Don't use Google AdSense in South Africa

As stated in previous posts, I had Google AdSense clocking up some Rands and Cents in the background, not paying much attention to it. I even received the little postcard with my confirmation code which one receives after a couple of months.

Without any real in-depth explanation, my AdSense account was suspended just before I reached my payment threshold of R1000. they basically said they discovered irregularities that pose a risk to their clients advertising. Now, with irregularities I would presume they mean click fraud which, with making between R1.50 and R4 per day with AdSense seemed highly unlikely.

This is particularly annoying, as I put up with their ads on my websites for over 9 months. I didn't particularly like their ads, but thought I would have gotten rid of it as soon I received my first payment. I contacted them to explain themselves and they basically gave me the same answer.

This has happened before, as I had an AdSense account that was not that active, as I only really started experimenting with affiliate advertising in January this year. I had made a couple of Rands and the AdSense account became inactive. Together with the new account that was closed, I probably lost on on R1000.

Who knows how many people's accounts are closed daily before they reach payment threshold? AdSense is not really worth the hassle. Programs like TrafficSynergy and AdDynamo also run locally and pay almost at the same ratio. The difference is that their payment thresholds are lower, so you get paid more frequent - thus problems would be pointed out earlier, should they arise, and probably with a proper explanation.

I will probably update some more payment figures and screen shots soon. A new affiliate was added in the place of AdSense - AdDynamo. More on that later.

Go delete your AdSense account. It's not worth it.

PC Mall - Not such a great South African affiliate program

The PC Mall affiliate program seems to be not working at all and its freaking me out a bit. With 213477 impressions since January I generated 423 clicks through to their site and there was not one single sale. Over 200k impressions is really a shitload of traffic. I really don't get it. They have brilliant banners and their website seems user friendly and secure enough to use. Not one single sale of computer gadgetty things. What is even weirder is that some of my sales through Kalahari.net were PC-related sales. Stuff like LCD screens and flash disks! Kalahari is consistently making me more than R500 per month.

I will just leave the PC Mall banners until the end of the year and maybe I will get one lucky sale. After that I will take it down and make space for something else. Even Google AdSense at around R3 - R4 per day will eventually see me getting my R1000 payment around the end of the year. Out of all the affiliate programs I am trying out, PC Mall is really doing the worst. I even mad R12 on Silver Sands Casino - on which I am pulling the plug totally. Its just not worth it...