In a previous post I showed how to use AdSense with Amazon aStore as an example of how to integrate AdSense with embedded content. At that time the aStore program (available to all members of the Amazon Associates affiliate program) was limited to one aStore per affiliate and you could do only a few things with the aStore. Well, aStore is now officially out of beta and you can now:

• create multiple stores;
• create custom categories;
• integrate with more Amazon features

Also, they're increasing the amount an aStore can earn you through the Christmas season.

You can see my original aStore in action at The HDTV Shoppe. Although it was built strictly as an example of integrating AdSense with embedded content (the aStore is embedded via an <iframe> tag), surprisingly enough people have actually bought HDTV sets through it!

An Amazon aStore is a very simple way to add an Amazon-based store to your site. It's not as flexible as Build A Niche Store is for building eBay stores, but it's worth a quick look if you're an Amazon affiliate. The Amazon program's not a huge money-maker for most folks, and it only pays on a quarterly basis, but an aStore with high-priced items (leave the HDTVs to me, please ) might be worth the effort if you can attach it to a higher-traffic site.

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Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. If you like this posting, why not link to his blog or bookmark it as one of your favorites?

I hope all my US readers had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday. For many people this is basically the start of the Christmas season (although I think most stores put up Christmas decor the day after Halloween…) and today is a big shopping day in the US, so you might not be doing much to your AdSense sites over this long weekend. But we all have reasons to be thankful for many things in our lives, so don't forget to stop and think about that.

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Eric Giguere wrote Make Easy Money with Google, which is not the spammy get-rich book you might think it is, and is about to release (finally) Uncommon AdSense, a book aimed at more experienced AdSense publishers. And no, it won't be overpriced.

A reader pointed me to this WebmasterWorld thread (registration required) from an AdSense Premium publisher who normally makes between $50,000 and $100,000 a month in AdSense earnings. The publisher's been told by Google that $200,000 worth of invalid clicks have been attributed to his account and that they're going to be debiting his future earnings to recover the $200K.

Now, I know some of you are going to say I wish I had those kinds of problems, but we don't know how much of that $75K per month (on average) is profit. It's not unusual for sites at that end of the spectrum to spend a lot of money on traffic acquisition and on bandwidth/hosting costs. For example, they might spend say $25K on AdWords and other pay-per-click advertising to drive traffic to their sites. Earnings does not equal profits.

Despite the $200K chargeback, though, the publisher is still very positive about Google:

…if not for Google, I would have been making probably 1% of what I make without the changes and help they gave me. I thank Google to this day for giving me that opportunity…. I intend (and hope?!) to stay with Google Adsense, because quite honestly, they've treated me really well, given me some breaks, and helped me to help myself!

This chargeback comes shortly after Google made changes to its pricing algorithms to penalize poor quality sites, so I wonder if this is the first major example of a site falling prey to the new rules.

Sponsored Link: Try Build A Niche Store to add eBay listings to your site.

Eric Giguere wrote Make Easy Money with Google, which is not the spammy get-rich book you might think it is, and is about to release (finally) Uncommon AdSense, a book aimed at more experienced AdSense publishers. And no, it won't be overpriced.