Account Disabled

Thank you!

[hal12b]

I was pulling in $2,000K a month for years. Had my account for a little over 5 years, then one day "Account Disabled" I appealed, got an automated response that they decided not to reinstate it. I left it at that, I couldn't live in fear that it would happen again and it made me realize how fragile my business model was to rely on one source of revenue. Would you open a store and have only ONE supplier? So my message to everybody new or old to adsense... It's not a matter of "if" you're account will get disabled, it's a matter of "when". Google doesn't care about the individual publisher. They couldn't supply me the channel or website... or anything. I lost a $2,300 upcoming direct deposit and $1,300 or so that I had in for the current month. The message also said that the advertisers would be refunded. I guess I'd have to have faith that that would even happen.

I can honestly say that I did nothing wrong and the message I got for my account getting disabled was "invalid clicks". I thought they had software to prevent this type of thing? I guess I could at any point target somebody's website and start clicking on ads 50-60 times here and there throughout the day. I'll tell a few friends to do that too. Sounds like a plan to get somebody's account disabled? I may try this experiment.

I tried Abrite, Admob, and a few other ones. ALL crap. I was making in a week what I made in 4 hours with adsense. What I did have was traffic and quality websites... so I reverted to affiliate programs and direct advertising. At least this way I am not living in fear if somebody clicks on my ads 10 or 100 times. It looks like I will make even more now.

One door closes and two open. In a way I am glad Adsense ended. I can't tell you how many times I would check my stats daily. It was overtaking my life... $80 day... $110 day $130 day. It was never good enough. Now, I can sit back and collect rent.

At any rate, best of luck to everybody and whatever you do to monetize your websites... DIVERSIFY!

[iThink]

I switched from adsense to direct ads along with some affiliate stuff long time back and haven't looked back. Slowly but steadily my income from the same traffic numbers has more than doubled. I must say that eliminating the middle-man is worth the effort.

[Lame_Wolf]

I thought they had something in place to prevent such things. If that is the reason, then they ought to look into their own program better before banning people for something like that.

Like you said, what's to stop you and others doing it to someone else.

Are we to check our stats every 30 mins to see if there are any peaks showing, and if there are, to contact Google ?

Shoot, they even tell you not to bother when you click on your own links. I had accidently clicked on my adverts, but always contacted Google to let them know.

I am wondering if they've employed a few n00bs, and are a bit trigger-happy.

[cien]

Sorry to hear that. Sometimes I just wish they'd cancel my adsense account to end the suffering. It's a love/hate relationship what's going on between me and them. If I weren't making good money with them, I would've left them long time ago. EPN was running my life too at some point and made me loose sleep for awhile. I was pulling thousands with them while on CJ, but the stress, worrying and the affiliate abuse was too much under EPN. I'm proud to say I've been Ebay free for 1 1/2 years now. :)

[Scurramunga]

I would be interested to know fro anyone which are the Adsense alternatives which have yielded success.

[mhale]

I would like to know too. I have a few other sources of income, but none as lucrative as Adsense.

[martinibuster]

...affiliate programs and direct advertising.

[Rockyou]

Hal12b i am really proud of you. You showed Google the out door. Remember folks Google is just a partner not our boss.Everyone can live without adsense.Once Microsoft pubcenter is out of beta, Google will get backlash from all the publishers.They will get back the same medicine that they gave us.

Google is a sick company without warning they ban you.Is it fair anyway? We all need to support Microsoft Pubcenter when it comes out of beta even if it pays less.

[Scurramunga]

Thanks Martin,
I probably should have been more specific but I was wondering if there were any affiliate programs which shone above the rest.

[martinibuster]

My experience with affiliate programs is that what works for one person won't work as well for another. What worked for a colleague worked less well for me, and what works for one site works less well on a similar site I created. The reasons span from the content on the site to the landing page at the affiliate site and many other reasons.

Sometimes a tight relationship between the site/page focus and the affiliate site being promoted makes for a higher conversion rate, in some niches especially so when the kind of product being sold is in the domain name, the more specific the better. That's from my limted experience. I'm not an affiliate marketing authority, just sharing my experience. Fortunately there are some aff marketers on WebmasterWorld who have shared their experience, here are some of those discussions.

Additional reading
Finding Good Affiliate Niches [webmasterworld.com]

mfishy is a member who doesn't post that much but when he does it pays to listen up. He posted a discussion called, Why affiliates refuse to make money [webmasterworld.com], sharing insights on why some affiliates have trouble finding success. Good insights coming from someone with experience and authority.

Another good discussion [webmasterworld.com] about affiliate work.

And there is webwork's classic thread, Look into my Eyes [webmasterworld.com], where some members who know what they're talking about give good advice on affiliate work.