I haven't done Adsense in years and am just starting to get back into the game with a few new blogs. As I've been reading up on everything, I've come across a lot of horror stories of people getting banned from Adsense for life over what seem like fairly small infractions. Is this a common thing? I certainly have no intention of scamming Google. I'm not going to click my own ads or anything like that, but there seem to be a lot of specific technical stuff now regarding how you build your website. I'm trying to do everything right, but I'm worried I'm going to miss something and get banned for life before I even get my feet on the ground. Is it really the mine field is sounds like? Or is it more, as long as you try to do the right thing, they'll work with you?
Actually it is not a common thing to be banned in Google Adsense if you follow their guidelines strictly. They are always well but sometimes they apply hard rules on publishers to save the advertisers.
Given that there are zillions of accounts in Adsense and you read a few stories of people getting banned, does not mean its common.
There is nothing to be afraid of if you play the game by the rules. The TOS is strict and violating the rules can cause into a ban.
Yes it is common for newcomers who don't read Adsense TOS and then come crying that they lost so much money from adsesne for no reason. Follow TOS and you're fine!! I myself read their TOS once few weeks to keep myself updated or when I get to know if anything changed.
Yes, and the common reason why adsense may banned the account is the self or invalid click and having more than one adsense account. Well, as you mention you dont have any intention scamming google. Definitely you'd be okay.