After nearly 11 years, I have closed my Google AdSense account on a permanent basis and it's been a huge relief off my back and then some. This was my decision and mine alone. Google did NOT have any say so in this at all. In fact, they probably didn't even notice when I did close the account. This has been brewing for quite sometime now. Especially after YouTube changed their rules along with a couple of other events that took place in 2019. But after much thought, I decided to close my account in December 2019 and I did not get around to it until a few days before Christmas of 2019. In my humble opinion, I am far better off without it and it is definitely not worth my time either.
I first opened my Google AdSense account sometime in 2009 after someone from a dot com style forum told me about it. Back then, my blog was an automotive/racing blog and I had not discovered wet shaving yet. But at the time I thought it would be a good idea. In the beginning, everything was going pretty good. No technical issues or anything. That changed when Google AdSense started changing their ad codes. That's when things started falling apart. So after about a year, I removed the ads from the blog but I kept the AdSense account open for a later time. My blog was functioning perfectly without the ads and for a good number of years, everything was great and I was having a blast. Then along came April 2nd, 2019.
Google plus went bye bye. Which meant that Google had to update their ad codes. No issues at all never really paid attention to it until about August of 2019. Google AdSense started automatic ads and for a while they worked. Then I started getting AdSense error emails and messages. I go to my AdSense account page and I ended up having to cut, copy and paste the code to fix the ads. That worked briefly until California passed a limited advertising act. My blog would not be accessible to CA residents if I didn't comply and I wanted everyone to be able to read my blog. The tech issues I experienced in the beginning started to return. So once again, I removed the ads and I swore that they would never be back on my blog ever again. But I still kept my AdSense account open.
At this point, there was no ads but I could still monetize my blog and YouTube channel. Then YouTube who is owned by Google decided to change their requirements for monetizing videos. Once that went into effect I came to realize that Google AdSense is not worth it. I also began to realize that I went from a slim to no chance in terms of monetizing my YouTube channel. Then another thing happened almost overnight. My blog went to the same format as Twitter. It was at that moment that I knew that for sure I would end up closing my AdSense account.
The final straw came when I went to the AdSense account website to close my account. When I saw the total revenue generated was only $7.91 U.S. Dollars over the entire 11 years of keeping that account open, I just shook my head and did not hesitate to close the account. I have stated repeatedly like a broken record that making YouTube videos and blogging about wet shaving are just hobbies for me. My income is generated elsewhere. Both when I first started blogging 13 years ago and I can definitely say the same thing today. I never expected to make money with Google AdSense. I figured roughly around $300 U.S. Dollars at the most per year if I was lucky which is about the same as my state income tax refund that I got every year when I was still able to work. But the fact is that it took 11 years to generate just under $8 U.S. Dollars which won't even buy my decaf coffee that I've been drinking here lately. So if you was to ask me as to whether or not I think Google AdSense is worth it? My answer would be no.
