Don’t worry US and Japan publishers as this move does not affect you. However, publishers outside US and Japan can start removing referral units promoting AdSense from your blog/website.

Google has decided to drop Adsense referrals scheme for publishers outside US and Japan with the reason that referral product has not performed as well as Google had hoped in these regions. It is a shame that Google has taken this step as Adsense referrals program is proven to be a good income generator for a lot of publishers. I am not affected as I did not participate in this program but I do feel that pain for those who spend a lot of their time promoting Adsense.

Meanwhile, users who are still eligible to participate will find their “bonuses” greatly reduced. Read more here…

About a year ago, as an experiment, we changed the pricing structure for AdSense referrals so that when a user you referred to the program earned $5 within 180 days of sign-up, you would also earn $5. When that publisher earned $100 within 180 days and removed all payment holds, you’d receive $250. We have decided to conclude this experiment and return to the original pricing structure. As a result, we’ll soon no longer be offering the $5 bonus or $2000 bonus, and the payout for referring a user who generates $100 with AdSense in the first 180 days will return to $100.

Seems that Google is getting less generous these days .. and let’s hope that they will not do something “silly” to the PPC program.

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I recently experiencing a sharp drop in my Adsense earning during the period from Dec 21 – Dec 24. It dropped more than 50% and I suspect it may be due to the long Christmas holidays. Do you encounter similar case like mine?

I noticed there is a next-previous button on one of my Adsense Leadeboard ad units. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the next button and the existing text link ads will be replaced with new ads without refreshing the page (Ajax style).

I guess it is still in testing phase because I have only seen it once so far… and I managed to take a screenshot of the ad units.

I am not sure if users will click on these buttons to view more ads unless they are really really really bored with the content on your blog/website.

My second payment from Google Adsense via Western Union is ready for collection. For those who miss my previous guide on how you can setup your Adsense account in order for you to receive payment through Western Union, you can read it here.

Also, click here (and here) to read on how you can receive your money through one of Western Union agent, CIMB. I will probably collecting my payment from RHB this time to see if they have same procedure as CIMB. Will post it here soon.

Update

Yup, it is same procedure for collecting your payment from RHB but the service is slower. Will return to CIMB for my next Adsense payment.

The FX rate is 3.32.

Google is about to make a move to reduce accidental clicks by the changing the way clicks are counted. The background of a text ad will no longer take users to the advertiser’s site. Only clicking on the Link or Title in an ad is considered as a valid click.

Some of the publishers may not welcome this move as it will reduce their income but I find it necessary to protect Advertisers interest. I am once an Adwords customer and at times I wondered if the clicks generated from my ads are genuine or accidental. Not being able to make a conclusion, I decided to stop using Adwords until Google takes a proactive step to reduce accidental clicks.

So fellow publishers, let’s look at the bright side..
With this change, it will attract more advertisers (like myself) who are willing to pay more for a genuine click. If advertisers pay more, you will earn more.

[Hat tip : HTNet]

Google Adsense has rolled out its new ad management feature which allow publishers to manage ad units from within their account. However, some may not be able to experience this feature as Google is rolling this feature in phases.

According to Inside Adsense:-

This new ad management feature means that your ad unit settings (such as colors and channels) for new AdSense for content ad units will be saved in your AdSense account every time you generate ad code. Then, if you’d like to change any of these settings in the future, all you do is make the update within your account — you’ll no longer need to manually replace the ad code on all of your pages. For instance, you can quickly change the borders of all your 300×250 medium rectangles from red to blue with just a few mouse clicks. Fancy! We hope that this new feature will help you save time and will simplify the process of optimizing your ad units.

How do I find out if this feature is available for me?
Login into your Adsense account and click on Adsense Setup tab. If it is available for you, you will see “Manage Ads” link in your the sub menu.

If you prefer to stick to your “old” style of managing your ad units, you may do so as the old version of code will continue to work. You can read more about this new feature here or see it in action by viewing the video below.

There is another common mistake I would like to add to my previous entries – 18 Common Mistakes that violate Google Adsense Terms. It is regarding “Google Brand Features” issue.

I applied for an Adsense account for this blog and was surprised that they rejected my application with the following reason:-

Google Brand Features: We’ve found that you’re using Google Brand Features, including Google trademarks, logos, webpages, screen shots, or other distinctive features on your site or in your URL. As a result, we’re unable to accept this site into the AdSense program for the time being.

In order to comply with this term, I screened through my existing posts and remove all the logos and screenshots that are related to Google. Even my latest post on Adsense Payment through Western Union was not spared.

Once I have made all the necessary changes, I re-submitted my application and my Adsense account was approved the next day.

So take note Adsense publishers!

Ever since I wrote a post on “Adsense Payment via Western Union“, I am looking forward to receive my first Adsense Payment through Western Union. Maybe it is because this is first time I am dealing with Western Union.. so it is good to learn something new.

I checked on my Adsense Payment History (My Account -> Payment History) and it shows that payment for September Earnings has been issued! By clicking on the ‘details’ link next to the Payment Issued line, I can find my unique Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN) for this payment. Print that page and bring it along with your government issued ID to your nearest Western Union agent. It has all the information (MTCN, Sender’s Address and Payment Amount) required to withdraw your fund. Cheers!

UPDATE

Collected my payment at CIMB, Mid Valley. The procedure is simple. Fill up Western Union – to receive money form and withdraw from the counter.

The rate I got is USD 1 = RM3.315. What is yours?

Google sets to improve user experience by allowing publishers to easily manage the ad units from within their AdSense account. This new feature will be released within the next few weeks.

According to Inside Adsense:

This new ad management feature means that your ad unit settings (such as colors and channels) for new AdSense for content ad units will be saved in your AdSense account every time you generate ad code. Then, if you’d like to change any of these settings in the future, all you do is make the update within your account — you’ll no longer need to manually replace the ad code on all of your pages. For instance, you can quickly change the borders of all your 300×250 medium rectangles from red to blue with just a few mouse clicks. Fancy! We hope that this new feature will help you save time and will simplify the process of optimizing your ad units.

Read more here.

I recalled the time when the Google Adsense ads on my site were irrelevant, it affected my earning badly (yes, it drops 66%). So, reacting what a normal person will, I went online to find a ‘cure’ to this common ‘disease’. It was a fruitful one as I found ways to could help to increase the relevancy of the ads.

Section Targeting

Section targeting allows you to define the important area of your HTML content that you would like Adsense to look into before displaying their ads on your website. You can implement it simply by using the following tags into your HTML code:-

Tag that mark the beginning of the section
<!– google_ad_section_start –>

Tag that mark the end of the section
<!– google_ad_section_end –>

It will take up to 2 weeks (usually within 2 days) before Google’s crawlers will take note of the changes you have made. You can read more about this method here.

Keywords

Keywords do play a major role in getting ads that are relevant to your content. Experience users pointed out that using keywords with your titles and contents is an excellent way to assist in getting the most relevant possible ads. Although some debate the relevancy of using keywords in getting relevant ads, well, you have nothing to lose as you will still gain advantage through this method in terms of search engine optimization.

Metatags

Meta tags are used to add information to the HTTP header of a webpage. Though meta keywords tag and meta description tags are not the main factor search engines consider when ranking sites, they should not be left off the page as there is some evidence that it has impact on the kind of ads Adsense will serve on your site.

When you write a meta description tag, you should limit it to 150 characters and of course, it must be relevant to the content of the page. And as for meta keywords tag, it is a general rule of thumb to include the words that appear in the text of your page. For example, the title of the article/post. Keep it short and simple.. preferable 10 – 15 keywords.

If the above methods does not help, please contact me at iwill[at]knocksomesense[dot]com. I will try my best to help you.