My appeal has been turned down (they had suspended my account).
Apparently, someone had been clicking on my adverts, and not in a ‘normal’ way.
This occurred just before my first payment was due, so all my work and late nights over the past 7 or 8 months have been wasted. Completely.
If Google told me when it occurred, and on which site, I could check my server logs, and find out who it was (to a certain degree at least), and then provide the logs to Google to defend myself.
That request was ignored though, with a bland cut’n’paste reply from them.
MattG has already been helping me with other possible sources of income, before Google dropped the bombshell, so once I get back into the work routine here in Astana, I’ll be trying out other schemes. Supposed to be getting a ‘proper’ daytime job soon anyway, so won’t have as much time to work on the sites 🙁
[edit] Wrote this draft message at the beginning of January, but didn’t publish it, in case Google actually read any of my messages I’d sent and decided to properly investigate the case. They didn’t, but have at least paid around $200 of the $270 I had earned. I still think they could have responded in a different manner, and even if I couldn’t get my account (& therefore income) going again, I really would have liked to try and find out who was responsible for destroying all my hard work…
Hey Ho, on to happier thoughts….
January 31st, 2007 4:26 pm
The power of Google to be Judge, Jury & Executioner. Doesn’t bode well for the freedom of net!
Happpy Birthday Irina!
February 7th, 2007 1:32 am
Hopefully found a replacement for the normal adverts, and I’m just finishing off writing an advert and article for an Asthma product I’ll be affiliated with, if all goes to plan…
March 29th, 2007 6:17 am
Google does this to everyone. They close your account right before it’s time to pay you and you never get the money. Do a search for Adsense sucks, you’ll see what I mean.
May 1st, 2007 2:23 pm
Yep.. Google is THE WORST .. moment you reach 100$ they will disable your account.. So they keep the money advertisers pay and do not pay hte publishers. no wonder their advertise revenues are much higher.
May 1st, 2007 3:44 pm
I was a little luckier than that, I got to around $280, before they decided I’d received fraudulent clicks. To be fair, I have a few friends who still have AdSense accounts, and make a fair amount of money. It is just that when Google do decide to cut you off, there is little to no human interaction involved, on their part, if you try and redress the situation.
May 22nd, 2007 7:26 am
Google ripped me off too! I have a great webstore and ebay business, I drive alot of traffic to my webstore with op-in repeat customer email, so after 18 months building my google income, almost $500.00 monthly I get banned, just the same canned email everyone else gets for invalid clicks, they
got me for over $700.00 total earnings that where cancelled.
I already have a good income from my online sales, glad I didnt have to have the money, the F@@kers at google can keep the Money, legit online marketers beware of adsense,dont waste your time!
May/2007
February 29th, 2008 7:45 pm
[…] Whilst we’re on the topic of communication, I should mention that it is possible that this blog will have a small amount of advertisements placed on it soon. Again, for anyone who is new to this blog, you can read a little of the history Google and I have had here […]
June 18th, 2008 12:42 pm
Chris, have you tried WidgetBucks? I’ve been earning almost twice as much with WidgetBucks compared to AdSense. Plus, the ads are optimized for WordPress, Blogger, and even TypePad. Check out this WidgetBucks review for some more info.
June 18th, 2008 2:06 pm
So have the original issues with page load times and contextual ad matching been sorted yet? (I hope you don’t mind me mentioning it, but your review might lead to more aff. signups if you include just one ‘con’. Seeing none at all will often make people think there is a little bias going on.)
I had a look, but upon searching around still found a few too many negative reviews. Anyway, if you get a sec, let me know re. page load times and contextual matching, and you may have another signup through your link 🙂