Thursday, November 11, 2010

A Sad Day

I received an email today from Google saying that my AdSense account had been suspended.

'After reviewing our records, we've determined that your AdSense account
poses a risk of generating invalid activity. Because we have a
responsibility to protect our AdWords advertisers from inflated costs due
to invalid activity, we've found it necessary to disable your AdSense
account. Your outstanding balance and Google's share of the revenue will
both be fully refunded back to the affected advertisers.'

This is troubling.  I try to run an honest blog here, and believe me, I enjoy doing it.  But I had hoped to capitalize on this love, even if I only saw a small return.  Now, unless I can successfully appeal the suspension, I won't get to monetize this blog.

In the email itself it doesn't really give an explanation of what 'invalid activity' is, although it does provide a link to a FAQ page.  Unfortunately on said page, you basically learn nothing about what invalid click activity is, or why exactly your account was deemed 'a risk to our AdWords advertisers'

That's another thing, in case you didn't know, AdSense isn't about you the blogger, or the website owner, all Google cares about in the relationship is the big companies or websites that pay money to be part of it (big surprise).  Since they didn't actually explain why my account was disabled, I'm left to sit and ponder why - maybe some people read what I've written and strongly disagreed with my opinions, and knowing the terms and conditions of AdSense accounts they decide to click my ads a whole bunch of times (or it could be someone who just finds pleasure in ruining peoples AdSense accounts) or it could have been a bunch of people accidentally clicking on the ads (I know it sounds unlikely but I've accidentally clicked ads before, it happens) any possibility you come up with, the minute google scrutinizes it and determines that it could pose a risk to whoever the ads are for (I only ever remember seeing ads for groupon on my blog, that and the google local ads) they cut the chord and say "nope, sorry, no more for you EVER."  While I understand the point of view of an advertiser, I think it's ridiculous to just deal someone a blow like this, especially when you keep the exact reasoning so secret.  Imagine getting fired from your job, and when you ask why, your boss says "mmm no I can't tell you that"

I do intend to appeal the suspension, I'm debating whether I should do it now, or wait awhile, continue to blog, and maybe build up a somewhat stronger reputation.

What are your thoughts and views on this, what do you think I should do?

5 comments:

  1. Hmm.. Sound strange. Maybe you should ask Google what they mean exactly have happened on your blog.

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  2. @Voacaroo
    I would do that except the FAQ page says:

    "Because we have a need to protect our proprietary detection system, we're unable to provide our publishers with any information about their account activity, including any web pages, users, or third-party services that may have been involved."

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  3. i feel so sorry for you :(
    if i only knew how to help..
    now i am scared that google banns me from my adsense for no reason

    ReplyDelete
  4. Her face the book of praises, where is read. Supporting!

    ReplyDelete