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What's an AdSense Premium Publisher?

I've been getting more and more traffic to my site and am now wondering whether instead of just being a Google AdSense publisher I could move into the world of "AdSense Premium Publisher"? What are the criteria and benefits?

Dave's Answer:

To get an answer for this question, I turned to my friend and colleague Lee Dodd, self-annointed Forum Jedi at The Forum Fix. Here's what Lee had to share regarding his own brush with Premium Publisher status:

Great question, but the answer might not be quite what you expect, so I'd like to try to clarify a bit about Google Adsense Premium Publishers because, in my opinion, the information on the site doesn't really answer your questions about this program.

First of all, I am not a premium publisher nor will I ever be most likely. I am a part of Google's "Special Adsense Optimization Team", however (that's an unofficial name).

I do have an account manager at Google that I can call / email. There are benefits to of the Optimization Team program that regular AdSense users don't ever see, such as the ability to use creative ad formats, put more than three ad units per page, more ads per ad unit, and so on.

I do not however make a bigger commission percentage, nor will they share with me the percentage of the PPC ad payment I earn. It's just as much a mystery to me as everyone else, frankly.

The very first call I had with my account manager I grilled him all the questions I ever wanted to ask Google about Adsense. I had him explain how this Optimizer program was something new and was invite only. I had him explain how it wasn't the premium publisher program and why it wasn't.

He said the premium publisher program is for very large publisher, b but that the 20 million page views required for admission isn't a concrete number. The examples of premium publisher he gave were AOL and CNN. Very large sites, getting huge traffic.

They also get the benefits I do, but the difference is that they have a signed contract with Google.

He explained that premium publisher negotiate their price - so to speak - with Google, and that the process usually takes weeks or even months, then a set pay rate is established and a contract signed. It is a major ordeal according to my Google rep.

After hearing that, I was very pleased to be in the position I was in and glad that I could move on and quit dreaming of being an Adsense Premium Publisher. :)

Lee, thanks for sharing that inside scoop on both Premium Publishers and the Optimization Team. I want to be in the latter group now! :-)

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Comments

Lee says the Optimizer program is new and by invitation only. Is it known what triggered the invite? Is this something that Google plans to expand?

Posted by: Jim Prescott at February 1, 2006 8:20 AM

Hi Dev,
IF i have a Brand new which is Still Not Indexed then can i use Google Adsense.

Posted by: Saurabh at September 18, 2006 6:24 AM

Hello,

I recently read somewhere that you get more premium features if your page views cross 20 million per month?

I run http://www.scrabulous.com where users can play Scrabble online and I get about a million views a month. So if I increase traffic by 20 times, can I expect to be a Google Premium Publisher?

Posted by: JA at November 20, 2006 8:26 AM

I have just been invited to a "program", they didnt specify; I was thrilled, but I just went thru the 20 million per month, over $1000 monthly. So I guess, that triggers it.

Posted by: Luis at January 25, 2007 7:23 PM

Man, never knew that premium publishers get lesser amount for every click!!!

One of my sites has millions of views but am not a premium publisher.

Posted by: Chetan at May 15, 2008 3:21 AM

Does this program have more benefits than the normal one?

Does it mean that a premium publisher's account will not be disabled?

Posted by: miro at July 5, 2008 12:37 PM

Hmm... 20 million pageviews a month? At eCPM of $4, that would be $80,000 a month! (Just an example with made-up numbers.) So, Lois' site must be getting an eCPM of 4.5 cents! That can't be. If I had 20 million pageviews a month, I'd make over a million dollars a year.

Posted by: Map at December 5, 2008 9:22 AM

"The very first call I had with my account manager I grilled him all the questions I ever wanted to ask Google about Adsense. I had him explain how this Optimizer program was something new and was invite only. I had him explain how it wasn't the premium publisher program and why it wasn't."

That's great but you failed to relay to us why this Optimizer program was something new and was invite only.

Way to get us all hot and bothered, just to have us take a cold shower...

Posted by: joe at February 3, 2009 1:17 AM

Dave you shouldn't quit dreaming of being an Adsense Premium Publisher coz I've seen a blogger Labnol.org who is an adsense premium publisher. You could be the next. Don't loose hope...carry on ...I'm too expecting the same.

Posted by: Mohit at May 18, 2009 8:24 PM

So in order to become a premium publisher, I need my alexa rank to be in top 100 or I should have a million pages view per day.

I'm now hopeless to become one. I saw a lot of premium publishers and so jealous of them. Like CNET, Labnol, and other websites. T___T

But still, If you'll become an accidental billionaire and follow the course which facebook took, I think there's still a chance to have a "BIG" site and become a premium publisher. There are still a lot of opportunities in the world wide web that were not yet discovered or unveiled, let's just hope that we can find one. :D

Posted by: Jehzeel Laurente at August 10, 2009 9:34 AM

What happened to:

"Lee Dodd, self-annointed Forum Jedi at The Forum Fix."

The website is down. The latest thing I could find on it is:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070118160100/www.forumtrends.com/

Posted by: Dave at September 15, 2009 6:46 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!