Google has disabled my account because one (all?) of my sites poses a 'risk of invalid activity'

[Diver Doug]

Hi all,

well my worst nightmare has come true. I woke up the other morning and found that my adsense account has been disabled.

Now I know this has happened to a lot of people, but from what I've understood, most of them were obviously doing something BlueFart and making hundreds of dollars, etc, etc.

As for me, I've got 9 microniche sites (ala Xfactor), of which, only about 3 or 4 were producing any sort of money (ie on a good day i might make $2-$3 in total). The oldest site is about a year old and the last one I did was about six months ago. I've also recently started a more authority site (like Xfactor's new course) that is more content. On all of my sites, there was relevant and useful content.

On the clicks side, again, if I got 3-4 clicks a day, I was happy. I've checked my analytics for all of my sites, and again, no jump in visitors, so I'm assuming that the only thing that could have happened is that someone has found one of my sites and click-bombed it. I can't verify this, because google won't let me see my stats.

So this is what I can't understand. I've been going along for a year or so with no problems. Not making a lot of money (I think my best day was nearly $9 about a week ago), but figuring that I could start out small and keep working my way up. Everything was going well, then bang! Google bitch slaps me for no reason.

And with Google saying that it poses a 'risk' tells me that nothing has happened yet, but instead of informing you about it and giving you the opportunity to rectify the situation, it's easier just to disable your account and pretend you don't exist.

So does anyone have any advice? I know for a fact that I haven't done anything wrong intentionally (ie I've been very careful never to click my own links, and make site structures that are in agreeance with the TOS), but I don't want all of my efforts to go down the drain!

help?

best regards,

Diver D

[Adie]

The most common reason of banning accounts today is the lack of privacy policy page. Does you sites have this page?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Adie

The most common reason of banning accounts today is the lack of privacy policy page. Does you sites have this page?

Maybe, but the site in his sig. has a Privacy Policy & About Us page, with a link in the sidebar.

OP, who knows why Google does what it does, chances are your account was red flagged by an automated system.

If it was me I would move on to something better or create your own niche product to sell.

[Adie]

Originally Posted by yukon

Maybe, but the site in his sig. has a Privacy Policy & About Us page, with a link in the sidebar.

OP, who knows why Google does what it does, chances are your account was red flagged by an automated system.

If it was me I would move on to something better or create your own niche product to sell.

I had my first account blocked last 2008 and now I am extremely careful in putting adsense ads in my sites. I am running dozens of sites but only half of them got ads.... Adsense account is like a gold today... hard to find, easy to lose.

[paulgl]

It sucks. Big time.

No privacy policy? Come on.

Most people get disabled due to breaking the rules
that are of the line of fraud, encouraging clicks,
clicking on your own, trick to click, etc.

It's all about invalid activity.

Google treats this seriously. Very, very seriously.
It's called cheating. They hate that.

Google does not disable people for making money or
getting boatloads of real, interested traffic. Or simply having
no privacy policy. People think they can do a,b, and c, and
that way google with just ignore the rest. They don't.

They found invalid activity. Period. They hate that. They are
99.999999% probably not going to provide you with any more details.

Slight chance if you can convince them that the cheating was due to
circumstances beyond your control. But then, seriously, you are asking
them to take another chance on your site. How likely is that? If it's not
"your" fault, then you can't control it. And if it's your fault, then it's
curtains. Catch-22.

I will admit that maybe, just maybe, their detection programs erred.
Chances of getting them to admit that will be slim to none.

It's not about the amount of money. It's about the invalid clicks.

Paul

[Diver Doug]

Nope, all of them had the privacy page, contact us, etc etc. All were legit, good content that was original, but alas, Google decided that they suddenly didn't like them.

[Adie]

Originally Posted by Diver Doug

Nope, all of them had the privacy page, contact us, etc etc. All were legit, good content that was original, but alas, Google decided that they suddenly didn't like them.

Then there might be something wrong with the traffic..

Paul, my neighbor just got his account banned after 3 days he put an ad in a developing blog without any other page. The blog was supposed to be under construction and he forgot to remove the ads....

[Diver Doug]

Originally Posted by paulgl

It sucks. Big time.

I will admit that maybe, just maybe, their detection programs erred.
Chances of getting them to admit that will be slim to none.

It's not about the amount of money. It's about the invalid clicks.

Paul

This is exactly what I'm puzzled about. I think my best day was when a site had 10 clicks, but in the year or so that I've had it, pretty much every day were single clicks. If I was going to cheat, I'm sure I would have made dozens of clicks, as most of the clicks were worth less than a dollar (sometimes as little as $0.05)! If it was for invalid clicks, how could they prove it with such low clicks, and a CTR of less than 10% on average.

Damn this sucks! It sucks more that they don't specify what you've done, so you can't rectify it if it was done inadvertently. It's like solving the problem of parking tickets, by instead of handing them out, the cops just take people's cars and drivers licenses away!

[Adie]

How many sites are you running with adsense ads? Can you identify which of these sites violated the policy? I am asking because if you can identify the site, the moment you have a new adsense account you can just avoid placing ad in the same site..... In case you badly need an account, let me know... I might be able to help...

Not to say you done something wrong but I believe there is always a violation - only you knows what it is....

[Diver Doug]

Originally Posted by Adie

How many sites are you running with adsense ads? Can you identify which of these sites violated the policy? I am asking because if you can identify the site, the moment you have a new adsense account you can just avoid placing ad in the same site..... In case you badly need an account, let me know... I might be able to help...

Not to say you done something wrong but I believe there is always a violation - only you knows what it is....

I only have 10 sites in total. 9 XFactor microniche sites, and one authority=type site (still being developed). The Xfactor sites are all pretty much the same

[Adie]

Ok buddy, here's the thing you can try... Post in google adsense official forum and show them your sites... If you are true to yourself that you have not done something wrong, they might be able to find what is wrong (if there's any) with your sites / placements..

[SEO Coach]

you mention 9 microniche sites...do any of these promote a "making money online" or "get rich" scheme?

my advice is get a new PC and move on....you'll waste heaps of time trying to get the account back...

i had a adwords account and was spending $3000 a month for 3 years, then was shut down due to some unspecified activity in the past...

after about 20 emails with canned responses, there was still no resolution or understanding of exactly what i did!

let it go mate...

[Diver Doug]

Originally Posted by SEO Coach

you mention 9 microniche sites...do any of these promote a "making money online" or "get rich" scheme?

my advice is get a new PC and move on....you'll waste heaps of time trying to get the account back...

i had a adwords account and was spending $3000 a month for 3 years, then was shut down due to some unspecified activity in the past...

after about 20 emails with canned responses, there was still no resolution or understanding of exactly what i did!

let it go mate...

No, the sites were not promoting anything like that, nor were they promoting online viagra, how to make your penis grow 3 feet overnight etc...they were as per the XFactor microniche course.

So if you've had your account disabled, what did you do next in terms of income? Do you have an alternative suggestion?

[Adie]

Originally Posted by Diver Doug

No, the sites were not promoting anything like that, nor were they promoting online viagra, how to make your penis grow 3 feet overnight etc...they were as per the XFactor microniche course.

So if you've had your account disabled, what did you do next in terms of income? Do you have an alternative suggestion?

There are lots of alternatives better than adsense but you can't make money with these alternatives unless you let adsense go.. I understand it's hard, and starting with another venture is also hard - but everything must be started.. CPA and clickbank are among my top suggestions.

[seo-expert]

Better to move on buddy... Review Google's TOS coz you or someone might have done something to your site.

Build new sites and don't focus on Google Adsense only. Use affiliate marketing sites like ClickBank or Amazon to earn online.