Revenue From Websites - The Google, Chitika and Bidvertiser Error

I have been creating and managing websites since years. They were mostly related to my own work or some for clients. The two websites that I was passionately working for over the years were The Official Michael Jackson Indian Fan Club - www.clubmj.com / www.michaeljackson.in and The Official Shammi Kapoor Fan Club - www.shammikapoor.net . I was also technically managing Shammi Kapoor's own website www.junglee.org.in in where I never fiddled with the design to keep it his own. But Shammi Kapoor on many occassions had adviced me to monetize the websites which were related to any of the fan clubs. I was very apprehensive about doing so because both he and Michael Jackson were my idols. I was doing this out of love and not as business. But he was adamant. He said I was being a fool in the world where people rake millions out of such official associations.  

In my last meeting with Shammiji, there was detailed talk on implemention of advertisements. I had never charged him a dime for anything even I had paid for like the domain/server costs of his own site also. He had been very generous in trying to pay me in different ways or even directly, but I had never accepted that. He that’s why suggested about implementing advertisements on all the sites. He also said that I could use my experience in his fan club and implement it for other celebrities, which wouldn't essentially be official. That idea really hit me. I started to study that business of the internet world and realized that I was already good in SEO without any intention of doing so. Also, I was aware of GOOGLE ADWORDS so GOOGLE ADSENSE was easy to understand and implement. 

I started around 50 more websites related to celebrities and started designing the official fan clubs also in a way that I could incorporate the advertisements to the maximum limit allowed and without infringing any rules. I wasn't fiddling with any other PUBLISHER PARTNER/AFFILIATE programs apart from GOOGLE ADSENSE. I was happy with whatever was going on and the little earning I had till one day suddenly Google banned advertisements to a female celebrity fan club. Google thought that the contents(images) on the website came under ADULT or PROVOCATIVE terms. I was really confused because bollywood doesn't have a porn industry. I tried the check and compare all the images that google showed me as provocative, but none of my images were like that. I tried to argue in vain. The site was never accepted.  

This declination of my website made me hunt for new advertisement revenues. Considering the HITs I had per day I was thinking of getting exclusive with some specific advertiser for yearly or monthly contract, but I avoided and still avoid that. I found out options like Chitika, Bidvertiser, etc. The many apart from these two were a bit dangerous as they posted adult advertisements even when my website content wasn't adult. I avoided them. Generally reading the reviews I decided to implement Chitika. I implemented its advertisements on 4-5 of my websites which generated most of the traffic. I was happy for some months with them when suddenly I couldn't login to my account. 

I was confused. I thought maybe my account was hacked because I possibly can't forget any password. Nothing worked. I contacted support who told me that my account was banned for FRAUD CLICKS. Being a one man show in these sites I made, I knew well that it had to be an error. I had spent so many months in implementing Chitika on some 3000+ pages of different websites, I didn't have time to generate clicks because I knew it could get my account banned on google as well. Thankfully google has a better tracking system to see the sources that the visitors come from and also their IP addresses. I was really frustrated, I contacted Chitika support and told them about the error. Also told them that Google was successfully running advertisements on the same sites. Any person from this field knows that Chitika has miles to go to reach the level of Google Adsense. So it wasn't possible that their systems were more efficient than Google's. Also Chitika ate up all the revenue generated in that month which they claim they gave back to advertisers. 

So again I had an empty space in the page designs where Chitika advertisements were supposed to appear. I shifted to Bidvertiser and was surprised to see that their coding system though not much customizable is very easy to implement and mainly organize. It has limited AD sizes though, yet it has got a different kind of implementation for advertisers as well as publishers. Immediate results and their revenue (points) generation shows a good income though their NEXT PAYMENT (section) is still stuck with something since many days. This is the first month, but looking at the results it does look like a good option to work with. I can't confirm anything till I actually get a payment from them since again their system will check for frauds. Reviews for Bidvertiser haven't been good on the internet otherwise, but I am hoping things have changed.  

Google as usual remains stable. Maybe they could start an advertisement program for what they categorize as adult/provocative but wont be necessarily adult. They will surely have a lot of advertisers interested in posting their advertisement on such content. I am sure that Bollywood censorship has changed with time, but its really weird to see that Google is finding adult content that Bollywood passes of under (PG) category in a conservative country like India. Hope this blog helps a lot of enthusiast and bloggers to decide what they have to implement on their websites for revenues.