After Three Years with Adsense, I Was Banned Tonight
87Adsense Scam
Make Money, Get Banned
I started writing online on April 5, 2008. Shortly thereafter, I applied for Adsense for my blog and was approved. I had no idea how to make money with Adsense. All I did at first was just place the ads on my blog and expect to make money. After about two years, I spread out to revenue sharing sites such as Hub Pages, Xomba and a couple of others. Still, after two years time, I had made less than $50.00 total. But, I started taking Adsense more seriously. I read how to take advantage of Google Trends and Google Adwords Keyword Tool. I noticed I was in the top five in some searches on Google! I was extremely happy and renewed my efforts on my blog and here on Hub Pages.
So, I got my first deposit to my PayPal account in March by using the above tools after learning about them here on Hub Pages. It was $122.00! My second check was $181.00. I thought I had this Adsense thing figured out. I was not making that much on HP. But, I was making money on my old blog amazingly enough. Each month since January my traffic increased and my money, likewise, increased. I was doing quite well. I was very pleased with myself. I would research for at least two hours before I was satisfied that my blog post or HP Hub would be on the front Google page of whatever topic I was posting about. I worked hard at this. I decided that hard work does indeed pay off for you. Well, tonight I discovered that was all wrong.
Tonight Google Adsense banned me for "invalid click activity." I was astonished. They accused me of using some sort of script that would click on ads. I have no idea what they are talking about. I am not that computer savy enough to do something like this. I wouldn't do it even if I did know how!!! I went three years of working on Adsense and tonight is my reward. I am upset about this if you couldn't tell. But, more than anything else, I am hurt about it. There is a mistake they have made. But, I am guilty without the benefit of a chance to defend myself. Sure, I have contacted them, filled out the form to let them know I want to be reinstated. But, judging from so many people this has happened to in the past, I will not be given a second chance. But, just so you know, this could happen to you also. I want to say it is a scam. But, I don't have proof it is a scam. Three years of working with Adsense is gone in a flash for reasons I do not understand. If someone is clicking on the ads on my blog, Hub Pages or Xomba, how can I know about it? How could I possibly stop that?
There are other avenues to make money on the internet. I will check into them now. But, Adsense users be warned. I never expected this to happen to me. I have read where it has happened to others who were also outraged about it. But, there is basically nothing you can do. I just will have to chalk this up to experience and move on to something else now.
UPDATE: Well, as I stated in this blog, I was summarily banned last night (June 12, 2011) for "invalid click activity." That email informing me my account was disabled was sent last night about 9:30PM. I immediately appealed their action for reasons already stated. I went to bed thinking it would be weeks or months (if at all) before they responded. Well, they took all of about seven hours to reach a decision on my appeal. The time date was 4:06AM June 13, 2011. I can see they carefully deliberated this so-called appeal. It is apparent to me now that Google Adsense will be after you the moment you make that first check which took me almost three years to accomplish. If there was any doubt in my mind Adsense is a scam, that doubt is now removed. The form letter informing me of the outcome of my "appeal" is below:
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Hello, Thank you for your appeal. We appreciate the additional information you've provided, as well as your continued interest in the AdSense program. However, after thoroughly re-reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into consideration, our specialists have confirmed that we're unable to reinstate your AdSense account. As a reminder, if you have any questions or concerns about your account, the actions we've taken, or invalid activity in general, you can find more information by visiting http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=57153. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Teamvote upvote downshareprintflag
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Google Adsense is a waste of time..When you earn more they disable your account and if you earn less than it's fine - this will be applicable to Hubpages also?
Google Adsense is a waste of time..When you earn more they disable your account and if you earn less than it's fine
This is BS David. I have heard many people have this done and it is terrbile once you consider all that time that you put in. I hate that for you. I heard they are others like it though.
what other companies are there like adsense?
Thanks for sharing such a useful article I know how you feel and I'm sorry to hear that..
read this http://grey-fight.blogspot.com/
I had a similar experience after 2 or 3 years of using them with no problem. The only difference is they were far more vague in their accusations. They didn't mention click fraud. In fact, they give no indication of why the account was disabled and I believe they did it so they would have an excuse to keep the money I am owed. They did this in lieu of cutting me a check. And, it is a common complaint about Google Adsense that they do this right before they're supposed to pay people.
I am so freaked out by them (actually I have been for a while, now) that I'm in the process of cutting all ties with them. They own everything! So, it seems. I don't trust them, at all - they are a very disreputable company, in fact. Apparently, they treat their AdWords advertisers with equal disrespect and they are known for arbitrarily disabling all of their accounts - including Gmail - without warning.
I sent in an appeal and received a reply similar to yours. It is all very bizarre. The only thing missing from this experience is a guy in a black ski mask with a gun pointed at my face.
My conclusion is that they're completely insane and/or they are a well organized gang of high tech criminals.
Polly, what amazes me is that some people get their adsense account disabled and they leave the ads on their hubs. I am still working on getting rid of the ads on my hubs. But, on some I am told they are still commercial.
I will have to do that third letter next week. It is a very painstaking effort to read my late uncle's writing. I thought I had the worst penmanship in the world. I was wrong. Plus, the ink has faded somewhat on these letters, making it even harder to understand. I will try and do that letter when I have more time. Right now, I am addressing an "undocumented immigrant" who came out this week. He is a Pulitzer winning journalist with the Washington Post. It seems that winning Pulitzer at the Post with underhanded means is a tradition.
Well I tell you they are making money on ones I have commercial I know because months after I quit them I noticed my acct # there one day but when I tried to get in to have it removed they said I had no account! Why else would my acct number be there. I been checking here daily, will you be finishing the letters here?
Polly,
I may not be around to see it, but Google will see their sunset eventually. There is always someone, somewhere with a new and better idea. This is especially true in the business world. Google runs their company like a Stalinist Gulag, much like Microsoft did at one time.
Anyway, I had been wanting to try affiliate marketing on my blog. Now, I have that opportunity. I'll see how this works out now.
Oh me too and I been feeling that way many many months and saying so every chance I get, I hope someone puts them out of business, or a run for their money anyway, many despise them. I think they are a bunch of cheats!
Now what you want me to say? lol
Jamie, I wish you the best in at least getting to that magical $100.00 threshold. I have nothing but contempt for Google Adsense. In fact, I refust to use Google as my primary search engine now. I am that disgusted by them. I wish you the absolute best, however.
Wow David, I'm so sorry.. I completely understand and I do agree with you.. there is something fishy going on with AdSense!! They shut me down for this "Invalid Click Activity" as well and denied my appeal immediately but surprisingly they reinstated my account out of the blue... However, I've made hardly a penny since I got my account back and when they shut it down I had slowly grown up to averaging 10.00 to 15.00 a month and was about 27.00 or so shy of making my 100.00 payout. Last month I made less than a dollar all month :(
I'm sad and disgusted about it and have pretty much given up on AdSense. I'll keep writing on HP but not near as much and I'll keep letting the pennies add up but it's taking forever to get that last 20.00 and at this rate they may shut me down again before I even make it.. I'm scared and do not trust them now.
Anyway, BEST of luck to you!! I've heard there are other avenues and I hope you have great success.. you obviously have what it takes!
Polly,
I responded on that hub of yours. My reply may get zapped by HP because I said some things that are not politically correct about Islam. I don't care. People need to wake up to Islam, just like they need to wake up to the fact Adsense is the biggest scam on the internet.
Its my last one and starts with In America, unbelievable honestly....but anyway I just changed the name and at least it's there even if the title don't say much.
KK Trainor,
If you don't see ads from scamsense...eh, adsense, then you probably have not set it up properly. I advise everyone not to give this..."program" the time of day. You work hard, you do it the right way, you start making money and then they ban you. It is disgusting. As Frog Prince stated, this is a case just waiting for a decision in a court of law. Adsense is unAmerican. No due process, no evidence to assert their charges of "invalid click activity," no nothing to support their allegations. You are guilty and are not given a chance to prove your innocence. I feel like a fool for being taken in by their "scheme."
Polly, I could not find the hub you are talking about. Has it been unpublished? Anyway, I have not heard about this incident with Obama and a Muslim group. But, honestly, that does not surprise me. The Lame Stream Media will not cover it. So, their take is, "If we don't cover it, it did not happen." Fox News should be all over this. I am starting to have my doubts about them now.
I have taken down some ads on hubs last night and today. But, at least two could not be taken down because they were considered commercial. I have looked at both. I cannot see what they are talking about.
Just let me know when and if you decide to give up ads, it is simple and if you put a link or anything they consider to be commercial whether you make money or not they make it commercial. I haven't had ads in months and I love it, not having some things embarrassing to me. I have taken down some just because of it. I have said it many times but I have some places I had not heard of, especially one that says is really good, it seems anyone brave enough to say it are sick of this place. I have two sites, I am an idiot hanging on here. I need to learn what my husband does to do my own, I would do amazing things i bet, lol. It would be fun!
I got it up under a new name if you get time to read it before some flags it. It is unbelievable Obama let a Islamic terrorist tell him Franklin Graham could not speak at that prayer event and the man should be behind bars but I do believe he and his group are Obama's brain and he will do as they say...apparently! I was up until after five AM and I have two sites if i have to use them for the sole purpose to show what is going on. You can rename your hub and probably get it up, they have never taken down a second one that I can remember but of course our circumstances are a little different but if you are like me it is hell to wait and I never have. Good luck and they owe you an apology! Me too for that matter, I told them I got my information the same as the guy against Graham unless God told him, so deserve the same right but actually I got most of it from Van Impe to make me aware of it all.
I published a hub tonight about this terrorist group that wouldn't allow Obama to let Franklin Graham speak at the prayer event and they took it down saying they have to read it over, but I told them there is another hubber here asking does Graham think he is the pope or something like that anyway I think if they allow his hub they have to mine and as far as information i didn't think God gave that man his information so I certainly picked up my facts online but it is no doubt my opinion in my words and that it would get published somewhere I promised,,and I do! I am not waiting days to see either!
Oh and that group doing things to shoot you down I know is true too and I have been a victim of them. But that's OK God will get them for me. lol
Actually I'm not sure I even set it up right to begin with, so I may be ok. ???
Well I guess I will close my adsense account tonight. I have only been a member a couple of weeks so I might as well. Does it have any effect on my hubs anyway?
Everyone, I made an update on my so-called appeal tonight.
MartieCoetser,
I am making it my mission in life to warn others about this scam known as "Adsense." It may not sway others. But, I am glad I saved at least one in you. There are other avenues to make money. I will now pursue them. Hopefully, they are not scam artists in 3-piece suits.
Frog,
It makes me wonder if these people that do this have something resembling a life. If this is how they get their kicks, then they are to be pitied. Why HP does othing about this, I have no idea. It is time for this to end or HP will cease to be a viable site.
writer20
I wish I would have ignored them when someone advised me to.
Thanks for this hub. I was thinking that it is high time for me to get serious about making money via google AdSense, but after I've read this hub of yours and the comments, I can now spare myself lots and lots of work and just keep on writing for the fun of it.
Thank goodness I igonored totally. Sorry this happened to you great write David.
David - Some of this I have commented on and will reemphasize this point since I know the moderators are following along.
There are groups of trolls here and on other forums and that is a known fact. Hub Pages knows of their existence. If they don't their technical team needs a rework. The trolls intent is ultimately to drive users away from a forum who's views they don't agree with.
They use the "Vote Down" button and then use "off forum" e-mails to alert their pals that they need to go and hammer that button too. I also suspect that they click away at other buttons in order to ultimately discredit the user they are targeting. This is Alinsky type stuff I'm describing here.
Hub Pages has the means to stop the abusive behavior and for some reason they fail to address the issue straight on. When that happens on any forum, the credibility of the forum itself comes under question.
There is enough technology out there to tell them exactly who is clicking what. The question then needs to be "Why?" As I said, it is relatively easy to solve. All the buttons here should serve a useful purpose. At least I would speculate that is the intent of having them here in the first place. The abuse needs to stop. Only Hub Pages can stop it.
We'll see.
The Frog Prince
Frog, this type of arbitrary banning by Google Adsense is begging for court action some day. I hope I am still around to see it if/when it comes. The thing that really gets me is the invalid clicks. How can one stop that sort of thing? I am smart enough to not click on my own ads. I do not participate in any type of group that does this. It just burns me up that this is all done without even so much as a real explanation as to what happened. If I am reinstated (which I doubt), I will not ever use it again. I am done with these scam artists and that is what I believe now.
Notice the low score on this hub? It has been like this since I first published it. This is highly unusual. Think maybe HP is fearful of the Adsense gods? I think so.
David - I ignore it myself. I have had it happen on other sites where I was paid to write based upon response. The site ended up banning me of all things. I asked to receive my accumulated earnings and they ignored me.
This happened to Darlene too if my memory serves me correctly. They have control here but maybe some day the court test will be put on them. Some people pursue justice. Me? I ignore it. Sorry to see this happen to a fellow Hubber who is such a good contributor.
The Frog
Polly,
That 45 score is a bit illuminating to me. None of my blogs started out that low. Now, I make one about Adsense being practically a scam and I get a 45. I don't care. They can kick me off HP if they want to. It is ridiculous the way Google Adsense treats people. I really want the chance to get reinstated so I can refuse to allow them on my blog and on my hubs if I can figure out how to do that. I am going to look into other ways to make money. I enjoy writing. But, I want to be compensated for it. Even HP has taken me off their "money making" ads. I made about $3.00 on HP last month. I made over triple that amount a day with Adsense. I knew something was going to happen. They are scum.
breakfastpop, I had heard it also. But, I thought by being honest and doing things the right way, I would never get in trouble. I see now that is not true. I will just go on and say it...Adsense is a scam. Nothing but a scam.
From what I could tell this is standard operating procedure which is exactly why I don't participate.
SaMcNutt,
This appears to be the case. I was making money for the first time in 3 years. Now, that is gone thanks be to Adsense team that doesn't have a clue. I would love for them to reinstate me so I can then refuse to allow their ads on my blog. I want to see the adds off my hubs. But, I'm not sure how I am suppose to do that.
ZIa Ahmed khan,
Thanks for the information. I will check it out.
Don't trust them I stopped months ago but you can use them, my writing name is all through google ads and i have people trying to pass themselves off as me and a guy at facebook who has gotten his name in with mine like co-writer of my hubs! I think I got that fixed, hope so. Well good luck, I say what I want about them,why they can't be honest I just don't know, everyone will leave here soon, I am looking now. I wonder sometimes if it isn't jealous butt kissers behind it somehow. After I put out a couple of hubs about the idiots my number was so low it was embarrassing and I work hard here, with two agendas. Maybe on of those people came in and punched or did whatever they managed to do to get mine down and they threatened to take down my Obama one but it was getting hit like crazy because the nuts were spreading the word they didn't want me to say and the hub had to be commercial of course although I got nothing from it. What does banned mean, you can't put your uncles letter back up, maybe there were complaints about that. Maybe the government decides some of what they don't want on here? Course they never banned me for calling them the crooks they are.
Dear David Answer is ready, hub is published.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Business-Strategy-for-inte
Start making money from your ideas.
Adsense is really can can not make money for anyone, while you need complete strategy on how to make money on differnt ideas on net. You need traffic and words to spread so people listen to you.
I will write a complete a hub on strategy for internet business, or long term strategy to make living.
I wrote one hub and will write many more, but second will answer to your querry.
It's almost like they don't want people clicking on your ads. What's the point of it all?
monetecristo,
I was warned by some people about Adsense. They told me once you start making money, they will disable your account. I should have listened and quit while I was a head. Thanks for the comment.
I am thinking seriously to dump adsense and stay with other companies. Thanks for the info. God bless.
ladysonoma Level 1 Commenter 7 weeks ago
There have been numerous articles about this sort of thing. Basically, competitors over clicking other peoples ads... It registers as fraud. So you didn't do anything, but someone did it to you. You should Google this. It happens on Facebook a lot too. The company assumes you are trying to higher your ratio and lower your cost per clicks, and it does nothing about the jerks who are messing with you.
Oh and I use cost per impressions. I'm sick of the clicks game! Sick to death of it! Some say it's a waste, but I don't think so. A lot less aggrevation. Those jerks can click til their hearts content, and my add will still be there.