frankygoldberg
Registered Member
- Mar 6, 2023
- 72
- 45
A little story about one of our websites we run that is based in Europe.
For those who do not know. Europe now has one of the strongest and most annoying data protection laws in the world. Adsense must be used in accordance with privacy laws with a consent manager to operate correctly.
In order to monetize the site as quickly as possible, we left the privacy aspect out of the equation for a long time; on the one hand, this secured us revenue, on the other hand, our site grew so quickly that it soon attracted the attention of data protectionists.
From that point on, things escalated quickly.
After initial reminders and consultation with our attorney, there were two options. The first way, we change the privacy settings and risk the collapse of monetization, or the second way we buy ourselves time.
Our lawyer gives us the prospect to get about 1 year time for us with different ways, objections and counterclaims.
We decided to go the second way, especially since we had exceeded the threshold of 10k/month in revenue and the site had become very profitable for us.
After a year, a lot of legal back and forth writing, the time had come.
All our legal countermeasures and stalling attempts were exhausted. We were written to by the data protection officer of our city to implement the specifications within a few days, otherwise we would be showered with fines.
From now on, there was only one way to go. Implement data protection requirements and hope that nothing breaks.
How did it go? Our adsense revenue plummeted by 50%..., unfortunately we had already suspected it.
From more than 10.000€ income per month to partly less than 5.000€. A more than big loss, because we had invested a lot in the site, the infrastructure and optimization measures the years before.
The project has even risen to the top 5 of our portfolio, but with the slump again far away from it.
What comes now? We are currently working on solutions and ideas to test other monetization options, so far we have been able to absorb some of the revenue through affiliate marketing and direct partnerships, but still the Adsense slump is more than painful.
What are the learnings?
Proper privacy consideration can and will cost cash in almost every scenario. My recommendation if you get problems with data protection, fight it as long as you can, privacy policies will cost you cash.
By the way, our latest project is based in Switzerland. The data protection requirements there are strict but still a bit looser than in the EU and the RPM in Switzerland is usually fantastic.
For those who do not know. Europe now has one of the strongest and most annoying data protection laws in the world. Adsense must be used in accordance with privacy laws with a consent manager to operate correctly.
In order to monetize the site as quickly as possible, we left the privacy aspect out of the equation for a long time; on the one hand, this secured us revenue, on the other hand, our site grew so quickly that it soon attracted the attention of data protectionists.
From that point on, things escalated quickly.
After initial reminders and consultation with our attorney, there were two options. The first way, we change the privacy settings and risk the collapse of monetization, or the second way we buy ourselves time.
Our lawyer gives us the prospect to get about 1 year time for us with different ways, objections and counterclaims.
We decided to go the second way, especially since we had exceeded the threshold of 10k/month in revenue and the site had become very profitable for us.
After a year, a lot of legal back and forth writing, the time had come.
All our legal countermeasures and stalling attempts were exhausted. We were written to by the data protection officer of our city to implement the specifications within a few days, otherwise we would be showered with fines.
From now on, there was only one way to go. Implement data protection requirements and hope that nothing breaks.
How did it go? Our adsense revenue plummeted by 50%..., unfortunately we had already suspected it.
From more than 10.000€ income per month to partly less than 5.000€. A more than big loss, because we had invested a lot in the site, the infrastructure and optimization measures the years before.
The project has even risen to the top 5 of our portfolio, but with the slump again far away from it.
What comes now? We are currently working on solutions and ideas to test other monetization options, so far we have been able to absorb some of the revenue through affiliate marketing and direct partnerships, but still the Adsense slump is more than painful.
What are the learnings?
Proper privacy consideration can and will cost cash in almost every scenario. My recommendation if you get problems with data protection, fight it as long as you can, privacy policies will cost you cash.
By the way, our latest project is based in Switzerland. The data protection requirements there are strict but still a bit looser than in the EU and the RPM in Switzerland is usually fantastic.
