Is ADSENSE Screwing Me Over?

[jamestame]

Fellow Warriors,

I received the following message from the adsense team a while ago here it is...

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as YouTube’s 5th anniversary | Articles. Please note that this URL is an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your website. Publishers may not implement Google ads in a manner that disguises the ads in any way. For instance, publishers may not place ads under misleading headers or titles as this may confuse users into thinking the ads are actually site links related to that header. To avoid this issue, we ask that publishers use only "sponsored links" or "advertisements" to label ads. Please make any necessary changes to your webpages in the next 72 hours. We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/support/adsen...tc=aspe-1pp-en) to ensure that all of your other pages are in compliance. Once you update your site, we will automatically detect the changes and ad serving will not be affected. If you choose not to make the changes to your account within the next three days, your account will remain active but you will no longer be able to display ads on the site. Please note, however, that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future. Thank you for your cooperation. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team Issue ID# 1030871 ---------------- For more information regarding this warning email, please visit our Help Center: https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...tc=aspe-ai4-en.

I fixed what I thought was causing this problem, then, After 7 days they sent me this...

Hello, We previously notified you about a policy violation on your site, and we asked that you make changes within 3 working days. After reviewing your site, we've found that it is still in violation, so we've disabled ad serving to your site. Your AdSense account remains active. However, we strongly suggest that you take the time to review our program policies (https://www.google.com/support/adsen...tc=aspe-2pp-en) to ensure that all of your remaining pages are in compliance. Please note that we may disable your account if further violations are found in the future. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team


What Do You Think guys? Are they just screwing me over because I am making money ????

[aaron_nimocks]

Since you dont know what was wrong for sure did you submit one of these?

https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo..._clarification

[jamestame]

No I didn't but I was almost certain I knew what the problem was...

Stupid me had a " Highly Recommended..." above the adsense ads.

After their first email I removed it from my entire site and that was the only site that had that.

So I thought the problem was solved, 7 days later they messaged me again with the disable notice.

[dburk]

Hi jamestame,

No, not because you are making money, because you are screwing over Google's advertisers and providing a bad user experience for your visitors.

They were nice enough to tell you what the problem was and politely asked you to correct it. Since you didn't fix the issue after 7 days, your site will probably be gone over with a fine tooth comb for any other violations. I would advise you to do the same, use a very conservative interpretation of their terms and policies and fix every single issue.

[jamestame]

Ok, If you think I am screwing them over and providing a bad experience for the visitors, please go on my site All Sorts of ARTICLES! and tell me what is wrong with how my adsense is displayed.

Let me know.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by jamestame

No I didn't but I was almost certain I knew what the problem was...

Stupid me had a " Highly Recommended..." above the adsense ads.

After their first email I removed it from my entire site and that was the only site that had that.

So I thought the problem was solved, 7 days later they messaged me again with the disable notice.

Hi jamestame,

While the above mentioned " Highly Recommended..." is certainly a violation, their original warning specifically said "We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies to ensure that all of your other pages are in compliance" (emphasis added).

They are always much more thorough when reviewing a site after a previous issue was found.

[jamestame]

I know...

But I reviewed and reviewed my site and their policies after that message and removed the initial violation.

However,

I cannot find any other violations on my site...

Can any of you guys ?

[Kay King]

You have image ads enabled - and when an image adsense ad shows it may confuse visitors as it looks quite similar to the videos on the site and it displayed in the same area as the videos.

I'd use text only ads around the videos. Otherwise visitors may be encouraged to click thinking it's another video. That would be a problem.

kay

[Fraggler]

You also must have text between a page title and a Google Ad Unit.

You can't palce ads adjacent images - this is what I think is happening beside the first Google video, the column just isn't wide enough so it is squeezed out of alignment.

Your ad down the bottom has tags under it which looks like it refers to the image ad and not the post.

[jamestame]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I will take a look at what I can do about those...

As far as visitors confusing the ad with another video goes... would it help if I place a small text eg, "ads By Google" above the image?

[Fraggler]

I can't I believed I missed this on the first look but the big one is -

Your content is also an autoblog - you are ripping content off one of Google's own websites. At least that page in your original post is.

[jamestame]

I use a scraper plugin, but It always gives the appropriate credit to the source of the content and leaves the resource box in place.

How can this be an issue for a site?

There are thousands of blogs online scraping content for monetization.

[Fraggler]

You are taking their comments and making them appear as your own. If you don't think it is an issue then that's fine. If Google thinks it is a positive user experience then you have nothing to worry about.

[jamestame]

I have contacted them just before so they could clarify exatctly what they see as problematic on my site so I could correct it to make them happy.

Will update this thread once they reply and let me know the exact issue on my site.

Thanks for all the feedback, Highly appreciated!

[dburk]

Hi jamestame,

To be on the safe side, I would put a distinct border around AdSense ads. On some of your pages the ads seem to blend into the content and you have image ads placed next to text ads in a way that may confuse users into thinking the ad text may be captions for the images.

Also, your ad text colors are nearly identical to your navigation links, this could confuse visitors and cause them to click ads thinking that they are navigation links.

I realize that this may seem like nitpicking, but with your AdSense account on the line, why risk it?

[jamestame]

Great tips there,

I will add a border around the ads and hopefully that will help... and hopefully not hurt the clicks.

[Kay King]

wow - serial spammer - how lovely