Forum Moderators: martinibuster
"It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on the ads on your web pages. We have therefore disabled your Google AdSense account. Please understand that this step was taken in an effort to protect the interest of the AdWords advertisers.
A publisher's site may not have invalid clicks on any ad(s), including but not limited to clicks generated by a publisher on his own web pages, clicks generated through the use of robots, automated clicking tools, or any other deceptive software."
I admit I did click thru some ads to see what other people are using for landing pages and the like but no abuse from me anyway.
My sites only generated about 400 clicks to adsense per day anyway. How could I abuse it?
Anyway I can get reinstated. Adsense support just sent me a few template emails saying sorry.
Sucks that this happens to a honest small timer like me!
pattern recognition detected: message conforms to pattern alpha, first time poster, adsense ban.
Sucks that this happens to a honest small timer like me!
I think you should rethink your definition of honest.
I admit I did click thru some ads
There but by the grace of G go I..
Whom do you think paid for those little sneaky peeky looks at the ads' landing pages?
All you can do is explain exactly what you did and how stupid it was and beg for reconsideration.
It's no excuse to say "I was too curious to see the advertised website." OR to say "a few clicks a day won't harm anyone." That's nonsense.
It's kind of funny.
I've been a webmaster on my own now for 3 months and just got into the adsense/adwords game. Google's site isn't the easiest to figure out how to get started with ads so I thought I'd click thru to sites to see how they're promoting themselves with ads.
All I asked was if anyone knew how to appeal or get reinstated.
Google's site isn't the easiest to figure out how to get started with ads so I thought I'd click thru to sites to see how they're promoting themselves with ads
Well, think of it as a learning experience.
Now you'll know how serious it is to click your own ads and to read the terms you agree to before acting.
If you do a few searches, there have been a few threads about people getting reinstated. One from just a few days ago if you scroll down a bit in this forum.
It's not likely that you'll get reinstated, so your best course may be to look into other advertising networks for your site.
Clicking on your own ads is abuse. The integrity of AdSense is very important to those of us who rely on AdSense pingers. You make it worse for the rest of us when you click on your own ads, and that's why you're not receiving a warm welcome.
Ignorance of the terms and conditions is not an excuse. You did agree to the terms and conditions when you signed up for AdSense.
The technical answer: You must prove that it wasn't you that made the clicks. Don't try to tell that there were no invalid clicks. Google already knows it.
Psychological answer: Honestly admit that you knew what has happened and apologize(beg). Even don't request payment for several months until they see you're doing OK.
What I should have said is that I made a mistake of clicking my own ads on my pages to see how people are wording their ads and how their landing pages are setup.
yes I did agree to the terms of service although I really didn;t study them like most seem to do here. I'll chalk this up to a hard lesson learned and beg adsense support for forgiveness.
I'm a small timer, I get 20 clicks a day.
My sites only generated about 400 clicks to adsense per day anyway. How could I abuse it?
"Small time"? Get real.
I admit I did click thru some ads to see what other people are using for landing pages and the like but no abuse from me anyway.
According to the terms of service you're not supposed to click ANY ads for ANY reason.
My sites only generated about 400 clicks to adsense per day anyway. How could I abuse it?
You just explained why it happened, you violated the rules, surprised?
Sucks that this happens to a honest small timer like me!
No, what sucks is that you don't read the rules and then complain when you get busted.
What a great welcome. I post a question/problem to the biggest webmaster board in the world and all I get is sneers and insults?
First off, not trying to be insulting or snide, but the welcome you get for admitting you didn't read and abide by AdSense rules isn't our problem, it's yours. It's just hard to sympathize with someone that just does whatever they want, ignores the rules, and then complains when they get caught and want someone to help them undo the damage after the fact.
Had you read this forum before you started AdSense and heeded all the warnings not to click your own links you wouldn't be where you are. The value of this forum is the thousands of emails prior to this and all the experiences of others that have done this same thing over and over again, at least once a week this topic makes a recurrance. There's plenty here to learn from, too bad you missed it from the beginning.
yes I did agree to the terms of service although I really didn;t study them like most seem to do here. I'll chalk this up to a hard lesson learned and beg adsense support for forgiveness.
Well if you really didn't read them how could you agree to them? I don't see this as a defense. If you don't read every contract you ever sign you will be screwed big time eventually as people put sneaky things in contracts buying cars, houses and insurance so you should consider this a huge wake up call in general.
If I were you I'd read the AdSense terms from cover to cover before requesting being reinstated and busting more rules and being banned again, learn from the experience and move on.
Even if you didn't take the (normal) step of reading what you were signing, logically, you had to know that, at the most fundamental level, the publisher gets paid when people click. That's why you sign up for Adsense! SO, obviously, you know that if you click on the ads, someone on the other side has to be paying for it! And you're basically stealing that person's ad investment for your "curiosity." Give me a break.
Please let the verbal beating continue. I deserve it I guess.
Also, in effect you were stealing from advertisers - many advertisers that are in this forum. I am one and I don't see why I should pay for a webmaster to 'check' my ads when there is perfectly good tool out there - the Adsense Preview tool does everything, plus Google staff check the ads too.
With the internet there are two ways to learn a lesson - greed will take you down the hard path. That's where you are now. Next time you do anything, think of the consequence it has on others. Doing the right thing will not get you banned from Google. And in the rare case you do get banned for being good, it is the one path to getting reinstated (and it has happened exactly this way to people on this forum).
OK, this would get a little bit more sympathy from me. But 400 clicks per day within 3 months in a complaining tone? That would have invited me to bash your post too if I hadn't read your clarification.
Since this thread got off to a bad start, what you can do is to just scour the forum for many other similar threads on how to get back to Adsense. There are many good ones out there.
WOW. What a great welcome. I post a question/problem to the biggest webmaster board in the world and all I get is sneers and insults?
Kensav,
You have to understand that this forum is made up of webmasters who take AdSense very seriously. It is creating wealth for webmasters who might not otherwise have achieved it, and most hold themselves and others to a very high standard.
Additionally, many take it personally when one violates the terms of AdSense as it reflects poorly on publishers as a whole.
Finally, many on here are also AdWords users. When you click on an ad to view a destination page, you are defrauding the AdWords advertisers who is paying for that click.
Invalid clicks is the biggest danger facing AdSense and the future of the PPC industry. No one here wants to lose what they have worked so hard for.
As far as getting reinstated, in this forum at least, there is only one verified instance where a banned publisher got reinstated. (If memory serves correct)
I suggest that you contact AdSense, make your plea, and hope. If you do get reinstated, don't put any ads up until you have read both the TOS and the last 6 months of post on this forum in entirety.
Good luck to you.
As far as getting reinstated, in this forum at least, there is only one verified instance where a banned publisher got reinstated. (If memory serves correct)
Actually, there are three.
All of them were large Adsensers with a LONG history.
IMHO, the miracle of being re-instated only applies to publishers with those characteristics (and an EXTRA correct behaviour...)
I am afaid the OP has little chance of being re-instated.
don't put any ads up until you have read both the TOS and the last 6 months of post on this forum in entirety.
All of the last six months? Wow. That's a serious penance you're suggesting. Now, if you added walking on his knees three times around the Googleplex while repeating "I will not click my own ads" he might have a chance.
Seriously, though, this does not sound like one of the cases where reinstatement is even remotely likely.
So, you clicked on a few ads and got busted. As you now know, this is against Google's TOS and the reason for the ban in the first place. You are not likely to get your account reinstated.
I think your self-advice to move on and chalk it up to experience is probably the best advice anyone can offer.
Do bear in mind that in clicking on the ads you cost the original advertisers money. That's part of the reason why a few people here jumped on you ;-).
There are other contextual advertising engines coming to the market (and a few others already exist). I suggest you move on to one of those, read their TOS carefully this time, and a read through the forums here at WebmasterWorld will also point you in the right direction to increase the revenue you were getting with AdSense. Legitimately.
TJ
Google's site isn't the easiest to figure out how to get started with ads so I thought I'd click thru to sites to see how they're promoting themselves with ads.
Have you looked at other advertising programs at all? The Adsense TOS and instructions are quite a lot more user-freindly than many. The TOS for Adsense is actually quite short, clear and well written. Others seem to model themselves on the EULA you have to agree to to install M$ software that nobody ever reads.
Even on a quick scan of the TOS, it's quite obvious that clicking your own ads is forbidden.
Sorry you feel your welcome here wasn't what you expected. Unfortunately the chances of Google letting you back in are rather slim. Learn from the experience, and when the offerings from Y! and MSN appear, don't make the same mistake!
I messed up and I now know what I did. I made calls to Google for hours yesterday and today and wrote many emails. In this age I can't shake Larry Page and Sergey Brin's hands.
For all you people who crapped on me when I asked for help should think back about how businesses were developed back in the day and learn some. I have.
"Reinstated"
