Week 4: Done With Google AdSense | Best or Worst Idea

Week 4: Done With Google AdSense

March 1, 2026 · Week 4

Following along? Subscribe to Golf Spa Escapes and watch this experiment unfold.

What Happened This Week

I'm done with Google AdSense.

It's been a year. A full year of waiting for Google to get their act together. No approval, no communication, no timeline — nothing. Just silence. Google AdSense has been the most frustrating thing ever.

At this point it's not just slow — it's worthless. Literally worthless. The approval process is a black box, and even if you eventually get in, the CPMs are garbage unless you're pulling massive traffic. For someone trying to grow a content site from scratch, AdSense is not the answer.

So I'm moving on.

The Pivot

🔄 Promote My Own Brand Instead

Instead of waiting for Google to pay me pennies, I'm going to build out the Duck Hook Golf store and use those ad spots to promote my own brand.

Golf Spa Escapes readers are golfers. Duck Hook Golf sells golf apparel. The audience already overlaps perfectly. Why wait on Google when I can sell my own stuff to my own audience?

This is the move: cross-promote between my own properties instead of begging for third-party ad revenue.

Newsletter Update

The newsletter is slowly getting better, but still flat. No breakthrough yet. The redesigned landing page is live, but I need more time to see if the clearer value prop converts better than the old generic one.

Still enjoying the Sunday evening writing ritual. That hasn't changed.

What I Tried

✓ Continued publishing — Sunday evening ritual continues. Still enjoy writing these resort reviews regardless of the numbers.
✗ Google AdSense — Abandoned after a year of waiting. Zero communication. Moving on.
○ Duck Hook Golf store — Building it out to replace the ad spots. In progress.

Advice for Others

💡 Skip Google AdSense Entirely

If you're starting a content site, don't bother with Google AdSense. I waited a year. A full year. No approval, no communication, nothing. The review process is a black box and they clearly don't care about small publishers.

Better options:

  • Promote your own products
  • Affiliate programs (Expedia, Amazon, etc.)
  • Direct sponsors
  • Cross-promote your other brands

Anything is better than waiting on Google.

The Numbers

Newsletter slowly improving but still flat overall. Traffic holding steady. Revenue still at zero — but at least now I have a plan that doesn't depend on Google.

Metric This Week Change
Destinations Reviewed 63 +1
Monthly Traffic ~1,000 —
Newsletter Subscribers Slowly improving Still flat
Ad Revenue $0 AdSense abandoned

Week 4 Scoreboard

📊 Current Status

4 Week
63 Destinations
~1K Monthly Traffic
Flat Subscribers
$0 Revenue
✗ AdSense

What's Next

Get the Duck Hook Golf store live. Once it's ready, I'll swap out the empty AdSense spots for Duck Hook ads. My own brand, my own audience, my own revenue.

Keep publishing. Keep testing the new newsletter landing page. See if the slow improvement becomes real growth.

See you next Sunday.

Disclaimer: This is a personal experiment for entertainment and educational purposes. Results will vary. I'm documenting my actual experience growing a content site and newsletter — your results may be completely different. This is not business or financial advice.