Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Long Story, Short: Ok, I went ahead and tried to sign up a domain for Adsense for Domains, it got rejected and now the problem is bigger than if I never tried it out at all.
Long(er) Story: Well, you already short version, so you prob'ly want to hear the details...
I have a domain name, it has about 7-8 months of registration left on it. I paid money to get the domain name, (and 3-4 others at the same time as I wasn't quite sure which way the content would go, and I wanted to be sure to have the right domain name.
(this next section is to defend against the "nobody should own unused domains crowd)...
Since I paid money for the domain, I have 4-5 choices of what to do with it:
1. Cancel the registration and suffer a loss on the money I've paid for it.
2. Try to sell it to someone who may compete for part of the same niche, (after all, widgets is widgets, and this is big blue marble we live on). Still I would like to put up a domain name for sale notice and try to network with someone else in the niche, or partner with them somehow.
3. Park it somewhere and try to earn back something in case it expires and I don't sell it, (in which case it means it is truly excess domain inventory, and nobody really wanted it and I am the only one who lost any moey). But, if it earn well as a parked page it is acting as an aggregator of links relevant to the terms, and is not much different than looking at any page with other links to the "missing information", (e.g.- a search engine result page). Let's face it, the days of commercial sites getting 100% free traffic from search engines is over. Unless your domain has content relevant to the mating habits of the nearly extinct Everything Should Be Free Bird.
4. Develop content on the domain.
5. Forward the domain to another site.
Now, back to Google Adsense for Domains;
So I had a domain which was basically:
U.S. state name + example consumer product + .com
I bought several version, then decided to something like:
example consumer product + world + .com
Google rejected the domain name, even though the term "consumer product" is not offensive or against any part of Google or anyone else's policy. In-fact, a search for the term on Google yields SERPs with (3) premium sponsored Adwords ads at the top left and more than (10) normal right-column Adwords ads. Another domain I own which does have content related to that term as displays AdSense / Adwords ads...
So, here's the problem:
1. I spent time changing the DNS info on the domain, I spent time setting up the Adsense for Domains entry for the domain name. I waited it out, and got a notice on the account saying "Policy Violation", (I wish I could make that flash in red)... Policy Violation?... I disagree! Worse, I beleive that the EPC on all my Adsense ads has been lowered in the past 48 hours due to this "Policy Violation", (as if the algorithm for sharing profits is programmed to drop the share to the publisher after Google marks a strike against the account). This is pure speculation on my part, I will have to watch it over the next week or so and see what happens.
So, I have a few options, (one of them ISN'T to remove the domain name from a list of rejected domains now permanently blemishing my otherwise spotless multi-year record as an Adsense Publisher).
I can request reconsideration. There is a form to do, but I only have (1) chance. (And, Google says they probably won't reply to a majority of requests.).
I figure I need to feed the kitty, so I submitted (5) more domains, but this time I didn't bother to do the DNS work -- why should I? If Google is going to reject the names, I don't want to waste any more time on it. But, there is nothing in the Adsense for Domain info pages that tells you if you have to do the DNS work to get approved...
For ASA:
Please transmit to your program people that Google Adsense for Domains need;
1. to have a "this domain for sale", (or make an offer for this domain, or other such language), with appropriate link capability / options / settings.
2. to have a "Contact Domain Owner" capability / option / settings. This is important! What if I own the domain "rubberwidgetexample.tld", and Google starts advertising rubber items or services on my domain and someone is offended and wants to report it to me?
3. to have people be able to submit domains for approval with a simple "not approved", (as opposed to "Policy violation"), if Google chooses to reject a name, it should just be rejected with a polite, "no thank you", or a specific reference to a specific policy violation and no penalty for "machine interpreted" rejections unless they are blatant or excessive.
4. Ability to submit domains without doing anything to DNS until the name is accepted.
5... probably more stuff, but I'm tired of typing and others are probably tired of reading.
[edited by: martinibuster at 7:57 am (utc) on Dec. 15, 2008]
[edit reason] Fixed formatting. [/edit]
Is that "for real"? Maybe as an Australian, I live a sheltered and extremely naive life.
Their Adsense filters can be somewhat 'oversensitive' on occasion.
The people who have been crying doom about this have, for the most part, failed to see the reasoning behind it. It's not a money grab. It's a control grab. You're not going to see more parked domains in Google, you're going to see fewer. But you're still going to see some, because the large portfolios (I'm talking people with 10K or more domains) aren't falling for it.
