AdMoolah News and Views

I just found out AdMoolah’s blog is up for a award at KBCafe’s Blog Awards in the Best Webvertising Blog category. All the other blogs in that category are on my must read list, so I’m flattered just to be included in that list.

Google has been cracking down on websites which use trademarked terms like “Google” or “AdSense” in the domain name. They have been sending letters to publishers indicating that this is a TOS violation and that AdSense can no longer be used on the site.

Eric Giguere and a poster on WebmasterWorld have both reported getting letters.

This is important to keep in mind when choosing domain names. If you plan to run AdSense on a site, don’t use any of Google’s trademarks.

According to a New York Times article (registration required), Google is purchasing a 5% stake in AOL for one billions dollars. Here is my take on how this will affect the AdSense world.

One thing that will change is that Google will put special AOL ads on their web sites.

If a user searches on Google for a topic for which AOL has content – like information about Madonna – there will be a special section on the bottom right corner of the search results page with links to AOL.com. Technically, AOL will pay for those links, which will be identified as advertising, but Google will give AOL credits to pay for them as part of the deal. They will also carry AOL’s logo, the first time Google has agreed to place graphic ads on its search result pages.

The one effect I see this having may be a slight decrease in CTR for AdWords advertisers. The regular AdWords ads that are displayed on Google’s searches will have more competition on the screen, so they will be clicked less often. Advertisers may not be too happy about this.

The other slightly disturbing thing was this quote:

Google will also provide technical assistance so AOL can create Web pages that will appear more prominently in the search results list. But this assistance will not change computer formulas that determine the order in which pages are listed in Google’s search results.

If Google engineers, who know the “computer formulas” are giving technical assistance, this means that they will have an unfair advantage over other publishers in getting good results in the SERPs. Other publishers need to guess what SEO techniques work best on websites. If AOL knows what works best they will do better than everyone else.

To me this goes against Google’s philosophy of always providing the most “natural” results as possible in their search results.

More commentary at John Battelle’s Searchblog

Google is hosting another AdSense Webinar, this time to go over the new features they have recently introduced. If you are an AdSense publisher, you will receive an email with the details:

Dear Publisher,

Want to learn about new AdSense features?

Join our AdSense publisher webinar. Our experts will take you
through AdSense referrals, Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, new reporting
features and more. We’ll also leave time for members of our team to
answer your AdSense questions.

ADSENSE NEW FEATURES WEBINAR

Date and time
——————————

Wednesday December 21st
9:00 A.M. PST/ 12:00 PM EST/ 5:00 P.M. GMT

Registration
———————————————–

Unfortunately, space is limited and registration will be taken on a
first come basis. Please note that participation is by invitation only.

To register, click on the link below or paste it into a new browser
window:

http://googleonline.webex.com/googleonline/onstage/g.php?d=571525365&Rnd=2014821605

Once you register, instructions for participation will be sent to you
via email.

The last webinar, which I blogged about, was back in August. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to attend this one, but if I do, I’ll blog about it again.

There is a WebmasterWorld Thread about Google sending out Christmas gifts to some of their publishers, the gift includes:

- marooon carrying case with embossed google logo. zipper closure
- wireless mini mouse, with scroll wheel
- usb charger for mouse with retractable cord
- usb 4 port hub
- usb gooseneck led light
- 128mb usb flash drive with wrist strap
- headset with retractable cord. has two plugs (one for mic and one for earbud) so it is for a computer, not a mobile phone.

It would be interesting to see how much you have to earn before Google sends a gift.

Update: Darren at ProBlogger has posted a picture of the gift.

It looks like Google is trying to make sure AdSense publishers get their payments a little early this month so that they arrive by Christmas. I spotted the following tip when I logged into my AdSense account:

If you haven’t received last month’s payment by the 25th of this month, please contact us using your login email address and include the check details of your payment.

JenSense is reporting that AdSense has added colored referral buttons. The referral setting page on the AdSense console now includes buttons with green and blue backgrounds.

I still wish they allowed publishers to make their own graphics, or use text links, but I guess this is a step in the right direction.

Another AdSense improvement from Google is new AdSense for Search designs.

With several new formats available for the AdSense for search box, you can integrate AdSense for search into your site even better. Visit the ‘Search code’ page, under the AdSense for search tab, to view the new designs and see which is the best fit for your site.

If I remember correctly, the differences I can see is that the Google Logo is optional, you can specify the background color, and the length of the search box can be modified. (It’s been a while since I looked at the Search code page, so correct me if I am wrong). These are good changes for blending the search boxes into you site better. I like these changes.

Another recent improvement to AdSense.

We’ve optimized the landing page users reach when they click on a topic in any link unit. By providing users with more relevant ads and topics, we’ve seen improved link unit performance – and you’ll see improved monetization.

They didn’t specifiy what the changes are, but anything that improves performance sounds good to me. I’ll have to try to remember to check the revenue from my link units in a week or two to see if I notice any difference.

Another new feature just announced by Google is themed, seasonal ad units.

We’re always striving to provide designs for text and image ads that will have the best results for advertisers and publishers. As part of this effort, we’re now offering themed ad units. These ad units will display themed colors and graphics during holidays and special events – you can view examples on our Ad Formats page.

You can enable or disable themed ad units on an account-wide basis by visiting the Account Settings page, or by following the instructions in our FAQ.

I really don’t like these account-wide features. Themed ads might be nice on some of my sites, but not all of them. It would be nice to be able to turn these on or off on a site-by-site basis, or even better, on an ad-by-ad basis.

It would be interesting to see the CTR differences between themed and non-themed ads. If you do any experimentation with this, let us know!