Last July 15th I got an email from Google stating I've been banned from using their AdSense advertising program. The email went on to state they had "detected invalid activity on your site" and my account had been disabled. The reasons you can be banned are stated in the link below. The reason Google tossed me appears to be in the first group, which is about manipulating advertising to gain additional revenue.
http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2660562
Google says they won't tell you why your account has been suspended as that reveals how they monitor their advertising program. I have not committed any of these violations but of course someone could be constantly clicking on the ads that appear on Blog, driving up the revenue and causing me to be banned. You can appeal but not knowing why you were banned really limits what you can say, and Google turned my appeal down. But I are banned from ever using AdSense again.
I'm not the only one I just got an email from Stephanie saying she'd just been banned. Stephanie is a new blogger but her site is very popular, driven by her happy personality and the fabulous stitching she and her SWAN group do. If you are not familiar with Stephanie the Master Criminal, you can visit her blog here.
http://stephsstitching.blogspot.com
Stephanie thought she might be banned because she was close to a payment from Google. She did some research and found many complaints from people who said they had done nothing but were banned very close to a payment time. Google only pays advertising money once you have earned $100, so you are only paid periodically. That didn't happen to me. I can't access my AdSense account to check but I believe I've been a member of the program for five years and earned roughly $430 over that time. It's not a big money proposition for sites like Blog. Still, it hurts to be called out for something you didn't do.
Before I heard from Stephanie I wondered if my new tabs that list Trunk Shows/Sales and Monthly Clubs the stitching shops run was the direct cause of my being banned. After all, that is a sort of advertising that competes with the places that are paying Google to display their ads. It also means Google is watching us bloggers a lot more closely than I realized, which is rather chilling. That can't be the reason Stephanie was banned. I don't believe she's ever mentioned sales except in passing to say she picked up this or that during a sale or trunk show. The other alternative is even more chilling--some vicious person is visiting NP blogs and clicking mindlessly on ads to cause us to be banned.
To figure out what's going on Stephanie and I need data. If you have a stitching blog and you've been banned from Google's AdSense program, I'd like to know. The rough date this happened (Stephanie and I were banned about two weeks apart), the reason Google gave (either "Invalid Activity" or "Policy Reasons") and whether you were close to a payout date are all things we'd like to know. I'd also like the URL to your blog. If there is a pattern of popular stitching blogs being shut out of Google's program, I want to tell Google about this. That means there is someone exercising deliberate malice and Google might be able to detect a pattern and protect further abuse of needlepoint bloggers.
Either leave a comment here or leave a comment with Stephanie's blog or email me directly at chilly hollow at hotmail.com. Thanks!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
14 comments:
Thank you for posting this, Jane. My appeal was denied as well. Google Adsense stinks!
P.S. Thank you for your kind comments about my blog.
Hi! I was banned in November 2011, right when I reached the $100 mark. My appeal was denied... It's certainly not a friendly system. I never got a straight answer on why it was banned, but I just dropped it and moved on...
Thanks, Mer. I was not near the $100 payout mark when I was banned. So there are three of us? When I think about it, there aren't many needlepoint bloggers who use Google's advertising. It is starting to look like we are all banned, which is suspicious.
Honey, it was my pleasure to introduce your blog to 1100 of my closest friends.
Jane, when I started my blog since it was for my retail store, I elected to not have advertising. I figured if it were a fabulous success then I could later decide to get some side money. But I didn't want that to cloud the issue of a shop blog.
I am really disappointed that Google has taken this approach to people who have entered a contract with them to support advertising.
My question (stupidly) is where can we all complain? Google seems to feel they can ban these accounts with no retribution. Is that true?
Mary Agnes
Mary Agnes, it seems clear that Google is able to do what they please with their AdSense program. I can't see how anyone can effectively appeal being banned from the program when Google refuses to tell you why you were banned. Also, everyone involved in this (all three of us) use the Google Blogger and I doubt we are able to effectively monitor what goes on at the site since the tools Google provides are very very limited. In other words there is no way I can see that anyone can effectively protest Google's actions.
Have you seen this article? http://www.blogohblog.com/dont-let-google-adsense-ban-you/
It might not be just needlepointers Jane - if Google haven't enough revenue to pay the bonuses to the top brass they're going to be cutting-back on "generous" schemes like AdSense to keep their own income
(Cynics Inc)
P.S. - up to you whether you post this one or not - it's a tad inflamatory!
Anon, everyone is entitled to their opinion here on Blog. After all, I post mine and it's only far that other folks get their say. I had no problems with my little payouts, unlike everyone else. I just am not happy for being banned with no idea what triggered it. I didn't do anything that they don't like except for the new tabs listing sales, trunk shows and monthly clubs but as they were created very close to my ban date, it makes me wonder....
I don't think any large corporation is exempt from having ethics just like real people do.
No, Sasha, I had not seen that article. Unfortunately, there is nothing there when I copy/paste the link. I'll try again later on. Right now I'm running the anti virus checks on one system while working on another, so I may have eaten up too much bandwidth.
My mom is an avid reader of yours, and saw this post about Google. She forwarded it to me since I am starting a blog of my own on my jewelry making and silly things I come up with to write about. I haven't participated in advertising at all, but was considering it, so I am glad for the head's up that all might not be kosher in Google-land and I'll have to do more research :) Although I am not a needlepointer I enjoy the look of your blog and hope you can figure this out :)
ps- the article linked does come up for me.
Thanks, Denise. I'll try the link again later. Say hi to your mom for me! And post the link to your new blog. Needlepointers are like magpies when it comes to jewelry, beads and such.
Success! I was able to see the "Don't Let Googe AdSense Ban You" article. However, nothing there is relevant to what I do. I have a mirror blog but it is a backup and doesn't have advertising. Really odd. I think either someone has done a lot of clicking to get all three of us banned or Google doesn't like my Tabs with links to current trunk shows/sales/monthly clubs. That's a service for the shops and designers and I derive no revenue from them. Still, that competes in a very small way with Google's advertising and I'm sure they hate that.
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