The dreaded adsense emails are going out

Well, it'll have to wait til I get back because I'm going fishing.

One of the first things I learned about Adsense is:
You never talk about Adsense. Not to your friends, not to your co-workers and not to your 'family members'.
They can cause your account to be shut down, and you can cause their account to be shut down.

But to end this rant and answer your question: Yes.
It is possible that Google wil shut down 'related' accounts.
For example accounts that have been operated from the same IP Address. But since Google moves in mysterious ways, only time can tell. Best of luck!

>Well, it'll have to wait til I get back because I'm going fishing.

Sounds like a mighty fine idea. The sun is shining and there is a boat just 10 feet away that has my name on it (Thanks, Google). Know what, I'll take my notebook with me on the water.

She was using adwords for some of her pages...snip...The landing pages for adwords were filled with the exact information cited in the ad.

Do we assume that she has AdSense on those pages too?

If so, considering the fischermx thread, it seems as though Google has "identified" a business model with which it no longer wishes to play ball, if so, why don't they tell us all so we know what's going on?

I know it's their business however I feel it's time they appointed a decent customer relationship manager since there clearly isn't one right now, well, not one that's doing a very good job of communicating!

Yes, she had adsense on those pages. She has adsense on almost all of her pages. She uses adwords for some but not all pages. The site is travel related.

Looks like the tide is turning at the Plex. What once was recommended seems now unwanted. If this really is true, this is a major change.

*wiping sweat from forehead*

Phew. And now I am glad that I never ran any Adwords campaign. :-)

Well, that's not exactly like my email. In mine, they didn't say about a related account, may be, cause I'm not even remotely related to anyone else.

And I still wonder, why they just don't say "no adwords ad can land in a page with adsense from now on". I'd shut down my campaigns. That's so easy to do.

I shut down my adwords accounts today just in case I'm spared the related accounts shutdown. You know what they say..."no good deed goes unpunished." She asked me to check on her accounts occasionally when she was out of touch with a computer to make sure nothing crazy was going on. I have a feeling I'm going to get the ax next. I guess I can't complain...adsense bought me a beach house.

Phew. And now I am glad that I never ran any Adwords campaign. :-)

Me too.

That 'll be the day: Google shutting down every Adsense account from publishers who also have an Adwords account. I just can't imagine because for many years they encouraged Adsense publishers to use Adwords. But I have seen Google perform some pretty horrifying tricks. So who knows...

... it seems as though Google has "identified" a business model with which it no longer wishes to play ball,...

Maybe. Maybe not. A couple of reports doesn't constitute a trend.

The OP seemed to indicate he/she has been logging in to more than one account. That could be the problem.

Without further information, all we have are assumptions.

FarmBoy

Hmm..

Now, I don't use adwords but in the past; almost 2 years ago I used adwords for my site with adsense on it. I got $100 adwords & $100 yahoo free coupon from hosting company when I signed their vps account plan.

Withing a few days my balance went to zero and adwords asked me to refill my account. I never refilled it.

You never talk about Adsense. Not to your friends, not to your co-workers and not to your 'family members'.

Loose lips sink ships.

FarmBoy

You never talk about Adsense. Not to your friends, not to your co-workers and not to your 'family members'.

Hehe, that makes adsense sound like a cult, or at the very least, some variant of Fight Club.

The first rule of adsense is...

It's not my account that's banned (as of yet!). It's my mother's, which unfortunately I have logged into on occasion to help her with something when she's out of town. I agree with the first rule of adsense not to talk about adsense but it's kind of hard when (1)it's your mom, (2)she has stage 4 cancer (3) she see's you making tons of money (in the beginning anyway) working from home. I never tell anybody else though.

Hehe, that makes adsense sound like a cult, or at the very least, some variant of Fight Club.

The first rule of adsense is...

Even sounds like an old WW thread...

Soona, I am sorry to hear about your mother.
My apologies if I made any inappropriate statements!

Thank you, that was sweet. No harm done.

One thing that's interesting is that this is about the same time of year that they sent out a bunch of emails of a similar nature, last year.

I really don't think this is purely related to AdWords. Never the less, like others I have also paused my AdWords campaigns, even though they only account for about one percent of my total site traffic.

My completely unfounded guess is that it is related to adwords landing pages with adsense, but there has to be at least one or more additional factors.

For example, what sectors are the sites operating in? A big money sector like travel is subject to a lot of abuse. There is also a lot of competition amongst publishers so Google doesn't really need that many sites to use up their inventory.

For that matter, if it is a page about Sven's Ice Fishing Resort that is buying ads from pages with pretty much the same information, you aren't really helping the user experience, and you are taking slots away from Arctic Al's Ice Fishing Tours, that actually sell you the reservations.

I just think there is more to it than having an adwords account.

QUESTION for those with termination notices:

Have asny of you recently completed Adsense or Adwords surveys?

No, she didn't complete any surveys, though adwords did offer to review her account and offer "helpful"suggestions. She didn't reply to that email.

"dreaded adsense emails"? I trust Google over the sites they feel are playing games or acting not in Google's best interests - because they probably are.

Unless someone like ASA weighs-in stating that running Adwords pointing to a page with Adsense on it is unacceptable, I'm not going to change anything.

We run a very small campaign aimed at increasing the profile for some of the online tools we offer. We're losing money on this campaign, and this is our only source of paid traffic. In fact, it amounts to 0.05% of our total traffic.

I noticed that the OP had engaged in several sources of paid traffic - which makes the site seem more like an arbitrage site to Google. I'm thinking this is the business model that Google dislikes.

Huntster:

because they probably are

The keyword here is probably.

I don't know whether you had any contact with Adsense support, but from those few incidents I got the impression that it's either a brainless bot I am communicating with, or a brainless human. They clearly did not read my original e-mail, they did not ask for additional clarification, but they responded with a totally off-topic, irrelevant, canned reply. (And it does not matter to me, whether it is a brainless bot or a brainless human. The fact that the reply was brainless worries me.)

While in general I tend to agree with you (when it comes to shutting down Adsense accounts), I am just afraid that some at The Plex might not actually know what they are doing. (But you described it perfectly well by saying, that they are probably right.)

Zett, I agree with much of that. I'm just saying you can't work with as many people as they do and not screw someone (ie: banning a good publisher) every now and then, BUT I have to give them a 95% benefit of the doubt on that one. How many posts have been on these boards with "I got banned for no reason" threads and we're all secretly rolling our eyes with the same thought as we read it?

Overall I have to think that someone who runs a straight business(s) like myself is better off when some of the junk is cleared off the net. All of the adword arbing to adsense flips and strategies like that are for amateurs anyway.

As far as support - maybe they treat some publishers differently there too. My adsense support has always been excellent. I'm not a 5 figure a month monster earner either. Just solid, a veteran, consistant with a real business model. My support needs have been minor since they have never suspended me, held payments or any of that. It may be frustrating then to some.

[edited by: Huntster at 1:46 pm (utc) on May 6, 2008]

Would they ban a long standing account from a quality site without giving the owner an opportunity to correct the problem? Doesn't make much sense to do that unless the account is in blatant disregard to the terms of the agreement.

I keep trying to clarify this...I'm the original OP but it's not my adsens account that's been shut down. It's a family member. Just for clarification she has only used one ppc campaigns ever and that was adwords. Her website also has an average of 40% of visitors marking the site as a favorite which I would think would be very unusual for MFA sites. If the site was garbage why would that many people mark it to visit again? (which the do). I hate garbage MFA sites as much as anybody and keep my ad filter completely full. This site is not like those, that's all I can say. And yes, I always rolled my eyes too at the "just banned" postings. I really can't figure this one out.

I also don't believe this is related to having an AdWords account.

Many of us here have valid businesses where we buy AdWords to direct traffic to our sites. We also have AdSense for those visitors who aren't looking for what we offer.

I see no conflict in this business model.

Where I do see a conflict is AdWords accounts directing traffic to pages with minimal content & full of AdSense ads.

As we don't post urls here it not possible to see if the sites in question fall into this bracket however I would be will to take some bets that any long time member of this board could look at the site in question & see the problem in seconds.