I'm Legitimate and Google Banned my Adsense Account- What should I do?

It's funny that the more questions asked, the more the truth of the situation comes out.

A nest of writers combine to make a blog network and at least one of the writers clicks 'at least once' on their own ad in that network. A post or two later we get to the crux of the matter: 65 hits / 72 clicks. Someone isn't being honest in your group. Did you have a falling out or a disagreement of some sort at or around the time of the sudden burst of clicks?

 

No falling out or anything. Around the time of when we got hit with the sudden burst of clicks was when we started getting "noticed"; we received our first comments from the general public and not just from us internally, and we started getting hit with spam in our comments. Since I sent the email to Google and never heard yay or nay, I just figured they had looked at it and taken care of it.

 

Out of curiousity, what is the age range of those involved?

 

So are you being a jerk for any particular reason?

 

I'm guessing you're referring to me so I'll answer as if you are.

Well, first off, you begin this thread with the title:
I'm Legitimate and Google Banned my Adsense Account- What should I do?

Then you spell out some details ... I'm working with a group of people to create a legitimate blog network. ... None of us or the authors have clicked on links or encouraged others to do so. ... What did we do wrong?

Ok, I'll spend a few minutes reading ...

In steps rjbudke from stage-left and states:
I'm Allthewhile's "partner in crime" -- We did have one of our writers click on ad -- and finally, the coup de gras:
We did have an insane click-through rate on one of our sites a couple of weeks ago (65 hits, something like 72 clicks on ads, don't know how that's even possible)

When you have seen as many posts from people banned by Adsense as we have here on DP; who at first claim to have done nothing wrong and after a few questions you find out they've clicked their own ads, blah, blah, blah; you try to get to the point as quickly as possible. As you have already noticed, some people are so fed up reading the same crap over and over again, they can't be bothered replying except to say 'search for the answers'.

So, who's yanking who's chain here?

 

Was not really clear... So in case it was not MCFox and it was me.. I don't think asking the age involved was being a jerk. I had a reason for asking the age, and that is because someone who is younger, ie a teenager, is less likely to clearly see the consequences of doing something like clicking on the ads to help boost their revenue. On top of that they would be less likely to admit it when asked after the fact as well.

You don't have to answer it... It is pretty clear some sort of violation has taken place involving someone involved with the project. I think it points to the sophisticated means that Google has to track fraud, and even a Blog/Click Ring can be discovered for minor infractions.

 

I apologize to both of you. My comment was aimed towards aeiouy, as I thought he was asking our age out of sarcasm. Everyone is between the ages of 22-35, most of us married and with families. We're all a group of friends who, like I said, is trying pretty darned hard to create some legitimate content, for fun, with the future hope of maybe making some extra cash way down the line.

Despite what's happening, I'm still very confused about what exactly happened. I totally understand and appreciate why google has the policy and procedures that they do, but it does make it frustrating for people who get banned and are also those who are trying to play within the rules.

With the incident of insane clickthrough rate, I actually came on here and asked for advice after it happened. When I was told to contact google just to be sure; we did. When we heard nothing back, we assumed it was taken care of.

Secondly, we had, from what we can gather 1 AUTHOR click on an ad (of course you can never know for sure). But even If that's the case, how would google know that person was an author and ban an entire account? They never logged into adsense from that i.p. Surely one click wouldn't do it. And I believe this person; they've no reason to lie. I admit, it was an invalid click and I wish I could take that person's mistake back. But to ban an entire account for the mistake of 6 cents is really frustrating. It just doesn't make sense.

We know the TOS and have tried to follow it as closely as possible. But anyways, thanks for the advice, and thanks for the help. I've learned a lot from this forum.

 

It is of course, quite possible that whoever got click-happy was a member of your group and they used their computer to log into adsense. Viola. Checkmate to Google, as they say.

 

lol...you clicked on the ad because it looked suspicious?

 

It's very simple, isn't it? Someone in your group couldn't help themselves and clicked on an ad. Then did it again. And again. And again still. They might even think they were bright smart and went to the other sites and did the same thing, thinking that if they "spread it out" it'll "be okay" and they won't get caught.

You're asking the wrong questions on this forum. You should ask your own members and demand that whoever clicked fess up. Continually emailing Google and claiming your innocence, when you know very well that you are not innocent (perhaps you are, but someone (or someones) in your group isn't) is just making the matters worst. Google isn't stupid; they didn't get to be a billion dollar company by letting married people in suburbia cheat them.

So, to get to the matter at hand: confront your members. If no one fesses up, then you have a liar and a cheat on your hands, and it's in your best interest to get rid of them and move on to your next endeavor. Clicking on the ads despite being told NOT TO DO SO is one thing, but continuing to lie to the rest of you is another. He/she can't be trusted.

By the way, Google is just one network. Sure, they're very popular and pay well right now, but there are others to join. Try Yahoo's version of Adsense, Clicksor, etc.

Good luck.

 

A big network of blogs. Someone in the network had to be clicking those ads over and over agian

 

The problem with the "someone in your group was clicking on the ads over and over" was that we had 3 total clicks the day we were banned. Before I go and call someone a liar, I'm going to wait and see from google what the actual infraction is.

 

Did you use many Google AdSense account IDs on the same page?

 

You're making the mistake of thinking that the actions = immediate response by Google. This is not the case. After the inexplicable bounty of 60+ clicks out of the blue, which you notified Google about, the Adsense account would be put in line for review by a human. It is this review process which seems to have resulted in the loss of the account. I would look to those 60+ clicks for the answer as to why the account was disabled, not the clicks on the day you were unable to log in.

 

Maybe not the writers.

Yes, there seems to be a delay often, after the initial investigation by the invalid click team.

In this case, like in others, perhaps a friend or relative of one of the writers was trying to "help", without the writer's knowledge, and maybe even from the writer's computer. Just a possibility. You would need a tracking script working that day to verify it (IPs, etc.), or maybe with the server logs.

 

NO RESPONSE. I know they're filthy rich, but hey we're TRYING to play the game straight. I guess you can choose to ignore your customers when you know your competitors product sucks. That's the nature of competition; it's the same reason why most cable providers have horrible service.

 

I can smell something...woof woof!!!...You tried to be samrt..dint you???... You guys made blogs & came up with an idea to click each others ads on periodic basis...Google is far more better & smarter... they can & WILL catch u for such frauds.

 

Depends on your point of view. An advertiser, like many of the people who are on DigitalPoint, will be glad Google have taken the action they have since it shows a no tolerance approach to click-fraud.

From your point of view, I don't imagine it's pleasant. Whose name was the Adsense account registered in? Yours?

 

True that. She/he/they still don't get it.

 

Just got a negative because of this thread with this comment:

"Google has better things to do than replying to thieves"

I love how I come on here and expose the whole thing tell the story, everything, and people still think we're thieves. Such jerks on this forum. Go a head give me another red you anonymous coward.

Yeah it makes a lot of sense for us to steal the 25 freaking dollars we made over the course of two months while we're building content. Come on give me more credit than that. If I'm going to steal money I'll just break into the gas station across the street or something.

There was no attempt at fraud here. But anyways, I'm surprised that I come on here with my hat on straight and instead of "wow here's what I'd do", or "that sucks", We're accused of cheating the system or of being idiots who "don't get it."

I understand that immediate action won't take place, just upset. It's like being a tiny ant trying to get the attention of a giant; it can be frustrating.

Anyways I'll let it go on here until it's resolved. Thanks to those who were supportive.