Thorn-in-paw Dumps Adsense

Today, in a rare fit of rationality, the Thorn-in-paw editor-at-large pulled the very unsightly, and as it turns out - unprofitable, adsense contextual ads in the right column of our beautiful page.

The ads were unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.

#1. There was not enough customization of the ads. So the choice to serve the ads required a design compromise.

#2. The algorithm which 'reads' Thorn content and places 'appropriate' or 'related' ads was really stupid. (All be it, the content on these pages is not as focused as say a parenting or a cat food site, but give us a break.)

#3. The tools to 'block' competitor ads, preview ads to see who the heck is advertising on the site and other so-called tools are a pain to locate and learn. You are on your own to understand the 'features' Google offers because....

#4. There really isn't any customer service.....you can click around and try to find an email....you won't find a phone number.....you might get a response that is relevant to your question, but as we all know, a conversation with a person is a better and more efficient exchange.

#5. Google refuses to define 'fraud' clearly (and they are being sued left and right for it)...which means that if enthusiastic Thorn-in-paw readers clicked ads often from their same ip address, Thorn was a candidate to be penalized.....and was.

#6. The penalty is reduced traffic! --So let's get it straight, customers are viewing ads they would not otherwise bother with, which brings them to a landing page designed to entice a purchase----that peek being what every sponsor wants whatever the original intention----and the ranking of the site is then reduced to punish whom? --Someone doing the hard work of serving content (all be it questionalble content) to give those ads meaning on a pay-per-view model?

At our peak, Thorn-in-paw had up to 2000 unique visitors a day. That number plumeted to about 50 soon after serving adsense ads. Luckliy we are back on an upswing. We will be looking to see if we are 'penalized' by Google for removing adsense.

So if we have it right, we raise the status of those yucky 'classifieds'-looking snipets with our brand and content only to be punished rather arbitrarily, because I can assert, dear readers, that no one at Thorn was sitting there clicking frivilously. But Google has the power to exclaim 'Click Fraud' without owning up to the data or the true definition.

In short, you are dealing with a robot, (in the era of overseas call centers- is there any excuse to chince on real customer service?) and robots aren't all that bright. If you, dear readers were scratching your heads about the nature of those ads, you were not alone. As this blog is a test-tube for BIANCHI design and strategy services, we are glad to say that BIANCHI has spared her customers the pain and aggravation of bothering with adsense.