Forum Moderators: martinibuster
First time poster here, but long time reader.
Bad new : just received a mail from Google that i was kicked out from AdSense, saying the TOS was violated.
I have absolutely no clue why. My site is about the automotive business and averages around 1500 - 2000 visitors per day, with around 30000 pageviews per day. It averaged about $10 per day income from AdSense, which is a nice extra on monthly basis but certainly not something to get rich from.
I quite liked the program, i strictly followed the Google rules, used their channels, their palette possibilities to blend in the ads nicely. I even mailed them to ask if it was ok to put ads in our image gallery because of the Copyright stuff? I got a reply back saying it was ok because the images were taken by me and there was no Copyright issue.
I never clicked my own ads. I ran the program since end of February 2006, it got about 100 clicks per day on Google Content ads, a clickthrough of about 4-5% (ads not shown on all pages). If anything, then i'd say 2-3 clicks in total of the thousands generated since i started were from me, due to testing or just mis-clicks. I don't run robot software either.
I also ran Google Search which got a very high ctr, sometimes up to 50%. I wondered about that once in a while but never changed it. It wasn't me using the search so ...
I'm sitting here feeling i have done nothing wrong, staring at the mail from Google saying the money goes back to the advertizers. I have sent them a very polite mail saying what i've said here and asked for more info. I feel like i've done nothing wrong but still got kicked out.
I am thinking the "spam" theory, I will try to elaborate about that but I will say that I am not really convinced.
Google checks the referrers of your pages, and is able to recognize the referral from mails read in webmail systems (mail.yahoo.com, gmail.com etc.)
So, your site usually has a 0.5% of webmail referrers.
Plus, referrals from links in mail clients are also typical, (empty). Your site usually has a 5% of empty referrals (empty referrals are not rare anyway)
Then, you send those 60.000 emails.
In 24 hours, you get a spike of traffic (let's say, 10 times the usual traffic) that is entirely made of webmail referrals or empty referrals. The webmail referrals + empty referrals get close to 90%.
This triggers a flag in your account: clicks are automatically discounted (bump of traffic, no real earnings increase) but you are not banned yet.
BUT some of the users report your email as spam. After a few days, a guy from Google checks your account, sees the red flag, decides you were really spamming and bans you.
All this VERY hypothetical, I know.....
I'm interested that you got the email that talked about TOS violations rather than the "Invalid Clicks" email. There must be a clue there - e.g. nothing to do with a few accidental clicks by you.
The site has about 60000 registered visitors, that received a newletter last week because of a completely redone layout. That gave a nice bump in visitors but no real rise in AdSense earnings.
The use of email in marketing one's website requires the same care that one would take in placing AdSense on a website: you must do nothing that would bring attention to the ads and cannot place ads in the email. This would be a TOS violation as opposed to the dreaded *invalid clicks*. Maybe the explanation of the website's "redone layout" mentioned ads? ...or something else?
Therefore, the odd illegal click or a single complaint are hardly likely to conclude in being removed from the AdSense programme, unless the latter has a valid reason relating to breaking TOS.
Reasons such as having adult content, competetive contextual adverts, advert only pages, or abuse by means of self clicking beyond doubt are examples that lead to being removed from AdSense.
I reported many site with ridiculous TOS violations, like "Please, click on my ads" or a big red blinking arrow pointing to the ads.
They are all still online, showing ads and stealing money from advertises and honest publishers.I can’t see a company that doesn't manually check fraud reports doing Gmail data mining to find any violation or banning someone for a spam report.
Me too, I reported many sites and they are still online, breaking Adsense TOS, asking visitors to click on ads etc. They were not banned.
I'm here again. Thanks for the many replies. First of all i *do* understand the point of view from the ones who say that sending to 60000 subscribers might be considered spam. It really isn't, because these people registered themselves and they *always always* get an unsubscribe link in the newsletter. Not a "please wait 7 days before we remove you" and send another 2 mails in those 7 days, nope: it's immediate removal.
I repeat: that unsubscribe link is *always* there and it's *immediate*. I treat visitors the way i want to be treated as receiver of other newsletters.
As for the content of the mail Google sent i think it is pretty standard, it contains the typical stuff that i read from other people being kicked. The specifically mentioned me clicking my own ads (nope), using a clicking robot or software to automate clicks (nope).
I immediately sent them a very polite mail saying "look, i know you probably get a lot of mails from people who are trying to get back in but i would like to ask you to treat my mail properly because i feel i have done nothing wrong."
I got a reply back saying they take invalid clicks really serious but they gave me a chance to defend my case. I think their mail contained little over 10 questions about me, my site, how it works, my publisher id, who works on the site, an explanation for invalid clicks and how it's promoted.
I told them that we have 2 strategic partnerships with other automotive sites and our newsletters. I told them that a newsletter was sent out, that it caused a spike in traffic but that it *always* does that.
I would like to point out that this mail didn't contain *any* mentioning about the ads or clicking on them.
I replied to their question with as many details as i could find and sent it to them. I got a reply back saying they will investigate and let me know the result. They said that in case of "no" it would remain "no" forever, and any further appeal would be ignored.
What happens with "yes" i don't know. A new publisher id? What about the amount i had already built up? I was expecting a first cheque and at $10 per day i already had enough half April for another cheque.
If they examine the clicks they'll see that they're from ip addresses all over the world. Google Analytics shows that. I have held nothing in the story back. I don't care if i get kicked, there's brick and mortar shops advertizing on my site who pay for the hosting anyway. I'd consider it a shame because i feel the AdLinks blocks integrate nicely with sites.
I am relatively new to AdSense, but I can't believe that Google actually wants to remove customers. To the contrary, it is in their interests to do this as a last resort to maintain their integrity.
However, it is also in their interest to remove customers who are (or seem to be) high risk. As they have so many customers (publishers), the loss of a few (potentially) high risk customers isn't going to hurt them ... unless in protest, fewer publishers (and advertisers) sign up, and existing ones leave.
Therefore, the odd illegal click or a single complaint are hardly likely to conclude in being removed from the AdSense programme, unless the latter has a valid reason relating to breaking TOS.
Odd illegal click, maybe not. Single complaint, perhaps, especially if it comes from a trusted source.
TurboBoost, that sounds very promising!
Please keep us posted about your case.
Best of luck!
I specifically e-mailed Google if it was ok to run ads on these pages because of the Copyright statement in their TOS. I told them that the images are mine, i have *every single image* in the original resolution burnt on cd to prove it.
They said it was ok to run ads on these pages because as owner there is no Copyright issue to deal with. Of course these ads don't make much sense there because there's hardly any text on a page with a full-size image. They made up little or no percentage of my daily earnings as a result.
Re-reading your comments i think this is what happened:
- an automated system saw the spike in traffic
- it disabled my account and sent the mail
From then on it's human interaction, if a publisher complains via mail, humans look into it. I wonder why i had to give details like my name, website url and publisher id? I mean, at least publisher id is a primary key in one of their database tables surely? :-)
The kick wasn't immediate either. I sent out the newsletter a week before i was kicked. There seems to be a 2 days average response time to get mails back and forth to them. I got confirmation that they received the answers to their questions today. So if there's no verdict tomorrow then most likely beginning of next week.
I'll keep you informed.
Re-reading your comments i think this is what happened:- an automated system saw the spike in traffic
- it disabled my account and sent the mail
I really don't think this is the case. Like another poster said, why should getting a surge of traffic cause an automatic red flag? I run a news site and when we post exclusives, every site and their mothers link to us and cause an explosion in traffic for about a day or two (earnings also skyrocket, though).
Thankfully, I have kept in Google's good graces by following the TOS, being honest, and running a quality content-driven site. They have even sent me warnings before about possible TOS violations and I've taken care of them with no trouble (drawing undue attention to ads is a common problem, I hear).
I would suggest removing ads from your image pages - they have extremely poor CTR, poor relevance, and drag down your overall earnings.
I would also venture to say that Google is probably quite careful in determining what accounts to disable. It would seem to me that you'd have to do something egregiously wrong (with or without knowing it) for them to disable you. Unfortunately, if you go by what is often posted here at WebmasterWorld, they're in the habit of not explaining or offering evidence for their reasons.
As long as you are on the up and up, and it sounds like you are, hopefully your honest answers will help G understand what happened and that you didn't intentionally try to defraud anyone.
1. Getting kicked out a few days after the email thing is suggestive, but it could still be something else, even from some time ago. There seems to be a spate of people getting kicked out around mid-month, and my interpretation is that this is due to Google doing some kind of audit on the previous month's traffic for each publisher before cutting the check.
2. Having an unsubscribe link does not make it not spam. I don't know how you manage your email database so I'm not implying anything beyond that. But having an unsubscribe link does not make an email legit, and from a more practical point of view it doesn't mean people won't report it as spam. Nobody unsubscribes from spam; they report it to their ISP.
I never send any emails to anyone.
But, who is going to stop members from recommending my site to their friends, families, etc?
It's been almost 2 weeks since I was kicked from AdSense and appealed with Google. I haven't heard from them but today I noticed the ads on my site are back (I hadn't taken them offline yet) and I can login to my AdSense account again.
So unless this is a temporary hickup in their system it seems they let me back in. My previous earned amount is still there as well.
So I'm expecting a mail from Google saying things are ok. If I haven't received a mail from them by mid next week I will mail them myself to verify things are back ok.
If they confirm then I will take a more pro-active approach with them, letting them know of changes and mailouts that will increase pageviews.
Anyways , this is good News!
I am with adsense for over a year now and I never clicked on my own ads, Never.
And see how thankful they are;-)
[webmasterworld.com...]
That makes the forum less valuable for most users.
Though I suspect the disinformers think they are doing themselves some kind of favor by screwing the unsuspecting.
Sad really, this used to be a great place to learn about Adsense. I would no longer recommend this forum to new Adsense users.
you work for Google Policy Department? You have documented proof of this? Or is this yet another of your "off the top of your head" sweeping personal opinions?
And see how thankful they are;-)
[webmasterworld.com...]yeah, I guess it was a major exchange rate screw up. Can't really blame them, it's not just me. :)
you work for Google Policy Department? You have documented proof of this? Or is this yet another of your "off the top of your head" sweeping personal opinions?
Your tone of conversation is very rude. Who I work for is none of your business.
"Sad really, this used to be a great place to learn about Adsense. I would no longer recommend this forum to new Adsense users."
Either I am too naive to understand this or I am one of the thugs you are talking about;-)
Ken, could you please clarify this, if needed in a new thread?
:)
