Taymar from MMORPG-INFO pointed me toward a post by ‘Crabby Old Lady’ detailing how she was banned from AdSense and her subsequent treatment from Google.

I’ve heard similar stories many times. Upstanding bloggers getting banned from AdSense without any warning or explanation. It wouldn’t be so bad, but when Google do this, they invariably withhold any earnings you have.

Personally, this annoys the hell out of me. I know Google has to protect itself and its advertisers by coming down hard on click fraud, but more often than not, innocent publishers have their accounts suspended and their earnings taken back without any recourse.

There’s two issues here:

1. How can you prevent getting banned from AdSense?

  • Firstly, never ever click ads on your own sites. Ever. If you accidentlally click an ad once, the chances are Google will know about it and simply deduct that money from your earnings. If it happens more than once, expect to get banned.
  • Don’t ask or encourage your readers to click ads. In fact, it’s best not to do anything to draw attention to the ads on your site, so you’re better off never even talking about them.
  • If in doubt, talk to Google. If you have accidentally clicked ads on your site more than once, or you suspect someone of deliberately clicking your ads, email Google and let them know.

2. What can you do to get reinstated if you are?

  • Firstly, if you did click your own ads, don’t even bother trying. It’s not going to help. Remember, real advertisers pay real money for those clicks.
  • Remain calm and be polite. If you use your temper in correspondence with Google (or any other company for that matter), the chances are they’ll be even less inclined to listen.
  • Ask for the problem to be escalated. Support staff (even Google support staff) are trained to follow scripts, and if your problem doesn’t fit the script, you may find yourself getting nowhere. If you can get to speak to a manager, the chances are they’ll help you out (if only to get rid of the problem!) and you won’t have to spend days running in circles trying to get a response.
  • Explain the problem (and your explanation, if you have one) clearly and concisely. The chances are, you’ll get handed around to various people during any correspondence, so be prepared to explain the situation multiple times (without getting angry – see above!)
  • If you have them, offer to send Google server logs from your web site so they can investigate the problem further. This has, apparently, resulted in accounts being reinstated in the past.
  • Make a fuss. If you think you’ve been unfairly banned from AdSense, don’t be afraid to tell people about it. Blog about it. Post on the relevant Google Groups and webmaster forums. Always remember to be completely honest when talking about the situation and again, remain calm. If anyone from Google is reading what you post, it’s important what you say in public matches what you’ve told Google. And nobody is going to help you if you just go off on a rant.
  • Try to make contact with a real person. With a little bit of research, you may find names of people at Google who are in a position to help (or pass your query on to someone who is). If you do get a personal contact at Google though, don’t abuse it by publishing their email address or the contents of personal emails.
  • Don’t give up! Most people will make a fuss for a few days then just give up entirely. If you really want your AdSense account back, keep complaining and don’t give up.
  • If you’re feeling particularly brave and you still haven’t had a satisfactory response from Google, you might want to take legal advice.

I’m sure there are other ways to prevent getting banned and to get reinstated if it does happen. If it’s something that’s happened to you, I’d love to know how you dealt with it and if you got your account – and your money – back.

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