Highest Paying Google AdSense Keywords Hoax

A friend sent me a list of supposedly highest paying keywords for contextual advertising. I wonder is this true or whether this is just a gimmick to make other people believe so... and me supporting the hype by reproducing it here? For your amusement the partial list is at the end of this article. (and don't be surprised if google actually serves you those ads matching those keywords.)

Assuming that whoever produced this list is correct, by looking at the data one can tell that NY and Chicago lawyers are willing to pay a lot of money to get a potential customer via online ads.

But can someone explain why mesothelioma is in the top rank? Is it because people are afraid to get it? Or is it because many people have it already?

Luckily Google doesn't allow porn ads, otherwise we would have been drowning in nasty ads, which probably would have had the highest click rate ever.

The list

Here is a partial list:

  $78.30 chicago personal injury lawyer
 $73.01 chicago personal injury attorney
 $69.17 lasik new york city
 $64.27 new york personal injury lawyer
 $64.17 new jersey car insurance
 $63.10 new york personal injury attorney
 $61.64 chicago personal injury lawyers
 $61.17 mesothelioma lawyers
 $60.74 atlanta personal injury lawyer
 $60.29 new york personal injury lawyers
 $59.00 lasik dallas
 $58.68 new york personal injury lawyers
 $58.38 miami personal injury attorney
 $58.25 what is mesothelioma
 $58.08 best equity loan
 $57.95 lasik new york
 $56.88 whole life insurance quote
 $56.75 new york car insurance
 [...]
 $53.46 whole life insurance quotes
 $53.42 car insurance in new jersey
 $53.12 las vegas personal injury lawyer
 $53.12 term life insurance quotes
 $52.57 mesothelioma treatments
 $52.41 equity loan rate
 $51.78 equity loan
 $51.50 new york personal injury lawyer
 $51.29 equity loan rates
 $51.15 fixed rate equity loan
 $50.54 causes of mesothelioma
 [...]
 $45.33 los angeles botox
 $45.07 new lasik
 $44.86 fixed equity loan
 $44.51 san diego personal injury attorney
 $44.19 125 equity loans
 $43.58 mesothelioma cases
 $43.57 car insurance in new york
 $42.97 equity refinance
 $42.70 asbestos and mesothelioma
 $42.52 auto insurance quote
 [...]
 $40.47 [cosmetic surgery los angeles]
 $40.04 personal injury attorney atlanta
 $39.67 car insurance california
 $39.66 oregon personal injury lawyer
 $39.43 auto insurance
 $39.35 albany personal injury lawyer
 $39.21 fixed equity loans
 $39.11 personal injury lawyers
 $38.84 ameriquest mortgage
 $38.31 auto insurance quotes
 $38.19 mortgage refinance
 $38.17 lump sum settlement
 $37.43 cause of mesothelioma
 [...]

I wonder whether I should research topics about lawyers and mesothelioma :)

Hoax Revealed

After receiving this list, I've googled for "Highest Paying Google AdSense Keywords" and apparently there is a lot of sites out there suggesting those words, most seem to concentrate on mesothelioma and lawyers but the prices seem to vary. I'm still puzzled how did they find out that information?

OK, I think I've figured it out: many of those sites seem to be a hoax. The source seem to be coming from: hxxp://www.cwire.org/highest-paying-search-terms/, but it will just trick you into clicking on some auto-generated content. Bad boy. No cookie.

Further search reveals more sites advertising similar hoaxes. Oh well, the nature of the internet -- you get both: the good and the less good.

One forum (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2301) has suggested something that may give you an idea on the subject of keywords, but this thread is very dated. For example it suggests to go to http://www.google.com/adwords and try bidding at words and see which one come with a high price tag. Another user suggested to use Overture http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool/.

But even that thread concludes that those techniques don't really work and suggests:

 You shouldn't be building pages for
AdSense. You should be putting
 AdSense ads on pages with lots of good content. Build the pages for
 the reader, optimize them for the Search Engines, then you will get
 visitors who are interested in the content and will be interested in
 the AdSense ads. That is how you get a good CTR and that is how you
 make money with AdSense.

and I totally agree with that