$12,000/month Adsense account disabled, Please Help!

[Oliverinside]

Hi everyone,

I found this site about a week ago and have been mostly lurking. I've got an old authority site that I developed 5 years ago for first time home buyers in the real estate/mortgage niche. Back in the boom days, I was getting $60 per mortgage lead and the site was generating about 5 of those per day.

Then the real estate market crashed, and nobody bought mortgage leads anymore. I didn't do a thing with that site for 2 years.

Then a couple of weeks ago I decided that I should monetize that site, since it's an authority site and get several thousand visitors per day from the big G.

The site has got hundreds of first page G listings, including many number 1 spots. Rather than just let it site there with all that traffic basically going to waste (from my point of view, not the visitors), I thought why not at least put Adsense on the site and get some revenue.

Turns out that the site generates $400 per day in Adsense clicks over the past 15 days that Adsense has been on the site. Then, just a few minutes ago, I go to check my numbers for the day, and my account has been disabled.

I have no idea why. I use Frontpage 2003 to edit my site. a few hours before my account was disabled, I had been working on it. I definitely did not click on any ads.

I filled out the appeal form, but I'm not hopeful. I've advertised on Adwords a lot in the past, spending as much as $30k/month, but found the big G super miserable to deal with from a customer service point of view. I've found that their attitude (at least for me) has been basically "buzz off" and go away. We can't be bothered.

For those that are willing to look at the site, send me a pm and I'll send you the URL. I had originally thought of posting the URL here, but since my account is being appealed and one of the questions was does my log show suspicious activity from suspicious IPs, maybe all of you should not be swarming the site all at once. But if you have a suggestion, I'm all ears.

Did I violate some unknown (to me) guideline? Did a competitor click on a bunch of my ads to get my account closed?

What do I do? Sell my site to LendingTree? Do I put Chitika ads on the site? I've looked at their cpc and it doesn't compare to Adsense. Don't really want to sell, I want to keep this site for long-term revenue and passive income. Decades from now when I pass away, I'd like to leave the income stream to my heirs.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, especially from Adsense experts. I'd hate to let a $150,000/year passive income stream just disappear... especially when the site is still there, getting all that traffic.

Thank you.

[BBenamara]

Did you use adwords for the traffic to your site? I don't think that is allowed when using adsense, and did you have privacy policy on your site, seems like you start making good money in 15 days so they had human check on your site I am sure of that because when the site start making over a 100 dollars a day they check it out to see if you are complying with their TOS. I am not expert just my opinion

[Mike Grant]

Sent you a PM.

[calfred]

That's a pretty scary story you have there.

How many AdSense ads did you put and where?

Having an authority site for that many years, I don't think you resorted to any gray / BlueFart backlinking methods, did you?

Somehow, did one of the pages mentioned gambling somewhere? I've read in the TOS (policy or TnC, whatever you call it) that no "gambling" sites are allowed of any nature.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by Paul Barrs

Oliver,

Without a notification of "why" the account was frozen from Google themselves, anything from us is pointless.

This change in you account status may be a result of adding the site you mentioned, it may not be.

From what you have told us you are making a typical newbie mistake ... and panicking without facts.

Get the facts and then come back to us.

Paul Barrs

G doesn't hand hold and tell each and every person why their sites were disabled.

[Mike Grant]

Without seeing the site or your ad placement, the first thing that would come to mind would be PPC. Arbitrage isn't allowed, but you didn't mention you still use PPC.

[Oliverinside]

No advertising to the site whatsoever. 100% organic SEO traffic. Yes, the site's had a privacy policy since day one.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by BBenamara

Did you use adwords for the traffic to your site? I don't think that is allowed when using adsense, and did you have privacy policy on your site, seems like you start making good money in 15 days so they had human check on your site I am sure of that because when the site start making over a 100 dollars a day they check it out to see if you are complying with their TOS. I am not expert just my opinion

[Oliverinside]

No PPC traffic whatsoever. Absolutely none. All 100% organic traffic, most of it from G themselves.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by mgtarheels

Without seeing the site or your ad placement, the first thing that would come to mind would be PPC. Arbitrage isn't allowed, but you didn't mention you still use PPC.

[Mike Grant]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

No PPC traffic whatsoever. Absolutely none. All 100% organic traffic, most of it from G themselves.

Thanks.

Going to go with what I said in the PM, then.

The duplicate content and the ad unit underneath the image.

[Oliverinside]

Thanks Paul. I've dealt with G in the past and found them to be pretty tight with sharing their facts. This is the first time I've had Adsense, this one site is an authority site and is the only site I had Adsense on, so the issue is definitely with this site. I'm not sure G will give me specifics. I did appeal, and got a form letter that someone might get back to me in a week or two.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Paul Barrs

Oliver,

Without a notification of "why" the account was frozen from Google themselves, anything from us is pointless.

This change in you account status may be a result of adding the site you mentioned, it may not be.

From what you have told us you are making a typical newbie mistake ... and panicking without facts.

Get the facts and then come back to us.

Paul Barrs

[Oliverinside]

99% articles and press releases. Just within the last week had someone create by hand, about 250 forum profiles using Paul/Angela info. That's about it for greyhat.

Since I put the Adsense on the site and saw what it was making, I started ramping up by submitting about 3 to 5 articles per day to all the directories. Lots of new links from those, but aren't those considered white hat?

Thank you.

Originally Posted by calfred

That's a pretty scary story you have there.

How many AdSense ads did you put and where?

Having an authority site for that many years, I don't think you resorted to any gray / BlueFart backlinking methods, did you?

Somehow, did one of the pages mentioned gambling somewhere? I've read in the TOS (policy or TnC, whatever you call it) that no "gambling" sites are allowed of any nature.

[lexilexi]

I've heard a number of times that adsense "reviews" sites when the income breaks through a certain barrier - and that if they decide to "cull", you're pretty much done.

But if all fails with adsense, don't worry, all is not lost. The fact that yours is obviously an authority site in your niche means that others would want to advertise on it - you just have to connect with them.

It's true that other ad *networks* don't have the same revenue potential, but there is another way. Think about the underlying mechanics of what happened. Google is effectively a traffic broker which connects buyers and sellers with an advanced matching program. They are taking a slice of YOUR pie to find you advertisers. It's not their pie that you are getting a slice of, it's your pie! Know what I mean?

So you may be able to do better and cut out the middle-man. If advertisers are paying Google (say) $2 per click (of which you get 50% or less anyway) they might be delighted to pay you $1 directly for the same click. Can you see where I am heading with this? You can sell links or ad space directly.

First, put up a couple banners saying "your ad here" plus some banners from other ad systems; whatever, just make it look good. Give the site a fresh lick of paint or something. Next, go to the sites of your competitors, the sites most similar to yours in content, and make a note of which companies ads, appearing in their adsense, are a match for your site. (I'm assuming that you didn't make notes on which companies ads appeared in your adsense - most people don't but for anyone else reading this, it's a nifty idea to keep all that stuff in a spreadsheet.) Anyway contact such companies directly; they are buying traffic already. Present them with your stats and offer them a better deal:You know your earnings per click so you can guess they are already paying "this plus google's rake-off". You may need some understanding of tracking clicks and how to set up such a system; either that or simply sell ad space based on a time period.

Note that I haven't done this exactly... but I have sold ad space on my sites directly on a monthly basis and it's what I would do if my adsense went down. Sounds like you've already done the hard part, which is building a high traffic site which generates a high number of leads. Google definitely kicked you where it hurts but you may be able to bounce back.

Failing this, I'd say sell the site. Have a cruise of flippa.com if you've never checked it out, I'd say all that traffic of yours is definitely worth some $$. 1-3 x annual earnings? Wish you well! A.

[Adie]

This is scary... How can people improve if Google don't want to share facts every time they ban an account? The sad thing is, they don't even send prior warnings..

[paulgl]

Not sure what people are referring to, but not only does google allow
adsense in adwords, they tell you how to do it right with a case study.
https://www.google.com/adsense/stati...calCoding.html

I'm not sure why anyone who spends $30,000 a month comes here
for advice. If you are spending $30,000, you should be taking in at least
$60,000. And that's before you delved into adsense.

And you have only had adsense on the site for 15 days?????

I also can't believe that the site sat for 2 years, and yet keeps bringing
in thousands of visitors a day, and then suddenly, "hey I should monetize it!"

This just aint right.

I imagine google is taking a hard look at "mortgage" sites today. I can
only imagine what kinds of promises or other claims that they don't
like seeing. I think pre-made mortgage adsense sites are rampant, and
maybe they are cracking down on the whole genre.

Paul

[Oliverinside]

I'm busy with 2 major projects now, and definitely don't have the time available to scout out the advertisers myself, but you're correct in that G takes a sizeable cut, and I could cut out the middle main. Just aren't enough hours in the day right now.

Just don't know why they would cull my site. Hundreds of 1st page results in G's SERPs. Hasn't been culled from that, and it serves up useful info. For the last 2 years I haven't been monetizing the site at all (yeah, stupid me, but other things are priority. That's why I went with Adsense, pretty much set it and forget it).

If I hear back on my appeal, I'll be sure to post here.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by lexilexi

I've heard a number of times that adsense "reviews" sites when the income breaks through a certain barrier - and that if they decide to "cull", you're pretty much done.

But if all fails with adsense, don't worry, all is not lost. The fact that yours is obviously an authority site in your niche means that others would want to advertise on it - you just have to connect with them.

It's true that other ad *networks* don't have the same revenue potential, but there is another way. Think about the underlying mechanics of what happened. Google is effectively a traffic broker which connects buyers and sellers with an advanced matching program. They are taking a slice of YOUR pie to find you advertisers. It's not their pie that you are getting a slice of, it's your pie! Know what I mean?

So you may be able to do better and cut out the middle-man. If advertisers are paying Google (say) $2 per click (of which you get 50% or less anyway) they might be delighted to pay you $1 directly for the same click. Can you see where I am heading with this? You can sell links or ad space directly.

First, put up a couple banners saying "your ad here" plus some banners from other ad systems; whatever, just make it look good. Give the site a fresh lick of paint or something. Next, go to the sites of your competitors, the sites most similar to yours in content, and make a note of which companies ads, appearing in their adsense, are a match for your site. (I'm assuming that you didn't make notes on which companies ads appeared in your adsense - most people don't but for anyone else reading this, it's a nifty idea to keep all that stuff in a spreadsheet.) Anyway contact such companies directly; they are buying traffic already. Present them with your stats and offer them a better deal:You know your earnings per click so you can guess they are already paying "this plus google's rake-off". You may need some understanding of tracking clicks and how to set up such a system; either that or simply sell ad space based on a time period.

Note that I haven't done this exactly... but I have sold ad space on my sites directly on a monthly basis and it's what I would do if my adsense went down. Sounds like you've already done the hard part, which is building a high traffic site which generates a high number of leads. Google definitely kicked you where it hurts but you may be able to bounce back.

Failing this, I'd say sell the site. Have a cruise of flippa.com if you've never checked it out, I'd say all that traffic of yours is definitely worth some $$. 1-3 x annual earnings? Wish you well! A.

[Oliverinside]

No, I don't currently spend a dime on Adwords, and I haven't for over 2 years. I'm well aware that I can't buy traffic and send it to my site. All my traffic was 100% organic and most was from G itself.

When I was spending $30k/mth on adwords, it was bringing in about $45k in revenue. It's not a pre-made mortgage site for Adsense. It was not built for Adsense. And yeah, the site just sat there for 2 years not earning a dime, I had bigger things to tend to (and still do, that's why I went with Adsense, just set and forget).

My site provides good information and received a lot of links and bookmarks naturally.

As far as something not being right, well, everything is exactly as described. Before I sell the site to an adult relative in another state, and try again, I thought I'd see if any Adsense people here could give me a heads up as to what happened. Maybe G will tell me the specific issue, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Thanks for your comments.

Originally Posted by paulgl

Not sure what people are referring to, but not only does google allow
adsense in adwords, they tell you how to do it right with a case study.
https://www.google.com/adsense/stati...calCoding.html

I'm not sure why anyone who spends $30,000 a month comes here
for advice. If you are spending $30,000, you should be taking in at least
$60,000. And that's before you delved into adsense.

And you have only had adsense on the site for 15 days?????

I also can't believe that the site sat for 2 years, and yet keeps bringing
in thousands of visitors a day, and then suddenly, "hey I should monetize it!"

This just aint right.

I imagine google is taking a hard look at "mortgage" sites today. I can
only imagine what kinds of promises or other claims that they don't
like seeing. I think pre-made mortgage adsense sites are rampant, and
maybe they are cracking down on the whole genre.

Paul

[Oliverinside]

Well, obviously your content is not unique if you wrote it yourself. You weren't born knowing everything, and what you do know you read *SOMEWHERE* so, the source of your content is not unique, you've just rehashed other content! (big dose of sarcasm)

I agree, they can be hit or miss, but in my experience, its mostly miss.

Thanks for your comments.

Originally Posted by jmasterson

Wow sorry to hear that. I'm having trouble even getting approved for an Adsense account. I've got a great content site in my niche and they denied my account... They wrote me:



No idea what that's supposed to mean since ALL of my content was written by me and is unique. I've resubmitted so hopefully I just got some jackass looking at the site and this time I'll get someone who knows what they're doing.

So yeah Google is hit or miss man that's a tough call. Hopefully you get it all straightened out.

[Kay King]

This is the first time I've had Adsense

And the earnings immediately went to $400 a day - which is going to raise a flag as it's far outside the norm. If there were issues with images or replicated pages, that adds to it.

I'd think there's a good case for appeal due to age of site and visitor numbers...if google takes the time to loose at the site closely.

However, you haven't lost a $12k a month adsense account - because you've never been paid that amount. The only one that can help is google - if they decide to reverse the decision.

If not, clearly you need to monetize that site in some way as the potential is there.

kay

[Oliverinside]

I don't do Adsense, but since this site was just sitting there get a few thousand visitors per day and I don't have the time to really do anything with it, I chose Adsense over nothing. But, I would have thought G would have at least sent me an email saying something like "This isn't specifically against our TOS, but could you change X for us" or something like that, rather than just close the account and not say why.

If I get a response, I'll post the results.

Thanks for your comments.

Originally Posted by Adie

This is scary... How can people improve if Google don't want to share facts every time they ban an account? The sad thing is, they don't even send prior warnings..

[Oliverinside]

Thanks Kay. Yes, i do need to monetize the site, just don't have any time available. If G doesn't change its mind, I'll go with Chitika or some other simple solution.

you're right about not losing a $12k/month site, my earning were only up to half that in the 15 days, which nice ole G is going to keep.

Thanks for your comments.

Originally Posted by Kay King

And the earnings immediately went to $400 a day - which is going to raise a flag as it's far outside the norm. If there were issues with images or replicated pages, that adds to it.

I'd think there's a good case for appeal due to age of site and visitor numbers...if google takes the time to loose at the site closely.

However, you haven't lost a $12k a month adsense account - because you've never been paid that amount. The only one that can help is google - if they decide to reverse the decision.

If not, clearly you need to monetize that site in some way as the potential is there.

kay

[rsstore10]

There are many people whose adsense account has been disabled. But in most cases, reason was clicking on own ads or sudddenly increase the clicking. Also your traffic source does matter. If you are doing PPC then it's totally braking for their terms.

[yukon]

OP, I sent you a PM.

I looked at the site & don't see anything wrong with it.

I did a copy & paste of a few random sentence & didn't see any other pages with the same content.

You have a privacy policy & contact pages, I also checked the same as far back as Dec. 2010 in Google cache (all good).

If it was me I would sell links like already mentioned, your at #5 position in Google SERP for your exact main keyword phrase which I'm sure is getting good traffic.

[Adie]

Originally Posted by rsstore10

There are many people whose adsense account has been disabled. But in most cases, reason was clicking on own ads or sudddenly increase the clicking. Also your traffic source does matter. If you are doing PPC then it's totally braking for their terms.

You say it wrong again...
https://www.google.com/adsense/stati...calCoding.html

[luckymom78]

This is why I have only a few adsense sites to many people get there accounts shut down. I would just use another network similar to adsense or you can even get clickbank ads that look like google ads and list products that might relate to the niche.

[chrisadams008]

That is really a big problem. I think the only people who can help you that are the people in Google.

[Craig McPherson]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

I'd hate to let a $150,000/year passive income stream just disappear.

PM'ing you MY adsense code for a 50/50 split




J/K of course

[The Blueprinter]

Really sad to hear man That's the BIG downside with adsense. When you get suspended you will never come back to there program. It have happened to me also.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

No, I don't currently spend a dime on Adwords, and I haven't for over 2 years. I'm well aware that I can't buy traffic and send it to my site. All my traffic was 100% organic and most was from G itself.

When I was spending $30k/mth on adwords, it was bringing in about $45k in revenue. It's not a pre-made mortgage site for Adsense. It was not built for Adsense. And yeah, the site just sat there for 2 years not earning a dime, I had bigger things to tend to (and still do, that's why I went with Adsense, just set and forget).

My site provides good information and received a lot of links and bookmarks naturally.

As far as something not being right, well, everything is exactly as described. Before I sell the site to an adult relative in another state, and try again, I thought I'd see if any Adsense people here could give me a heads up as to what happened. Maybe G will tell me the specific issue, but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Thanks for your comments.

It seems that it would be a good idea to successfully re-monetize the site before you sell it if you choose to go that route. All of the sudden having zero earnings will scare many, especially since the fixed sale price is generally a multiple of average monthly earnings. The first thing that will pop into their head will be "What's the problem? Has it been fixed?" especially for a site that will be going for the price range that you will probably be asking for it.

[Oliverinside]

I have adult kids in another state and can sell the site to one of them, then they can get an Adsense account. But I don't want this to happen again, so I'd like to know the reason why. of course I've asked G, but not sure they will give me specifics.

thank you.

Originally Posted by The Blueprinter

Really sad to hear man That's the BIG downside with adsense. When you get suspended you will never come back to there program. It have happened to me also.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Kay King

And the earnings immediately went to $400 a day - which is going to raise a flag as it's far outside the norm. If there were issues with images or replicated pages, that adds to it.

I'd think there's a good case for appeal due to age of site and visitor numbers...if google takes the time to loose at the site closely.

However, you haven't lost a $12k a month adsense account - because you've never been paid that amount. The only one that can help is google - if they decide to reverse the decision.

If not, clearly you need to monetize that site in some way as the potential is there.

kay

I think I agree with this. A sharp spike in Adsense earnings may have set off alarms. More than likely Google has trend maps that it expects any site to follow.

[Oliverinside]

Yes, but I just don't have the time. Working on 2 major products that will bring in much more than this site, and can't devote any time to this site now. Also, I'd like to keep sites that are making money. Why sell for 1 to 2 years worth of income? I would imagine that a person would do so only in he/she had to get hands on cash quick.

Because of my personal time constraints, if G doesn't give me a reason for closing my account and I'm worried it will happen again, then I won't sell to one of my children, I'll go with Chitika or some other quick solution, then at some point after my other products are bringing in revenue, I'll either put some time myself into this site or hire someone to do so.

Thank you for your comments.

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

It seems that it would be a good idea to successfully re-monetize the site before you sell it if you choose to go that route. All of the sudden having zero earnings will scare many, especially since the fixed sale price is generally a multiple of average monthly earnings. The first thing that will pop into their head will be "What's the problem? Has it been fixed?" especially for a site that will be going for the price range that you will probably be asking for it.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

I have adult kids in another state and can sell the site to one of them, then they can get an Adsense account. But I don't want this to happen again, so I'd like to know the reason why. of course I've asked G, but not sure they will give me specifics.

thank you.

More than likely, their Adsense account would be banned also. The site has to be 'fixed' first, whatever that entails. Until then, it may be an Adsense account killer.

I would experiment with other advertising revenues first.

At least try.

[thebitbotdotcom]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

Yes, but I just don't have the time. Working on 2 major products that will bring in much more than this site, and can't devote any time to this site now. Also, I'd like to keep sites that are making money. Why sell for 1 to 2 years worth of income? I would imagine that a person would do so only in he/she had to get hands on cash quick.

Because of my personal time constraints, if G doesn't give me a reason for closing my account and I'm worried it will happen again, then I won't sell to one of my children, I'll go with Chitika or some other quick solution, then at some point after my other products are bringing in revenue, I'll either put some time myself into this site or hire someone to do so.

Thank you for your comments.

I see. Well, try using Kontera or Bidvertiser or something like these. Implementation will only take the same amount of time that you are spending on this thread.

[Oliverinside]

I don't see that as being likely to be the reason. I put the ads on the site early in the afternoon, and the first day it made over $200. Every day since for 15 days it has brought right around $400/day (except for super bowl sunday. for some strange reason people were not in front of their computers as much that day and it only did $260).

G knows where my traffic comes from, they send most of it themselves. Why take 15 days to figure out that I had a sharp spike from 0 to 400?

Here are the 4 things that seem to me to have possibly caused this to happen:

1. I started doing SEO on this site again since the Adsense income was worth taking a few minutes per day and sending out articles. Thsi was pushing me up in the SERPs, and a competitor didn't like it and clicked the heck out of my ads.

2. I use frontpage to maintain this site, and somehow frontpage might have casued some clicks. Not likely, but I'm not a big fan of Microsoft software. does it always performed properly for you?

3. I wanted to buy scrapebox, and clicked a link to get it at the discount price of $57. that link took me to a black hat forum, where I registered. G didn't like me going to that site and cut me off.

4. I just put Adsense on a page that has a mortgage calculator. On that page where I explain how to use the mortgage calculator, I have the words "enter your numbers and click the calculate now button". We all know you can't tell visitors to click on the ads, and that language tripped a filter that automatically closed my account.

Those are my theories. I won't know unless G tells me. I've received an automated email telling me my account is under review. I am hoping that G will at least provide specifics on what caused it. If they do, I'll be sure to post it here.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

I think I agree with this. A sharp spike in Adsense earnings may have set off alarms. More than likely Google has trend maps that it expects any site to follow.

[Oliverinside]

Exactly. That's why I'm hoping G will tell me the specific reason. If not, then I'll probably just keep the site in my name and go with surehits, kontera, bidvertiser, or Chitika. I'll look and test to see which provides the best revenue.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by thebitbotdotcom

More than likely, their Adsense account would be banned also. The site has to be 'fixed' first, whatever that entails. Until then, it may be an Adsense account killer.

I would experiment with other advertising revenues first.

At least try.

[4morereferrals]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

3. I wanted to buy scrapebox, and clicked a link to get it at the discount price of $57. that link took me to a black hat forum, where I registered. G didn't like me going to that site and cut me off.

Dont trip - a non issue there. If it was an issue - half the little a-holes running around here claiming to be honest and legitimate "warriors" - who run over there and upload your products - so it can be stolen there - would have their sites de indexed and banned as well.



Sell your clicks to the adwords advertisers on the right column of the serps :-)

[katied772]

If you do sell the site to one of your children and you are worried about it being banned again, assuming it was because of the sudden large amount of adsense clicks/income, try putting the ads on one page at a time over a longer period instead of all at once. Then the clicks will appear more normal. Good luck.

[Clyde]

Oddly one of my accounts just got banned today for "posing significant risks to advertisers".

I suspect clickbombs but won't know for sure, will wait for their reply.

Have you tried reinstating the account? I did and it said it's in process about 8 hours ago.

[x3xsolxdierx3x]

I'd throw up Chitika, ASAP. Sure, your $400/Adsense Days will be long gone...but, $100/day is better than nothing...

[markowe]

OK, some more shots in the dark - could there be any regulatory issues relating to that niche? Something that might contravene something in the Adsense TOS - I haven't read them in a while, but something 'forward-looking', speculative etc. etc?

But my money is on the sudden spike in earnings tripping something - it's all automated anyway, maybe an actual human might look at it now. You didn't actually apply for an Adsense account using that site, right, so it wasn't on their radar (Adwords is different, and anyway, you hadn't used that for a while, a lot has changed there)? If they had proper affiliate managers for big accounts (hmm, maybe they do) then there would actually be some communication going on and they would be expecting a spike.

As an alternative to Adsense, well, it's a bit more work, but everyone on this forum will tell you the biggest earner would be if you put together a decent product (ebook/guide, whatever) in the mortgages niche that your type of visitor would be likely to buy. Or outsource the work to someone in the biz, even better.

You could potentially earn more with a high-ticket, high-value product in that niche than through Adsense, CPL or anything else put together. Just a thought... Unless there are potential regulatory issues with THAT..!

[calfred]

I think you can make much more by promoting an opt-in box and collecting Names and Emails, in which you sell a good product to them.

But since you don't have the time to do it, you might as well put up Chitika so you salvage a few thousand bucks first while you take the time to decide!

In my humble opinion, it really sounds like you did not do anything wrong at all.

News like this really dishearten me because I'm doing AdSense as well. Hate to see this happening to you.

[songjiekun]

adsense is not the only money source. you can build your own list. then you can monetize them whenever you want

[Kay King]

which nice ole G is going to keep.

No - google returned money to advertisers. (and, yes, I've known advertisers who had credits due to "fraudulent clicks").

I really think it was the fast money and think if you are appealing it you may have an excellent chance for reinstatement.

There are so many new adsense publishers who immediately look for "clicks" without an understanding of the process itself. A lot them are banned and I would not be surprised if sites that start off quickly with income don't trip some filter. If you can get a review by "a real people" at google, this might be reversed.

Be sure to let us know when - and if - google replies or reviews this.

kay

[moneymakerz]

Sorry to hear your story.
You should try and explain your position to google ( which i know you already have)
Try and ask them what has triggered the ban...

[Black Hat Cat]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

I have adult kids in another state and can sell the site to one of them, then they can get an Adsense account. But I don't want this to happen again, so I'd like to know the reason why. of course I've asked G, but not sure they will give me specifics.

thank you.

Their adsense(nor anyone elses) likely won't work on the site if the site has been flagged. There are plenty of mortgage-related CPA offers you can run on the site that should do well.

[dakota5369]

sometimes i think there really is no rhyme or reason to why they ban accounts. if you make a lot of money and they decide they want to keep it, they just ban you. it isnt like you can do anything about it. good thing i only make about .25 a day. not much to worry about

[kangen]

I imagine google is taking a hard look at "mortgage" sites today. I can
only imagine what kinds of promises or other claims that they don't
like seeing. I think pre-made mortgage adsense sites are rampant, and
maybe they are cracking down on the whole genre.

[Chris Sweeney]

Sorry that happened; that's a big chunk of change! I agree with many saying that your site automatically tripped their filter somehow, and upon review, your account should be reinstated if your site is in good shape. Definitely keep us posted!

[lieguy]

Originally Posted by Oliverinside

I don't see that as being likely to be the reason. I put the ads on the site early in the afternoon, and the first day it made over $200. Every day since for 15 days it has brought right around $400/day (except for super bowl sunday. for some strange reason people were not in front of their computers as much that day and it only did $260).

G knows where my traffic comes from, they send most of it themselves. Why take 15 days to figure out that I had a sharp spike from 0 to 400?

Here are the 4 things that seem to me to have possibly caused this to happen:

1. I started doing SEO on this site again since the Adsense income was worth taking a few minutes per day and sending out articles. Thsi was pushing me up in the SERPs, and a competitor didn't like it and clicked the heck out of my ads.

2. I use frontpage to maintain this site, and somehow frontpage might have casued some clicks. Not likely, but I'm not a big fan of Microsoft software. does it always performed properly for you?

3. I wanted to buy scrapebox, and clicked a link to get it at the discount price of $57. that link took me to a black hat forum, where I registered. G didn't like me going to that site and cut me off.

4. I just put Adsense on a page that has a mortgage calculator. On that page where I explain how to use the mortgage calculator, I have the words "enter your numbers and click the calculate now button". We all know you can't tell visitors to click on the ads, and that language tripped a filter that automatically closed my account.

Those are my theories. I won't know unless G tells me. I've received an automated email telling me my account is under review. I am hoping that G will at least provide specifics on what caused it. If they do, I'll be sure to post it here.

Thank you.

The automated letter saying your account is under review is actually a very good thing...that means an actual person is going to look at it....most appeals don't even get to that stage, so there is good hope that Big G will reverse itself.

[TryBPO]

Is everyone 100% sure that arbitrage is against the ToS for AdSense? I read a pretty convincing argument/statement in the forums here that you could use PPC arbitrage and that it was incentives to click that was not allowed. Can someone point me to the exact wording that covers arbitrage?