Adsense spanked :(

[SERPalert]

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks or impressions have been generated on the Google ads on your site(s) through users of third-party programmes paid or provided with other incentives to visit your site. Such programmes may include, but are not limited to auto-surf, pay-to-surf, pay-to-read or pay-to-click sites.

As a reminder, any method of generating invalid clicks or impressions is strictly prohibited by our Terms & Conditions and programme policies:

https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_GB
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_GB

If we continue to detect invalid clicks or impressions from these services on your ads, we may disable your account to protect our advertisers.

I responded with this email

Hello Google Adsense Team,

I use none of the programs you mention. How have you come to the assumption this is what is happening? How can I combat it happening in the future?

to which they replied with

As you know, Google treats instances of invalid click and impression activity very seriously. Due to the proprietary nature of our algorithm, we cannot disclose any details about how our monitoring technology works or what specifics we found on your account. However, we can assure you that we have thoroughly re-reviewed your account and have confirmed that your account violated our programme's Terms and Conditions.

For your reference, we are including some guidelines to help prevent future invalid clicks and impressions:

It is against our programme policies for website publishers to click on the ads on their own web pages or to encourage others to do so. Note that some programmes including, but not limited to, auto-surf, pay-to-surf, pay-to-read or pay-to-click services may provide incentives for generating traffic resulting in invalid clicks or impressions.

Finally, please be sure to review and remain in compliance with our Terms and Conditions and programme policies:

https://www.google.com/adsense/terms
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies
https://www.google.co.uk/support/adsense.

We have implemented these policies to help ensure the effectiveness of Google ads for our publishers as well as our advertisers. As mentioned, if we continue to detect traffic to the Google Ads that violate the Terms and Conditions and Programme Policies, we may disable your account to protect our advertisers.

We appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team

Not much to help me combat it, so i again replied

Hello,

I am genuinely keen to resolve this issue! But I feel I am left between a rock and a hard place. You've 'confirmed' my account has violated your tos but you're not telling me how.

I've done nothing intentionally or indeed by accident to my knowledge. I certainly haven't clicked my own ads.

If there's anything else specific you can tell me, it will aid me in preventing further instances of this problem.

As I say, this is a genuine concern to stay within the guidelines.

their response was disabling my account

As you know, Google treats instances of invalid clicks very seriously. By disabling your account, we feel that we have taken the necessary measures to ensure that invalid clicks will not continue to occur on your site. Due to the proprietary nature of our monitoring system, we're not able to disclose any specific details of these clicks. <snip>

GREAT.

I've replied with

As you can see from past emails I've been keen to resolve the issues before it got to this stage, however the help I needed wasn't forthcoming.

Can you let me know which sites the clicks were on so I can secure and save log files NOW for your review before they are overwritten.

Any other tips anyone can point me to? I'm not clicking my own ads, been running adsense for 16 months.

[jackburton2006]

They didn't say you were clicking on your own ads. They keep pointing to the auto-surf/artificial impressions problem. You seem to be very big on trading links, buying links, etc. Chances are you bought links from place that Google doesn't approve of. Think back, I'm sure you'll realize what you did wrong...

[SERPalert]

Originally Posted by jackburton2006

They didn't say you were clicking on your own ads. They keep pointing to the auto-surf/artificial impressions problem. You seem to be very big on trading links, buying links, etc. Chances are you bought links from place that Google doesn't approve of. Think back, I'm sure you'll realize what you did wrong...

I use the co-op, could that be considered "artificial impressions"?....I don't use any "auto-surf" programs or anything of the sort.

[jackburton2006]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

I use the co-op, could that be considered "artificial impressions"?....I don't use any "auto-surf" programs or anything of the sort.

Probably not the DP co-op. But you must have purchased links from somewhere that sent you traffic that Adsense doesn't approve. What other places have you purchased links from lately?

[Xitanto]

Ouch... Jackburton2006 might be right though.

[SERPalert]

Originally Posted by jackburton2006

Probably not the DP co-op. But you must have purchased links from somewhere that sent you traffic that Adsense doesn't approve. What other places have you purchased links from lately?

I include adsense on all of www.jamroll.co.uk hosted sites, some 1,000 plus sites in total.

I couldn't begin to comment for my hostees. I need to know from google what the suspect domain is.

[yfs1]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

I include adsense on all of www.jamroll.co.uk hosted sites, some 1,000 plus sites in total.

I couldn't begin to comment for my hostees. I need to know from google what the suspect domain is.

Thats a tough one actually. I would suspect that people getting free hosting might be the most likely to participate in paid to surf programs, so obviously one of your hosted accounts got you in trouble.

Google isn't likely to give you the offending subdomain so I don't see this getting resolved. In the end, you are responsible for the actions of all 1000 of those subdomains which is one of the pitfalls of AdSense and Free Hosting

[jackburton2006]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

I include adsense on all of www.jamroll.co.uk hosted sites, some 1,000 plus sites in total.

I couldn't begin to comment for my hostees. I need to know from google what the suspect domain is.

Ah, that's the problem, isn't it? You put your Adsense ads on 1,000 sites that you have no control over. Not very smart. You could have just as easy been banned for any dozen of other violations.

[SERPalert]

Originally Posted by yfs1

Thats a tough one actually. I would suspect that people getting free hosting might be the most likely to participate in paid to surf programs, so obviously one of your hosted accounts got you in trouble.

Google isn't likely to give you the offending subdomain so I don't see this getting resolved. In the end, you are responsible for the actions of all 1000 of those subdomains which is one of the pitfalls of AdSense and Free Hosting

That now leaves my model flawed, I had it paying for itself (and indeed making some little return for more features/servers etc).

Now I'll be losing money without much of an alternative to turn to.

[Xitanto]

I suggest you go for a shadier ad network for your jamroll site.

[MediaHustler]

You can always use Yahoo!?

[SERPalert]

Originally Posted by MediaHustler

You can always use Yahoo!?

I'm in the UK. I don't beleive this is an option...

[qwestcommunications]

Originally Posted by MediaHustler

You can always use Yahoo!?

Thats if he is in the US.

[yfs1]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

That now leaves my model flawed, I had it paying for itself (and indeed making some little return for more features/servers etc).

Now I'll be losing money without much of an alternative to turn to.

I think there are better alternatives for free hosting sites. AdSense has always been a risky move due to their strong TOS (And Yahoo would be the same).

There are lots of networks with flashy banners etc which seem to do better on free hosting. - Maybe start a thread looking for some of those alternatives.

[MediaHustler]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

I'm in the UK. I don't beleive this is an option...

Ohhh, well that sucks.

[bluefox21]

i had the same warning as google. I never knew what they were talking about, but i just removed any way of promoting my blogs and they never bothered me again. Unfortunately, i'm not getting clicks (nor a lot of traffic) to my blogs. but that's better than losing my account...

[SERPalert]

Originally Posted by yfs1

I think there are better alternatives for free hosting sites. AdSense has always been a risky move due to their strong TOS (And Yahoo would be the same).

There are lots of networks with flashy banners etc which seem to do better on free hosting. - Maybe start a thread looking for some of those alternatives.

Thanks yfs1 appreciate your input, if i cannot get this resolved I will.

I'm hoping adsense will understand, it's not like I've intentionally done wrong. That's a lot of sites to keep my eye on and I'm not responsible for their content.

[jackburton2006]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

Thanks yfs1 appreciate your input, if i cannot get this resolved I will.

I'm hoping adsense will understand, it's not like I've intentionally done wrong. That's a lot of sites to keep my eye on and I'm not responsible for their content.

You are, in fact, responsible for EVERYTHING you slap your Adsense on. It's unfortunate that you are now trying to divert the blame...

[SERPalert]

Originally Posted by jackburton2006

You are, in fact, responsible for EVERYTHING you slap your Adsense on. It's unfortunate that you are now trying to divert the blame...

Er, im not trying to divert the blame. I'm a big boy, I can take it. The fact of the matter is my adsense is on 1,000 peoples websites. I can't babysit them all of the time unfortunately which has obviously lead to this problem.

[MediaHustler]

Originally Posted by SERPalert

Er, im not trying to divert the blame. I'm a big boy, I can take it. The fact of the matter is my adsense is on 1,000 peoples websites. I can't babysit them all of the time unfortunately which has obviously lead to this problem.

Doesn't matter, Google won't fall for that. It's your code on them sites, you ARE to blame.