Jalaj P. Jha

How do ‘They’ make money from Google adsense? Well there are a lot of people who genuinely work hard to make money from Google Adsense in a fair way. What they earn is what they really deserve.

This post is regarding ‘them’ who work the other way. They work hard but the other way. They work hard to turn a movie lover visitor to a potential customer for Motor Insurance companies (not really, as the customer turns back after clicking the ad) .

This post is a case study of a particular site (group of site in reality) using Black Hat Adsense searning techniques.

So here we start. Check the pic on the right. A Google user searches for a site providing Bollywood movies download. And he don’t need to search more as it seems to him that the first result titled ‘Bollywood Movies Download Center’ would be sufficient for him. He follows the link.

 

Hey that’s the movie I would like to watch, he thinks and so he clicks on the download link.

Hey but that’s a forum. Never mind let’s check for the link in forum posts. And… hey found that and there are the links. (note from editor: pardon me for my laziness, for I am changing the movie title for I don’t want to waste time searching the forum)

Wasn’t I trying to download a movie? I am now at a Auto Car Insurance site!! There is yet another link in there.

On my God!! The link led me to a Global Financial site!! Amazing!!! Anyways there’s the link.

Hey what’s that? Clicking on the link shows ‘Authentication required’. Did I miss something?

Oh! Yes!! There was a Username & Password link in one of the pages I viewed earlier!!! Never mind Let’s get back to the username/ password.

God! another link and this time on an image. “click”

Hey again to Global Financial site! and again a link!!

What’s this? This page tells that you need to go to two different pages and click on Advertisements there. More work. “Film ke liye saala kuchh bhi karega” (will do anything for the movie).

First link opens a page with Autocar insurance advertisement. Though there is no mention that the ad is served by Google Adsense, IT IS. “click” and back.

Now that’s getting frustrating. The other site again! Similar advertisement. anyways “click” and back.

Now that the required two clicks have been made let’s click the buttom that leads to user/password. No man! again the site changes and still no info but just a link.

Wow! there’s the username but alas no password and link instead. let move ahead as can’t do without it!

Again the site changed! and at last the password is there. It’s showtime!!

Well now that they guy must be watching the movie, I am falling asleep having taken so many screenshots of so many boring pages. But before I retire let me summarize.

The prime object of this group of sites was to earn money through Adsense and that required clicks by visitors. While the visitors could have straight away clicked the links without having been taken to so many pages, this was a precautionary measure to keep the click-through-ratio low, as high ratio can raise an alarm making Google and advertiser probe into this affair.

That’s where we end.

Google delivers Context sensitive and relevant Ads on web sites using Adsense. This works fine in most of case but sometimes it gives out unexpected ads. Take for example the link ads below showing “Mosquito Repellent”, “Natural Repellent”, “Homemade insecticide” etc. Can you guess on which page these are showing up?

I am sure you have already guessed what could be the page content on which the ads are being shown. Take a little more time and see the bigger ad on the side, which too is from the same screen.

Now I think you have gone too sure on what could be on the page. Right? Time is right for revelation!

The ads are on a page that relates to Jolie Madame Perfumes

Who would you blame for the wrong matching ads? Google?? Take a look on the screen shot below and think again.

 

The page above is from mouthshut.com which is a product review site. This particular page is supposed to be review page for “Jolie Madame” (no mention of perfumes). Thankfully there is a pic that elaborates that it is related to perfume otherwise most readers would have tired themselves up thinking Who is Jolie Madame (instead of what is!). Other than that there is a breadcrumb on the top of page that goes like “Home  > Health & Beauty > Bath, Body & Skin  > Fragrances > Fragrance [Women] > I – J > Jolie Madame” and one other mention of “fragrance”.

There is no other content, no reviews on the page… then why is that page existing? Not only existing but showing up on first result page for term “Jolie Madame”!! No marks for guessing that, well, Google Adsense. Ever heard of “Made for Adsense” sites. They work somewhat in a similar way, contains pages that rank high on search results driving people to the page and when they find no content there, sometimes click on one of the ads to find what they were actually searching for.

What is common between Google Money Tree, Google Cash, Google Money System? Latest or upcoming Google products, Is that what you think?

No…!
Well then you already know that these are some schemes or programs that promises you riches using some Google services.

Adsense…?
Then you already know the name of that Google service too!! Yes Adsense! You add advertisement provided by Google on your blogs or websites and when your visitors click on these ads Google pays you.

So these schemes are right in claim that they can help you earn money…?
No!! All these schemes try to make you believe that you can earn money from Google as easily as counting 1-2-3… It’s true that many entrepreneurs tried their luck with Google Adsense, and they were successful in that and most of them are well settled with their ‘early retirements’. But other side of the story is that they are just a very small fraction of those who were trying to do so, and that majority failed in their efforts.

And for the people behind these schemes, if you believe me, they are making less money from Google and more from you! If you too want to give it a try, do it, but do it cautiously!

Cautiously…?
Yes! Many people who tried using these type of schemes have later reported that their credit cards were charged amounts that were never disclosed to them. While they thought that their overall expense over the scheme would be as low as $1-$5, they later ended up paying higher amounts as high as $70-$100 towards services that were disclosed/documented at locations where most people would fail to read.

Details please…?
Try to read those yourselves when you feel attracted to a similar scheme. This is just a start of a trend and many more schemes will pop up with time. Instead I would like to point out how you can safeguard yourselves from getting cheated!

How…?
USE VIRTUAL CREDIT CARDS !

Most of the Banks are for long time providing facilities using which you can create single-use virtual credit cards that you can use for online transactions. All you need to do is apply online for a virtual credit card with a fixed amount. The amount that you specify will be debited from your existing credit card or bank account and you will receive a credit card number which expires in next few days and maximum limit is whatever you gave when applying. Use this when making transactions for such schemes. Since these are single use cards, doing so you can rest assured that you will be charged no further.

If you do not use a virtual credit card before expiry or partially use it, the amount receivable by you will be credited back to your credit card/bank account in time as specified by the Bank.

Act wisely, think twice before falling in for schemes that are making money out of you. And any case don’t give away your credit card information to them, instead use Virtual credit cards.