In the first recipe of this chapter, when I described the pros and cons of using Google Adsense, I talked about a thing called "Smart Pricing", which basically causes you earn less money. In this recipe, I'm going to tell you what exactly "Smart Pricing" is and how to avoid being Smart Priced by Google.
Some blogs, or web sites, have a low CTR (Click Through Rate). CTR means the average clicks on your ads. For example, your CTR is 1% if your ads are displayed to 100 visitors and only one of them clicked on it.
The higher your CTR is, the more money Google earns from your ads. If they display some ads on your web site but no-one clicks on them, they don't earn any money and that space is a waste for them.
Due to the culture of secrecy that Google has, it is almost impossible to be sure on how Smart Pricing applies. Though, many Adsense users who have a CTR below 1 or 2 percent saw their Adsense earnings dramatically decrease. It appears...