Forum Moderators: martinibuster
i am trying to do everything above the board and white hat as possible, and i have read the adsense TOS several times. others have claimed to do the same but have still managed to get their accounts yanked.
does google insta-cancel for large adsense accounts, and if so, any guesstimates as to where the deviding line might be. i realize that this is highly speculative, just wanted to see if anybody has any opinions about this.
or, have any of you with larger accounts ever been approached by google with a problem that they asked you to resolve?
it's difficult making business decisions with the threat of a looming account closure always hovering overhead.
it's difficult making business decisions with the threat of a looming account closure always hovering overhead.
Play fair and you'll have an AS account for years to come, it's that simple.
Remember that in this forum a lot of the "I've been booted but did nothing wrong" posters have subsequently been found to be breaching the TOS by asking visitors to click ads etc.
Some are genuinely booted in error, and we have even seen Google re-instate webmasters upon investigation. However, both of these events are pretty rare.
There is a lot of paranoia here about getting booted. Play by the rules, and check with Adsense if you need clarifications, then being booted is pretty unlikely.
Still, economic realities probably enter into the equation, too:
- If a site that's generating $10 a day in revenues has a couple of "invalid click" episodes, it may not be worth Google's while to figure out whether the publisher is cheating. It may be simpler to say "We can't afford the account overhead" and send out a farewell e-mail. That's likely to be especially true if the site is in a niche where fraud, revenge clicks, competitive clicks, etc. are rampant.
- With an account that's generating hundreds of dollars (or more) per day, figuring out what's going on is likely to be worth Google's while. (It's like anything else: Firing the receptionist on the front desk is an easier decision than firing your top sales rep who's earning a million bucks a year for the company.)
Probably the best way to avoid a dismissal notice (aside from not violating the TOS) is to have a clean, useful site that will pass the "smell test" if Google ever reviews it or raises the bar for participation in the network. If a site has quality content and would have a reason to exist without AdSense, it's more likely to get the benefit of the doubt than a site that looks shady, consists mostly of ads, or is overoptimized for AdSense.
it's difficult making business decisions with the threat of a looming account closure always hovering overhead.
Why is it difficult?
Run your business the way you want and whatever happens you roll with the punches.
There was life before Google and there will be life after Google.
It's obvious you've never accepted credit cards for online purchases as the credit card companies treat each chargeback a big red flag, they start holding a percentage of your funds in "escrow" without interest, and when sufficiently alarmed can just cancel your account with all your hard earned CASH in limbo for months. Not to mention they can hold up certain transactions that they find "alarming" at any time meaning your cashflow is always at their mercy.
AdSense by comparison is a walk in the park.
I'm pretty certain it looks for patterns and overlooks one off accidents and incidents.
its the third-party fraud that i am concerned about, for example a person clicking on a competitors ads on MY sites to cause harm to the competitor - my adsense account would just be collateral damage. i havent noticed any of this behavior, but i am concerned about it.
my worry is not in the form of anxiety that keeps me awake, but rather it is good old-fashioned business concern. when you are running a business, i think its best to recognize all the threats to your business, be as prepared for them as possible.
Why is it difficult?Run your business the way you want and whatever happens you roll with the punches.
thats a great philosophy if you are running a hobby site and you invest some spare time in it to earn a little supplemental income.
but, if you are earning substantial revenue and investing resources into your sites, the issue becomes more complex. by honing my webmastering and publishing skills, i am improving my effiency, largely with the help of these fora. the time i spend on my sites yields money, and there are different approaches i can take to earn that money.
time that i spend on a site that is performing well on adsense, is time that i am NOT spending on another site earning money in a different way. there is an opportunity cost.
whenever you make an investment in your site, whether it be your time, or paying for professional copywriting or advertising, i believe that it is most prudent to analyze the situtation. before i invest any time or money, i like to determine when i should expect to make my investment back. it seems to me that any serious webmaster ought to think like this to optimize their output.
the analysis of my adsense sites is very straightforward, and i find that despite the ups and downs (have been a adsense publisher for almost two years), adsense revenue is surprisingly predictable in my niches. the only major uncertainty that i perceive is the "google closed my account for no reason" threat.
It's obvious you've never accepted credit cards for online purchases as the credit card companies treat each chargeback a big red flag, they start holding a percentage of your funds in "escrow" without interest, and when sufficiently alarmed can just cancel your account with all your hard earned CASH in limbo for months.
i do accept credit cards, so i am not quite sure where your comment came from. but thank you for pointing out other uncertainties in business. i can add others to the list of business threats such as a terrorist strike that diverts attention away from most websites, or a natural disaster.
i consider these other unpredictables to be minor and/or temporary. an account closure, however, is an immediate and permanent end to the adsense component of your business. thats why i just wanted to guage other member's analyses of the threat.
thats why i just wanted to guage other member's analyses of the threat.
Please note that many active members on this forum who used Adsense since it started are still in the program to this day. It is not as dire a situation as others would like everyone to believe.
Also bear in mind that many, though not all, of those who claimed to have been kicked out were eventually found to be violating the TOS. Not all who were kicked out are innocent.
As long as you make sure that you read and follow the TOS very carefully, then you minimize the risk of losing your account. For external threats (eg competitor sabotaging your account), be vigilant of your account for highly unusual activity; be prepared to dialogue with them on a professional basis and be willing to substantiate your claim of innocence (eg log files, etc.).
[edited by: alika at 4:05 pm (utc) on May 16, 2005]
thats a great philosophy if you are running a hobby site and you invest some spare time in it to earn a little supplemental income.
It's a great philosophy no matter what you do as running a business that you don't enjoy out of fear of repercussions from everyone and everything just isn't worth the time of day.
My site isn't a hobby site, it a substantial income maker, it has industry buzz, but I don't sit and worry about AdSense's digestive system and what might or might not give them heartburn. I continue to build the best site I think my visitors will want the same way I have since 1997 before AdSense or Google was ever heard of and hopefully AdSense will reward those efforts.
If I get dumped, I still have other sources of income on the site, c'est la vie. If you don't have advertising diversification and losing AdSense is the end of your income then you're just flirting with disaster and need to focus more on diversifying your income.
