There’s much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the American side of the pond this morning as several horrified Adwords advertisers wake up to discover they’ve been hit with a huge hike in their minimum bids. I’m not sure as yet if the UK has been similarly affected, cos noboby there has got up yet! *Update* - Yep the UK is affected too! Check out the A4UForum thread on this.

There’s a couple of threads running over at DigitalPoint and WebMasterWorld with the usual (understandable) emotional outpourings that accompany Google’s decisions of an affiliate-crushing nature.

Having read the threads, I was actually quite surprised this was new news to the chaps affected. Us UK types vented our spleens on this one last November in a thread over at A4UForum (this is worth a read if you have been affected and are looking for some workarounds). Could it be that only changes affecting Arbitrage pages have been actioned stateside? I’m unsure. *edit* It seems that this must be an “improvement” to the last algo update to mop up some activity they didn’t wipe out with the last update.

This time I’m viewing this episode from the outside. What I really find interesting about the way people react to these kind of updates is the feverish hysteria that can actually lead to you missing the point when someone in the know tells you exactly what has gone on and why. Good old Keiron Of UKOffer fame (gosh, I must have a crush on him this week). Has jumped right into the fray and told them straight what’s happening. Very few people have paid any attention to him so far…. they’re far too intent on their distress at their situation, and their irritation at what they see as yet another pointless and possibly flawed Google Adwords algo change.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not criticising these poor blighters. I know I’ve done exactly the same and worse in the past when good old Google has chucked me one of life’s curve balls. Ask my other half. He’s the poor sod who’s got to deal with me in my moments of stress. He deserves a bravery medal just for remaining in the house with me some days . Having feverishly checked my account this morning, I’m totally unaffected. Phew! For the first time ever, this has left me in a situation where I can calmly appraise the situation rather than my usual attempt to reach orbit without the aid of a space vessel.

The main lesson I personally take from this new-found perspective is that it’s important to approach these seemingly disastrous changes calmly and with a bit of a “C’est La Vie” attitude. Easy for me to say I hear you cry? Well yes, it is. But I’ve been hit right in the guts by a seemingly career-ending Google decision more times than I care to recall. Each and every time I’ve managed to recoup at least 60% of my losses within 6 to 8 weeks. Terror is a great motivator for me personally. If only I was that focussed all the time!

After my various experiences I can honestly say the best reaction to this has to be “Right. It’s happened. Lets get past the annoyance and work out what to do about it.” The clues are always easy to find. It’s just a question of being calm enough to see them.

Good luck to everyone affected… I know exactly how you feel right now.

So will I be able to take my own good advice next time Google surgically removes 50% of my income? Will I F*ck as like!!

Keiron has now kindly written an article on his blog about how to create adwords landing pages that won’t get banned. Nice one!

I read about this first on James Omdahl’s blog. Thanks James