Is Google Adsense worth it?

You always hear about Adsense being the number one choice for monetization but this is not true at all. Although you could make money out of it, you cannot actually make a living from it unless you have a really high traffic site/blog. Also you always hear stories about Adsense accounts getting banned for no reason and yes this is true, it has happened to me. Many of you might think that we click on our own ads but no I actually tested Adsense out to see what's going on and this is what happened.

I signed up for Adsense and put all my details down, i.e Address, Bank name, website URL etc and they accepted me, I went on to their dashboard and it looked OK but it was not to a professional level if you know what I mean, the header and logo looked as if it was done on 'Paint' but that's not the reason. OK so I checked out the interface and tried to get used to it. I found out how to make an ad unit but decided not to make one. After this I logged off and didn't go on the computer for 2 days because I was busy. 2 days later, I went onto Google Adsense and it said my account has been disabled; no surprise there. I checked the email they sent and they start saying stuff about me clicking on my own ads but this was strange since I haven't had any ads put up and I didn't even make an ad unit. It seems to me that it is done on an automated process meaning accounts get disabled at certain times.

For this reason, I decided not to use Adsense again but don't worry, if many of you are put down by this, don't be because I have a list of legit programs where they offer the same services as Adsense. Here they are:

• Yahoo contextual ads
• Kontera
• InfoLinks
• Adbrite ( This is one of those sites where you get the 'Advertise here' signs and advertisers get to pay for it at your own price)
• BuySellAds ( Same as Adbrite but has thousands more advertisers)
• AdFish
• AdMob
• PepperJam

And many more are out there. Adsense is the only choice out there so don't be depressed if Adsense doesn't work out for you since there is plenty more fish in the sea.

Have you tried any of those?

Also to add:

Chitika, adversal, media traffic (high req)

In one word "no"

I've never had any problems with Adsense and have had an active account for probably around 5 years.

What I do like about Adsense is the advertiser pool is so large that you often see extremely targeted ads in relation to your content.

In addition the ads are often very high quality generating a better chance of the user clicking them.

I've had my AdSense account suspended so many times and had to start new ones I've eventually given up on it. They pay out a few cheques and then BOOM - suspended.

IMHO it's simply not worth the effort. Everything is at G's whim. They decide if you are playing by their rules and if they decide to ban...nothing you can do about it. It's like working for the biggest a**hole boss in the world!Except you have no rights at all.

for me it totally worth it. that my primary source of online revenue, I've tried other ads network but none of them was better than adsense.

WTF does ANY of this have to do with Commission Junction???

It's still worth it, but probably not as your main stream of income, but I still make decent cash with Adsense. I've used Chitika as well in the past with solid results.

Adsense is poor man's cow. If you want to do big in IM you need to have control on your traffic. With adsense you have no control and more often you get kicked out. CPA and CPL is where the gold lies.

If we do everything is good,it will be good

Do you know of a way to get your suspended AdSense account up and running again ?
I have a suspended account and would like to continue using it if possible instead of starting a new one if that at all is possible?

i have been making mobile optimized sites with ad sense on it then using my sms software to send out sms to ppl and they click like crazy if the list is targeted to what they like

Adsense is a gateway for publishers to use to monetize their site when they can't think of any way they can themselves. Adsense normally bans publishers with crappy non converting traffic, so yes thousands daily get "Banned" because their clicks don't convert at all. The problem with Adsense is that you make them rich, you make more people go buy through them. You lose control over your earnings, and instead you become dependent on Adsense. As for the other networks, they don't pay as much as Adsense, but you can still earn a pretty penny connecting their advertisers with your converting traffic.

AdSense is definitely worth it unless you get in with a premium network that offers more high impact units like IAB Rising Stars, full page interstitials, etc.

With AdSense you make $1-3 RPM, if that, because you are serving contextual standard display banners. High impact units render much higher rates with an RPM of $5-10. You can also create video and get a much higher CPM.

Altogether, AdSense is well worth it, but it should be a supplemental tool to your income. It shouldn't be the one touch solution.

In my opinion, you build a strong fan base using AdSense and when you may enough per day you can then outsource articles and even videos (via Fiverr) routinely. The volume of our site and audience will compound over time and your site will pay for itself while you make all net profit for just being the shepherd.

What about Clicksor ? is any of those websites above (except adsense) better than it ?

I've never used clicksor. Has anyone else had experience with it?

CPM networks plus adsense on video/image sites is very easy money!

No selling involved what so ever just get the placement of ads right and its all autopilot money.

How do you find AdSense to be relevant for image sites? It needs so many words to apply the appropriate context and typically image sites just serve captions, if that.