Banned from Google AdSense - Common Mistakes
By shibashake
Common wisdom is that once you get banned from Google AdSense, it is very difficult to get reinstated. Therefore, you want to be careful not to break any of the rules stated in the Google AdSense Terms of Service.
Here are some common mistakes that result in banning from Google AdSense. Make sure to keep a close eye on all correspondence from the Google AdSense team and take swift action to fix what they bring to your attention.
Ignoring their warnings will likely lead to banning.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 1
Generating suspicious clicks.
It is against Google AdSense TOS to click on your own AdSense advertisements or to get others to click on your advertisements. Note that it is also illegal to solicit clicks from your visitors either verbally, or through your writing.
Accidents may sometimes occur, however, and according to the Google AdSense Team, infrequent accidents will not get you into trouble.
Here is a list of common suspicious clicks questions and answers by Google.
Sometimes, you may also be sabotaged. A third party may decide to do a series of illegal clicks on your advertisements for the purpose of getting you banned. If you notice any suspicious clicks of this nature, Google encourages you to report it to them.
Use Google Analytics or other website statistics tracking software to obtain as much information as you can about the suspicious clicks. This will get them banned instead of you.
Instead of reporting the incident to Google, some people suggest that it is better to stay under Google's notice and to just temporarily remove Google AdSense advertisements from the locations where there is suspicious activity. After waiting a few days, you can reestablish your advertisements and hopefully your saboteur has found something else to do with his time.
It is also possible to both report the clicks to Google, as well as to disable Google AdSense temporarily so that the abuse does not continue to occur while you are waiting for Google's response. Here is a useful post on the Google AdSense forum on how to deal with click-bombing. In addition, check out Google's blog entry on invalid click activity and their Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center.
If your Google AdSense account gets banned because of invalid activity, you can appeal to Google using this form.
Note - It is also best NOT to 'reward other hubbers' by clicking on their Google AdSense advertisements as that can also be viewed as suspicious clicks.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 2
Publicizing your Google AdSense earnings information.
Opinions vary on this. Some people say that you are only not supposed to publish your Google AdSense CTR and eCPM figures publicly. Others say that you are not supposed to publish all exact earnings figures - including CTR, eCPM, number of clicks, and exact earnings numbers.
It is best to not publish a screenshot of your Google AdSense report page under any circumstances.
If you do screenshots of your other Google AdSense pages or of other Google tools (e.g., Google Analytics) make sure that none of your account information shows up in these screenshots - including your earnings numbers, your e-mail, and your Google AdSense ID. This is important for your own privacy protection, as well as to stay on the good side of Google AdSense.
Personally, I would not publish any of my Google AdSense earnings figures except as general aggregates, e.g. It took me about 4 months to get my first AdSense check, or I earned about $2 in my first month on HubPages.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 3
Stealing content.
Plagiarising content or copying content without permission are also against Google's TOS. Here are some common questions and answers about Google's copyright infringement policy.
If the content owner files a valid DMCA report on your online article, you will most likely get your Google AdSense account banned, with no hope of getting it back - ever.
Note that copyright infringement does not only apply to text, but also to images, photographs, and graphics, Do not include an image, photo, or graphic unless it is public domain or has an explicit public license (e.g. GNU). Make sure to follow the rules of the public license placed on the image.
Images that are not explicitly flagged as public are considered to be copyrighted by the original creator. Do not use any of these images unless you have obtained permission from the original creator. Always attribute all images (public domain, and licensed) back to their site of origin, and to their original author.
Note - copyright laws applies to videos, including youTube videos, as well as text and images.
Preserve your online legacy by only producing good and original content. This will also be the best way to get traffic and increase your Google AdSense earnings.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 4
Generating fake traffic.
Do not try to trick Google by generating fake web traffic to your Google AdSense sites.
What is fake web traffic?
Fake web traffic is anything that generates false impressions on your Google AdSense advertisements, including -
- Participating in link farms or link exchange directories. Do not link to link farms or link directories or you may not only find your Google AdSense account banned, but also that you have been dereferenced by Google Search.
- Participating in rank exchange or rank purchasing activities. Do not try to purchase a higher Google search rank from another site. Google is good at tracking down these 'sellers' and when that happens, you will lose your money, your purchased rank, and also your Google AdSense account.
- Participating in traffic exchange programs.
- Using doorways, page cloaking and other similar techniques to get higher search engine rankings and to misdirect your visitors.
Here is a list of legitimate ways from Google on how to increase your Google AdSense traffic. Here is a list of things of avoid.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 5
Getting multiple Google AdSense accounts.
Currently, Google only allows one Google AdSense account per person or entity(e.g. company or organization). Some non-US publishers have reported that Google does not even allow two people from the same address to have separate Google AdSense accounts.
Trying to trick Google into giving you multiple AdSense accounts can get all of your accounts banned. If you have accidentally applied for multiple Google AdSense accounts, then it is best to write to them and apologize for your mistake.
Some publishers have gotten their AdSense accounts banned because it is related to another banned account. Be very careful where you place your Google AdSense advertisements and only include them in your own sites or a very trusted third party or business, such as HubPages.
Otherwise, you may get penalized for someone else's wrongdoing.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 6
Showing pornographic material or linking to pornographic sites.
Google AdSense does not allow advertisements to be placed with certain types of content including adult, violent, and racist content. Content relating to alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and gambling are also not allowed. For a full list of unacceptable content topics, refer to the Google AdSense Program Policies.
For this reason, do not distribute content, including website templates or blog themes that contain your Google AdSense advertisement capsules. Since you have no control over what others publish in their website using your themes or templates, you may end up getting banned because of what others are publishing. For even better protection, you can go to AdSense Setup >> Allowed Sites on your Google AdSense page to restrict your Google AdSense-ID to only trusted websites.
Some sites that support pornographic or other unacceptable content may point to your online site or articles. There is nothing you can do about that, so you will not be penalized for incoming links, just for outgoing ones. Be careful not to show pornographic material, use pornographic related text, or link to any pornographic sites.
Note - make sure that the comments that you receive on your online articles also do not contain any keywords or links that are against Google AdSense's content guidelines. These bad comments can also affect your Google AdSense account.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 7
Modifying the look and feel of Google AdSense advertisements.
Understandably so, Google AdSense is very particular about advertisement tampering. You are not allowed to alter their advertisements in any way. You are not allowed to put competing advertisements that have the same look and feel in the vicinity. You are not allowed to place images close to your Google AdSense advertisements in an effort to draw your visitor's attention to the advertisements and increase your click through rate.
There are also restrictions as to where you can place AdSense advertisements. You are not allowed to put advertisements in pop-ups, emails or software.
Here are a list of common questions and answers about advertisement placement from Google AdSense .
If you are only showing Google AdSense advertisements through HubPages then you do not need to worry about these ad placement rules as it is taken care of for you by HubPages.
Banned from Google AdSense Mistake 8
No privacy policy.
Google requires all AdSense sites to put a cookie disclosure notice in their privacy policy.
AdSense publishers must have and abide by a privacy policy that discloses that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website.
~~ [Excerpt from Google AdSense Program Policies]
This only applies to AdSense publishers that run their own site, such as a personal website or a personal blog.
Publicly hosted sites such as HubPages, Blogger, and others have their own privacy policies, that will likely meet all the requirements of Google AdSense.
If you are not sure, scroll down to the bottom of your public page (e.g. hub) and locate where the copyright message is. Included close to the copyright message is usually a link to the website's privacy policy. Click on that and check to see if it contains all the elements stated by Google AdSense.
If you maintain your own website or your own blog, then it is important to include a similar privacy policy for every page that contains Google AdSense advertisements. It is easiest to include a 'Privacy Policy' link near to your website's copyright message as is done in most professional sites.
Refer to the Google AdSense Program Policies to determine what you should put in your website's privacy policy.
Failure to comply to this requirement could get your Google AdSense account banned.
Did you read through Google AdSense's TOS and program policies when you first joined AdSense?
See results without votingLife After AdSense Banning
In the unfortunate circumstance that you do get banned by Google AdSense, here are some resources of what you can do to get reinstated.
- Google AdSense disabled account FAQ.
- What to do when you're kicked out of Adsense from Webmaster World.
-
How to respond to a banned Google AdSense account notice from SEOpedia.
All of them seem to require a lot of work and some luck as well, so it is best to just keep a careful watch of Google's TOS and program policies.
Reading Google's AdSense rules carefully may not be the most interesting thing to do with your time but it is necessary to keep yourself from getting banned for accidentally breaking a rule that you may not even be aware of.
Remember to always be polite and professional when corresponding with Google AdSense. Do not publicly bad-mouth Google, or otherwise alter Google's trademark.
Join HubPages and start making money with Google AdSense.
In my experience page rank does not seem to have a large effect on value of ads, but only Google knows the true answer.
if any one has two websites... both websites have same number of visitors. but one site google page rank is 1 and the other webiste has page rank of 4. will there be difference in earning of website (adsense) ???
:)P Awesome hub and a good addition to Hubpages! Many thanks for sharing!
I had adsense 5 years ago and got banned, it was a small web site and I didn't care [ no fruad ] .. five months ago I started my blog up again and did all the google webmaster tips, adsense tips and regulation - I tracked traffic with google analytics and ech month my visitor traffic grew. jan 2012 - 1,700 unique / no returns. feb 2012 2,600 / 60 returns. March 3,987 unique visitors and onl 37 were return visitors.... I had adsense only for 4 months and only averaged $4 dollars a month - I hit $13 in march and April 4th I get banned for what... invalid clicks? Out of almost 4,000 visitors from around the world I got about 30 clicks... how can they even consider invalid clicks. I personally dont even click ads. And most of my clicks came from the search box i had on my blog - barely ever got a click from text ads????
LOL! Yeah, can't imagine being a lawyer and having to read that stuff all of the time, much less write it.
Great information on how to sort out adsense.
Better to do it now rather than fix it later when you could be potentially losing money.
I think this is the problem with all T&C's they are written by lawyers in tiny print and go on forever.
No-one can be bothered reading the whole thing.
We could be signing up for 5 years in the Foreign Legion for all we know.
Voted up and very useful.
getting banned is not FUN!
I adhered to everything, made over 90,000 in over three years, and without explanation got banned, ironically during the stretch in which I made the least amount of money. You can say and think what you want, I am bitter as hell. I think their business models suck. How many publishers out there have made that amount of money in three years.
Yes, that's what worries me - the risk. Bullocks (pardon my French)! Ugh!
Hmmm, that is surprising. When individual members within HubPages have AdSense issues, it is usually their individual account that gets penalized.
"Is it ok to link to my articles on this website (from other sites where I write) concerning the fact that it is now banned from AdSense?"
Only Google can answer this question for sure. Personally, it is not a risk that I would take.
This is a great article with plenty of useful info! Voted up and bookmarked! However, it still doesn't answer my question, so I'm hoping you'll help me with this one (I can't find the answer anywhere on the web, and I ended up here based on organic search, and not from HP).
You wrote "you may get penalized for someone else's wrongdoing" in your article, and this is exactly what happened on another site where I write. The owner was never informed about AdSense violation, but one of the members instead. The member didn't correct the wrongdoing so the entire site got banned. I've got about 100 articles there and would like to work on link building because the new earning program seems to work well only based on organic search; so, here's my question:
Is it ok to link to my articles on this website (from other sites where I write) concerning the fact that it is now banned from AdSense? Generally, the site is performing incredibly well in terms of rankings, but AdSense is gone.
I'd really appreciate it if you could help me understand this:)
I was just banned from Google Adsense with only a small blog but because most of my traffic came from one source (Facebook) and I had a lot of clicks I got an "invalid clicks" email. I did file an appeal and with light speed they denied the appeal. I can't help but wonder if it is because I was approaching that magic $100 mark? So many forums are filled with individuals who are banned with little reason. Back to earning it the old fashioned way! I will say I am not happy with them disabling an account without providing any detail.
You have mentioned 8 common mistakes that can cause to ban any Google Adsense account which are very useful for Adsense newbies. Informative hub!
I know a friend this happened to, was not very nice, not even a warning! a heads up like this post would have been nice.
Thanks for the useful information. I don't agree with Google's policy to simply ban an account without notice, there should always be a warning. I advise other adsuppliers like Carbon and Influads.
wow, ok, after reading this i dont think i will sign upto google, might try yahoo or who ever else does paid advertising. Sounds way too scary to wake up one day to find your livelyhood has gone because google didnt like what you said. wow sounds like google have officially begun their power trip. Its a shame really all this talk, internet used to be such a free easy going place. Google is turning it into a headache now, i think the internet will die down one day. I feel for all those who lost their accounts, why not try different companies? I hope google realises that some people are relying on that money or it is their full time job. Also people are writing content so that GOOGLE can grow and earn more too.
I think google should work with publishers, not shut them down. Google should teach people what they have done wrong and how they can correct it, then if they dont they can shut their account down.
Makes me not want to use google anymore after reading all of these comments on what google did to them.
Welcome to HubPages! Great to have another Shiba family here. :D
I really enjoyed your Shiba article. Love your descriptions and also that snow picture at the end. Would love to see your blog, so please post us a link when you get the chance.
Hugs to your Shiba or maybe just an honorable bow. ;)
Thanks for posting this! I just started using hubpages, blogger and adsense recently, so this is really helpful! I posted a privacy policy on my blogger account just in case. It's a little scary how easily you can get banned. But even if it happens someday I'll just keep on writing.
Also, I love your Shiba! I have one as well! She's a little crazy haha
My website was banned for none of the reasons mentioned above. I had some pages which I was still contructing and had links for them at the introduction. Just for fun put some adsense links on them. Probably I never got any click from those links. One day without any warning google banned my account. I appealed but of no avail. Now I am looking for some other source of advertizment but couln not find it.
I want somebody to help me find some other source or way to resume google adsense
Definitely let us know if you find any key offenses that are not covered here. Thanks!
I think I should have read the tos a little better. Although much of it is common sense, I learned some new guide lines. I think I'll try to find the tos and re-read it.
Great post! I really enjoyed reading it and it never hurts to get a reminder every once in a while about Adsense policies. Unfortunately many newbies get banned before they realize there's is a policy. Hopefully some of them will find this article before it's too late...
Thanks for the info. You basicly put it in dummy terms, all google adsense had to do is put it like you did. They put it to ware people could not understand the terms of service anyways thanks alot.
I've turned off the ads for the blog. I noticed under country, the second highest is "unidentified". There has been huge increase in "direct traffic". Not sure how can tell what IP etc. Maybe it's one of those computer bot things? I put an inquiry into Google. Bit of a bugger if didn't actually earn money after all
Hello BaileyBear,
If you suspect there are suspicious clicks, it is best to turn off all ads for the page(s), and then go through the click history to identify the source of the clicks.
Google just posted this article on invalid clicks-
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2011/11/top-5-things-y
Here is another great post on the Google Forums for dealing with bad clicks-
I've got a lot of ad clicks this month on my blog about leaving religion with attractive earnings. I'm wondering though whether it might be an attack by someone religious? I looked up Google contact but there doesn't seem to be any way to contact them directly to enquire
Here is another more recent reinstatement-
"Is it possible for someone to click on my ads causing false clicks and in turn getting me blocked in revenge??"
Yeah, I think that is possible. I would check through your click history to see if there are suspicious clicks and where they came from.
Do you limit site access? If not, it is also possible that your Google ID got posted on some other website.
"Also not being able to just talk to someone is just pants."
Yeah I agree.
"I have sent in a appeal but I hold no hopes of any good luck from google."
I have heard of several people getting their accounts back. Here is one, but it is from about 2 years ago-
http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/8905#post287017
Hope things work out for the best.
Ok so on my You Tube channel I have recently blocked a number of people for swearing and the like.
Then I wake up today to an e-mail saying ive been banned from adsense for improper clicks!!!
Is it possible for someone to click on my ads causing false clicks and in turn getting me blocked in revenge??
Im so mad today lol
my channel has grown nicely over this lasy year and ive got 170 videos up all my own work and I was generating some small monthly revenue and now this!!!
Also not being able to just talk to someone is just pants.
I have sent in a appeal but I hold no hopes of any good luck from google.
"do they disable account due to expiration of sites."
Not to my knowledge. As far as I know, accounts are only banned when they violate the terms of service.
As for all the other issues, I really don't know for sure. However, it would make sense that they would utilize all of the available information.
In general, I would *not* try to circumvent their rules.
Hi Shibashake,
Very good work...keep it up.
i have a doubt.I was banned earlier from adsense(about 4-5 years back.). i don't know why.now that sites where i used adsense is not online.do they disable account due to expiration of sites.i found 1 month ago my adsense account is disabled when i checked for a new site.
now i started a new site 1 week ago.can i use my friends adsense account on my site?or will they track my whois information?can i verify my site in webmaster tools?if i am verifying with my name do they track my earlier banning and then bann my friends adsense also?
please help
Yeah. I'm considering some monetization of my writing website, though...which as I have a link to an erotica site and am selling some pretty extreme horror books on, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Still trying to decide how to handle it.
I do want to mention though that in my experience, when there is content that is perceived to be against their TOS (usually keyed by frequency of certain keywords), I usually just get ads pulled for that one particular hub or article.
When that happens, I usually set ad visibility to none or change the article so that it becomes compliant.
This does give me an indication though, as to what type of content is unacceptable.
Yeah. I'm not going to be able to use AdSense on my own site as then I wouldn't be able to link to my own stuff, it seems.
Hello Jennifer,
I don't write about horror related topics, so I do not know much about this area. I haven't seen anything about horror links leading to banning but I also did not specifically look for information on this topic.
In general, if I am unsure about a site, then I err on the side of safety and don't link to it.
Do you know if anyone has ever been banned or demonetized on their own site for links to horror literature? I'm concerned that might constitute 'violent content'.
Hello Adam,
Based on what I have read a few stray clicks should not be a problem. AdSense will just remove those.
Quick question. What if I "accidentally" on one or 2 occasions clicked on ads on my videos (hypothetical of course) could I get banned?
Thanks thooghun. Yeah, it is somewhat worrying. It seems like a lot of the bans are from suspicious clicks, so I am trying to keep a closer eye on click activity.
WHat an informative and fantastic write up. I-m a little tense over the recent ban waves, but as far as I can tell I've done nothing wrong. Fingers crossed.
I enjoyed reading this hub. Very good information for newbies and others alike.
Thanks for the warnings! Good to know.
acually i previously aplied for adsense account but was declined but my blog shows disabled due to inactivity.
recently i got invite from youtube to start monetizing i applied (using diffrent email id) its in process but by mistake i used same address and mobile no.
don't know what to do, will it be approved?
can i use youtube adsnse pub id at my blog.
Good luck and welcome to HubPages! :D
Very informative hub, i just applied for Google adsense, wish me luck and will try my best to remember all these points,that is if i get accepted :)
The only thing I would be concerned about is linking to a possibly questionable site. I imagine that linking to sites that clearly break AdSense TOS will not reflect very well on our own site.
What is the rule if you have third party video links. For example if you show link to stream free for a tv show. I have mentioned that because im displaying links from another source it is not my responsibility for having it on there website. I am just linking it to that webpage not actually displaying the videos.
I am not sure what your question is.
I don't use Blogger but as I understand it, you are allowed to have AdSense ads there.
As for videos, I would read and follow the TOS of both youTube and AdSense. If the videos are your own then there should be no problems with monetizing them.
This is a really information post. I just want to make sure I have one point corrent.
So if I have an adsense account for my Youtube videos, I should not apply wiht Blogger to monetize my blog? Am I getting this correct? What if I turned my blog into a (dot.com) could I place add on it then?
Wow, this hub is awesome! I thought I read the TOS thoroughly, but apparently I missed a few things. Thanks!
I believe we are not supposed to publish CTR and eCPM figures publicly. As I said in the article, if we want to publish screenshots, then we want to make sure that these figures are not visible.
how come screenshots aren't allowed? I don't think I saw that anywhere in the terms and conditions or policy of AdSense?
Very informative ... em creating my blog so i will do care of these points thx alot :)
great article hope it will resolve all my problem.
i want to ask that as i forget to check my mail that google send me for correctio and i resubmit my application nwithout changing the url that they are demanding for verifing my authority.
now i m scared whether they give me another chance or not? plz reply
Very good tips, thanks for sharing this. Luckily, I didn't resort to traffic sharing sites before. I'm having a ball of a time looking at my adsense and it's starting to make sense to me more and more. Love hubs like this, where I get to read tips on how to protect my account better. Hub up.=)
i am still not over google for banning me and i dont even know why?
Nice information. It is important to read this BEFORE you start using Google AdSense.
Thanks for the comprehensive post. I've read a lot of Adsense articles,including the Google guidelines, but it's my first time to read about the Privacy rule. Perhaps I missed it. Thanks!
WOW! Thank you so much for such a helpful hub. I've been with Hubpages three weeks now and I am doing the "30 hubs in 30 days". I already had two hubs all ads got removed, one by Google because it was overly promotional of another site and no matter how I change the darn hub, the notice remained so I just deleted the hub but I wasted hours trying to correct it to the point that the hub just mentioned the product and was no longer the subject of the hub itself. The second hub, I complained to Hubpages why ads were not appearing inside the hub but ads on the right side and bottom of pages remained. The result was Hubpages turned off all Google ads because advertisers do not approved of any sexual content. So I had to delete that one too even if Hubpages said it was ok to keep it published as it was well-written but no ads. I love including pictures in my hubs and most of them I get from google images.. so now I'm afraid I'm using images inappropriately. Thank you so much for this post. It is indeed very helpful. I don't want to get banned because of ignorance. But as the saying goes.. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Have a nice day!
Rosie
I stopped using google, I use bing, to my surprise is the same friggin thing.
Adbrite (read on reviews though) is an equal opponent to Google’s advertising giant if you,re banned.
"Google is starting to really creep me out with the power they lord over us with."
LOL - yeah I think Google is probably one of the most powerful companies in current times. Since they control search, they control our use of words and association with those words.
This does not even touch on all the information they have about our search patterns, buying patterns, written content, blog visitor information, etc.
The big G likely knows us better than we know ourselves. :)
P.S., because of your hub, I am going through all my blogs and putting in privacy policies as well as terms of services, and completely took the ads off one blog until I'm sure the content I've recieved from other people is truly adsense kosher...Or I may apply for another PPC for that one if I'm still uneasy about it. Can't risk my hubpages - they're the only ones that make me money ='(
Suddenly, I am terrified for my blogs. No privacy policies. I mean, they're BLOGS! I didn't realize blogs would need a privacy policy! And I was just going through some tutoring on how to make money through Clickbank, where they mentioned having a privacy policy and a terms of services in your blog because, "Google likes it."
Google is starting to really creep me out with the power they lord over us with.
"Is it possible to retract my application, and reapply with my HubPages profile? Is it even necessary to do that?"
Hmmm, I would just wait for their response. If they reject it because there are not enough articles, you can write a few more hubs on HP and then re-apply using your HP profile.
Thank you for a very informative Hub. When I applied for an Adsense account I had just signed up with Xomba (a different writing website), and gave my profile page on their site as my website. Almost immediately afterwards I found HubPages and have really been much more active here.
I have not heard from Google yet. Every time I check I get the automatic message that my application is under review. I assume it has not been looked at yet.
Is it possible to retract my application, and reapply with my HubPages profile? Is it even necessary to do that?
Wow, writing this hub took a heap of dedication and desire to share really useful information with others.
Thank you.
I've read through the hub and definitely appreciate the effort.
That is indeed very accurate.
With regards to YouTube content, if you read the terms of service then you'll see that you have permission to embed anything that is embeddable provided you don't try to alter or hide any part of it in any way.
Section 4 of the agreement makes this pretty clear (especially part A).
The problem that you'll run into is when you take a screencap or copy of video or portion of it.
Cool hub and some great advice here.
Thanks Shibashake - I agree that there is no substitute for carefully reading through Google's TOS, and staying current. They are actually pretty good in my opinion about being clear in terms of expectations and policies and so forth. But this hub is a great overview, especially for someone who is just getting started with adsense or thinking about it. Good job!
@peacefulparadox - That is accurate and very good information. Thanks.
@ocbill - It is best to read through the Google AdSense TOS and program policies. This article as just a rough guideline and summary of common mistakes.
In regards to disclosing one's earnings. Here is what the AdSense Terms and conditions says (as of July 2010): You can not disclose "click-through rates or other statistics relating to Property performance in the Program provided to You by Google; .... However, You may accurately disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to You pursuant to the Program. "
lots of rules they have. hopefully, your tips will work each time.
oh my gosh. I abided most of the terms and conditions. Good post. Thanks
Very comprehensive. I've done a few of those mistakes in my time. Good work!!
Hello Polly,
Apologies for the late reply but the comment somehow got misfiled by HubPages and I did not see it until now.
"I haven't bothered with changing any of their advertisements, but if that is so, why don't they simply prevent it from happening?"
It is difficult to prevent tampering of web-code. There really is no way to prevent adding in Javascript or injecting CSS styles into the ads on a personal site.
"I certainly haven't noticed any on Blogger, in the six years or so that I've been using it."
That is a very good point. While there is a privacy policy link on the the main Blogger pages there isn't one on individual blogs. Since Blogger is owned by Google, they can determine what constitutes sufficient privacy disclosure there. However, regular mortals do not have that luxury. :)
"Or put a big, noticeable caveat in block letters, so people would notice?"
I understand your frustration, and I think there are many others who are frustrated as well. But in a situation like this, the regular publishers (most of us) are not in a position of power. We have two options -
1. If we want to participate in the program we must follow all the rules as much as we can. The onus is on us to make sure everything is copacetic.
2. We can choose not to participate.
This is probably true of most online ad. programs. Since there are so many people who want to make money online, there is an endless flow of publishers. Therefore, the publishers must do most of the heavy lifting in terms of following all the program policies.
I experienced a similar thing with WordPress recently and was fairly upset during the incident. However, later on, I realized that it is not personal - it is just business. Often times, it is also not fair - but then few things truly are.
Very informative article, I'm sure many banned users will be able to understand the reasons for their bans and how to avoid them in the future if google choose to reinstate them. Though it is very difficult to get your website reinstated, though sometimes they may be sympathetic to obvious competitor attacks.
I think the most notorious reason for a ban would be the privacy policy A huge percentage of sites with Adsense on them do not have a privacy policy, I think google need to make that more clear to users. Though I guess in their eyes if you can't take the time to read their TOS you don't deserve to share revenue with them.
Thanks for the article
Very good article.
But it doesn't address the most common mistake: believing that AdSense does not make mistakes.
Or that they are particularly thorough in their work - or even honest, for that matter.
My account got banned recently for an undisclosed reason - and it certainly wasn't any of the above - but I think your readers, especially if they are AdSense users, should know that this only happened two days after I had completed their survey, where I told them - hey, I was asked! - my (negative) opinion about their ad selection. (And no, I don't feel bad about it at all. I would only feel bad NOT telling everyone else about this.)
About this: "you are not allowed to alter their advertisements in any way".
I haven't bothered with changing any of their advertisements, but if that is so, why don't they simply prevent it from happening?
Or put a big, noticeable caveat in block letters, so people would notice?
And finally... "no privacy policy"? On personal blogs?
Excuse me, can you point me to a personal blog that DOES have its "privacy policy" displayed? I certainly haven't noticed any on Blogger, in the six years or so that I've been using it.
Great hub. Lots of important information.
google pretty much owns the internet. They can take you off for even using google or youtube videos you make yourself. Youtube was bought by google yet still has much copyright material on it.
Embeding a video you did yourself on a website using youtube to host it can get you the boot from adsense. It is if they wish to silence you or whatever reason. They can do what they want and will. Keep in mind google can say it is gore text if you mention shooting or any kind of news with not making it sound bloody or gore. They do as they want and we all know that. Lesson learned do not put all eggs in 1 basket and do not have years spent on a site too big to repair gaps from google removed.
Hello maheshpatwal,
From what I hear it is a difficult and long process to get reinstated with Google AdSense. There are a couple of articles I pointed to at the end where people talk about their reinstatement experiences.
On HubPages, gamergirl got her account reinstated but it was not easy. You may want to check out some of her hubs on AdSense and then ask her about the process she went through.
Beautiful hub with loades of valauble information for novice like me.......... my account is also disabled by google for the reasons best known to them............ is there any way to get my account reinstated??
Very informative article!
Google can catch even the most clever AdSense Cheaters. I wrote an article explaining how. Click on my URL link to read it.
Great hub! I think every beginner does that mistake and click on their own ads so your article is indeed very important :)
this very important for everybody who is joining adsense kind of business.
Thanks Glenn.
"According to YouTube's TOS if your primary purpose of you hub is to make money, they clearly don't allow using their Embeddable Player."
Yeah I think it is pretty clear as well but we are in the minority on this. Since embedding youTube videos is such a common practice, it is also interpreted as an 'acceptable practice' by most people.
In addition, HubPages and most blog platforms encourage the use of youTube videos by providing the ability to not only easily embed videos in your content but also in user comments.
One of those things ... most content producers choose not to exercise their copyright rights because they probably don't see the current process as being detrimental to their business. When that changes - then other things will change as well.
Very complete, good work. Once I was about to include a YouTube video in a hub and before doing so I noticed it has a copyright notice at the end of the video. So I didn't use it.
According to YouTube's TOS if your primary purpose of you hub is to make money, they clearly don't allow using their Embeddable Player.
Great information and a reminder that we have to be responsible for all we do on the internet. I have read suggestions right here on hub pages about increasing clicks which have turned out to be incorrect.
I think it is best to come here to hub pages to write and write and write - and by just doing that I do get the residual income - which is a great bonus! Then the community - you can't beat it.
Thanks for putting all the vital necessary information in one place!
Welcome to HubPages maissan.
I was really new to everything when I first joined HubPages but the community here is great. I learned a lot from the people here and continue to do so.
Glad to have you here and happy holidays!
amazing hub, I'm new to this place and to the whole adsence thing, it will surely help me to be cautious.
helpful (for people who dont care to brake the rules) :) lol helpful for all to!
Adsense is very interesting, and I have heard alot about people being banned. what so funny about that is also blogspot. I was at work and went to my blogspot and it said I was "broke" their policy. I sort of freaked, so I went home to take a look. nothing wrong. but I found out some site "copied" my data, and in fact, has a higher rank then me. So now, I'm wondering if I should post again on my blogspot
Very well written and useful hub.
CVR
This is indeed a very useful resource. For sure, this will help many most especially those who are just starting their online endeavor - like me.
Great hub and awesome 3D animations!! Cheers!
getting baaned also means you increase the risk for yourself to be banned by others providing such services.
become original in content and enjoy adsense rewards
vimal kumar verma
Hi Patty,
Not everyone agrees with my interpretation of embedded videos ...
http://hubpages.com/hub/Embed-YouTube-Videos---Cop
Many of the videos on youTube are put up by people who don't have rights to it in the first place. However, since almost everyone is using embedded videos, I imagine nobody is going to get in trouble for it. :) One of those things ...
"I feel stupid, but still learning."
I know what you mean! So many things to learn with this online writing thing - makes it really interesting tho. I usually lose interest in something after a few months but I have been at this for over 1 year. It is a great hobby and keeps the mind from going soft :)
This is a good reference Hub that I have bookmarked.
I did not realize and understand about Youtube videos requiring permission. I'd understood that if they were not to be embedded because of copyright, then the embedding feature was disabled on those videos. It's confusing me now; I don't want to misuse anyone's videos or other work.
Also -- I recently woke up to the fact that I should not reference gambling and am removing "casino" jobs as such from my work-related articles. I feel stupid, but still learning.
Hello Myriad, Glad you liked it. I don't make much from AdSense either, but it sure has been fun learning about all the stuff.
My new project is learning about WordPress. It is an awesome blogging platform.
Man .. thanks for the fantastic pointers there :) it was very useful , so far I have nt made any money out of adsense , but in future if I do make some money , i be glad I ve read your post
I lost 2K this month.. Some of listed above is made by me... SO sad..:(
wonderful article,i think its 100% true and complete
Thanks for sharing this information.
Hello Yoshi,
I have seen many great posts from you in the Forums, so it is great to get a visit from you. Glad you liked the hub - now I'm off to visit some of yours :)
"I had to laugh the other day when I saw a new Blogger blog titled "Adsense Tips & Tricks" being rotated in a traffic exchange!"
lol. I must admit though that I didn't read through the TOS very well when I first joined. Legal speak is an alien language that always gives me a headache :)
It was only after I started hearing about accounts being banned that I went back and did a careful read. Ah fear - such a motivator :)
An excellent article! As I have heard so many times, if you got banned by adsense, it's because you didn't take the time to learn their rules. :)
Good hub and something that any Adsense publisher would know if they read the Adsense terms before starting!
I had to laugh the other day when I saw a new Blogger blog titled "Adsense Tips & Tricks" being rotated in a traffic exchange! The person behind that one obviously has a lot of credibility and experience with the program ;-)
Seriously though, most traffic exchanges are littered with sites using Adsense, which means none of those publishers will ever get paid. I think that there are only a couple of exchanges that actually mention this at signup at one that actively rejects sites showing Adsense, so it really is down to the Adsense publisher to know and understand what is and isn't allowed by the big G.
Traffic exchanges don't generate worthwhile traffic most of the time in any case so it's doubly foolish really.
Thanks for dropping by SurendraT and garyratz. Glad the hub was helpful and welcome to HubPages!
Great hub thanks for sharing i'll have to keep an eye on this.
I am new here. All the information in your hub would be extremely helpful to me. Thanks.
Thanks Richard. Glad it helped.
Hello Mailxpress. You are much better than I. I barely skimmed the TOS when I first joined. But later on, I started hearing about people getting their accounts banned and that was when I started getting worried :) Ah - necessity.
That was when I started doing a lot of research, read through all of Google's policies carefully, and wrote this article :)
Hello,
I came across your Hub a while back and took the time to read it again. When I first joined Google Adsense I was nervous. I must have read their policies at least 20 times before I got over my fear. Good Hub. Thanks.
mailxpress
Great hub! Thanks for clearly and concisely presenting this information. I feel like I have a better grasp of Adsense policies from reading just this hub.
Hello MagicStarER,
"The funny thing is how Google themselves posted pay per click ads all over that hub!"
lol - yeah, there are definitely different standards for advertisers and publishers. Advertisers are Google's revenue stream so they are the boss. We publishers are merely the peons :)
nice hub! very informative!
Thank you; very useful info!
Great info for newcomers! Thanks!
Great points like you said watch what you do and follow there guidelines. Don't want to lose a nice residual income adwords can bring you so play fair. And you will be ok!
Good Hub so thanks. The information is very useful.
Thank you all for dropping by. Glad you found the information useful.
Pauljorg also mentions a very interesting case. It highlights that Google does pretty advanced analytics on their data, so it is best to keep a close eye on where your ads are not showing up and take steps yourself to either remove the ads or fix the problem.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Paul.
wow never realized all of those.
thanks its great information.
Good hub. I'm pretty careful to follow all their rules to the letter and so far have had no bannings or warning emails.
However, once I did notice that Google was not displaying ads on one of my sites and I realized the reason --- it was a English-language website but I was sending only Japanese traffic to the website via Youtube videos done in Japanese. I guess they thought I was trying to make them click the English ads without knowing what they were. Really I thought they would like the photos. Anyway, I took the ads off of that website and I never heard anything about it.
thanx alot for the advice!! (=
Sweet Hub! Make me start thinking, which is always good.... haha!
Thanks a lot for this. really helps me get on my guard!
Excellent Hub...Thanks.
Great hub, thanks, having just been booted from EPN (for no apparent reason) I am a bit wary about having too many eggs in one basket. But Adsense is a must. thanks for the info.
Great info!! Thanks.
hmmm Lucky I read this :P
@biggreencat -
"I really don't know if other programs like Chitika can even hold a candle as far as advertiser volume."
Yeah I have never tried Chitika but Google AdSense is certainly the thing you see everywhere. I think it is difficult for others to compete with AdSense since Google already has a pretty dominant position.
Still, it will be interesting to do some research into the others and see where they stand and how they are different.
Hello mauolave,
I just included the example paragraph that Google provided in the link that you have above.
The paragraph starts with "We use third-party advertising companies ..."
Here is a link to my current privacy policy -
http://www.shibashake.com/privacy.html
You can also check out HubPages' privacy policy -
http://hubpages.com/help/privacy_policy
Hope this helps.
Hi, I would link to know more about the privacy policy you have to add to the web pages where you use Adsense. Can anyone please tell me where to find exactly what I have to writr into such a policy?
I read https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer. but I´m not sure what this is all about...
Thank you for putting together such a helpful guide. Like all of us I want to be fully educated on this topic so that I don't cross the big G in the wrong way at some point. For many people adsense is such a huge proportion of their overall online income and I really don't know if other programs like Chitika can even hold a candle as far as advertiser volume.
gr8 hub....very usefull for me.
Very informative hub and every Adsense publisher should aware of all above things to have life long Adsense account. Great Hub!
@manujkhera - Thank you.
@Karen Banes - Hi Karen. You bring up a really good point which is - the content policies surrounding the advertisements shown on Google Adsense are different from the content policies surrounding the articles containing Google AdSense advertisements. This is not too surprising, I suppose, given that one is a revenue stream for Google, and the other is beholden to Google as a revenue source. It makes very good business sense :)
@ljrc1961 - Congrats for getting reinstated! You should write about your experiences with that. I am sure many would be interested to hear about it, including me.
good info; I've been banned, then reinstated; you need to write them with an appeal if it happens
Interesting points about the YouTube content. I thought it was freely available. After all, it's usually a promotional tool for a company or website. Will have to go into that. I've never been banned but one of my hubs was flagged for promoting paid-to-click and paid-to-read-email programs. Apparently against google adsense policies (even though I've seen similar programs mentioned on pages with google ads on them). Hard to keep track of it all. Thanks for the advice.
Excellent post....Very very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Nice... basically keep everything above board, if you think it's a scammy idea to make money off ad sense then don't do it!
I never knew you couldn't have more than 1 adsense account. Thanks for the info. =)
Fantastic hub, detailed and thorough. Thanks.
Thanks lot.....This hub is very good and sharing with me more...this tips for very useful for me and friends.my life steps will be careful from this information thaks fro this.............
very useful information! i was not approved on my application for adsense. im trying to check whats the reason. i didnt recieve any mail from them nor explanation.
thanks for the info though!
Cheers!
coffeemylove
Hello vrajput, Sorry to hear about your troubles.
One of main reasons for rejection has to do with content. You want to make sure that you follow all of Google AdSense's Content Guidelines as well as only link to other sites that are also following those guidelines.
Another thing to try is to create a nice body of content before resubmission.
Thanks jayb! Congrats on getting accepted, good luck, and always remember to have fun with it :)
Hello sulumits retsambew. Thank you for your lovely comment. And I definitely appreciate the tweet!
Damnn.. It was aterrifically wonderful hub.. One of the most detailed and well-written hub on adsense.. It worths some bookmarking and I tweeted it :)
Thanks
Brillant hub and thanks for sharing it with us. I hav just got accepted by adsense and I will make sure to keep all your point in mind.
[interestsandme] Glad you found it useful. Thanks for dropping by.
[dohn121 ] LOL - very well said! Reminds me of Whac-A-Mole :D
Wow. Hubber beware, right? Great informative hub. I want to make $ just like the next hubber (at the next desk, probably). Thanks for the heads up and we'll keep it on the down low.
Thanks a lot. There are a few things on your list that I am currently doing wrong. I will have to fix these ASAP.
Hi Eric,
I think that is very good advice.
In fact if one is interested in making money it is best to also stay away from controversial topics. Saying things that people don't like to hear will generally not win you any clicks. Sadly, I have a difficult time keeping my mouth shut. :)
Thank you -- I didn't even know there was a controversy or dangers/pitfalls which could lead to banning. It's best to keep things simple and stay on the straight and narrow.
Hello Kosmo,
I think youTube doesn't really want to get involved. Just as Flickr doesn't want to get involved in enforcing the copyright of images. Really it is the owner of the material that has the rights, and they may choose to exercise or not exercise those rights.
According to youTube's policy page,
"You would need to follow up with the individual content owners regarding the rights to this footage"
Do hubbers really have to get permission from YouTube before embedding their videos? If embedding any particular video is not allowed, YouTube flashes a message saying embedding not allowed. At any rate, thanks for the enlightening info! Later!
Thanks Very useful information .......keep going
Thanks lakeerieartists. Have a fun evening! I'm off to eat hotdogs :)
Great hub. Very informative. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for the info! I'll give it a try.
Thanks Dorrene R, techie, and Rudra.
Have a great July 4th weekend!
Hi Janet, I also have a self-hosted WordPress blog. I went into Edit Theme, and inserted a privacy policy link into the footer.php file.
I just inserted this -
<p><a href="privacy.htm"> <?php _e('Privacy policy.','ml');?></a></p>
before the end of the footer file - right before
<br class="clear" /></div><!-- end id:footer -->
There are also a variety of plug-ins to do this, although I am not sure which one is the best since I haven't tried them out.
Hope this helps. Have a good weekend Janet :)
[Jimbun] Thanks and good luck!
[Hans Dekker] Thanks for the comment :) Glad you enjoyed the article.
[adam000] Hi Adam. Yeah I must admit I get a bit concerned about click fraud too. I try to check up on my Google AdSense account every day to see if there is any irregular activity. Also the people who try to do this put their own accounts in danger as well.
briliant tips and things to think about.
thanks shibashake
Hello Cheffrin, Welcome to HubPages! I am the same way about earning a coupla bucks - just a nice perk at the side :) The program policies are really easy to read - so definitely go through that. The TOS is all in legal-talk so that was pretty painful for me to go through - lol. Still though, good to give them at least a once over.
Thanks for the article. This is very helpful.
I don't have a privacy policy on my self-hosted wordpress blogs. Is there somewhere I can go to find detailed information on how to do this? Thanks~
Hi thanks for the share - some great info here. I use adsense on one of my domains but only make between £2-£4 a day. Its still useful to have as it adds up at the end of the month. I do get a little concrened that others have the power to do click fraud on your site and then we get the blame by google.
Anyway great useful info thanks alot
Great info thanks for collecting it and making it available in such a concise manner
Well, first i should say Thank you for the amazing hub! This is need to know information!
Second I should say: Like most people probably do i clicked the agree button assuming that it was normal TOS ya know pretty much saying don't be an idiot lol I just started on here yesterday and a friend was walking me through everything so i was just doing it quick... Problem being that we live together and he has an adsense acount under the same address... Now im kind of worrid that maybe i should go back and read the TOS to make sure i dont get us both banned not that the money is my only reason on here but if i can write something and make a couple bucks at the same time great! lol
Once again many thanks to bringing this easily readable information to my attention! lol
Thanks tjmatel3. Glad it was helpful.
most informative and helpful. thank you!
Thanks my-success-guru. I always try to stay out of trouble but I don't always succeed ;)
lol Richard - well you know - the bad boys get all the chicks :)
Hi Good tips, very useful tips for everybody.
You can actually get your account re-instated, if you play by the rules and
E-mail them for the re-instatement, after you have changed your pages, they will review you blog/site and then decide to allow you, this is in the T.O.S.
http://garmingpsrichard.blogspot.com/
Please checkout my blog and tell me if I am being a bad boy, this is my 3rd week blogging, so I am making one mistake after another at the mo....
Regards to one and all, Richard.
Hey shibashake! Great tips to stay out of trouble!
Thanks JPSO138. Glad you found the information to be useful.
Hello prasannasutrave,
Thanks for the correction.
I know that in the US that is certainly Google AdSense's policy, but I have read in various message boards that this is not the case in some other countries. Since I have not had personal experience with this, I can't say one way or another.
I am really impressed. I learned a lot from your hub. I will surely take note of this.
Very nice and useful information,thanks.
I am not agree with your mistake no-5, you can have two different adsense account from the same address for different people.
What i think about two accounts that, adsense will not approve two account for the same person with same payee name and address.
Hi oscarwms, Thanks for visiting. I don't really see the harm of using the Google Toolbar. I actually like the ranking information and such that it gives me. But if I am missing something - please let me know. Thanks!
Great hub, lots of useful information. That is why I'm scared to use Google. I even take down their search bar from my browsers.
Glad you liked it and thanks for dropping by Rahul.
Hey anime_nanet,
Thanks for dropping by. Haven't seen you in the longest time. How have you been?
VERY, VERY, VERY USEFUL TIPS!!!
THANKS!!!
Hello iamqweenbee,
Suspicious clicks will show up in your Google AdSense reports. There will be an inordinate number of clicks but very little or no AdSense money associated with those clicks because Google has deemed them to be invalid.
You can also use Google Analytics to get more detailed information on where the clicks are going to and whom they are coming from. However, Analytics data is a bit time delayed - so always keep watch on your Google AdSense reports.
Thanks for this useful information. Only, I am not sure how to tell if someone else is illegally clicking my advertisements. Can you please tell me? lol.
[Lisa HW] Thanks! Always good to see you :)
[Kya] Suspicious clicks will show up in your AdSense reports. Usually there will be a high number of clicks but no AdSense money associated with it because Google has determined that they are invalid clicks.
[Garrett McLee] That is awesome. The privacy policy was the big one that I didn't know about. I also learnt that it is best *not* to click on someone else's hub advertisements.
[estiko] Glad it was helpful. Thanks for dropping by.
Hello GRIM REAPER,
Much better to use your enormous powers for good and earn lots of AdSense monies for yourself :) HubPages is a great place to start.
Good luck V.C. Let us know how it goes.
Thanx for your informations. This is make me becarefulle to make a mistake
This is great information! The good news is, I double checked and I'm not breaking any policies!
Thanks for sharing this helpful information. I took off the youtube video from my hub.
Maybe a stupid question: how can I notice if there are "suspicious clicks" in my hubs before I get this "ban-email" from Google?
Excellent information, presented in an easy-to-read way.
I can close anybodys Google ADSENSE , just by going to their HUB and click on their ads daily...... Google adsense will send you an email saying....
"While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSenseaccount has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Sincekeeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage ouradvertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account"....
So does anyone want me to give it a bash on their HUB, to see if it is so.
Anjali, Thanks for dropping by and for the thumbs up! :)
Great info. Valuable resource for a newcomer, specially. Thumbs up.
Hi Mac Mission,
One common mistake is that sometimes people try to apply for different accounts for different domains - e.g. one for their website, one for HubPages, etc. Google AdSense only allows you to have one account across all of your domains. Also, if somebody else with the same home address as you do already has an account, Google AdSense may not allow you to have another one.
Hi 2patricias, Thanks for dropping by.
"However, we are in the process of teaching ourselves how to make videos "
That would be a lot of fun. I have been thinking of doing that myself - but it is difficult to shoot good, non-shaky, footage with just my digital camera. You should write a hub about your experiences :)
Also there are some youTube videos where the uploader specifically says that they are public domain. It would be even better if youTube supports a more standardized way to show licenses - but I guess they really don't want to go there :)
What I present here and in my other hub is just based on my own interpretation of the policies though. There are many others who have different interpretations of their usage.
I have been rejected saying you have account .Bu this is my first time .What to do if i got rejected.How to get the account.
Thanks for setting out the common causes of banning so clearly.
The part about YouTube is a bit worrying. We have never used YouTube on Hubs, but do on our website because we thought it was okay.
However, we are in the process of teaching ourselves how to make videos and get them onto our website, so will probably use them on Hubs as well.
For still photos we almost always use our own photos. Once in a while a photo from Flickr, but we always (and I mean always) contact the photographer first and give them a credit.
Hi Lena,
I know what you mean about not liking some of the ads. There actually is a good and safe way of getting rid of them - using the Competitve Ad Filter option in your Google AdSense account.
First, you need to find out more about them, specifically what their http is - there are two ways to do this -
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/static.
Once you do this you can add the http to your Google AdSense competitive ad filter list. I write more about it at the end of the article here -
http://hubpages.com/_srec/hub/Google-AdSense-Secre
Hope this helps.
Great hub. I know you're not supposed to click on your own ads, but sometimes I really don't like the ads and I want to click them to find out more about them... Especially image ads. I like some of the image ads that I get, but others I find rather visually unappealing... But I live with it.
I read a story once on Huffington Post about a man who sued Google after they closed his account but didn't send him his earnings up until the closing, about $700... and he won!
Thanks for dropping by Brian. You make a very good point in that banning is not personal - it is just business.
hmmm, several people did mention this.
I thought showing a bit of rear-end is ok - but maybe it is not. Anyway, in keeping with the stay on the safe side rule, rear-end is now covered :D
Nice girl picture, I'll try to flag it...
just joking....
[Thanks Jen.] The youTube thing is a controversial topic. It is very widespread, so I think any kind of action from AdSense is unlikely -- still -- it is one of those things.
[techie] Check out
They do searches for you across a variety of free image repositories. They have a really nice feature where there is an icon associated with each picture where you get to see what copyright license is associated with them.
[dawei888] That is a very good point. There are two instances that I came across in the area that you mentioned -
1. People who buy expired domains and just show ads on them.
2. People who show AdSense ads on a whole list of youTube videos that are not theirs, with very little added text.
I think the key here is original content or some useful service. I have several photo pages with no text, but are still ok, I think, because it has original content. The same applies to other photo and image sites.
I usually ask myself - would *I* put up ads on my own pages? :)
Thanks for your really kind words Linda.
I think HubPages is really good about giving people A LOT of chances before any kind of banning. When I first joined I ran into the 2-link rule a lot and the community here was really good at helping me come up with solutions. I think there are very few people that get banned on HP.
Banning on Google AdSense I think happens a lot more frequently. They have to be pretty aggressive about making sure that all their rules are being followed so that they can keep and grow their advertisers base.
I think a good rule of thumb is to ask yourself - would you want your ads showing up in your own hubs? :)
Hello Shibashake - great list here. I read a key way to get kicked off adsense is not having content on your pages. i wonder if they have a minimum word count limit for text contnet. thanks. dawei888
thanks for the info but how to i know that a image is in public domain or its copyrighted . i normally use google image search and flickr
Thanks for this article, especially the info about youtube. I just assumed the videos were all acceptable, since they are so easy to use here at hubpages, now I have doubts and am wondering if I should remove them all. I won't be as anxious to use them in the future. Appreciate all the research you did that I failed to do in regards to the TOS.
Jen
Great Hub. I try to follow the Hubpages guidelines and not to put more than two internal links in the hubpage article to guard against being over promotional. I noticed that one hubber followed all the rules and still got banned. I would ask for a detailed explanation and ask to speak to a staffer like Ryan or PaulDeeds.
I love to write to but I also like to see my earnings grow. I read that you should never use more than 5% of keywords in your content. I basically follow the Ehow guidelines also to help to not overpromote. That particular site only request that five keywords are used through the contents.
Your photos were great with relevance to banning information. I was a little surprised that the second photo went through of the cartoon model's bare bottom but maybe Hubpages did not consider the photo to be offensive. Again, however great relevance with the photos and the hubpage article was formated to get the reader through the article without getting bored or abandoning reading until time for submitting comments.
I checked your stats and realized that you must take great care in what you submit for publication. Keep up the good work.
Hey BuzzWorthy - I can only imagine that it is pretty awful, especially if you don't even know the reason. I am trying to be proactive about keeping that from happening.
Thanks weblog.
Well put out, it's really an informative hub. Thanks for sharing.
getting banned is not FUN!
Thanks ripplemaker & The Good Cook,
Actually I originally made this as a reference for myself - so I could get at all the stuff quickly, and so that I don't forget anything. Then I thought - hey maybe I should publish it and others may find it helpful as well :)
Thanks for visiting and glad you liked it.
This is a particularly useful Hub that I too am going to bookmark - just in case I should every need it! Thanks for putting it all together in such an easy-to-understand and concise manner.
I am learning much about this topic. Thanks for putting together such a comprehensive hub. :-)
Hi Sue, Thanks for dropping by. My Shiba thanks you as well :)
Like you, I also write for the love of it. For me, it would be too dreary to just focus on click topics and making money.
In fact when I first started on HubPages I tried to set the advertising settings to low for all of my hubs, which did not really work out because then I could not include '.com' links in them :)
I think if you enjoy writing - that is the most important part.
I was banned but unclear why. I asked them to clarify what they meant by this:-
"While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we've decided to disable your account.
Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation."
I never got a reply from them and decided to remove all adsense ads from my hubs and just write for the love of it and not worry about earning money. Shame really because I'd earned quite a bit and never got any of the money. Love your Shiba by the way...
That is very true Erick. In fact, I was one of those people :) After I started hearing more stories about banning, I decided I really should look into this and try to stay safe.
Too many people do not realize that they can get into trouble and lose their accounts and hard work. Thanks for sharing these common mistakes.
Thanks Isyan. Glad you liked it. :)
lol Johnyboy - not at all. The chick represents content that may get banned :)
I agree that banning is frequently justified. Sometimes though, people just make mistakes because they did not read the TOS or program policies carefully enough. In fact, I missed the whole privacy policy requirement for a while.
After hearing all the banning stories though, I decided to do more research into this subject and to be more vigilant about following all the guidelines.
Thanks for dropping by and welcome to HubPages!
great article.... and very informative
So that chick represent Google adsense? :D
Banning is a MUST nowadays. I see lousy websites all day long with nothing but adsense on it. So people apply for an account and then change their content.
I hate when people do that. I know there are some idiots that wanna make a buck, but hey lets be serious. Would you like a page with nothing else but adsense on it?
So banning is a must...
Thanks Frieda - I was hearing more and more about banning lately so I decided to get my butt in gear and really look into it. Especially since I didn't really read the TOS when I first joined - lol. I read through it carefully a few days ago.
Thanks Iphi. Yeah I didn't do it either, and then I didn't really know how to do it properly until I checked out how HubPages did theirs.
Great information - I'd forgotten to add a privacy policy to my site and will get on to it asap thanks to you.
fantastic info. love it. I'm bookmarking it just in case (it can be hard going back to find some of this info. Nice job.
Thanks for the useful advice gjuro.
Leonitims - Here is a step by step guide on how to do blog transfers from Blogger. Hope it helps.
Thanks for those reminders, my question is do you have any idea how to put together blogs from two google acct. to disable one. Is there any way to transfer blogs from one to another? Thanks Easy to ask you.
Sometimes Google is doing mistakes too...
There are some other contextual ads networks which are working better than adsense. Lately all BIG web portals are using other advertising networks.
[Hi chicamom] - Sorry to hear about the banning. I looked up blog explosion and apparently they are a traffic exchange site and therefore a big no-no to Google AdSense
http://simplewahm.com/2007/08/how-to-avoid-adsense
[Thanks Teresa]. Glad you found it to be helpful. I do want to say that all the information is based on my own reading and interpretation, so in the end it is always best to go back to the original Google documents.
[Thanks Paper Moon]. Glad it was helpful.
[Rochelle] - Based on my own research, I believe that youTube videos are copyrighted. This means we should get permission from the content owner before embedding it. However, different people have different interpretations so I can't say for sure. According to the youTube's policies page, they do say to follow up with the owner of the content -
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/answer
If you go to my youTube copyright hub you will see though that not everyone agrees with my interpretation and why.
Yes it's all good. I think a lot of us presume anything on You Tube is fair-- apparently not? Seems like Hubpages encourages this use.
Thanks for the easy to read and understand info.
Excellent hub -- great info, links, and readability -- thank you very much. I'm off to remove any images from my hubs that I'm not sure about. . . .
Great hub, where were you about 2 months ago lol? I did get banned and when you do they are not very specific as to why just to say I was a threat to there advertisers. I never clicked on my own ads EVER and I worked really hard on my blogs and got good comments all the time. Oh well I am still blogging and hubbing and hoping. I do have blog explosion now since adsense. Is this something they would not have allowed?
Thanks
RCONNORIII 10 days ago
IT SEEMS IM NOT THE ONLY ONE TO GET BANNED FROM GOOGLE ADSENSE. HAVE A GREAT DAY ON PURPOSE!