Mass de-index or Adsense ban due to XFactor sites?

[misterkailo]

If all your xfactor/clickbump sites were de-indexed or you got your AdSense account banned, please PM me one of your site so I can take a look. I have yet to see a site that was de-indexed for NO REASON even though they swear they did nothing wrong.

All I see is, "I did nothing wrong!", "All my contents were high quality stuff written by me!", "I must have been banned because I was using the same template on all my sites"... blah blah

AdSense policy has never stated that you can't have lots of websites with Adsense on them or you can't use same template on all your sites.

[timpears]

When ever I see 'I was banned by AdSense for no reason' I always just substitute 'for a reason I don't know'. They don't ban people for no reason, but reading their TOS is like reading many leagal contracts, it is a lot of gibberish that is hard to understand.

[c0rv3tt3]

There is no way of knowing why google bans these sites. Only google knows what they *really* define as quality.
Realistically speaking the purpose of micro niches is to only make money. I don't understand why people try to rationalize it otherwise. No one has a passion copper faucet heads...and writing random articles to throw in your backlink that has nothing to do with faucet heads or spamming forum profiles/blogs also contributes to the fact its purely a made for adsense site. Especially if you do it on a huge scale. That's just my guess as to why these sites are getting deindexed.

Also I see tons of people reporting these sites. In another thread a warrior member reports all sites he "thinks are low quality". Obviously he does it so he can be alone in that niche but it is nonetheless tipping google off to take a look at a persons entire network of sites. This is a cheap move but it could be the reason why more people seem to be getting banned.

[misterkailo]

I agree that I doubt anyone would have a passion for copper faucet heads, but I think people can spend an hour or two on researching a list of sites that sell copper faucet heads, and then give an "opinion" about the price, quality, and style. Instead of just rehashing the product description, you can give it a little twist... for example... "I bought these copper faucet heads about 3 weeks ago for my friend, and he said it is much better than the ones that he used to have. When I bought it through (link), it was only $15 on sale but now it is selling for $25."

Then, you can post other sites that also sell copper faucet heads as well and then in the conclusion tell your readers which ones you think are the greatest deals.

If I found a site like that that compares a bunch of copper faucet heads, I would actually find it useful. However, most of these AdSense sites would say "Are you looking for copper faucet heads? Copper faucet heads are my favorite and I stare at it everyday. If you are looking for faucet heads, always go for the copper type because they are the best. There are many sites that sell copper faucet heads or you can buy them in stores."

I remember this one person told me he wrote high quality articles only, and guess what? My example above is very similar to what he believes to be high quality when he showed it to me...

[GeorgR.]

can someone PM me one of such sites also please?

corvett: i dont think that making a site for copper faucets is per se "a bad thing", nor does google punish people "who want to make money". If someone wants to buy copper faucets (or bread machines or electric scooters or whatever)...your site could be a god given to them if you HAVE what they are looking for.

Its all about delivering to the customer what they are looking for!

Problems arise if the site is deceptive, or advertised in deceptive ways.

EXAMPLE:

You have an ad up advertising "cheap copper faucets", and if you were an affiliate of amazon etc. and actually SELL those i dont think its a problem.

Problem would be if customer arrives on the site and it turns out he cannot buy them on your site (despite what your ads says) and there is only garbage on your site and ads...your site basically has no function whatseover than being a worthless portal, the customer doesnt get what he is looking for on YOUR site.

This might be the problem with many adsense sites because they dont "offer" anything really except collecting clicks from people...just one annoyance on the way to what the customer is looking for.

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

Problem would be if customer arrives on the site and it turns out he cannot buy them on your site (despite what your ads says) and there is only garbage on your site and ads...your site basically has no function whatseover than being a worthless portal, the customer doesnt get what he is looking for on YOUR site.

This might be the problem with many adsense sites because they dont "offer" anything really except collecting clicks from people...just one annoyance on the way to what the customer is looking for.

Same goes for ezinearticles.com and they make $70k USD/day from Adsense last time I check.

[misterkailo]

Thanks for the search result Unlimitedsubmissions. I looked through some of his sites, and they do not guide me to buy any products. It pretty much just says, "This item looks great and you should definitely buy it."


Let's pretend you are a potential buyer. Wouldn't you want to find links to get to the site that sell the product? I do not want to know how great a red vacuum cleaner looks, and then hit the back button because there is no where to go. I want to buy it!

[misterkailo]

My assumption would be that most of his sites are violating URL trademark infringement and Adsense doesn't want to be part of the problem. For example... huggiesovernitesdiapers dot com and many other of his sites.

If you were Huggies, would you be too happy that you have clicks coming from huggiesovernightsdiapers dot com? All they need to do is file a report to AdSense and say "hey... this person is using our name in the domain and I don't like that at all..."

https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...n&answer=48182

"Any other content that is illegal, promotes illegal activity or infringes on the legal rights of others"

and

"AdSense publishers may not display Google ads on webpages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content."

[Clyde]

^^ you misunderstood what Google meant.

Quotes refer to content that is stolen from other sites.

Buying a tradermark name in your domain name is not illegal.

[cbpayne]

anything that is remotely close to MFA will eventually get banned from Adsense once detected. I do not want any of the xfactor et al type crap in my search results and either will the vast majority of searchers, so why would Google index them or serve Adsense to them?

[misterkailo]

Originally Posted by unlimitedsubmissions

^^ you misunderstood what Google meant.

Quotes refer to content that is stolen from other sites.

Buying a tradermark name in your domain name is not illegal.

Buying a trademark name in your domain name is not illegal? Try something like makemoneywithgooglenow dot com ... or microsoftbingcashbackprogram dot com and place your Adsense ads in there.

[cbpayne]

Originally Posted by misterkailo

Buying a trademark name in your domain name is not illegal? .

Its only illegal if the company who owns the trademark chooses to object and enforce their rights. eBay very active on this.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by misterkailo

Buying a trademark name in your domain name is not illegal? Try something like makemoneywithgooglenow dot com ... or microsoftbingcashbackprogram dot com and place your Adsense ads in there.

Not necessarily. Please see the Fair Use doctrine.

If I had the site googlesucks.com, and ranted and ranted about how Google was the devil, there isn't much Google could do about it.

[Tom Goodwin]

Originally Posted by cbpayne

Its only illegal if the company who owns the trademark chooses to object and enforce their rights. eBay very active on this.

Well, it could still be illegal without any enforcement action (of course, it isn't necessarily illegal either, with the Fair Use doctrine and the fact that copyrights/trademarks often are unforceable if used in a separate subject area and likely wouldn't confuse the viewer).

That is, enforcement is not necessary. That being said, the copyright holder would in all likelihood send a simple takedown request if they wanted the site down.

Tom

[Clyde]

Originally Posted by misterkailo

Buying a trademark name in your domain name is not illegal? Try something like makemoneywithgooglenow dot com ... or microsoftbingcashbackprogram dot com and place your Adsense ads in there.

I AM doing it with my sites. 25% of them are trademarked.

[Fraggler]

A method that I use for product based adsense sites is to also utilise an affiliate program such as Amazon. Your site is now useful for the consumer, content is a lot easier to produce, the keywords you can target grows, your site is no longer MFA.

Get creative with your Ad Placement and your CTR won't suffer too much. It isn't as high as a MFA site BUT you will fly under the radar. You should be able to get more traffic too.

I have added an Amazon plugin with "auto post" to all of my existing adsense sites and the traffic is increasing very quickly. I use a different template for my content posts to the Amazon posts to help keep the CTR high.

I make my homepage display amazon items underneath an article so the site looks like it is an online store. With the adsense unit above the fold, my CTR is still pretty high. They don't see the distracting posts until they lose site of the adsense unit.

[GuerrillaIM]

A lot of the time people lose their adsense account for wording in their pages.

For example "You can get copper faucet heads on the internet. Look around and you will find many links to copper faucet heads". This text is against adsense TOS and will result in a ban. Also creating content for the sole purpose of making an adsense site is against their TOS. So if all your content is poor english with no real information or value then you run the risk of a human editor hitting you with the banhammer.

[Sheryl Polomka]

I just want to add my 2 cents worth regarding the Trademark name in the domain conversation.

Companies usually will just ask you to remove the website if they have an issue with you using their name, but this is not always the case. I had one website a couple of years ago that had a Trademarked name in the domain name and this company went straight ahead and filed a dispute.

It cost me close to $2000 to settle the issue with the company and I had to transfer the domain to them.

So as far as I'm concerned - regardless of whether this issue is against Googles TOS or not - it isn't worth using trademarked names - it could end up costing you a lot of money.

[Clyde]

^^ $2000 for what?

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

I just want to add my 2 cents worth regarding the Trademark name in the domain conversation.

Companies usually will just ask you to remove the website if they have an issue with you using their name, but this is not always the case. I had one website a couple of years ago that had a Trademarked name in the domain name and this company went straight ahead and filed a dispute.

It cost me close to $2000 to settle the issue with the company and I had to transfer the domain to them.

So as far as I'm concerned - regardless of whether this issue is against Googles TOS or not - it isn't worth using trademarked names - it could end up costing you a lot of money.

It doesn't have to be a name either, I had a letter sent to me last year with all the lawyers paperwork for a domain I had texas-lawyers-online, they said I was infringing on their trademar Lawyers-On-Line. Apparently my domain was "confusingly similar" to theirs.....

[misterkailo]

Originally Posted by Fraggler

A method that I use for product based adsense sites is to also utilise an affiliate program such as Amazon. Your site is now useful for the consumer, content is a lot easier to produce, the keywords you can target grows, your site is no longer MFA.

Get creative with your Ad Placement and your CTR won't suffer too much. It isn't as high as a MFA site BUT you will fly under the radar. You should be able to get more traffic too.

I have added an Amazon plugin with "auto post" to all of my existing adsense sites and the traffic is increasing very quickly. I use a different template for my content posts to the Amazon posts to help keep the CTR high.

I make my homepage display amazon items underneath an article so the site looks like it is an online store. With the adsense unit above the fold, my CTR is still pretty high. They don't see the distracting posts until they lose site of the adsense unit.

This is exactly what I am doing, and I see some huge earnings from Amazon so people actually do read my product reviews.

[GuerrillaIM]

Originally Posted by terryd

It doesn't have to be a name either, I had a letter sent to me last year with all the lawyers paperwork for a domain I had texas-lawyers-online, they said I was infringing on their trademar Lawyers-On-Line. Apparently my domain was "confusingly similar" to theirs.....

From what I have read, it is extremely difficult for a company to prosecute for trademark infringement in a domain name as long as the page contains a disclaimer clearly stating that you are not whoever they seem similar to.

[Groovystar]

My site's got a trademark {or semi-trademark} in the name and we've had that there for 5 years. Course, we also got a disclaimer.

[Black Hat Cat]

Originally Posted by unlimitedsubmissions

^^ $2000 for what?

To try and keep the name probably. Otherwise it wouldn't have cost $2,000. Transfers are free, or almost free. The only reason it would have cost $2,000 is if she made it cost that much.

[Groovystar]

Hell, if I was contacted by Harper Collins asking me to hand mine over, I'd just hand it over free. Not worth THAT much to me!

[misterkailo]

So what you guys are saying is that people are getting banned simply because the content sucks? Or is it because they are making too many sites?

Take a look at gatoradebottle dot com. It's not deindexed but it's obvious that his Adsense is banned. Is the site providing value? The site is certainly not selling Gatorade bottles. If I'm a potential customer who wants to buy Gatorade bottles, I'll be pissed that I saw this because I want to buy it! I don't want to know the history of the bottles, advantages, and designs.

[Goatboy]

Originally Posted by misterkailo

Take a look at gatoradebottle dot com. It's not deindexed but it's obvious that his Adsense is banned. Is the site providing value?

He needs to get some new writers. There are only 2 suggested uses of a Gatorade bottle. One is to drink water out of it and the other is to carry gasoline if you happen to run out. Perhaps I should also carry a rag in case I spill some gasoline, and a pocket full of matches in case it is dark when I have to fill the car?

If I recall right, it is illegal in most states in the U.S. to put gasoline in non-approved containers, and I'm pretty sure that a Gatorade bottle would be non-approved for gasoline storage everywhere except a war zone.

IMHO, the site is not providing value, but it is suggesting an illegal act.

[stitchlips]

[QUOTE=Fraggler;2039321
I have added an Amazon plugin with "auto post" to all of my existing adsense sites and the traffic is increasing very quickly. I use a different template for my content posts to the Amazon posts to help keep the CTR high.
[/QUOTE]

What plugin are you using?

[cbpayne]

Originally Posted by Goatboy

He needs to get some new writers. There are only 2 suggested uses of a Gatorade bottle. .

If you were searching for somethimg to do with gatorade bottle, would you want this site in your search results? Would you be pissed of at a search engine if they served up this site in the search results? Think about it from the users perspective - the search engines are trying to please them. Build sites that user actually want and teh search engines will reward.

[inter123]

Writing is poor to state the obvious.

'gatorade bottle' gets 27,000 broad searches a month and 'gatorade bottles' receives 10,000.

Not everyone wants to buy a 'gatorrade bottle'. Some might just be looking for history on the product or just more infomation on its shape / design etc and 2 pages give some (not a lot) info on it.

The uses of 'gatorrade bottle' is very suspect. As a water carrier or for carrying oil, its insulting the intelligence of the visitor.

Gatorade is a trademark name, this is probably the biggest problem.

Originally Posted by misterkailo

Take a look at gatoradebottle dot com. It's not deindexed but it's obvious that his Adsense is banned. Is the site providing value? The site is certainly not selling Gatorade bottles. If I'm a potential customer who wants to buy Gatorade bottles, I'll be pissed that I saw this because I want to buy it! I don't want to know the history of the bottles, advantages, and designs.

[Talar]

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

I just want to add my 2 cents worth regarding the Trademark name in the domain conversation.

Companies usually will just ask you to remove the website if they have an issue with you using their name, but this is not always the case. I had one website a couple of years ago that had a Trademarked name in the domain name and this company went straight ahead and filed a dispute.

It cost me close to $2000 to settle the issue with the company and I had to transfer the domain to them.

So as far as I'm concerned - regardless of whether this issue is against Googles TOS or not - it isn't worth using trademarked names - it could end up costing you a lot of money.

Thanks for posting this. I was reading and shaking my head at the same time over some of the other responses ... "It's not illegal unless they complain" sort of thinking. Folks. trademarks are the property of the registered holder.

To say using them isn't illegal is like saying it's not illegal to drive 90 in a 50 mph zone. You might get away with it, or you might get nailed by a trooper ... the fact you got away with it never made the speeding legal.

Driving too fast is a personal choice, but trying to build a business on something fundamentally illegal is like taking out a mortgage on a rickety house of cards ... not a smart thing to do.

Some trademark violations are ignored by the holder, some get simple 'take down' requests, but any use CAN be grounds for legal action against the user ... just as you can drive 90 every day for a month and then one day the blue lights turn on behind you ..."but officer ...."

[misterkailo]

Originally Posted by cbpayne

If you were searching for somethimg to do with gatorade bottle, would you want this site in your search results? Would you be pissed of at a search engine if they served up this site in the search results? Think about it from the users perspective - the search engines are trying to please them. Build sites that user actually want and teh search engines will reward.

I wouldn't mind if the site actually has links to buy Gatorade bottles as a potential buyer.