In the latest in the series of sites banned from Google AdSense, Mango Sauce has found itself without a revenue stream.
The scary thing about government censorship is that we have no choice. With companies like Google, if we don’t like their policies, we can go elsewhere. I’m not saying it’s easy, but we do have a choice. Instead of AdSense, we can seek out other forms of advertisement. We can try affiliate or product-based revenue sources. We can ask for donations. We can derive indirect income from the site. We can even choose not to derive revenue from the site.
With Google, if you don’t like them, you can go elsewhere… But not if you’ve built your whole business around AdSense. This is the danger of a big account. It’s a cash cow, but what happens when the cash dries up. As fair-minded as Google would have us believe their terms of service to be, it doesn’t take a lawyer to realize one simple thing: Google can cancel your account at any time and for any reason. You can also cancel the account at any time and for any reason. Now, it may not be in Google’s best interest to behave as it did to Mango Sauce. But that won’t help David save his blog.
What am I getting at? Already pro-bloggers are realizing that it’s foolish to build their entire revenue stream on just AdSense. It’s hard, but the smart ones are diversifying. They’re getting off the AdSense crack. They’re trying different revenue streams.
Ask yourself, “What would I do if my biggest account suddenly dried up?” Do you have a backup plan? Do you need to diversify?
-TimK