Google adsense application rejected for my site: Difficult site navigation

Suggestion needed

[rag_gupta]

I want to know why Google adsense application has been rejected for my site: http://www.DownloadFormsIndia.com ?

Here is the answer from Google:

- Difficult site navigation

[edited by: martinibuster at 8:24 pm (utc) on Jan 7, 2011]
[edit reason] Delinked URL - Removed Email Quote. [/edit]

[tristanperry]

I wouldn't say that its navigation is too bad (I've seen a lot worse on sites with AdSense), so I wouldn't say it's that.

It might simply be - as it says - that it was down when they visited?

(Down meaning that the website wasn't accessible, e.g. such as a hosting issue)

[LifeinAsia]

I'd resubmit.

[Lame_Wolf]

I'd resubmit.

IIRC, your site has to be at least 6 months old too.

[edited by: martinibuster at 8:25 pm (utc) on Jan 7, 2011]

[rag_gupta]

I've corrected the navigation. But now Google has again rejected my site with the following reason.
I'm offering download of public goverment documents like tax forms etc.
Can somebody please look into it?
The URL is there in the first post.


---------
We did not approve your application for the reasons listed below.

Issues:

- Unacceptable site content

---------------------

Further detail:

Unacceptable site content: In order to participate in Google AdSense, publishers' websites and application information must satisfy the following guidelines:

*Your website must be your own top-level domain (www.example.com and not www.example.com/mysite).
*Your domain must have been registered and active for at least 6 months before you apply for AdSense.
*You must provide accurate personal information with your application that matches the information on your domain registration.
*Your website must contain substantial, original content.
*Your site must comply with Google AdSense program policies:

[Leosghost]

Your site offers

download of public goverment documents like tax forms

and therefore ,

Is not

substantial, original content.

Because their criterium

Your website must contain substantial, original content.

is important.

Unless you are offering loads of help and advice on how to fill in the above mentioned forms ( which might get you into legal problems anyway ..especially if someone sued you if your advice was wrong )..offer something that people can't get elsewhere..

I didn't go to your site to look ..because you posted clearly about what you have ..and their policy is clear about what you must have ..and by your admission ..you don't.

You need to make some

substantial, original content.

Then resubmit.

HTH

[rag_gupta]

Thanks for your good analysis.
But I want to show you another site: <snip>
which is only listing one or two customer care numbers of 100's or 1000's of Indian companies and nothing else. While much more customer care information is available at the company websites, it too does not offer any substantial original material. It is only republishing the contact numbers. But Adsense is approved for the site.

[edited by: incrediBILL at 6:50 pm (utc) on Mar 17, 2011]
[edit reason] removed URL, see TOS #13 [webmasterworld.com...] [/edit]

[Lame_Wolf]

rag_gupta, we are not here to do reviews. Nor are we here to out other sites.

[pageoneresults]

Apparently what you have set up does not meet the new AdSense policies. Quite a bit has changed there over the past couple of months. Comparing other sites where it is not an apples to apples comparison is unrealistic. You're serving Government documents which could easily be retrieved from their originating sources. You've built a site and now want to turn it into a MFA using Government supplied materials that you may or may not have permission to republish like you have. I doubt very seriously you'll ever get approved based on the business model.

[rag_gupta]

If the govt documents I'm offering download does not qualify as "original content", the Google should ban my site for further submissions!

[LifeinAsia]

If the govt documents I'm offering download does not qualify as "original content", the Google should ban my site for further submissions!

Don't give them any ideas. :)

Seriously though, do you REALLY think you are offering original content on your site? (What other sites are doing has no bearing- they may have been accepted a long time ago before Google tightened its requirements.)

Think about what type of original content you CAN add to the site. Then add it. Then resubmit.

[Lame_Wolf]

Not a review, but a comment. If those are official Government logo's on the site, I take it you have their permission to use them. I have lost count the number of times I have had to write to sites to get them to remove my logo.

[Leosghost]

They don't ban sites as such, they look at sites that already have adsense on and if they don't like them they ban the account.

That means that if you have a site that they have approved ..and then use the adsense code that they give you...( it is one code per account ..not one code per site ) on another site that has something that they disapprove of , they would ban the account which means that you would lose the chance to have adsense on any of your sites.

the Google should ban my site for further submissions!

That would mean you would be asking for them to ban you from having an adsense account ..for life ..just because the first site you gave them to approve did not meet their criterium!

It's like asking to play football with the kid who has the ball ..you do it on their terms..telling them that they have it all wrong and that you prefer to play cricket with their ball isn't the best way to be allowed to join the game.

They just wont let you touch their ball.

And telling them ( and us ) that they should let you make the rules or have exceptions to the rules about their ball because some other kid touched the football with a cricket bat ?

They don't care..its their ball ..worry about making a site that they will accept ( they, and we have told you what they want ) ..and forget telling them about what you think is wrong with the people already playing with the ball.

Its a better use of your time and will get you into adsense sooner ..if that is what you want.

[rag_gupta]

Leosghost I appreciate your comments. Thanks for this useful post!
Google's behavior is directly proportional to the monopoly they hold in advertising.

[pageoneresults]

Google's behavior is directly proportional to the monopoly they hold in advertising.

Wait, you're now mad at AdSense because they won't let you make money by repurposing Government documents and then wrapping them in AdSense? Come on now.

Did you know that U.S. Government websites don't allow advertising?

[dotgov.gov...]

A Gov Internet domain may not be used to advertise for private individuals, firms, or corporations, or imply in any manner that the government endorses or favors any specific commercial product, commodity, or service.

Even though you don't have a .gov TLD, you've taken information from a .gov and now want to wrap it AdSense. I don't think that is going to work for you.

[rag_gupta]

I've got it. Everybody is in unison: "Not allowed for govt documents".
Just for information sake I'd apply with Adbrite or Chikita and see if they too have similar policies.
I hope this won't be immoral. I think it's only policy issue with Google. Moreover I'm not violating any copyrights.
In a poor and corrupt country like India where govt documents are nowhere, one needs to pay commission to broker to get it. Govt sites are down, documents not accessible etc.
....But OK, it must be a policy decision of Google etc.
My last resort would be to try to sell this site on Ebay!

[Lame_Wolf]

Rightly said, pageoneresults. There is too much wrong with that site to have adsense on it.

And if the logo's are official ones, it then looks like they (other companies) are endorsing the site.

People seem to think they can take whatever they like and monetize it. Anyway, who would in their right mind would go to such a site for forms ? I would go to the official site simply because I know I will be receiving the latest version.

[Leosghost]

I've got it. Everybody is in unison: "Not allowed for govt documents".
I don't know about "everybody" ;-)

I don't think that the reason that they "Google" are refusing to accept it is because the site has government documents ( some UK sites also offer downloads of UK gov docs )..

I think its because that is all you have ..there is no other "content" ..and even if the documents can be hard to get ( official sites down etc etc )..you have to offer substantially more than just other peoples ( in this case government agencies ) documents ..and yes ..for curiosity I did check out some of the docs and you don't appear to be breaking any copyright laws in India by offering them for download.

The logos etc may well be another matter ..and you may need permission ..or not ..but Google haven't apparently mentioned that the refusal reason is for hosting copyright material ..so ?

If you can find a way of making at least 50% of your content original ( written by you ..or someone else but only existing on your site )..maybe telling the visitors what to watch out for when filling in each each document ? background info on the haj etc ..articles on why a passport is a good thing to have ( btw ..you can sell direct adspace banners to travel agencies from pages dealing in passport forms ;-) ..etc etc ..at least 50% original content , stuff ( not just other documents ) they cant get in the other places where they can get each document .

Lot of additional work ;-) ..worth it if you think you'll have the traffic ..

Lot of ways to monetize your site with other advertising , as well as or in conjunction with adsense ..if you have enough original content ..

[koan]

If you go to other forums, half the Adsense discussions are people wondering why Google hasn't accepted their poorly designed web site with simply copied content, as if it wasn't obvious, and the other half why their sites are banned, for similar reasons. There's a gold rush mentality with Adsense that attracts people who don't know a thing about being a real publisher. And then we wonder why our original articles are plagiarized so much. I'm glad Adsense is getting stricter... it must be crazy working in the approval department though.

[Leosghost]

It's like that here from time to time ..seems to be cyclical..;-)

[nomis5]

Go ahead and put Adbrite ads on your pages. Then join the dole queue because although they will accept your site, they will pay you next to nothing.

If you want to earn some money, publish some original content. There is no other easy way.

[Freedom]

nomis is right. The internet is drowning in websites that repackage and reformulate someone else's content (amazon reviews, scrapers, government forms).

It's lazy, tired, done to death, unoriginal, uninspired and unlikely to make you any income that lasts.

Try doing it the hard way instead of taking short-cuts. Sit down and research a narrow topic for a week and then write a long article about it using an annotated bibliography of external sources, quotes, original images and diagrams that you create, and with material you gathered on your own (original interviews or first person reporting), do all that work instead of taking short-cuts and you'll START to have a successful website.

Just putting up a bunch of rehashed, regurgitated, and reformulated content of someone else's and sticking adsense ads on it isn't going to get you very far. I'm not surprised Adsense turned you down. After the Panda attack on content farms running adsense, it's only logical that the concept of content quality has filtered down from the search department to the adsense website review department.

I've been working on 1 article for two weeks now that is already up to 30 sources and is past 10,000 words. - This is one article. I've got rare images for it, quotes, and original material. I was hoping to finish it by tomorrow, but it doesn't look like I will. But when I'm done, believe me when I say it's the longest written work on this narrow topic ever posted on the internet, and from Google books, the longest ever written in history - and I went back to the Roman era.

I'm very confident it's going to get tons of links eventually. I did a similar one about a year ago (different topic) and it got a ton of links including a PR7 from the BBC two weeks ago. It makes a nice little amount of money every day, has top ranking, great traffic, and the Panda update never touched it. - But it took a lot of work and the material is very original.

That's my tip.