Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Has anyone managed to convince Google to re-activate an account or can anyone suggest an approach to getting Google to let me back into the program?
it is very frustrating --- i mean it would be different if i was trying to rip them off --- but it's quite the opposite. A completely genuiine error that i'm sure many first time AdSense members must have stumbled over.
So have new relationship with google once again in your new website. You should be carefull this time. Google is very very strict in implementing their TOS. They are stright forward. Better don't give any chance for mis-understandings.
I mean, 'to test the system'? The system is used by thousands of people: IT DOES NOT NEED YOUR TESTING.
I'm sorry to say: but it's your own fault...
You violated the Terms Of Agreement, after declaring NOT to. The fact that you tell them 'not to do it again' is really nice of you, but it's Google's right NOT to take that into knowledge, right?
So... I still think it is your own fault. I think it's good that you don't give up, but i also think you made a big mistake clicking your own ads, and that you just got what was coming...
Any decent business allows for mistakes, and implements policies to account for these. In the case of Google, they are being, in my humble opinion, heavy handed.
There seems to be a lot of cases like this, especially from the relatively smaller sites. I'd hazard a guess that most people end up clicking on their own ads to see what sites they are linking to, which is natural human curiosity.
With AdSense's growing popularity there are loads of people entering the ad publishing arena for the first time and aren't conditioned yet to not click on their own ads. Also, they may not initially comprehend the link back to the advertiser paying for the click.
An option to put the adverts in to test mode would solve a lot of these issues I think. Or a section in the control panel that allows you to enter a list of IP addresses for which clicks are ignored. That way you can test to your hearts content and also take care of anyone you think is maliciously clicking on your ads.
There have been quite a few 'first time posters' whose opening message has been that they've been kicked off AdSense, so similar posts are bound to draw the ire of some members. I'm starting to think that perhaps in addition to Google requiring people to read the AdSense TOS they should also be required to spend a day reading the entire WW AdSense forum before signing up. It's a wonderful cross-section here of the ups and downs, highs and lows, pitfalls and heady heights of the AdSense program.
As to your question about re-instatement, I'm not sure I recall any people managing to get back in from perceived fraudulent clicks. It seems that you first need to get past the 'form replies' (which in itself is a tough task) and actually communicate with a real person, but even then I presume it would be hard to convince them otherwise. Failing that, the only other thing I can think of is to try again under a different account, different name, different domain name etc., but some here have even suggested that this would need to go all the way down to even using a different computer. Not a nice propostition.
If you truly, honestly believe that it was a once off, honest mistake, all I can suggest is to keep perservering with the correspondence and see if that gets you anywhere - and be professional and courteous at all times, even when you want to throttle someone.
Hopefully some others might have more to add.
Good luck,
2odd...
About a month later I emailed them again, very apologetic (and sincere) and asked if I could try again. I explained that we had revamped our site policies completely to make sure they all complied with their ToS.
They reviewed it, accepted our apology and reapproved it.
They replied with a weird copy/paste message about something they didn't like on my page. I "fixed" it, replied and my login worked again in a half hour. I never was told what happened to the investigation.
In 2003, I did 5 figures in both AdWords and AdSense, so I think they took into account that I had a business relationship with them.
Sorry to hear about you getting kicked out, hopefully you can convince Google to let you back in.
A single click?
Mind you, I'm not saying 1 click is okay. It's not and it's foolish and wrong, but still - I have to ask - is the record in this area '1 bad click and you're out'?
1 click?
From a certain point of view that's a brilliant rule - of sorts. It sends one helluva message about intolerance for fraud. Fine, I like such messages, but as a lawyer who has seen everything I've got to ask: Is it ever possible that 1 click might come from a publisher's 5 year old child - sitting looking at daddy's website, left up on the screen whilst daddy is making oatmeal for his little girl for breakfast - who at that moment was delighted to randomly mouseover and click 'those blue word thingies?' OR the new and improved graphic images.
Somebody tell me that it's not all about '1 click and you're out'.
Did you, Phillo, actually click more than once?
Somebody tell me that it's not all about '1 click and you're out'.
I think it is a combination of:
1- Being only in the program for 7 days.
2- I am guessing a low number of clicks as to make 1 click stand out.
IMHO, one click will not get you in trouble. In fact, the other day I clicked on one of the ads by mistake and I am still around. Then again 1 click is an insignificant number compared to the number of clicks in my account.
Taking my educated guess even further, maybe the type of click even plays a part as any webmaster knowledgeable about the topics shown in his/her site can tell which are the money clicks, and the one I clicked by mistake was surely one of those $0.05 keywords.
An option to put the adverts in to test mode would solve a lot of these issues I think. Or a section in the control panel that allows you to enter a list of IP addresses for which clicks are ignored. That way you can test to your hearts content and also take care of anyone you think is maliciously clicking on your ads.
That's such a good idea that I'm going to repeat it to increase the chances that ASA sees it. I would have loved and used that when I first started.
MQ
I wouldn't be surprised if there is a probationary period for the first 7 or 14 days where an account is watched to see if any clicks are coming from the same IP that is used to login to the AdSense control panel. AdSense has said once before they are't worried about a few clicks, but anything beyond that can trigger a fraudulent clicks warning. And only in the most blatant cases do you skip the AdSense fraud click warning and go straight to the suspension.
Something to think about - is there ANY chance, even as remote as you think it is, that someone in your house or work (ie. utilizing the same IP address as yours) could have clicked some ads to help you out? I do know of a case of one person who said he never clicked his own ads yet was suspended for fraudulent clicks. A little digging, and it turned out his son had gone to the site and clicked the ads to help his dad. Even if you think it is a slim chance, do ask around.
Last piece of advice, don't rage or complain to the AdSense team when you contact them - it won't help your cause ;) Some have had success by offering site logs. If you or another person using your IP clicked on the ads, own up to it, apologize and promise it will never occur again. They have the stats, they know who clicked what, so being honest will get you much further in your chances of being reinstated.
I do know of a case of one person who said he never clicked his own ads yet was suspended for fraudulent clicks. A little digging, and it turned out his son had gone to the site and clicked the ads to help his dad. Even if you think it is a slim chance, do ask around.
Am I the only one who has been made so paranoid about this that I specifically ask everybody I know NOT to ever click on any of my ads? I figure Google could notice if I were on their pages and clicked and they were on mine and clicked, so I avoid and ask others to avoid both halves of that equation.
MQ
I think it is a combination of:1- Being only in the program for 7 days.
2- I am guessing a low number of clicks as to make 1 click stand out.
I'm inclined to think that Google is taking a harder-nosed approach with low-traffic/low-revenue sites that have invalid clicks. When AdSense launched in June of 2003, the network had an open-door policy because Google wanted to dominate the market by having its "Ads by Google" boxes everywhere. Now that the goal of market saturation has been achieved, it's time for Google to think about profitability. Tracing the origins of invalid clicks (or corresponding with publishers about invalid clicks) costs money in terms of administrative overhead, so it's easier for Google to just hit the red button when there's a problem with a site that generates only modest revenue.
Heavy-handed is when they terminate a longtime publisher for obscure reasons, and keep a month's revenues or more, possibly representing thousands of dollars.
Heavy-handed is when they terminate a longtime publisher for obscure reasons, and keep a month's revenues or more, possibly representing thousands of dollars.
Has that actually happened, or is it just urban legend?
if there is no room for taking account of genuine errors, then Google's system is itself flawed and i think many 'high throughput' users will find that their regular Google pay cheques are in danger of being stopped due to the same heavy handed approach.
Steve_UK made an excellent point that Google should have a test period to allow for genuine errors and 'getting used to the system'
if they are discriminating against low traffic sites then why not come clean and admit that only high traffic sites should apply for Google Ads?
Phillo
Was it a mistake, or did you know the rules and do it anyway?
You are saying it was a "genuine error", but I'm not so sure it would be considered that.
If you read the Terms of Service, agreed to them, and then still clicked the ad to "test it out", then you knowingly broke the terms you agreed to.
That doesn't seem like a "genuine error"
I could be reading this thing all wrong, but it doesn't sound like such an innocent mistake on first read.
A mistake or genuine error would seem to mean that you accidently clicked the ad once while your page was loading and you were trying to click on something else.
This sounds more like you read the rules, then decided to test the system, knowing it was against the rules by intentionally clicking an ad.
Am I mistaken?
My "glass is half full" view would be that he skimmed the TOS (as rainmakerpsi is getting at) and didn't realise the implications of clicking on an ad being shown on his site.
Maybe he just wanted to see what sort of site it was. That's not a totally ridiculous concept.
This is still what could be classified as a genuine error on his behalf.
Knowingly breaking the TOS and clicking on ad or two to get what might only amount to a couple of dollars is much less plausible to me than a genuine mistake.
Many AdSensers are probably new to the whole concept of being an ad publisher and there should be a way for them to be introduced to the whole concept and make mistakes, without seeing a potential revenue stream vanish. A small site today may become a huge site a couple of months down the line.
However that specific policy is kinda buried in the program policies, and it deserves to be right at the top, in all caps: DO NOT CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS OR YOU'RE TOAST.
[P.S. The preceding shouldn't be taken as me "yelling" at phillo. That's just the message every publisher should get when they sign up.]
Maybe he just wanted to see what sort of site it was. That's not a totally ridiculous concept.
I can understand wanting to see what sort of site it was. I still don't think I would classify that as a "genuine error" or a "complete mistake" if you read the TOS and knew that you shouldn't click your own ads.
If you clicked the ad "by mistake", I would classify that as a genuine error.
My point is, *maybe* that is how *google* is seeing this particular incident...
If he emailed google saying I made a "mistake", I clicked my own ad to "test the system", they *may* feel less sorry for a publisher in this instance. Agreed to the terms saying not to click your own ad, clicked ad on purpose to "test the system".
If he clicked the ad *totally* "by mistake" and was trying to click somewhere else on his site and got banned. Then emailed google and said I didn't mean to even click the ad, I was trying to click somewhere else, *they* may see this as a true "mistake". A person that knows the rules and was avoiding clicking their own ad, but accidently clicked on it by a wrong move of the mouse.
Just another way to think about it is all.
They *may* be less lenient on a publisher that decided to test the clicking system on their own after reading the TOS than they would be on someone that geniunely didn't mean to even click an ad.
a) You don't realise how good/valuable adsense is
b) How important it is to read and obey all the Adsense T&C's.
I'm not one for reading T&C's. I bet I'm not alone. For example who reads the T&C's when they install a piece of software? Anyone who maintains they do is either very sad, a geek or a lawyer.
First thing I did when I was aceepted to the Adsense scheme was click on a few ads (just to test it). Guess I was lucky as I didn't get chucked off.
Just keep clicking your own ads for continuously 7 days , 5 clicks in a day then the eigth day your google account will vanish and all your ads will say " you are not autorised to view these pages " .:lol::lol::lol::lol:
Google is a very good asset for all webmasters. Why are you taking risk?. Just be very very carefull in all your activities and co-operate with google team in each and every thing then become a billionaire very soon. Otherwise go to street and beg everyone to pay 20 cents :lol:
