Yea, I noticed that too. Bizarre indeed.

But I'm pretty sure ANY new category, sensitive or not, is allowed by default.

I don't know how long it's been since it was added, but I know I need to check more often now.

Thanks... Blocked.

Thanks for the heads up!

Thanks. Blocked!

and why would you block it?

I rather have quality ads to quality services on my web pages.

and why would you block it?

Because it's off topic crap for most sites and a topic many might find offensive.

Because it's off topic crap for most sites and a topic many might find offensive.

No less, or more, crap/offensive than main stream religions. And no more, or less, off topic than the adverts that follow people around, or the general off topic adverts that appear all over the place.

Block them if you wish, but they pay well. I once ran an esoteric site for someone and it paid £1+ per click.(and pays more than the Religion category)

I'd rather have them on my site than mobile-phone, fat-belly, auction houses, price comparison adverts.

Astrology offensive? Some people are easily offended it seems.

Thanks for the heads up.

There's astrology, and there's *internet ad* astrology.

personally not a fan of either, but one can be significantly worse than the other

@JCKline

Thanks for the post.

No less, or more, crap/offensive than main stream religions. And no more, or less, off topic than the adverts that follow people around, or the general off topic adverts that appear all over the place.

Block them if you wish, but they pay well. I once ran an esoteric site for someone and it paid £1+ per click.(and pays more than the Religion category)

I'd rather have them on my site than mobile-phone, fat-belly, auction houses, price comparison adverts.

I understand your point Lame_Wolf, but If I can block the garbage served up I will. I block all "sensitive" categories, mainly because one of my earning sites is geared toward children, and the other is no where near on topic for any of the categories. IBAs are annoying enough.

Block them if you wish, but they pay well. I once ran an esoteric site for someone and it paid £1+ per click.(and pays more than the Religion category)

I'd rather have them on my site than mobile-phone, fat-belly, auction houses, price comparison adverts.

Yes, I blocked the new category, and yes I block all those other ones. At the end of the day they might pay well, but they are all crap. I think I can spare a couple of dollars a month and not have them.

I block all "sensitive" categories, mainly because one of my earning sites is geared toward children,

No wonder why you are always complaining about low earnings. One, because of the total block, and two, geared towards children.

Apart from putting my Adsense account at risk by having them on a childrens site (click on anything that moves, and anything that doesn't.) But also because children are known not to be huge online spenders. (Mainly due to the fact they are too young for a credit card.)

Yes, I blocked the new category, and yes I block all those other ones.

That is good news. More to have on my sites. I've blocked as many Christian sites as possible, but will happily have these on there.

No wonder why you are always complaining about low earnings. One, because of the total block, and two, geared towards children.

Apart from putting my Adsense account at risk by having them on a childrens site (click on anything that moves, and anything that doesn't.) But also because children are known not to be huge online spenders. (Mainly due to the fact they are too young for a credit card.)

Just to clarify, the site geared toward children "teaches" children and requires adult help. This being said, CTR is high and clicks average 1-3 dollars. Traffic isn't that high because it's a newer site, but is climbing. I complain about the high traffic site that used to earn much more...over 50% more, while traffic continues to climb.

Thanks for clarifying, JCKline.

Not all children are the same as my daughter got a job as early as possible and had a debit card for her checking account, they aren't all a bunch of slackers that don't have money to spend.

Plus, she sometimes used my credit card or shopped where I had an account like amazon

However overall you're probably correct that kids don't spend but they do get parents to spend a bunch thus all the TV ads targeting kids

Not all children are the same as my daughter got a job as early as possible and had a debit card for her checking account.

What age is your daughter? I class children as people of 12 and under. 13-19, teenagers/young adults.

Anyone under 18 typically doesn't have a credit card, nor can they enter legally binging agreements which can come back to bite you, which is where I draw the line.

Anyone under 18 typically doesn't have a credit card, nor can they enter legally binging agreements which can come back to bite you, which is where I draw the line.

Which is why I said...But also because children are known not to be huge online spenders. (Mainly due to the fact they are too young for a credit card.)

Let's get back on topic now :)

Thanks for the note that there are new sensitive categories.

Blocked it - should be blocked by default or at least have an option to block new ones they imagine.

Don't need crap ads, I'm in it for the long run and then crap ads make my site look like crap.

Don't need crap ads, I'm in it for the long run and then crap ads make my site look like crap.

You will find crap adverts in all categories, not just the sensitive ones.

You will find crap adverts in all categories, not just the sensitive ones.

Agree, and I'd love to have a better means to fight it, but Google doesn't give it all that easy.

One of the things I do is to not display adsense on all page hits - so that I don't use up the relevant ads in my niche. Used to be relatively simple to gage how much I needed to back off. But thanks to the !#$%^ interest based ads I'm essentially blind there.
An indication but it's hard to read is how the CPC evolves during the day if it drops low near the end of the google day -> odds are the good ones are gone by then.

Another I do is block loads of advertisers in the review center - but it's a whack-a-mole game.

What I'd like to have:
- turn off interest based - foolish concept IMHO
- minimum bid (below that: do not display any ads
- negative keywords I can set: e.g. anything talking about "free": be gone!
- ability to block ads that are built using "templates" (where the keyword is inserted in the template)
they are very nonsensical when they use "buy {keyword}!" where keyword is something you cannot buy or own (e.g. the sky, the USA, the white house, ... ) .
- better standards for advertisers (e.g. ads that lead to websites promoting browser bars, really ?)
I'd love a publisher and/or visitor rating system for advertisers:
- give me the ability to block the advertisers that get a low rating (no matter how much $ they want to spend)

I've contemplated a few times to turn off adsense completely as well. And go purely for selling some amazon books that are on topic - I'll take a serious hit money wise. I've experimented with it and some areas of the site have switched to not display adsense anymore at all.
Problem so far is that the home page yields most in adsense and anything I've tried for affiliate sales works poorly there for some reason.

That's probably because in order to do affiliate stuff properly, you can't just set it and forget it - you have to actually *sell* the product, like write a review, or explain how you're using it, or some such. You only get paid if someone actually buys, so just putting an ad up and expecting more than a curiosity click is probably unrealistic in most cases.

I'd like to have all those things too, but I'm only ever going to get them on direct ads where I do all the work.

The real problem I have with this whole sensitive category mess is it's all or none and if you run a variety of sites with diametrically opposed audiences you can't make some squeaky clean and others show it all. The only way you can do this is by creating more than one AdSense account with isn't permitted unless you create more than one legal entity and assign the accounts to each entity.

Total PITA and short-sighted on their part.

@incrediBILL, you can block sensitive ad categories by site in the ad review center. You need to allow them all under "All my sites" on the left menu in "Allow and block ads". Then click on each URL, click the "Sensitive categories" tab and block/allow them there, for each URL.

It doesn't work if you don't allow them all in "All my sites" first.

I knew this was coming - read about it on the astrology pages couple weeks back. :)