Adsense Arbitrage: The Core Business Model is Flawed

Adsense arbitrage is one of those dumb business ideas that won’t seem to go away. Kind of like tag cloud pages. And the “million dollar [insert noun here]” sites.

If you’ve been out of the loop for a while, Adsense arbitrage involves buying cheap clicks and sending them to a page full of Adsense ads, hoping to make more per click than you paid per click.

That covers the basics, and that’s all we need to cover today. That’s because I want to talk about that basic, core business model and why it’s flawed.

(Talking smack on Adsense arbitrage is nothing new, but this idea just popped into my head one day, so I just had to write it out.)

Think about this concept:

Even when you get past the scammy second-tier PPC sites and the crappy MFA pages… The business logic is crap!

See, advertisers don’t spend much per click on the content network; the search results are where it’s at. But unless you own Google.com, you’re stuck at the content network in the land of low-priced clicks…

It’s an uphill battle from the start.

But let’s say you get super lucky and do days of niche research and find a keyword that will pay you $5 per click on the content network.

Well, as soon as you send some non-converting clicks to that advertiser, they’ll notice the problem, and immediately decrease their content network bids. Then you’re done. Chances are your net loss is pretty bad, because you would have spent some money on all the testing.

And that is the outcome when you found your own niche. If you’re buying lists of hot niches, by the time you see the list, the niches are no longer profitable.

Try it again? Maybe there’s another good niche?

Quit while you’re ahead buddy!

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