Comments on: Google Testing Ways to Kill Your AdWords Income

By: Art

Art — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:35:09 +0000

Hi Bill,
I realize I’m making this comment way after your post, but when I read through it, what struck me was that in the VERY long run, if Google continues to promote their own sites with top rankings in both search and paid listings then EVENTUALLY it will backfire as more and more people realize they’re not getting independant, objective results anymore. If people are only being fed google, (i.e. You tube, google store, google Knol) then eventually, enough people will start trying other search tools just so they can find things that are not googleized.
Anyway, at least I hope thats what happens.
Thanks,
Art

By: Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:09:45 +0000

Well, I am glad to be on your list!

No more getting caught completely off guard by Google’s random changes !

I have learned one very definite and true lesson form you –With Google anything can happen and you have to be utterly alert or you could lose your business in the blink of an Eye!

Keep up the good work, your advice is always accurate, workable and dare I say it? “Profitable!”

By: Lou

Lou — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:24:57 +0000

Ok I am freaking out right now. I have an adwords account, what is going to happen to my website? This doesn’t make sense to me. I am so utterly dissapointed with Google and their strange ways of handling their business.

By: Bill McIntosh

Bill McIntosh — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:04:25 +0000

Hi Erica,

That sounds like a good idea in theory: Cut out the middlemen and increase Google’s profit. I just don’t think they would ever do that.

Google has experimented with affiliate marketing a little bit over on their AdSense product. However, it largely appears to be unsuccessful.

The problem is that the official Google corporate motto is “Don’t Be Evil”. It seems a little strange for a commercial corporation to hold such a strong and subjective statement as their guiding principal, but it’s nonetheless true.

In many people’s experience with Google (mine included) they seem to hold many forms of online marketing in general as something evil. So the likelihood that they’d get involved with affiliate marketing directly is slim. I think they’ll leave all the evil doing to us until they can survive solely off of the advertising income from big corporations. Then I wouldn’t be surprised if they banned many of the practices of Internet marketers and small businesses marketing online.

By: Bill McIntosh

Bill McIntosh — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:48:31 +0000

Hi Scott,

You’d think that Google would treat their AdWords advertisers like gold and carefully protect that revenue source. The problem is: They don’t. It’s been the experience of many online marketers that Google holds the user experience up as the holy grail to be pursued at all costs. Even if that means stepping on the toes of Adwords customers.

I’ll cross my fingers that Google will not mess up a good thing, but it wouldn’t be the first time if they do.

By: bummerarmy

bummerarmy — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:16:26 +0000

wow. i actually have had that thought before. like…why doesnt google just take the affiliate money and promote all these things themselves, instead of just getting the adwords money from small business owners? “we could do our own ads for free and then make all the money from the affiliate clicks too!” i mean, i thought of it, so the chances of someone at google coming up with that idea are pretty good.

By: Scott Elkin

Scott Elkin — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:35:22 +0000

Being that Adwords is the reason Google is in business, anything that would cut Adwords revenue would be ruled out.

I am *hoping* this is the case.