Banned By AdSense And I Feel Fine!

Are you depressed? Do you feel like your future in the blogosphere is bleak? Are you dispirited concerning you blog related earning potential? Have you lost creative interest in developing content that used to be important to you? Do you feel lifeless, more dead than alive? If the answer to any of the above is a resounding ‘YES!’, you have probably been banned from Google AdSense.

Here’s my sob story. I can be honest with you, but please keep in mind that, as I always say, you should learn from my mistakes:

I was banned from Google Adsense years ago, most likely for invalid click activity carried out by others related to me, but also without my knowledge. Yes, really. Some of family members were good intentioned, but obviously had no clue. My mistake was explaining to them in the first place what Adsense was and how I might make money from it. (Tip: if you set up AdSense, or any PPC program for that matter, don’t tell anyone you know!

Nevertheless, I will also admit to the following two heinous crimes: Firstly, like most of you, I didn’t really read and digest all the legalese in their 5347-word ‘Terms of Conditions‘ (TOC). Secondly, in the setting up AdSense on my old websites, I did initially click on a few ads, because I wanted to see if the links actually worked, as much as I would want to make sure that any link on my websites actually are functional. I also wanted to gauge the quality and content of the advertisers that were being advertised, linked, and therefore endorsed on my site. It is MY site after all, and I should have control over what Google offers to promote on MY site and how it might affect MY content, good, bad or otherwise. In those days, AdSense did not offer publishers the opportunity to preview such content. Neither did it afford you the opportunity to refuse your being associated with certain advertisers you do not wish support or endorse. It’s my understanding, that today such options do exist. If so, that’s good.

Ok, when my account was disabled, Google’s email notice actually got caught in one of my email spam filters, so I didn’t really catch on until a few weeks later. By the way, this was not a blog I was running back then, it just some static websites with educational content.

Once I learned about my excommunication, I of course tried to take matters up with Google to explain my side of the story and seek theirs, but my attempts were completely in vain. I was surprised to learn that Google offered no avenue of communication with me (or to be honest, even AdSense clients in good standing). I would love to write that my appeal fell on ‘deaf ears’ … but I couldn’t even find Google’s ears!

Later, I found, via an unrelated forum, a link to an appeal form, with the caveat that I was probably wasting my time. I appealed a few times and received no follow-up at all. Google just refused to talk to me. I also later learned that supposedly, if you are banned, you can appeal ONCE, though I’m fairly sure that ‘ninety nine point infinity’ percent of the applications are turned down without thought. Yes, once you are informed of your rejection, you are cut off for life.

Seriously, that’s it. AdSense won’t even give you the time a day. I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that such behavior reflects poor customer service and consideration, and of course, is very unprofessional. Social skills are apparently not Google’s strength, and to be honest that’s a shame. I think Google as a company, has so much potential to benefit us all in terms of services it provides, and it has done so in the past. But to be honest, it policies governing customer support and transparency are not very humanistic, and do make for bad business.

The fact is that if Google AdSense has sent you packing, you are not alone. Trust me, zillions of folks just like you have been handed their hat and have received a swift kick in the butt, in the form of the dreaded ‘your account has been disabled’ form letter. Moreover, many people really have no clue as to why.

When Google has a beef with you, it opens no dialogue with you, it offers you no proof of wrongdoing on your part, and most certainly it is unwilling to give you a second chance or some form of parole. It just cuts you right out of its Garden of Eden, treating you as if you were a malignant cancerous tumor.

You may have been banned because:
– Someone had a vendetta against you and starts clicking your links ad nauseum.
– Someone else linked to you has been banned.
– You don’t have a privacy policy on your website.
– Your traffic has fallen off.
– Google AdWords clients just don’t like your content.
– Google AdWords clients just don’t like you.

So, for all of you that are hoping of making a 5 or 6 figure income from Adsense, you need to really take the following considerations to heart: For publishers, AdSense has no contact data. There’s no phone number you can call to ensure your money is safe. If you get banned, you WILL lose whatever money you have earned that has not been paid to you. There is no live chat option with a customer service representative, there isn’t even a physical address you can write to. There is no customer service support at all. Nothing! What you do find are forums filled with volunteers who don’t have the answers to your problems, and who are obviously advised to copy and paste little snippets from the online FAQ you’ve already found yourself, and that is unrelated to your query. To be honest, all of the above should really give you pause to consider if that is really the type of organization you want to do business with!

So, if you’ve been banned from AdSense and have been desperately trolling forums and blogs seeking some recourse, appeal process, or avenue of communication, I say forget it. You’re chances of going to heaven or winning the lottery are much better than your chances of getting back into the program.

If you feel wronged by Google, then you can wait for it to be picked apart into anti-trust court for its anti-competitive practices and for growing into the power crazy competition killing beast it has become. To say that Google ‘dominates’ the search engine business is an understatement!

Yes, Google owns YouTube (and many other online services like Blogger). Yes, you can open a YouTube account to either upload a video of (a) you on you knees begging for forgiveness and flogging yourself in spastic fits of apology vowing never to click on your own links again, or (b) a video of you shaking your fists in rage and hurling every Turkish curse imaginable at the ‘powers that be’ in the Google kingdom. No, neither of these approaches will get you reinstated.

As for me, I’m not writing this post to get even. I’m writing to educate you all, and hopefully to make a lot of folks feel better. Because AdSense and AdChoices seem to be everywhere, it concerns me that we have been conditioned to think that we are missing out if we don’t have what everyone seems to have. Still, don’t be gullible and don’t allow yourself to be manipulated in this way, either. You do have choices and options, and it’s not AdChoices by Google.

Really, don’t get down in the dumps; not having AdSense is not the end of the world. There are many ways of monetizing your blog or website. Here are some examples of what you CAN DO:

- You can sign up with one of the hundreds of AdSense alternatives. They may not be at the same level as AdSense, but they do exist and something is better than nothing. Do your research. I’ll write-up a review of some of these I’ve worked with in another post later. My quick suggestion is Chitika, which is what Yahoo suggested to their clients once it terminated its Yahoo Publisher’s Network PPC program.

- You CAN directly host your own ad serving program, as many of the more successful blogger do. For WordPress blogs especially, there are plugins that can help you facilitate this.

- You CAN host ‘in line text link ads’. A going rate seems to be around $100 per link per year. Be careful here, because there is much discussion out there concerning to what extent Google frowns on websites hosting such links, and punishes them in terms of its search engine ranking algorithms. I honestly don’t know to what extent this true, except with large ‘content farm’ websites like About.com – but let’s be honest, money is money. I’ve made a few hundred dollars in the past hosting such links.

- You CAN sign up one of the many Affiliate Marketing promotion schemes to sell merchandise from your site. I’ve been told by some that these actually outperform many PPC programs. Some examples are Click Bank, Commission Junction, and Linkshare. I’ll write a report on some these in another post later, but suffice it to say, I can’t endorse any of them just yet.

- You CAN sign up for Amazon Affiliates and sell Amazon.com merchandise. For both Blogger and WordPress there are plugins that make it easy for you link merchandise links to your posts. Note: for some WordPress plugins you may also need an account with Amazon Web Services. Ok, honestly, I’ve had fun with this on some sites, but I have not really made any money yet from it, though I do think the potential is there, if you are willing to put some effort into promotion.

- You CAN sell products directly from your site, and really control your own financial potential. This is really the best situation if you can find the right product to serve your readers interests.

Honestly, this last option is something, especially to consider in terms of selling information, a highly valued commodity. You should consider re-editing your content into an e-book and selling it on your blog, or on Amazon via CreateSpace. Moreover, if you are serious about blogging and your content, then you should really consider yourself a writer and look into freelance writing opportunities, as well.

Lastly, if you do have Google Adsense or AdChoices, or to be honest, are enrolled in any other PPC program, it’s good to remember these 10 commandments, compliments of AdSense TOC:

1. Thou shalt not click on your own ads.
2. Thou shalt not ask or beg for clicks.
3. Thou shalt not alter the AdSense ad code.
4. Thou shalt not use automated click software.
5. Thou shall adhere to every single letter of the Terms of Service (Google AdSense policy)
6. Thou shall not divulge your earnings per click.
7. Thou shall not post illegal or sexual related content.
8. Thou shall not post too many ads.
9. Thou shall not cloak your ads.
10. Thou shall see commandment 1 again.

Thanks for reading and good luck, you might need it!

PS. If you are trying to get a handle on me, I’m a humanist. I’m not a ‘Libertarian’ or a ‘Republican’. I dislike ‘Big Business’. Economically speaking, I love the ‘Free Enterprise System’, but it does tend to spawn powerful all-controlling gargantuan monopolies that care less for people, and more for dollars and cents. If you’ve ever read content from my other blog, The Wooly Yarn, you’d understand.

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