Dude, that sucks. That also sucks more because I know what it cost you financially to give up those ads. I applaud you, though I understand that won’t put food on your table.
How about advertising courses or products you know to be solid, reputable and helpful and earn commissions? It’s not going to make up for it, but it’s a start.
If you email me your PayPal for advertising, I’ll book a 125x square. Maybe that’ll get the ball rolling for people to offer thanks for the service you do provide (and now for free).
James Chartrand – Men with Penss last blog post..Your Chance to Learn How to Make Money Online
Good on ya, John. I took the Google ads off all my websites and blogs some months ago for the same kind of reason. I spent a lot of time and effort trying to block ads I didn’t want to appear but, as you say, the scammers change their names and, in the end, there are just so many of them you can’t keep up.
Yes, it costs you, but, like you, I’m not doing this for the advertising income.
Graham Storrss last blog post..Why I’m Leaving Authonomy
@ Graham,
Thank you for the support. I”m sure I will find something to take their place, even if the income doesn’t meet the same level.
Hi John!
Bully for you! And I really think Google ought to take a hard look at their service. I, too, put them on my blog and within a month took them off due to sexually explicit ads that had no relation to my posts! It actually made me stop blogging and really think about what I want to do.
Google’s been spending so much effort on their new personal health record and other good applications that they totally ignore others.
I’m positive you will get an advertiser with integrity – and soon.
@ JoniB,
Thank you for the support. Google and I have made a lot of money together over the years, but this problem has come up on occasion and it seems to be getting worse and worse.
I don’t monetize my professional photography site and blog at http://www.williambay.com, but I do at my other blog, http://www.fastfoodconfessional.
The problem that I had with Google Ads was that they are supposedly contextual. But my site has to do with kicking the fast food habit and my own stuggle with it. The problem was that the “contextual” ads were for things like Wendy’s and McDonalds!!!
How is that of service to my readers?
Adsense, just doesn’t make sense sometimes.
Thanks for being true to your audience!
John,
Thank you for maintaining the integrity of your site even when it costs you. Hope you get a good advertiser soon even though I know you don’t do this for money.
Lillie Ammanns last blog post..I Love to Write Day and My Best Writing Advice
Hey John,
Thanks for standing up for things, even though it means a cut of your profits.
I don’t know how long you’ve read/known of my blog, but I know it’s been at least since last year because you did the March Madness thing. With my old design (two designs ago) I had my blog set up with adsense and indeed ads, and even with the relatively little traffic I got on my blog at that time I still pulled in over $1000 each month (also including affiliate links to books, etc).
When I redesigned my blog I knew I was going to do away with adsense, for the same reason. Here I am talking about how not to get scammed, but the links on my site (through adsense) were pointing to scam sites. Not cool. And I spent several hours each week going through and “blocking” certain names only to have them turn up as a new name the next week. It was too much work. I also decided to go away from indeed, because too many of those jobs seemed to be pointing to scams or to non-paying work listed as jobs.
Hence my decision to make my blog more personal, rather than keeping it a money maker. If I got a ton of traffic like Deb does, I might have tried going after big advertisers, but I wasn’t in the position to do that. And I’m still not into affiliate marketing enough to make it big doing that alone. My blog makes very little money now, and I’m ok with that. But I hope things will go differently for you.
@ William
It seems you had the exact same problem. I write about avoiding scams, but the ads for those articles are full of scams. That doesn’t make for a very good approach.
@ Lillie
A new advertiser would be nice. It is probably time that I started looking at other revenue streams anyway.
@ Amy
I also use indeed, and I haven’t noticed a problem with scams so far. I would hate to lose my only other advertiser, but I will try to keep a close eye on them. Thanks.
@ James
For some reason your stuff seems to be ending up in the spam filter. Very unfortunate. Thank you for the response. I’ll send you an email.
I’m one of your new 1000/day – I was referred to this article from Deb Ng’s site. I just wanted to thank you for looking out for your readers – I, for one, will be returning to read more. I think what your doing is good business sense, that it’ll help your maintain and grow your readership over the long haul. But I’m sorry for the ad loss in the present. That bites!
@ Cadence,
Thank you for stopping by and for offering your support. I’ll miss the money in the short term, but things always have a way of working out.
I gave up on Google ads a while ago as you couldn’t control too much of it. I prefer to go the affiliate since I control what I link to. It’s more work than copying and pasting one set of Google Ad code, but it works better and the results have surpassed what I got with Google Ads.
Meryl K. Evanss last blog post..How’s the Dash Part of Your Life?
That is a shame, but I’m glad to see you taking a stand and ding what you feel is right. I’ve had mixed results with Google on other sites, and you definitely have to do what you think is right. Good show, and I hope you quickly find honest advertisers to take their place!
What an admirable decision. I think it is a terrific show of character for you to pull the advertising, especially when may businesses are hurting for money.
Jamie Simmermans last blog post..Update On Lori Hall-Steele
You can filter out certain URLs using the Competitive Ad Filter in your Adsense account pages. This could be a never-ending task though, trying to monitor whose ads have appeared or are appearing every day.
If you’ve lost confidence, you’ve done the right thing taking them off.