I heard that many people got banned this week from GAS - Just curious! Can everyone who got banned this week tell it out here? Please also give the Reason(Invalid clicks, relation with banned account etc) and if possible the copy of the mails you recieved from Google. Here is mine. I got banned because THEY say i got some relation with another banned acount - I used GAS only in my blog - at blogspot.
I got banned about a week ago and then I got denied this morning again for the same site, but different reasons. The first reason I got banned was due to invalid clicking (friends, family, children and even myself accidentally) thinking they were helping me. I appealed and stated that this was the case. Hoping that honesty would be the best policy. My reply to this was "We re-evaluated your account and found that there were indeed invalid clicks". That's exactly what I told them, so they didn't look at anything IMO! So I reapplied under a different domain name for the same site. My denial this morning states that the site doesn't meet criteria. At first I thought this was due to being denied previously, but I realised that I had some other ad systems on the site!! Ahuh. So maybe they were going to accept me again? But I've also heard that sometimes they will accept and then deny a few days later due to the first reasons. Which brings me to a good point. Surely, someone like myself, who has gone through this process of being banned is more likely not to click on his own ads and do his part, even more so, having learnt his lesson? Sure not all, but a good high percentage of those who are serious. Also, how can anyone disprove if say someone with malicious intent goes and clicks on your sites ads time and time again. From my experience it didn't take more than 15 clicks for them to ban and I hear it can be much less than that? It also seems they don't really "evaluate" anything (could be wrong), so how could you actually defend against it and if not, how does one get back? Seems a little unfair. I do understand them wanting an honest program, but no second chances? I am still searching for that Google alternative though, hard to find. Signed up for Yahoo! but havn't heard from them yet. Any ideas? Click-Share (originally said adbrite) seems like the repeat the same 5 ads! *lol* Enough for now Siafu
There is a jump in the number of people banned at the end of every month as that is when they act on the flags that may have gone up during the month or the previous months if you are only hitting $100 for the first time Way to start a rumour
As an advertiser, if Google were to contact me (this would never happen) telling me that my site was a victim of click fraud, perpetrated by the web site owner (or his friends and family) where my ad was displayed, I would expect that web site owner to be banned for life. Our company was recently a victim of "suspected" competitor click fraud. We traced the IP address to the same city, where we are located, and found that the searches were for some pretty uncommon keywords - the same keywords I used to optimize the competitor's web site for. Anyway, my thought regarding Google's unwillingness to offer second chances to AdSense users, whose accounts have been closed, is that it should NOT happen. I understand that someone could purposefully click your ads hoping to get you banned from AdSense, and there is really no way to lawfully bring action against someone, who does this. But you have to look at it from the advertisers' prespective. We were VICTIMS of click fraud, to the tune of about $300 in just a week or so, and we have no legal course of action, even though we have narrowed down, who we think (know) did it. We got that far before local law enforcement told us, we can identify the perpetrator, but you can't prosecute, as there is no law protecting you from this sort of thing. Google refunded all our money, and re-evaluated our account at least one (maybe twice), which resulted in even more money refunded to our account for suspected fraudulent clicking. All in all, we were out a lot of time, which could have been better spent working on the web site, rather than trying to detect further click fraud (plus, reporting each incident, each occurrence). For about two weeks, my first task of the day was to come in, check the web stats, and report the clicks to Google. What a waste of time. Your situation is unfortunate, but it's only fair to us advertisers that Google enforce a "zero-tolerance" policy on AdSense fraud.
I totally agree to you Tara - on an advertisers perspective it's fair enough. But there is no difference in opinion that - Google has an unhealthy way of dealing with Publishers. I hadn't cliked in any of my ads at all! I dont want to lie to myself - i dont want my GAS account set up again too . All i was trying to say is if Google thinks banning accounts one fine morning(end of month), that isn't a healthy way to do things. It rips off their credibility! Agree or disagree?
Good guess! But i thought its not what we are talking abt here. Google already told me that I have been associated with another account doing invalid clicks- despite my question they did not reveal which account it is. So i dont care anything further. but it is a disrespectful way of doing business. I feel like its a robot there - not humans!
The relationship we have with Google as publishers is that Google is our customer. They can choose to take their business elsewhere for any reason I guess. It's a real heads up for anyone who has AdSense as their only source of income.
I've heard that quite a few (more than average) BHs have been banned lately too. I just thought I would throw that out there. Invalid clicks are the one thing that will really piss Google off.
So if i have a cross with any webmaster - all i have to do is just start frenzy clicking the google ads on their site - ???