September is about to end. It is quite a stressful month for
me. On September 10, one day prior to the 10th year anniversary of
9/11, I was banned from Google Adsense. Here’s the email I had received from
the giant Google:
Hello,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.Please understand that we need to take such steps to maintain the effectiveness of Google's advertising system, particularly the advertiser-publisher relationship. We understand the inconvenience that this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.If you have any questions or concerns about the actions we've taken, how you can appeal this decision, or invalid activity in general, you can find more information by visiting http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
As you can see, their email is vague and it didn’t state
clearly what their accusing me of. I immediately logged into my Adsense account
to see the so-called invalid activity that they’ve found on my account, but
they’ve already blocked all the information from me. Without my Adsense, I can
no longer earn with the HubPages Ad Program. I’ve lost the few dollars that I’ve
accumulated through the months. To say that I was sad is an understatement. I
was devastated.
Several days later (on September 27 to be precise), my twin
got the same email from Google. Although we were kind of expecting this, it was
a huge blow to me. I was hoping to use her account on my sites so I could still
earn. I was so upset for days.
After I was banned, my sister and I have been seeing a lot of people being banned by Google as well. There were discussions about Google
getting rid of publishers from “fraudulent” countries. According to what I’ve
read, Google has come up with a list of countries with people that are likely
to click-bomb their own ads. Sadly, the Philippines is one of the prohibited
countries. I can’t confirm this though since Google hasn’t stated anything
about the list. Nevertheless, lots of publishers are mad with Google. Some were
saying that Google is a scam. Others say that Google is already losing its
advertisers so they have to ban people from high-risk countries in order to get
back their clients’ trust. Whatever their reason is, I feel cheated. If they
want to ban me, it’s okay. But they should at least give me a clear explanation
why they would lock my account.
Anyway, click the link if you want to read more about the little girl being dumped by Google. I don’t want to think about the “why’s” anymore. I
want to be proactive and focus on other opportunities out there. In my six
months of writing online, I realized that I can actually write. I’d always
believed that I suck in English back in school. I didn’t know that I could gain
some friends on the internet. Although I haven’t seen some of my readers’
faces, I `can strongly feel their kindness and sincerity. I love my online job
and I won’t let this incident stop me from doing what I love.
The little girl may have fallen, but when she rises, she
will stand taller than before.
You go girl! Let no one keep you down! Guess what?! I also got this email and was also very annoyed at first. After that I said no problem as there was no money of note there to worry. I do not know what has been your experience Cheerfulnuts but I find that persons tend to pay attention to the content and not the ads so far. Anyway some people make money from reviewing products and having giveaways on their Blog. I have not tried that yet. Now I am using Infolinks. Google it and see if you are interested in it. Take care and all the best to you.
ReplyDeleteJudy, thanks so much for your comment. I had been upset for days (I hadn't even updated my blog for quite some time). I had already earned a bit money from Adsense and had lost everything. Although it's not a huge amount, but I don't know... every penny means a lot to me. It's the first time I earn online. But I don't want to be sad anymore. As you've said, there is Infolinks (I will check it out!). There are a lot of other options. If you've noticed, I'm using Nuffnang ads now. But I guess the company is catered to people in Southeast Asia. I have a lot of learning to do, but it's not the end of my online career. It's just the beginning.:)
ReplyDeleteBtw, when did you receive Google's email? I didn't know that. Yeah, it's really annoying. But I'm glad you were not as affected as I was.:) Take care and best wishes!
Hi cheerfulnuts,
ReplyDeleteI hope your Thursday has been going well. I got my email several weeks ago. I just ignored it as there was not much money involved and I was so annoyed! I have heard others complain about this. I hope you find other avenues to earn money. It isn't easy. Take care.
Judy
Aside from Infolinks, there are tons of Adsense alternatives like Chitika, AddClickMedia, Kontera, nuffnang, etc. that you and seriousnut can use.
ReplyDeleteThere are also tons of other writing sites out there like Squidoo, Wizzley, and InfoBarrel. Although all of them still has Adsense, other sites integrate other ad platforms like Chitika for InfoBarrel.
Btw, in relation to the WebAnswers and Google move, it is not our fault that some of our colleagues here are participating in fraudulent activities in relation to Adsense like clicking on their own ads and what not. Google should not sling the whole flock but instead should catch only the few culprit birds. They generalized the whole country for a rotten few.
There is also an issue with IP addresses. Since only the first two sets are static like 180.194 and the next two are dynamic, then that means it can happen that a visitor of a site will be assigned the same IP address as that of the Adsense account assigned to the site. I hope I'm making sense here. WordPress can block an IP range to prevent this but I haven't seen anything that works for Blogger yet.
Cheer up Cheerfulnuts, isn't that supposed to be your name?
@Judy: Thanks.:)
ReplyDelete@Free Mind: Thank you. You are right, there are tons of Adsense alternatives. I'm going to read about them and decide which ad network I'm going to use for my blog (aside from Nuffnang). I will cheer up.:)
Great to hear that It's so sad that many of our local colleagues have been hit by in Web Answers and Google. It really is unfair but what we can do now is to find alternatives.
ReplyDeleteYou're not alone, I also experienced the same and it got me mad. But later on, I realized I have to move on.
ReplyDeleteAs bloggers, it is not easy to become an instant super-earner, we really have to work hard at first. We need to write good and quality contents and give readers the reason why should they come back. And for this, as bloggers, we have to build a strong reputation and a strong foundation of readers and followers because this foundation will make us keep going.
There are a lot of bloggers I know that have kissed Adsense goodbye because whether or not there is Adsense or not, they are earning a good money this is because their foundation is strong and they have built their own online community. They are no longer search-engine dependent because the community and followers they have is already enough to attract advertisers.
So, let's all cheer up and I think the best way to be a successful blogger is to write good, original and quality contents and together, we will kiss AdSense goodbye!
Edmar, I didn't realize that you had been banned, too. Thank you so much for your inspiring comment. I'm glad to know that there are bloggers who earn enough even without Adsense. I had worked really hard, so I was really upset when Google banned me. But now, I will try even harder.
ReplyDeleteI feel a lot better now. Thank you.:)