Got denied by Adsense, Clicksor seems rather lame

Recently I decided to quit footing the entire bill for my website (www.clemsontalk.com), a college-oriented forum. I decided to apply for Adsense, as I heard that they are the best. Well, a day after I applied I recieved an email stating that my site has excessive language and adult content. While what I consider excessive may not be Google's definition (it's a bunch of college students, for gods sake), do you guys know if it is possible to get Google to re-consider?

In the meantime, I put up a few banners for Condomania.com, who promised to pay out 15% of referral purchases. After 5k-6k impressions and 30-something clicks without sales, I decided maybe Clicksor would be a better source of revenue. So far I've got 1950 impressions and 10 clicks, earning a whopping $.31. Two questions - it seems that Clicksor counts a lot less impression than actual pageviews. Is it something like 1 impression per unique IP? Is this 3.1cents per click about the industry average? I've never done advertising before, so I'm new to all of this.

Ideally I would get an Adsense account, but unless Google approves..? Any suggestions will be very helpful.

 

Maybe yuo need to start moderating the student trash talk to please Google. Then tell them you did just that and they might reconsider. You can also apply through a more firendlt site and if you feel the clem site is not violating the TOS, you can put the ads of the applicant site on that one too.

3 cents a click is not uncommon, especially if your site is pretty general / not focussed on a high paying topic.

You could also join Commission Junction and put up a load of relevant ebay auction links. And join Amazon too. My guess is that your audience buys from them already so if they buy via you, you get money. Amazon money can build up quite quickly in my experience.

 

I suggest you consider adding some articles for your forum. Articles should be college oriented to match your site. Sometimes google hate forum based websites and prefer content based. It is also a good idea have a little control on languages that you may allow on your forum, setup some guidelines to follow. If you receive alot of pageviews I suggest using CPM based advertisers such as Fastclick and Tribalfushion (Just dont know if they allow forums).

GoodLuck

 

Thanks for your advice. I've set up an Amazon Associates account, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm working on the content front, but it's rather hard to get people to contribute articles, and I've recently graduated and no longer going to the University.

 

if you have a different website you could apply to adsense through that. Then if you get approved you can put it on the forum site too.

 

I would recommend trying revenue pilot. You can either use an xml feed to create whatever ad look you want or you can use their preset java ad links. They pretty much accept anybody who applies. They have paid me every month right on time. They offer real time earnings and quick support response. They pay less per click than Google but offer a competive per click price. The best part is you decide what keywords the ads are based on, so it doesn't rely on page content. Here's the link: http://www.revenuepilot.com/

 

I see two people have recommended this, which I find rather puzzling.

If AdSense denied your application, it is presumably because they found something objectionable at the forum. If you set up a second site and get AdSense approved for that one, and then add AdSense to the site Google previously found objectionable, do you not think that there's a fairly good chance Google will cancel your account and deny any money you've earned to that point once they discover you've got the ads on the objectionable site?

Just seems like bad advice to me...

 

I quote myself Minstrel. Ofcourse he shouldn't do that unless he makes it compliant with TOS. I'm an AdWords advertiser and surely don't want my ads and website associated with a non-compliant website. Google denied for a reason.

 

I did see your disclaimer, TOPS30 -- but then when I saw similar advice, without the caution, posted later by CGO35, I thought someone should warn the guy clearly that he could be creating more problems for himself if he wasn't careful.

 

I was merely saying that is an idea that vtrac can consider. Of course there is probably a chance that google may find him later and withold all monies... What's better taking that chance of getting money witheld or never making the money anyhow. At least you give yourself a chance with one option. Plus, it gives you the chance to make money with your forum while taking the time to clean it up at the same time... have you tried to use some of the bad word filters the forum setup usually provides? Would I take my own advice? I don't know, I'd probably first look for a good alternative program, which I don't think there is much that are comparing to adsense right now. It's all on you vtrac.

 

My take is that if you set out to violate the stated TOS, you are in violation of contract. Period.

If he really wants AdSense, he has the option of modifying forum policies to conform to Google's guidelines. If he chooses to keep his forum the way he is, he has a perfect right to do so and he will continue to be refused by Google. If he tried an end run around Google policies, he may find he has more worries than he does now.

Hence my warning: I just think it's bad advice.

 

I got denied too for my 5 Star site. Was pretty surprised.

 

Did they give you a reason?

Anyway, wouldn't you just serve up competing affiliate schemes? That's the lame part of AdSense. Too relevant can help competition. There should be a 'lateral' option instead of relevant IMO. Based on demographics and user behaviour.