Google respect
A few days ago I wrote a post describing how I was fooled into breaking the terms of my Google AdSense account, which resulted in Google terminating my account without any warning of any kind. While that was the right thing of them to do, the idea of being blacklisted without getting a chance to explain myself made me upset - and I asked myself if Google had grown too big to listen to a the explaination of a single user. Now I know the answer.
I was given the chance to explain myself, and the AdSense team did listen. And to my great relief and happiness, my explaination and apologies were accepted and my account was reinstated. Within a day or two I will have the small ad box back again. I am given a second chance. Trust me when I say that I will do the best of it!
Comments can be only posted for 14 days after the post date. If you have comments about an older post such as this one, feel free to send me an e-mail!
Comment from J.Lyn
Time: May 23, 2006, 22:35
I wish I could have had the same experience as you. I resisted ads forever but as my site got bigger, I found I needed to find some small ways to fund it because the out of pocket expense was going to be problematic. I'm a small fish and generated nothing like the amount you generated in your example. I think I had $50. One day I got an email that I'd been suspended for "unauthorized clicks". No explaination. I was religious about not clicking the ads, even though some of them looked very interesting and most of them were actually relevant to my site. I appealed and filled out the form they sent, indicating that I had not clicked anything myself. A week or so later I get the same email. Suspended for unauthorized clicks. I asked for at least a clue as to which clicks were supposedly "unauthorized" and maybe I could track them down and stop them. All I got was an email that they were unable to provide any more information and that I was still suspended. So I still don't know why and couldn't really glean any clues from the TOS either. It just reinforced my dislike of ads and did a lot to lessen my devotion to Google.
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Time: May 24, 2006, 5:09
[...] Google respectA few days ago I wrote a post describing how I was fooled into breaking the terms of my Google AdSense account, which resulted in Google terminating my account without any warning of any kind. While that was the right thing of them to … [...]
Comment from Karthik
Time: May 24, 2006, 7:06
hey andreas google had suspended my account some months back because one of my competitors spent clicking on the ads all day long for a week.. and my acct was removed. is there any way to get it back..
Comment from Rob
Time: May 24, 2006, 13:12
Hi Andreas.
Lucky for you they never picked up on the fact that you also spoke publically about your earnings ($250 in that month you said)…. coz then that would have been two terms and conditions broken.
Anyway, I'm actually glad they reinstated your account.
You may be interested in reading this (consider yourself lucky):-
http://www.webforumz.com/webforumz-cafe/4545-goodle-adcense-issue.htm
:)
Comment from Andreas
Time: May 24, 2006, 14:17
Thanks everyone!
Karthik: I don't know how it works when others have clicked your links, but you should be able to make an appeal as well.
Rob: I mentioned a gross amount, yes. I can't see anything wrong with that. I didn't write any confidential info, such as the rates or the amount of time needed to collect the amount. I also didn't tell if it was for ad clicks or referrals - and noone knows how many sites I run. I am pretty sure that I acted correctly. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Comment from Nacho
Time: May 25, 2006, 5:52
Congrats!! How many click have you done in your own site? Sometimes I found interesting ads in mine and I click on them, but very ocasionally.
Comment from Andreas
Time: May 25, 2006, 6:09
Nacho: Don't click your own links, no matter how interesting they look! Learn from the comments posted here. If you click your own links, you'll get suspended sooner or later. I don't know exactly how many clicks I did, I didn't count them. But the number doesn't matter, you are not allowed to click your own links at all. If you knew how many e-mails I have got, telling me that the sender has "only clicked a few times" and then got their account suspended, you would trust that advice.
Comment from Will Peavy
Time: May 25, 2006, 6:21
Glad to hear you got your ads back from google. I've personally had better results with linkshare.com, you get to choose specifically what merchants you link to on your site banners.
Comment from Benni
Time: May 25, 2006, 9:52
My adsense account was terminated without a warning and no, "customer service" did not listen at all, they just kept sending unrelated text blocks. I felt really stupid advertising 6 months at no cost for any advertiser involved. Shame on google! I really liked them before but from now on there's a bitter taste.
Comment from Dan
Time: May 25, 2006, 21:11
I too was suspended from Google without a warning. I filled in the form to explain and try to get reinstated, but they said "no". I also had money in my account that they owed me. About $150. They were not interested and treated me like a criminal, with no explaination. You are lucky they let you back in. Ther really should warn you beofre suspending your account.
Comment from foobar
Time: May 26, 2006, 3:11
great. i know google will do something about it. after all, it's just a small matter (on my opinion) on which people should talk or discuss about.
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Time: May 27, 2006, 3:44
[...] Andread Visklund account was baned due to click fraud, according to him, he was fooled into clicking those ads by an anonymous letter telling him the ways in filtering out unwanted ads. I was given the chance to explain myself, and the AdSense team did listen. And to my great relief and happiness, my explaination and apologies were accepted and my account was reinstated. Within a day or two I will have the small ad box back again. I am given a second chance. Trust me when I say that I will do the best of it! [...]
Comment from deepak
Time: May 27, 2006, 8:36
I've had some issues with google too in the past. Not as drastic as yours but, I had to try about 4 times before they stopped sending me canned responses. I would ask a question and get a completely unrelated answer, completely from the box, without it making sense in my situation.
Comment from Guigo
Time: May 27, 2006, 21:09
whoaa, lucky you! :D i was reading your first post about that trap and adsense report and was wandering "hm, the google woun't give a sh*t about your problem, bad clicks are bad clicks" but now we see they care, that's great, man, thats great ;)
Comment from Krishna Srikanth
Time: May 29, 2006, 11:52
But how does Google know that you are clicking? It can be any one. Isnt it?
Pingback from Odds n' Ends » More Google criticism
Time: May 29, 2006, 15:46
[...] Last but, as always, not least, a post by Andreas Viklund in which he claims Google screwed him. If you read the follow-up entry (Google Respect), you realize that he jumped to conclusions because in the end Google behaved well. [1] [...]
Comment from seanrox
Time: May 23, 2006, 7:13
and to think you even questioned the machine also known as Google… hehe… I knew it would work out for you :) and you'd get more then just an auto responder from them.