. . .in 3 2 1: Okay, let me explain something to all those newbies (not that I dislike you . . I'm a newbie too) who cry and complain about being banned. Damn. I've been here a couple of months and I've seen my fair share of, " O my god! I woke up today and my account was banned. I did nothing wrong." Hello people. Google just doesn't ban people for the fun of it. 99.9% of the time - you did something wrong. And for the newbies who don't bother reading the TOS and then cry, you deserve a smack upside the head ( . . . actually make that two). Also for the people who think, "Hey, let me make some quick cash by clicking on my own ads." I'm gonna kick your @$$ (well your cyber @$$). You have to understand the system. 1) Advertisers want to pay money to get targeted visitors to check their site/product etc. 2) Publishers deliver these ads and targeted people visit. However, if jerks keep clicking their ads, how do you think advertisers feel about advertising with adsense, let alone spending another $5000, $10 000 ad campaign only to have it disappear on invalid clicks. It's idiots who violate the TOS that hurt all honest adsense users and we end up making less money. Don't use adsense to make quick cash. . .cause you'll never see it. So things to remember newbies: 1)Read the TOS 2)Don't click on your ads 3)Don't complain if you get banned (unless you are in the 0.1%) 4). . .and don't forget the smacks upside the head. I will now retreat in the corner from whence I came . . . never to be heard from again. Skinny
Good pt. I guess I wanted to believe that some might be innocent, that some wierd visitor keeps clicking on the ads. . .. Okay why am I out of the corner again? Skinny
I used to think the same way as you do. Then I got banned... I noticed some increased activity on one site. Very high CTRs all of a sudden. After a few days, I emailed Google, asking if there was a problem. They responded by banning me. Well, I wrote a long letter - I then did a search for click fraud - and emailed the letter to every reporter / editor that had written a story on click fraud. the gist of the letter was that honest webmasters were geting caught up in the click fraud mess and getting banned, losing income they had rightfully earned, because google was paranoid over click fraud. Within a day - one or more of the people I emailed contacted google - and my account was reinstated. Point being - I had done nothing wrong - and I suspect many others get banned after doing nothing dishonest. So dont assume its only 1% that have been improperly banned - im sure its higher.
None of this is new information. The people that are smart enough and mature enough to use adsense will figure this out on their own. It's better to let the greedy be greedy, they'll get what they deserve.
Joey, this just proves what I posted a few days ago. Senior members never seem to get banned, and when for some weird reason they do, they are usually the ones that get their accounts back. That is because they are people that know what Adsense is and what being a webmaster is. And on the other side we have all those newbies that never read the TOS, that try all kind of stupid stuff like using proxies or ciber cafes to click on their ads... those are the ones that get kicked out and never get back... those are the ones that come here and their first post is crying about how unfair Google is. You will never see a senior postiong a stupid "adsense banned me" thread... he would rather sort things out by himself.
I also think that there is a much higher percentage of honest webmasters being banned because of competition clicking. Or maybe even ONLY because of high CTR. Lots (A LOT) of people use adsense and these things does and will happen. No doubt there. And for all of you 'honest' people being banned and not being able to reinstate account: Shit happens, move on.
Ok you guys that are posting crap saying "oh well if google banned you they are never wrong" please stop your ignorance, the only reason you say it, is because you've never been banned. And refuse the possibility someone might be wrong?? It's called closed-minded thinking. (sorry if i sound offensive, i apologize) How can you possibly know for sure 100% that they have cheated. That's like saying every single person that went to prison is 100% cheating .. that's why we have courts, a justice system, and lawyers. Otherwise, off-with-their-heads would be the motto like in the 1700s, just like google is doing now... No court, no chance for the webmaster to defend himself, no real 100% proof shown anywhere, and no warning either. Innocent until proven guilty. This is just "off-with-their-heads" until proven innocent with google. These so-called people you say that have been "reinstated". What kind of fair system is that? Is it THAT HARD, to give a warning, or dis-count self-clicked ads with scripts? Chikita does it, why can't adsense? I'm not crying or whining, or anything, i'm just showing you guys the idea that perhaps, just perhaps... some of them are innocent? Take this example: If I posted a link to a big site, that was a database and it was viewed by thousands, and my link showed in front page for a few days. My statistics being 20-30 first-time visits per day, jumps to the 300s... Now imagine if these guys click my ads? and my CTR goes sky rocket, and if i get banned? Means i'm guilty right? Because suddenly, my site became popular. Take a better example: what if one guy that is a constant visitor at my site, honestly finds good stuff in adsense, and innocently clicks some ads, after a few weeks he's clickc 12 times... Oh oh, fraudelent clicks it must be!!! It's 100% the webmasters fault for not blocking the person! Now these are only hypothetical examples, which may never happen. But is it impossible for you to believe people fall through the cracks? People fall thru cracks all the time, and some people pay a heavy price in Real life, because no system is perfect. Here's a funny example: True story: A guy i know who only lived in US for about a few months, was driving down a roadway, and there was a cop car in front of him, they were driving, and then the cop in front started going faster and faster, the guy didn't really notice, since he was just following the police, so his speed jumps a bit too. Before you know it, the guy gets ticketed by the cop in front for speeding. Even though the cop tricked him into speeding. The guy then went to court and asked the judge to give the cop a ticket too, since he was speeding too, the judge yelled at him and he paid the ticket. Now it seems unfair to me, people always fall thru cracks in systems. Just because you can't see it, like oxygen, doesn't mean its not true. But believe what you want, I'm just giving you another point of view, which is what is taught in school, to never accept facts without questioning it, and never follow anything blindly.
Usually when people come to this forum and say they have had their Adsense account disabled but have done nothing wrong, a bit of prodding and a few questions usually reveal they did. It's suprisingly common. I think joeychgo's story is proof that people do fall between the cracks, and further proof that on those rare occasions, they get their account reinstated.
The fact here is that Google is a privatly owned company and if they feel like banning someone from their services for whatever reason, it's their good right. I have a website that offers charter yachts. If I find out (or even suspect) that one of the yacht owners is cheating my clients that booked his yacht, for example by putting them on a yacht with a broken engine or whatever, I will ban him from my site and never let him get back on it. No court needed. Pretty sad for him I guess, but my clients (comparable to Google's Adwords clients) are more important to me.
Well in my defence I did leave out the .1%. I made that figure up. But I did agree that Google isn't perfect. But like Fryman said. If you didn't do something wrong . . .you would deal with Google maturely and you'd probably get your acct back. I was referring more to the newbies who cry after doing something wrong. There have been tons of posts like that and I'm sick of them. Skinny
I agree. This is not an Adsense forum to learn how to cheat Adsense. It's a forum on how to make the most out of using Adsense, maximising your revenue in a legit way that's mutually beneficial to yourself and Google (ok it's always beneficial to Google, no matter what).
You can't control them. People will whine and cry all the time, but by whining and crying about them won't stop them ;O. Sometimes people have tried dealing with google. Some are from other countries, that don't know english as well as they think, so they can't negotiate, let alone read the ToS... C'mon, i bet you didn't read the whole ToS... Most of the time, they do email google, then when that doesn't work, or while they wait they go to a forum looking for sympathy. Bet you a million dollars if you gotten banned unfairly you too would probably post, out of the anger. Especially if you believe the people of DP know you and "understand". Maybe fryman will complain again, ;O, but i'll still defend you ;O.