Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Banned From AdSense Unfairly?
Step 1:
Email Google - You can do this either by replying to the notification mail or using their Online Form [google.com...]
As far as the contents of your emails:
# Remain Nice. Rather then going into a rant on how they can’t do this or they are being unfair, remember that they are the ones that will reinstate you so kiss a bit of butt. Use phrases like “I realize that click fraud is a real issue facing AdWords Advertisers” and “I have full respect for your program and would never violate the TOS”
# Don’t Threaten Legal Action. This is a biggie because as soon as you say “I am going to sue you”, they pass your account off to the legal department who file it away awaiting your lawsuit. So unless you have already sent the paperwork, don’t even mention the word lawsuit
# Offer Anything You Can. This is most commonly logs but it can also include emails, letters or screenshots. Basically make the offers and be sure to let them know “If you need anything, Please let me know”
# Check the Grammar and Spelling. So many people put 10 seconds into their letters and not only are they difficult to understand, they severely hurt your credibility. Right or wrong, Google may think “If this guy/girl can’t take the time to properly write an email that decides the fate of their account, are they really the type of Publisher we want?”
Step 2:
Prepare Documentation - If you think your ban was due to a jump in traffic, put together your logs and burn them on to CD as a backup to your server. If there is a reason for the traffic, try to get a letter from the refferer. In my case I wrote to the Radio Show and they provided a letter explaining the whole situation and gave their contact information.
Step 3:
Don’t Give Up - Develop a regular schedule of emailing Google. Try to always save a few pieces of information so that you are able to send an email each day. It can take anywhere between 5-30 days for a human review which is what your goal is here. If you give up after 2 days, don’t expect a response.
Step 4:
Don’t Post About Your Experiences Publicly - A human review takes time so posting to a forum with all your details can only hurt your case for reinstatement.
In my case, I received a lot of this advise from others who I respected and had been in the same situation. For my account it actually worked and not only did I get the account back but all back monies were reinstated.
So if your account has been banned and you firmly believe you did not violate the TOS, there is hope. I have spoken to probably around 20 people who were banned in similar circumstances and every single one got their accounts back with full reinstatement of funds.
My email didnt sound mean at all, i was trying to be as nice as i could. i let them know i understood the situation and explained to them why exactly my clicks may have seemed fraudulent..
I let them know that i am on their side and i would try to stop any fraud that may actually exist, though i dont think anything does considering the circumstances.
So im just hoping that google will reinstate my account and money... im a nice guy who tried to show them i was on thier side, so lets see what happens now i guess...
How would you go about doing that shiningknight?
tell each of his friends to only click 10 times a day :) (half joking because it does sound fishy )
Also, how nice of you for not taking legal action: google is breathing a sigh of relief. I am amazed at how "legal action" is just thrown out there thinking that it will actually work to their advantage.
What i ment by finding a way to lower the ammount of clicks... i had something in mind such as shutting the website down for some time during the day or something like that...
i was basically babbling i think because i didn't want Google to take my account away... i was doing so well and like everyone else, i don't wan my account taken away because it would be unfair to me...
well i sent the appeal and like my other post says, i am confused. if u check out my other post, you will understand what i mean.
i told them i would try my best to find ways to lower the amount of clicks of that helps.
How much % of your revenue, do you think comes from students at your university?
Reason I'm asking -- if it's a small (but still statistically significant) portion of your revenue, say 5-10% ... you may want to consider adding code to your site so that AdSense is NOT shown to any IP addresses coming from your university's netblocks. It's a bummer that you'd have to sacrifice some revenue that way, but I could definitely see (and you sound like you understand) where Google might see a lot of clicks coming from the same IP address ... and especially if they all tend to have the same browser identifier (i.e.: if the lab & campus machines all have the *exact* same build/patch level of Windows, you could definitely see this). That could definitely make things look suspicious, and I'd say it's better to sacrifice that 5-10% (you could suggest to Google as a part of your emails that you're happy to do this as a way to help them out at your own expense) than to be in this situation.
If your revenue share from internal traffic is significantly larger, though, it's probably not a good idea to do that.
Good luck ...
That old saying that "it is easier to apologize than ask permission" it completely backwards when it comes to AdSense.
If you actually know the students who are clicking, and you're let back in, perhaps you should explain to them that repeated clicking (without buying or performing some sort of action at the advertiser's site) could get you banned.
Once one guy started ask me publicly in cafe room how much I earn and so on... very stupid behaviour , no manners...
he 'explained' to everybody that i get money from clicks...
the same day I blocked our work ip addresses..
so people wandered about which ads and clicks that guy has spoken about... I said : ask him, he knows if he had said that :-)
it was discussed here - ip blocking - during past summer or spring, so just search it..
This may or may not be related to why you got banned, but IMO the things you should be asking yourself are:
I don't know where you are located or what the site is about, but I have a hunch that the probability of an advertiser making a sale as a result of a clickthrough from the computer lab is vanishingly small, and in that case Google would simply be wasting advertisers' money by sponsoring your site.
If your pages are dynamic it is easily done. If they are not dynamic then let a dynamic page parser (like ASP) read your html pages - it is just a setting. Works for me.
This Kid i go to class with aparently used to use the google adsense system. according to his friend, he goes around to all of the computer labs, clicking on my ads several times, because he wants me kicked out of the program!
his friend told me that he was permanently banned from the adsense program aswell and since then, he has a lot against google. His aditutde is if he cant do it, he doesnt want anyone else to be able to.
I asked the computer lab monitors if they saw anyone acting strange, they confirmed that there was a kid who was going from one computer to another, clicking on "something a couple times". The lab monitor told me he would come in a once or twice a day to do this.
So because of him i lost my account. That would explain how i made a good amount of money, but it also explains why i lost my account! I have contacted his Parents and they are apologizing greatly for what he is done and his parents are going to deal with him.
But in the mean time,I filed my appeal already so i'm not sure how i can get this news to Google, should i send them an email explaining the situation?
I can see that a small # of IPs with the same user agent occurring during the same time of day could trigger a fraud alert.
I can't. If t'were so, then a bunch of AOL servers would cause fraud alerts all day long. This case is easily distinguished by the other things Google can see emanating from those IP addresses.
On the other hand, if a set of IP addresses emits clicks for just one very narrow set of ads, resulting in a very abnormal distribution, then that should trigger a fraud alert. As it apparently did, if the OP's new theory that a rogue student is at fault is correct.
Then, Make him eligible for the vienna boys choir.
Frankly it sounds far-fetched to me, but ultimately it comes down to having credibility with Google. Do Google have any reason to believe that you're for real? If you had a real site with natural links and organic search engine listings, that would give you some credibility. OTOH, if everybody types in your URL directly (or if you went through the labs and set your site as every computer's start page), that merely looks anomalous.
If you had a history with AdSense or Alexa rankings that Google could check to confirm your traffic levels, that would give you some credibility. If you were geographically distant from the alleged attacker (instead of being personally acquainted with him), that would give you some credibility.
Even with credibility, it's an uphill struggle to get reinstated. Without it, I'm not sure that they'd let you back in even if you tied the kid up and mailed him to Mountain View.
"I dont want any trouble"... Many see this as job security at G and entertain feeble attempts at causing trouble purely for their amusement. Unless you got Eliot Spitzer in your pocket, such rhetoric statements only makes your letter to them more humorous.
"I will TRY not to make it happen"... You are pushing the burden on them and they have to answer to their advertisers. Instead, ask them to DISCOUNT clicks from the schools IP range. Show them real effort to put a stop to what they think is click fraud.
Lastly, explain the quality of content your site offers. Show them you are providing a service to fellow students and at the same time earning college spending money. If you can without doubt find 10 reasons in their favor why they should reinstate you instead of appealing to other publishers here, there should be no reason why you can't get back in the game...
The reality of the situation is that if the money earned from adsense was crucial to survival, you would not be in this situation, and G knows this. Let alone people here don't even reveal their sites so not to risk any fondling. Personally, I would go through the trouble of disabling the ads from anyone inside the firewall because afterall they do show the same IP. Just some points to consider... Good luck man!
If I was working at Google and read this on the "Please reinstate me" e-mail, I'd laugh and share it with all. It all seems so convenient: you know who it is, why he did, caught him, the computer lab is monitoring things for you (btw, what's so suspicious about browsing the internet on a computer lab? Does a light go on on top of the computer when students pull your site up? ), and they noticed that he clicked once or twice. Is clicking "once or twice" that strange on your U's computer lab?
Plus, from [webmasterworld.com...]
>> when someone clicks on your ads, it actually takes some time for it to appear in your account. for me it has taken up to even a half hour.
How did you measure the time between the click and showing on G's report?
[edited by: walkman at 3:30 am (utc) on Nov. 8, 2006]
so im just going to have to defend my self how ever i can... if i dont get my accoutn back its not the end of the world, though i will be disapointed, only because its not fair to me..
however the whole "ip blocking" thing, i do wish to consider. is there a way in the adsense program that i can block IP's? if so i better go ahead and block my own aswell just as a saftey precaution.
i made my website for research purposes for students at my university.
This Kid i go to class with
I have contacted his Parents
you contact the parents of a kid you go to university with?
so yes, i found his place on white pages and talked to his parents.
